08.29.08
FlashDevelop 3.0.0 Beta8 Released!
FlashDevelop 3.0.0 Beta8.
The feature set changes made to FlashDevelop are documented below.
User Interface:
- New “fullscreen” editor mode
- New common GUI for AS2Api and ASDoc
- SWF exploration shows the frame where definitions are imported
ActionScript:
- Fine tuned code completion
- Dynamic syntax highlighting: custom classes get colored like flash classes (MovieClip, Event, etc)
- Completion for package-level declarations and Flash 10’s Vector.<T> type
- New generator: Ctrl+Shift+1 on a non-imported type to generate the import
- Go To Declaration (F4) with SWC classes display a generated pseudo-class
- Improved generators
MXML:
- Tags with ID now appear in outline view and <script> code completion
- Updated completion (generated using a tool available in SVN)
Templates:
- Improved MXML projects templates
- New optimized AS3 project template with preloader (no Flex dependencies)
- Templates now include an index.html with swfobject.js
06.05.08
Collection of tools and resources for actionscript developers
Very useful AS2 to AS3 migration reference.
AMFPHP
PHP implementation of the Action Message Format. If you need to transfer large data sets between the server and your Flash application remoting enables you to use native Flash data types which cuts down on time and resources needed to parse and transfer data.
AS3 Optimizations
Collection of useful AS3 optimization suggestions and links.
ASUnit
Unit test framework for Actionscript.
Charles
Web debugging proxy which I find indispensable for inspecting traffic between server and swf files.
Has support for remoting (AMF0 and AMF3) and can do bandwidth throttling.
The only resource listed here that is not free, but definitely worth a mention here due to being extremely useful.
You can try the 30 day demo and see if you think it’s worth the asking price compared to for example Fiddler which is a free alternative.
FlashDevelop
My favourite Actionscript editor. IMO the code completion is much better than FlexBuilder and it comes with MTASC and SWFMill to create AS2 swf’s and integrates with MXMLC for AS3 projects so it very easy to get started using it as an all-in-one solution for developing Actionscript applications.
FlashTracer
Simple but very useful Firefox extension that enables you to view trace output in your web browser which is very handy when you need to debug an application while it’s running on the server.
GAIA Framework
I have to admit that I haven’t actually tried it out properly yet since it hasn’t been applicable for the kind of projects I have been working on lately, but I had a quick look at it and it really seems like a very neat framework for certain types of projects.
MinimalComps
A neat little AS3 component set from bit101. As the name suggests it’s very minimal but usually I find full fledged architectures, like ASWing or the ones that comes with CS3, to be a bit overkill in most cases and it’s a great example to study if you like to make your own AS3 components.
They are drawn from code and hence have a tiny footprint but are not skinning friendly.
For AS2 I have mostly been using Bit101’s commercial
BitComponentSet and I would love to see a similar set for AS3 but for now MinimalComps has come in very handy for simple little apps and prototyping.
Popforge
Open source AS3 audio library started by Andre Michelle and Joa Ebert.
If you want to be able to generate or process sound without using Flash Player 10 it will help you do that, but it’s also possible to use the generators and processors with the new samplesCallbackEvent functionality of FP10 as well.
So if you are interested in Flash audio it certainly very worthwhile to check out.
Red5
Open source Flash server for media streaming and remoting. A very good free alternative to Flash Media Server.
SWFAddress
To implement deeplinking and back button functionality when possible on Flash projects have been a concern of mine for quite a while, both due to usability and SEO concerns. Back in 2005 I developed my own solution, but it was something I quickly hacked together and although functioning and better than anything I could find at that time I always thought it could be a lot neater and was hoping someone would step up and create a package that could gain popularity with a lot of developers.
Hence I was very happy when SWFAddress came along with a package that is solid, neat and easy to implement.
SWFObject
I guess there is not much to say here. You’re probably familiar with SWFObject already, but in case you are not just get it and start using it to embed you swf with it now.
Not only is it a very convenient way of adding version detection, providing alternate content and passing on query parameters to the swf but it also has the benefit of avoiding the < a href = “http://www.baekdal.com/articles/technology/microsoft-ie-activex-update/” >IE issues with activation of embedded content.
TortoiseSVN
Easy to use version control software for Windows.
TweenMax
The fastest tweening engine for AS3 with very neat syntax and always my first choice for tweening duties along with it’s smaller siblings TweenLite and TweenFilterLite.
I have come across scenarios where it doesn’t behave as expected (I guess due to the fact that it doesn’t search for overlapping tween properties to overwrite only those properties) and then I stick with Tweener which has very respectable speed and equally neat syntax.
05.14.08
Guttershark Actionscript Library
This one is not Flex API and is targeted towards ActionScript. The main features which I have found here is handling Cache, NetConnection Manager, CPU speed estimation . And also it provides a way to override their API. To find more information about this visit http://www.guttershark.net/
04.10.08
AS3 opensource project
The following are As3 open source projects:
1. Flex/Actionscript Math Library
The Flex/Actionscript Math Library (as3mathlib) is intended to provide a rudimentary numerical analysis toolkit for the Actionscript/Flex programming environment.
This library has just been converted from Actionscript 2 to Actionscript 3. It is not ready for general use.
2. ActionScript 3.0 library for several basic utilities
The corelib project is an ActionScript 3 Library that contains a number of classes and utilities for working with ActionScript 3. These include classes for MD5 and SHA 1 hashing, Image encoders, and JSON serialization as well as general String, Number and Date APIs.
3. AlivePDF
AlivePDF is a client side AS3 PDF generation library for Adobe Flash, Flex and AIR.
4. Tweener
Tweener (caurina.transitions.Tweener) is a Class used to create tweenings and other transitions via ActionScript code for projects built on the Flash platform.
5. Flare
Flare is a collection of ActionScript 3 classes for building a wide variety of interactive visualizations. For example, flare can be used to build basic charts, complex animations, network diagrams, treemaps, and more. Flare is written in the ActionScript 3 programming language and can be used to build visualizations that run on the web in the Adobe Flash Player. Flare applications can be built using the free Adobe Flex SDK or Adobe’s Flex Builder IDE. Flare is based on prefuse, a full-featured visualization toolkit written in Java. Flare is open source software licensed under the terms of the BSD license, and can be freely used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.
6. di-as3
Developed for use with ActionScript 3, Flash 9 and Flex 2 projects it provides an inversion of control container for components that support dependency injection.Support for constructor and setter injection, with setter injection available to public variables, setter accessors, and methods.
7. AS3 Data Structures For Game Developers
AS3 Data Structures For Game Developers’ is a library containing data structures optimized for game development with Adobe Flash and Actionscript 3.
8. Pulse Particles System
It is a general purpose particle system for AS3 development.The pulse-particle system allows Flash developers to quickly and easily set up a wide range of particle effects. There are two ways of using the system, through an object orientated API that gives full control over the system, or through a simplified object syntax.
9. AS3 GIF Player Class
AS3GIF lets you play and encode animated GIF’s with ActionScript 3
10. Fisix Engine
The Fisix Engine is an Actionscript 3.0 physics engine built for game developers.
11. APE
APE (Actionscript Physics Engine) is a free AS3 open source 2D physics engine for use in Flash and Flex, released under the MIT License. APE is written and maintained by Alec Cove.
12. vanrijkom-flashlibs
It is a collection of Flash libraries.A command line tool for creating ZLIB compressed archives that can be streamed in progressively from the Flash player at run-time, using the provided ActionScript 3 API.
13. MinimalComps: Minimal AS3 UI Component Set
It is a Minimal AS3 UI Component Set.
14. Google Map Flash Interface
Critical Mass has developed a portable Flash interface for the Google Maps API. It’s written in ActionScript 2, and should be able to integrate with most AS2-based Flash projects that can accept external modules.
15. ScaleBitmap : 9-slice bitmap class
The owner have just finished a simple class which allows you to resize dynamically any Bitmap (just like the MovieClip.scale9Grid feature).
16. XIFF
XIFF is an Open Source Flash library for instant messaging and presence clients using the XMPP (Jabber) protocol. XIFF includes an extension architecture that makes it easy to add functionality for additional protocol extensions, or even your own special-needs extensions. There are quite a few extensions already included in the library, giving it support for XML-RPC over XMPP (XEP-0009), Multi-user conferencing (XEP-0045), Service browsing (XEP-0030), and XHTML message support (XEP-0071).
17. FOAM
FOAM is primarily intended as a resource for developers interested in simulating physics. It has a carefully thought out OOP structure and modular design. A savvy developer should have no problem extending and repurposing FOAM to his own ends. The Foam datatype is in fact not a physics engine but an interface for simulating physics. It offers a simple means to create, control and run a simulation- it purposefully keeps the more nitty gritty, behind-the-scenes operations shielded from the casual developer. A physics engine is simply part of its composition.
18. Box2DFlashAS3
Box2DFlashAS3 is an open source port of Erin Catto’s powerful c++ physics library Box2D.
19. Papervision3d
It is an open Source realtime 3D engine for Flash
20. away3D
Away3D is a realtime 3d engine for flash in ActionScript 3.0, started by Alexander Zadorozhnyy and Rob Bateman
21. SWFAddress
SWFAddress is a small, but powerful library that provides deep linking for Flash and Ajax. It’s a developer tool, allowing creation of unique virtual URLs that can point to a website section or an application state. SWFAddress enables a number of important capabilities which are missing in today’s rich web technologies
22. swfobject
SWFObject is an easy-to-use and standards-friendly method to embed Flash content, which utilizes one small JavaScript file
23. HTMLWrapper
Wrapper is a cross-browser compliant HTML/CSS rendering engine written in ActionScript that sits on top of your standards compliant HTML page. Wrapper eliminates cross-browser issues and makes integrating ActionScript and HTML/CSS projects possible without needing to compile. Have introduced it in previous article Wrapper WordPress Theme.
24. ASTRA Galore
ASTRA Galore: New Flash and Flex Components
The ASTRA library of components has just been updated with three new Flash components and seven new Flex components, as well as some important updates to the existing ones.
25. The Ruby on Rails RIA SDK by Adobe
The Ruby on Rails RIA SDK by Adobe provides developers with samples and code to help develop solutions with Ruby and Adobe technologies. The SDK includes open source code created by third parties as well as samples and demos that have been created by project members.
26. as3-stomp
This library is an actionscript 3 implementation of the Stomp protocol. It enables communication between Flash or Flex and any Stomp broker.
27. FlexUnit
FlexUnit is a unit testing framework for Flex and ActionScript 3.0 applications and libraries. It mimics the functionality of JUnit, a Java unit testing framework, and comes with a graphical test runner.
28. Visual FlexUnit
Visual FlexUnit is an Allurent open source project to establish a framework for the testing of components’ visual appearance. The goal is to enhance FlexUnit with additional features to support “visual assertions”. In a nutshell, a visual assertion asserts that a component’s appearance is identical to a stored baseline image file.
29. uMap
UMap is the Universal ActionScript 3.0 Mapping API. The scalable component model allows you to create rich maps with interactive data layers. Our flexible API enables developers to build fully-customized solutions. The current version is integrated with OpenStreetMap and Microsoft Virtual Earth map data.
30. modesMap
Modest Maps is a BSD-licensed display and interaction library for tile-based maps in Flash (ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0) and Python.
01.14.08
AS Class Exporter
AS Class Exporter is a .NET utility that extracts the names of the classes compiled in a set of swf’s, searches a defined classpath to find the referenced classes and copies the .as files found in said classpath to an output folder chosen by the user.
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Homepage : http://code.google.com/p/as2-class-exporter/
What problem does it try to solve?
by Author,
Actually, a problem that I’ve frequently run into in many Flash projects. Often, I place the classes and packages for a project inside a “fla” or “src” a folder, so the code is accessible to the fla files, which live in that same folder, without any extra classpath configuration. I also use “common” code from a central repository, as well (the kind of code that is generic enough that can be shared among many projects).
The problem is, when you have to give the sources of the project to someone, in order for them to be able to compile the fla’s, you’d either have to give them your whole central repository (most of which is not relevant or needed to the project at hand), or manually track down which classes are being referenced in your project’s code. Then you’d have to create folders that follow the original package/folder layout and manually copy and paste your .as files. A couple of times I had to do that and it was rather painful, time consuming and error prone. So, this project was developed based on my own needs as a way to automatize all that tedious work, and is made available here in the hope that it might help other developers that have come across the same problem.
01.11.08
To get open source flash components
- The Adobe Exchange for Flash has a large selection of third party components at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=productHome&exc=2&loc=en_us.
- Grant Skinner has been developing components for some time now. In fact as many of you already know he worked with Metaliq to develop the AS3 components for Flash CS3. http://www.gskinner.com
- Yahoo has a great set of components at http://developer.yahoo.com/flash/astra-flash/
- Digicrafts has some visuall richcomponents at http://www.digicrafts.com.hk/components/
- There is a nice selection of components at http://www.afcomponents.com/components/
