Learning to use Cairngorm

February 12th, 2009 Kyle

Continuing down the path of MVC frameworks, I have finally decided to tackle Cairngorm. I started digging around today for some good beginner tutorials and came across an absolute gem on Adobe Devnet. The page (listed below) contains a downloadable .pdf file with very well written lessons covering how and why you would want to use Cairngorm, as well as a walk-through of building a sample application. You can also download a .zip file that contains all the example files discussed in the lessons found in the .pdf.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/introducing_cairngorm.html

Posted in Flex, General, OOP | No Comments »
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PureMVC Presentation

February 7th, 2009 Kyle

Thanks to everyone who made it out to this months meeting. As promised I have uploaded the HoursTracker application that we built using PureMVC. You can download it here: HoursTracker.zip

All you have to do to get the project running on your local Flex installation is download the zip file to you Flex workspace, then open Flex and go to FILE -> IMPORT -> FLEX PROJECT, select PROJECT ARCHIVE and browse to the zip file that you downloaded. I’ve included the PureMVC swc file in the /lib directory of the project archive, so you will not need to download it again for this project.

Other sites mentioned during the discussion:

PureMVC – http://www.puremvc.org
ProjectSprouts – http://projectsprouts.org/
PureMVC Connect Recording with Cliff Hall – http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p41582221/

Posted in Flex, OOP | 2 Comments »
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StarUML to AS3

September 11th, 2008 Kyle

This post is in addition to my original post about exporting AS3 stub-code from StarUML. You can find the original post here!

OK. I got everything installed, and it is working so well that I had to write a second post to say quite simply that this thing is BAD ASS! If you’re new to creating UML, it takes a bit of time to get familiar with the terminology used in the StarUML application and to figure out how to make it do exactly what you’d like; however, once you get past the initial learning curve and get your class structures laid out, it will produce beautifully formatted AS3 stub-code for you!

And in case you missed it in my first post, you can find an extremely descriptive and helpful tutorial written by Senocular detailing exactly how to get everything setup and configured here: http://www.senocular.com/flash/tutorials/starumltoas3/

Posted in ActionScript 3.0, Flash Tools, OOP | No Comments »
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Moock’s The Charges Against ActionScript 3.0

July 23rd, 2008 Chris Griffith

If you have not had a chance to read this article, take a moment and do so. I found it very refreshing. I recently had a quick project I had to build. I wanted to do it in ActionScript 3.0, but kept running into changes that would require more time than I had. In the end, I coded it ActionScript 2.0, but I plan to revisit it and resolve the ‘issues’

Posted in ActionScript 3.0, General, OOP | 1 Comment »
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Design Patterns in ActionScript

July 3rd, 2008 Chris Griffith

During our discussion at last night’s meeting, I mentioned that there were two books specifically written on using Design Patterns in ActionScript. The first was Advanced ActionScript 3 with Design Patterns by Joey Lott and Danny Patterson. This is a great starter book for anyone interested in applying design patterns to their development. The other is ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns, by William B. Sanders and Chandima Cumaranatunge. This one is a much deeper look into design patterns. So, if you have actually finished reading EAS3.0 by Moock, then you are ready to tackle either one of these.

A third book that I also recommend is in the Head First series, Head First: Design Patterns. Although the examples are written JAVA, it is fairly easy to translate the examples to ActionScript. If you have not had a chance to read one of the Head First series of books, be warned they are unlike any book you have read. 

Both Head First: Design Patterns and ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns are O’Reilly books, so you can use the User Group discount. 

Posted in ActionScript 3.0, OOP | 1 Comment »
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Flex Framework Showdown

February 13th, 2008 admin

A great presentation by Luke Bayes and Ali Mills (from such projects as ASUnit and and ProjectSprouts), discussing a handful of the available Flex Frameworks and which they’ve found to be the best. If you’re unfamiliar with Frameworks for flex or why you’d want to use one, spend a little time researching Cairngorm and PureMVC (two of their favorites) before watching the presentation. There’s a great series of articles introducing Cairngorm HERE, and you can read up on PureMVC HERE. When you feel comfortable with the idea of what a framework is and why you’d want to use one, then it’s time to watch these guys tear into some of the best options and nail down the pro’s and con’s of each! CLICK ME TO LAUNCH THE PRESENTATION!

Posted in Actionscript 3.0, Flex, OOP | No Comments »
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Runtime Enforcement of Abstract Classes in AS3

January 11th, 2008 Kyle

Josh Tynjala over at ZeuseLabs wrote a great article on creating Abstract Classes in AS3.

Check it out here: Astract Classes in AS3

Posted in ActionScript 3.0, OOP | 1 Comment »
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