April 18th, 2008
Author: Michael Krotscheck
Category: Libraries
Tags: actionscript, flex, localization
One of my many and varied tools from my localization sandbox, the StringsProxy is a generic object proxy container intended to simplify the management of large sets of application strings with little investment from the developer. It’s effectively an implementation of the Proxy object that includes propertyChange event dispatching so that Data Binding works properly.
April 5th, 2008
Author: Michael Krotscheck
Category: Libraries
Tags: actionscript, air, flex, seamlessinstallbadge
One of the nicest features of AIR is the seamless install provided by the installer badge available from Adobe. Unfortunately, it takes a little digging to pull out exactly how it works, and I’m not someone who wants to rewrite things on a regular basis. Additionally, the seamless installer badge is build in Flash, something us hard-boiled Flex developers find hard to swallow.
The goal of this particular package is to provide a simple reusable component that handles all the seamless install features, and gives the developer skinning control over the entire component.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This control requires Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115 or later.
April 4th, 2008
Author: Michael Krotscheck
Category: Libraries
The cairngormDesktop controller is the core controller for a Cairngorm/AIR application. It contains application specific commands, but should contain nothing above and beyond window and app control. In essence, it is an effective way of applying cairngorm style events and commands to simple application interface interactions: Opening windows, closing windows, dragging windows and the like.
Given how much AIR work I’m doing these days I needed a very rapid way of handling application and windowing commands without having to rewrite a lot of code. Encapsulating this functionality allowed me to easily include this library externally for anything I needed to do. Future functionality will likely include application manipulation events such as drag/drop, copy/paste, and file access, though whether I can properly generalize and/or encapsulate them remains to be seen.
February 14th, 2008
Author: Michael Krotscheck
Category: Libraries
Tags: actionscript, analytics, flash, google, metrics, omniture, urchin
The Metrics package was designed to provide a simple, reusable, extensible and flexible interface to any web metrics package, including Google Analytics, Urchin, Omniture, WebTrends and more. It supports multiple connector management, instantiating only those registered connecters that are successful at autodetecting their environment. If a developer does not know in advance which metrics package his client is using (or whether his client might change his mind at a later time), he may safely add several connectors secure in the knowledge that the package will do the heavy lifting. Additional functionality allows you to “hot-swap” connectors should that become necessary, though I myself don’t exactly know why you’d want to do that.
At this point in time, the only connector published with this library is the UrchinConnector. Google Analytics and WebTrends will follow shortly, however due to my employers’ client agreements I find it prudent to not release connectors for API’s that are considered proprietary (such as Omniture) unless I have a formal letter granting me legal permission to do so.
January 22nd, 2008
Author: Michael Krotscheck
Category: Libraries
Tags: actionscript, flash, flex, sprite
I saw the need to create my own sprite class because both Flash and Flex’s method of handling basic component functionality were contained in two completely different classes, both of which happen to be named the same thing. Given that I could at no time guarantee that a developer would have access to the codebase of either, it became necessary for me to roll my own. This way, at least, I can do cross-platform development without having to force my users to a particular dependency. Unfortunately, this class won’t fully solve the problem until Flex 3 is released as open source, since for proper usage in Flex this will have to implement IUIComponent, and that’s still licensed.
