ImageOptim optimizes images — so they take up less disk space and load faster — by finding best compression parameters and by removing unnecessary comments and color profiles. It handles PNG, JPEG and GIF animations.

http://imageoptim.pornel.net/

35 Websites For Free Ebooks Download

http://www.smashapps.org/2009/12/35-websites-for-free-ebooks-download.html

Use labels and labelled code blocks in AS3

http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/archives/2009/12/labels_in_actionscript_3.html

Trace from the browser, using standard trace()

An article by Josh Buhler at actionscript.org that shows you how to install the Flash Debug Player that’s buried in the application folders of Flash. The Debug Player, along with a text file, allows you to view standard traces from a swf in the browser. Now, if you’ve already read his article skip on down to the bottom of this page because I’ve added a step that will make you even happier.

1. Uninstall your Flash Player
   Find the uninstaller here:
   Adobe Flash Player Uninstallers.
   Even though this is the first step, this is the one that you’re going to question the most, should I really uninstall my Flash Player and install the Debug Player? The answer is an emphatic “yes”. The Flash Debug Player is the exact same player with a very nice extra feature.
2. Install the Flash Debug Player
   Find the installer here:
   Adobe Flash Debug Players
3. Verify installation of the Flash Debug Player
   Restart your browser and right-click (ctrl-click) on a swf.
   You should have the “Debugger” option in the context menu, like the example below.
   
4. Create a text file named “mm.cfg” and save it here:
   • OSX
     MacHD:Library:Application Support:Macromedia:mm.cfg
   • Windows Vista
     C:\Users\username\mm.cfg
   • Windows XP
     C:\Documents and Settings\username\mm.cfg
   • Windows 2000
     C:\mm.cfg
   • Linux
     home/username/mm.cfg
5. Add the following properties to mm.cfg
   • ErrorReportingEnable=0
   • TraceOutputFileEnable=1
   • MaxWarnings=0

   FLASH DEBUG PLAYERS 9,0,28,0 AND NEWER

   The property TraceOutputFileName is no longer needed in mm.cfg. The default location of flashlog.txt has changed and cannot be modified from the following locations:

   • OSX
     MacHD:Users:username:Library:Preferences:Macromedia:Flash Player:Logs:flashlog.txt
   • Windows Vista
     C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\Logs\flashlog.txt
   • Windows XP and 2000
     C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\Logs\flashlog.txt
   • Linux
     home/username/.macromedia/Flash_Player/Logs/flashlog.txt

   FLASH DEBUG PLAYERS 9,0,16,0 AND OLDER

   Add the property TraceOutputFileName to mm.cfg

   • OSX
     TraceOutputFileName=MacHD:Users:username esktop:flashlog.txt
   • Windows
     TraceOutputFileName=C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\flashlog.txt
6. Test the Flash Debug Player
   Restart your browser and either publish a swf that uses trace() and view it in the browser, or surf around and find out what other people have been tracing in their movies (that’s one of my favorite options).
   The traces have been output from the browser to flashlog.txt.
   Open up flashlog.txt and see for yourself, you know you want to.

And there you go.

I’m sure many of you are extremely happy right now, and you should be, this is a great tip.
But after a few uses, you’re going to get really annoyed opening and closing the text file to view the new traces … if only there was a way to view the text file being updated in real time like the Output window in Flash. Here’s the new step that will make you rejoice.

NEW STEP

1. View the text file updating in real time
   • OSX
     • Open Terminal
     • At the prompt type:
       cd <path to flashlog's directory>
tail -f flashlog.txt
   • Windows
     Go to Windows Server 2003 Tools, and download Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools near the bottom of the page.
     Although it says Windows Server 2003 all over the page, its also made for Windows XP.
     • Install
     • Open Command Prompt
     • At the prompt type:
       cd <path to flashlog's directory>
tail -f flashlog.txt

Browse to a swf online that uses trace() and watch the magic. Terminal and Command Prompt display the contents of flashlog.txt as it changes … its just like having Flash’s Output window, except this one works in the browser!!

Isn’t this great? Like I said earlier, I’ve gotten this to work on both the mac and the pc and can’t live without it now.
If you have any questions about these steps, feel free to email me or comment below and I’ll be glad to help.

OPTIONAL STEP

1. Create a shortcut to quickly load up flashlog
   • OSX
     • Create aliases
       • Open Terminal
       • At the prompt type:
         cd ~
ls -a
       • Make sure there is a file named “.bash_profile”
       • If there isn’t, create one by typing the following at the prompt:
         touch .bash_profile
       • Open .bash_profile to edit it
       • Add the following content to .bash_profile:
         alias trace='open -a /Volumes/MacHD/Applications/Utilities/Console.app/ /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/Logs/flashlog.txt'

         alias cleartrace='cat /dev/null > /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/Logs/flashlog.txt'

       • Save .bash_profile
       • Restart Terminal
       • To open up Console displaying the active flashlog.txt file, type the following at the prompt:
         trace
       • To clear flashlog.txt, at the prompt type:
         cleartrace
   • Windows
     1. Create a batch file
        • Create a text file and rename it flashlog.bat
        • Right-click on the batch file and select “Edit”
        • Add the following content to flashlog.bat:
          cd <path to flashlog's directory>
tail -f flashlog.txt
        • Double-click on the batch file to see it working.
     2. Create a shortcut to the batch file to set the Command Prompt colors and options
        • Right-click on the batch file and select “Create Shortcut”
        • Right-click on the shortcut and select “Properties”
        • To view the Command Prompt maximized change the pulldown under “Run:”
        • To change the colors of the Command Prompt select the “Colors” tab
        • Unfortunately the “Font” tab options are very limited
        • Under the “Options” tab, select “QuickEdit mode” to be able to easily select and copy and paste
        • Tip for copying and pasting in the Command Prompt:
        • Select the text you want to copy and then right-click it, this puts the selected text into the clipboard … now just hit ctrl-v or paste in any other program.
        • Close out of the properties and double-click on the shortcut to see the flashlog with your colors and options.

What’s Coming in AIR 2

AIR 2 include:

• Native process API
  Beginning with AIR 2, developers will have access to a native process API that will enable applications to invoke and communicate with native applications on the local machine. In order to preserve the cross platform nature of the .air file format, applications that take advantage of the native process API must be deployed as native installers such as .exe and .dmg. The AIR runtime SDK will include support for generating basic native installers.
• Support for detecting mass storage devices
  Now your AIR application can detect when a mass storage device is connected or disconnected. An AIR 2 application can listen for when a user plugs in a Flip video camera or USB Flash drive so that it can, for example, automatically synchronize files to the local system or prompt the user to upload photos to Facebook or videos to YouTube.
• Improved support for accessibility
  Runtime dialogs such as the installer dialogs will be readable by supported screen readers such as JAWS. In addition, it will be possible to build accessible Flash-based applications in AIR leveraging the existing accessibility API’s and features available in the Flash Player and Flex SDK.
• Open document API
  Support for opening a document will be possible from an AIR application. With this API, AIR asks the operating system what the default application is associated with the file. For example, specifying a file path to a PDF file will launch Adobe Reader or a .doc file will open Microsoft Word.
• Improved performance
  Applications that run using AIR 2 will consume less memory and use less CPU than AIR 1.5 without recompiling the application. We will share more information about this when we launch the beta.
• Local microphone access API
  Currently, audio must first pass through a server before it can be saved locally. Using the upcoming AIR 2 local microphone API, it will be possible to record audio locally, which can be important if your application is running in a disconnected mode.
• Multi-touch & gesture support
  AIR 2 will include support for multi-touch (Windows 7) and gestures (Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6).
• Faster, more powerful WebKit
  An updated version of WebKit that includes a faster JavaScript engine and new HTML5/CSS3 capabilities will be included inside of AIR 2.
• Improved socket support
  It will now be possible to create local servers and lightweight P2P applications with enhancements to AIR’s socket support

Squiggly Now Available on Labs

Squiggly is a spell checking engine for Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR. The Squiggly library allows you to easily add spell checking functionality in any Flex 3 based text control. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/squiggly/

FlexPMD is a tool that helps to improve code quality by auditing any AS3/Flex source directory and detecting common bad practices.

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexpmd/FlexPMD

Flash Builder Network Monitor

Network Monitor feature in Adobe Flash Builder 4 enables developers to analyze the networks calls made by Flex application to back end data servers. Network monitor helps developers to analyze the performance of network calls and debug application when the response from the server is retrieved. This feature does not record all the network calls made by Flash player. Network calls made by Flex application running on Flash player or using AIR runtime can be recorded in Network monitor. It does not support application created in pure ActionScript and for Library projects. Network monitor supports HTTP, SOAP and AMF protocols so it can record the network calls made using HTTP Service, Web Service, Remote Service, Data Service and Messaging Services. It also supports HTTPS network calls made out of Flex application.

Network monitor shows the necessary information required for the developer to debug his application making network calls by providing some of the very useful information such as URL, the type of service, Request time, Response Time, Elapsed time and the operation. Selecting the record will show the Request and Response data of the network call. The Request will contain the Request Header and Request body along with other information such as Request Status, ID, Parameters sent, header size and the body size. Response will contain the Response Header and the response body along with other information such as Response Status, ID, header size and the body size. Response body will also contain the type of data retried form the server. It could be XML, JSON or an AMF type of data.

Network monitor allows developer to switch between Tree View and the Raw View. Tree View shows the Request and Response body in a neat tree structure format. It will be easy for developers to view the data from sent or received where as in raw view, raw data transferred when request or response is made.

Network monitor also provides support to save the network monitor data locally in a XML format. Developer can view the saved data in any of the XML editors or using the browser. Developers can suspend the network monitor calls when ever they do not want to record network calls they can resume network calls when ever they want to monitor network calls.

Source code correlation in Network Monitor will take the developer to the location in the source code where exactly the network call has been made when double clicked on any of the network call.

Step 1

Enable network monitor from Network Monitor tab in Flash Builder. This will compile Flex application with the necessary library file (netmon.swc) which is required for compiling the Network Monitor. Once the network monitor is enabled, network monitor status shows a message a enabled network monitor for the current project.

Step 2

Run or Debug the application, when the application makes any of the network calls, Network Monitor will record the network calls. Observe that each network call will show some important information such as Status, URL, Request time, Response Time, Elapsed time and the operation are shown.

Step 3

Click on the Network Monitor record, In the Request tab, request header, request header and body size and request body information is shown along with Status and Request ID. In the Response tab, response header, response header and body size and response body is shown along with response status. Also the type of data received is shown in the body. The type of data received can be of XML, JSON or AMF. Select Raw view to view the actual data sent or received.

Step 4

Double click on the network record will take to the location where the network call has been made. This will help developer when the network call fails or if he has to fix the performance of this particular call, developer can easily navigate to the source code where exactly this call has been made and fix his code.

Sony Ericsson release Flash UI Components in AS2

A few days ago the team at Sony Ericsson released their first set of UI components for the Flash Player on mobile devices.

The beta set includes 8 new components ready for you to use:

• Checkbox
• List – Single Row with Icon
• List – Two Rows with Icon
• Progress Indicator
• Push Button
• Radio Button
• Softkey Bar
• Wait Indicator

Get details more: http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2009/07/sony-ericsson-release-flash-ui-1.html

Revised AIR 1.5.2 Application available

The Adobe AIR 1.5.2 release is now available. In this they’ve revised unrestricted system access warning that displayed during installation.