SDFUG

ActionScript / Flex based UI development master. ( AKA Flex Master Flash )

We are looking for someone who take can take ActionScript and Flex and bend them to your will to create highly animated, interactive application interfaces. You will work in concert with a small, fast thinking, over-ambitious team in an attempt to bring an entire industry into the mobile millennium. Deadlines will be tight, requirements will change on the fly, but the rewards could be great, and there will ALWAYS be enough coffee.

Position Description:
Funded startup is looking for an ActionScript based UI developer to build a suite of highly interactive mini-application interfaces. You will work closely with a small development team with an emphasis on design, user experience, and over all coolness.

Responsibilities
• Taking a well written spec and turning it into a living breathing piece of UI art • Develop interface solutions in Flex/AIR environment with XML data and web services • Work with developers to define XML data and web services • Work with other developers to design object-oriented user interface framework

What You Need!
• A mastery of ActionScript 2.0/3.0
• Solid experience with Flex and AIR
• Object-oriented analysis and design knowledge is essential • Experience in developing interactive, graphic based application GUIs • Development experience in object-oriented programming language • Experience with working with XML data or web services required

Nice To Haves:
• An appreciation for good music
* An above average backhand in Table Tennis

Contact: Davidb82@mac.com

To add to your Toolbelt of Awsomeness! Jason Bartholme put a post up on his blog with links to 101 Adobe Air Resources (useful sites, tutorials, etc.). So go check it out:Build up your toolbelt of awsomeness!

I recently read a nice little article by Darron Schall (http://www.darronschall.com/weblog/archives/000149.cfm ) discussing the uselessness of getters and setters, and, after giving it some thought, I have to agree with him. The basic premise of a getter/setter is to you give access to a private property within your class, thus allowing a user of that class to alter the state of that property without knowing about or interfering with any other piece of the class. So Darron’s point is this: why not just use public properties? His point is a valid one. I think that the use of getters and setters is a bit of an old-school method that has become somewhat useless in its’ most basic form. This is not to say that getter/setters are completely useless however. They are still very useful if you want to perform some action on the data the user is setting/getting prior to updating the class or returning a value; however, for simply setting the input value to a private method of the class, there is really no point, and overall it just adds weight (in file size) to your code.

The 12th annual Webby Awards are upon us, so be sure to stop by their site and check out this years nominees!
http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=12

Sitepoint.com is giving away a copy of Adobe CS3 Web Premium to the authors of the best articles about Adobe Flex
and AIR submitted over the next four weeks. So if you’re feeling like channeling your inner Hemingway (or any other booze swilling womanizing writer) head on over to sitepoint and give it your best shot!

All of the info. on this contest can be found here: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/04/08/write-for-sitepoint-and-win-the-adobe-cs3-web-premium-suite/

Veoh (http://www.veoh.com ) is currently hiring for a number of positions and I could really use everyones help finding some candidates. If anyone is personally interested in any of the positions listed below, or knows anyone that might be, please drop me a line at kyle@sdfug.org

Manager, Finance & Business Analytics
DB Engineer, Metrics and Reporting
Oracle DBA
Lead QA Engineer
Lead Search Engineer
Software Engineer, Web Development
Software Engineer, Ad System
Software Engineer, Java Developer
Software Engineer, PHP Developer
Software Engineer, Recommendations
Software Engineer, Search

On a personal note, I’d just like to add that I’ve been working for Veoh for almost a year now, and it is truly a great place to work. Thanks in advance for any help that you may be able to provide! If you’re interested, please contact me at kyle@sdfug.org

Hi Everyone :]

I thought I would throw up some code I am working on, as I had a slight struggle with it, and I have a feeling that many of you would like to leverage uploading abilities within Flex applications.

I’m currently working on a web based mp3 player which uses Adobe AIR to communicate with iTunes self generated XML file. The flex application then loads the artists and allows users to select music which is then uploaded to the server simultaneously at the click of a button. This allows the users to “add” to their playlist without ever having to leave the application.

Although we have the fileReference class built in to the Actionscript API — It doesn’t technically handle the file uploading itself. I personally work with ColdFusion over other server technologies — so naturally that is the language my script was written in. I am working on a simple PHP script that does the exact same thing, but offers a free solution :]

Before writing the ColdFusion script all that is needed is a basic Flex form which in my case has a “browse button” that calls fileReference.browse() when clicked. Refer to the class reference for more information on the event handlers and such. Once a file(s) are selected, the user then clicks the “upload button” which calls the fileReference.upload(). This method requires one parameter, a URLRequest which should call your server side script file. You can also pass a second parameter to rename the file to that of you own naming conventions. This is very helpful if you want to archive uploaded files in a database, or an xml file. Finally, the upload() method has a third parameter which double checks that the file was uploaded by returning “true/false.”

As for the ColdFusion, only one tag is necessary:

<cffile action=”upload” filefield=”file” destination=”[Insert server destination here]” nameconflict=”overwrite>

That’s it! This method can be very helpful as you can allow users to upload their own videos , images, music, etc. The major benefit is it all happens within the same application so you can maintain the “feel.”

I personally have included an “upload” button in the mp3Player’s main state, which launches a popup window with the upload form :]. Have fun guys– See you all in April.

–Chris Bowden

Adobe is hosting a week long event with connect sessions on some of the latest and greatest topics, including native drag and drop in AIR, Flex Data Services, and Extending Web to the Desktop with AIR. It’s free, and all you have to do is sign up for the sessions you wish to attend, then jump online and check them out. You can find all the info, and register at http://adobe.com/go/2008_developer_week

Hot off the presses, the official Adobe technology platform ActionScript reference for RIA development is now available. The notebook-format document provides a complete ActionScript 3 API listing for Flash Player, Flex 3 and Adobe AIR.

One of my favorite Flash conferences, FITC will be held in Toronto on April 20-22. I know it’s a bit of a distance for you San Diegans to travel, but if you’re interested in attending (and seeing yours truly present), FITC has given SDFUG a special discount code for 10% the price of a regular pass. The code is SDFUB03123. Use it when you buy your pass online. So, why not join me and your fellow Flash geeks in the Great White North, eh?