Matthew Casperson Blog

Flex Data Visualisation Components

Matthew Casperson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:25:06 GMT

If you are getting an error message in Flex like Definition mx.charts.chartClasses:RenderData could not be found, or any other message concerning the mx.charts package, you will need to download the Flex Data Visualisation Components from here. They are not part of the base SDK, which means you can get these errors after updating the SDK.

Once the datavisualization.swc file shows up in your Flex Build Path, you should be ok.

PHP Tutorials

Matthew Casperson — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:20:03 GMT

Learn how to use some of the most popular web services from PHP with these step by step tutorials.

URLLoader Error #2032: Stream Error

Matthew Casperson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:35:16 GMT

This error can be caused by requesting a URL that is over the maximum length supported by Internet Explorer, which is 2083. This can be confusing, because if you copy a URL you are trying to load in Flex with a URLRequest into Internet Explorer, IE will truncate the URL itself, and appear to load properly.

This is especially important for REST API's that can take a long string variable.

The following code will avoid this issue.

var URL_MAX_LENGTH:int = 2083;

var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url.substr(0, URL_MAX_LENGTH));

Windows through the ages

Matthew Casperson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:32:55 GMT

General Flex Tutorials

Matthew Casperson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:31:25 GMT

From finding local gigs with Last.fm to translating languages with Google, these tutorials will step you through the process of integrating Flex with a huge range of online services.

Performing automated language translations with Flex and Google [DEMO] [CODE]
Create a gig guide with Adobe Flex and Last.FM [DEMO] [CODE]
Plotting GeoLocation points on a 3D Earth model [DEMO] [CODE]
GeoLocation with Flex and MaxMind [DEMO] [CODE]
Using Yahoo Query Language (YQL) from Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Create your first Google Maps Flex application [DEMO] [CODE]
Making a custom YouTube player with Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Creating a Facebook photo album with Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Creating a Digg client with Adobe Flex in 10 steps [DEMO] [CODE]
Creating a Google Maps and Last.FM Mashup [DEMO] [CODE]
Twitter GeoLocation search and Google Maps Mashup [DEMO] [CODE]
Face Detection of Flickr photos [DEMO] [CODE]
Yahoo Site Explorer incoming links in 3D [DEMO] [CODE]
The Library of Congress newspaper viewer [DEMO] [CODE]
Create your own Fupa game library [DEMO] [CODE]
Create a Degrafa Memory Game with Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Create a "Related Twitter Posts" widget with Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Spark Project: LCDBitmap [DEMO] [CODE]
Parse Atom and RSS syndication feeds in Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Using the Flint Particle System with Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Create an MP3 player with Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Using the Flex ProgressBar [DEMO] [CODE]
State Transitions in Adobe Flex - Blur [DEMO] [CODE]
Add a sound visualiser to Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Reflections in Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Using the Pulse Particle library in Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
iPhone kinetic scrolling in Adobe Flash [DEMO] [CODE]
Create a Fisheye Flickr Image Viewer with Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]
Adding spell checking to Adobe Flex [DEMO] [CODE]

Ogre 3D Tutorials

Matthew Casperson — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:43:51 GMT

Ogre is a popular C++ 3D engine, with bindings to many languages. These tutorials show you how to use Ogre 3D, both from C++, and from a Java applet embedded in a web page.

Creating your first C++ Ogre 3D Application
Embedding Ogre3D in a webpage
Ogre4Web - Lighting [SOURCE] [DEMO]
Ogre4Web - Particles [SOURCE] [DEMO]
Ogre4Web - SkyBox [SOURCE] [DEMO]

Google O3D Tutorials

Matthew Casperson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:13:30 GMT

O3D is a plugin for most major browsers that gives JavaScript developers access to the underlying 3D hardware available on most PC's.

Away3D Lite Programming Tutorials - Mouse Gestures

Matthew Casperson — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:42:33 GMT

Mouse gestures haven't made big inroads into mainstream UI design. None of the major development environments includes mouse gestures without the use of a 3rd party library, so I guess developers find them too hard to implement. Opera introduced them to its web browser a while ago, and World Of Warcraft has the ability to register mouse gestures, but apart from that I can't think of any other application that uses gestures.

For Flash developers there is a Mouse Gesture library available that makes implementing gestures a piece of cake. You simply code in a sequence of mouse movements and the library takes care of the rest. It works out the which sequence best matches the movement of the mouse and fires off an event, which the developer can respond to like it was a button click. You can see the process in the image below.

This demo uses mouse gestures to control an Away3D Lite mesh. Press the mouse button and move in any straight line up, down, left or right and then release the mouse button. The model will flip around in the direction of the movement. Then click the mouse button and draw a circle (starting from the top). The model will spin.

Registering gestures takes only 1 line of code:

mg.addGesture("CLOCK", "67012345");

You then respond to the gestures in an event listener:

switch (event.datas)

{

case "CLOCK":

TweenMax.to(mesh, 1, {rotationZ: mesh.rotationZ + 360});

break;

}

Check out the demo here, and download the source code here.

Go back to Away3D Tutorials

keyCode in Flash/Flex

Matthew Casperson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:56:16 GMT

Responding to keyboard events in Flex and Flash requires setting up an event handler for the KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN and KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP events, and then using the KeyboardEvent.keyCode to work out which key was pressed.

If you are like me every time you need to find a keyCode you have to add a breakpoint in your code and use the debugger to find it out. To make things easier this utility here allows you to easily find out which keyCode relates to which key.

The source code is attached to this post.

Update Facebook and Twitter from one program

Matthew Casperson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:17:19 GMT

This tool allows you to set your status in both Twitter and Facebook at the same time. Thanks to the new Facebook status.set function, and the TwitterScript library, you can now keep Facebook and Twitter followers up to date with one application.

This is a work in progress (it might blow up your PC and delete all your files), so use at your own risk :). You will need Adobe Air to run the application.

You can see a video of this tool in action here.

Facebook from the command line

Matthew Casperson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:48:42 GMT

Have you ever wanted to script Facebook from the command line? Well now you can with FBCMD. It's a PHP tool that allows you to interact with Facebook from the command line. It seems like a comprehensive tool, and is quite easy to use.

A new Flash 3D engine

Matthew Casperson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:09:28 GMT

Yogurt3D is a new Flash 3D engine that is looking quite promising. There is only one demo in the web site, but it is one of the more impressive examples of 3D Flash that I have seen in a while. The engine apparently uses an API very similar to OpenGL, so porting over existing OpenGL 3D applications should be quite easy.

I look forward to being able to try the engine myself.

Silverlight Game Programming Tutorials

Matthew Casperson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:47:36 GMT

See how to create a game using Silverlight.

If you enjoyed these tutorials you may also like the SDL Shoot'em'up tutorial series.

Go back to the Tutorial Index

Flash Game Development with Flex and ActionScript

Matthew Casperson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:28:41 GMT

This tutorial series steps you through the process of creating your own Flash games using Flex and ActionScript. Follow the series as it starts from scratch to a playable shoot'em'up.

You can play the final result of these tutorials here.

If you enjoyed these tutorials you may also like the Silverlight Game Programming series.

Go back to the Tutorial Index

Manage Chrome Extensions

Matthew Casperson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:50:51 GMT

You can manage your Chrome Extensions quite easily by going to the page chrome://extensions/. On that page you can reload and uninstall any extensions, as well as see the individual components that make up the extension.