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As promised in my presentation at Adobe Max 2007 in Chicago, I am posting all the examples and source code.

Using Flash and Flex Together

• Learn how to effectively use Flash and Flex together in applications from a designer’s perspective.
• Implement designs typically created in Flash and Photoshop.
• “Make or break” points that determine if you are doing something in Flex you should probably do in Flash instead, and vice versa.
• Integration features provided by Flash CS3 Professional and Flex Builder

These photos show you what a Flex application can look like using the new Flash Component Kit. Below the images is a link to the live example. Please note this is a “down and dirty” example created to show the possibilities, and has very limited functionality.

Click on the top left button to see the Flash component expand. These are buttons in a Flex VBox.Notice how the buttons below properly shift to maintain the correct spacing.

Click play on the audio player to see this Flash component work properly in Flex.

This example shows a Flash container used to contain a Flex DataGrid component. Click on the top right to open the “Cart”.

This video player was created in Flash and used in the Flex application. It is using the Flash FLVPlayback component within Flex. Click on the little “Plus button” to open the video player.

Click here to see the live example…

Here are some individual examples of the various features of the Flash Component Kit. I have included all of the source code. The Flex project includes all of the example FLAs and MXML code.

1. Download the MaxPresentation Flex project archive.
2. Import the zip archive as a “Flex Project”. It will unzip and take it from there.
   
3. To use the included FLA examples, you will need to change the classpath in the FLA to the local source (src) directory of the Flex project Some of the FLAs use externaclasses that are within this folder, and the directory will be incorrect. Be sure to delete the old classpath (points to the src dir on my machine).
4. Update the classpath in the project properties to add your Flash CS3 ActionScript 3.0 Classes…only do this if you want to edit the Classes in Flex that are for the FLAs.
5. Download the presentation PDF.
6. Get the latest Adobe documentation.

Here are the published examples:

1. Stateless Check Box Example
2. Stateful Check Box Example
3. Flash Video Player used as Flex Component Example
4. Example of Resizing a Flash component from Flex (Just make the window small to see the Flash component react)
5. Example of dispatching a custom event from Flash to Flex (Drag the icon into the folder to see Flex receive the Flash component’s event)
6. Example of using View States in a Flash component triggered by Flex (and used as a Flex component skin. Its a skinned Flex CheckBox Component)
7. Example of Focus Management from Flash to Flex (Click on the content to give focus to the Flex application and tab from Flex to Flash)
8. Example of triggering a Flex Tool Tip from within a Flash Component
9. Example of the usage of a Bounding Box in a Flash Component
10. Example of using a Flash Component as a Flex Container (ie. Panel component)

Learn how to effectively use Flash and Flex together in applications from a designer's perspective. We'll discuss the main techniques for implementing designs typically created in Flash and Photoshop. We'll also explain "make or break" points that determine if you are doing something in Flex you should probably do in Flash instead, and vice versa. Finally, we'll introduce some of the integration features provided by Flash CS3 Professional and Flex Builder 3.

Come see my talk on some of the new features introduced with Flash CS3 and Flex Builder 3 (beta). We now have a way to use Flash content in Flex as a standard Flex component. This is pretty exciting, and something sorely missed in Flex thus far. 

I will have some pretty cool demos and show some of the new capabilities. Hope to see you there.  

I patched the AS3 XIFF library to fix some minor issues connecting to ejabberd.
You can check out the latest revision at the Ignite Realtime repository.

If you have a server up and running, test the little GUI here.

The GUI now connects to Openfire. It is free, and it is cool.  Have fun!

A friend of mine and colleague, Jon Reiling sent over this useful Mac widget he recently created.  It gives you a convenient way to view Adobe .flv video files right on your desktop. Jon, who I know as Bob, is cool, so download this.

Yes, that's Bob in the video talking to an astronaut.  

About FLVPlayer
Simply begin dragging your file, activate the Dashboard, drop the video and watch it go! Basic video functions are included, as well as analysis of size and frames per second 

Check it out for yourself.

If any one is working on a "web 2.0" start-up or trying to find some information on the metrics/monetization for social technology right now…take a peak at my start-ups' blog. Although, I am pretty clueless to the assumptions behind generating ROI and the values assigned to users, the team assembled here gets it. I am particularly interested and excited about how they are creating a plan to do so for a very robust rich internet application. I know they are not revealing too much publicly at this time (only to potential investors), but expect to see some great things coming from Lymabean in 2007. 

Media Modeling and Metrics

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I was introduced to this product today by Robert Hoekman, Jr. I am amazed that I have never stumbled upon it.  For independent contractors, invoicing can be a nightmare and a pain. Creative brains just don't think about administration. Not to mention, most contractors are freelancing so I'm sure dealing with administrative parts of a project are not what they would like to be doing during "off" time. 

Now I join those who have found the solution. 

Blinksale is a subscription based web-application for money management online. It is the IDEAL tool for contractors who know the headaches associated with Quicken and MS Money. I own those, but maybe used them for a day – too many features that I just don't need.  

Highlights 

• Simple registration that was clean and enjoyable (almost)

• Intuitive invoice creation

• Clean , attractive CSS invoice layouts

• I created an invoice and have a client record for my next invoices in – 3 minutes. Yup, 3 minutes.Then I was able to sync the due date with iCal.

I am impressed with the invoice delivery system. I like the idea for the link back to Blinksale to organize and encourage others to learn about the product. Viral at its best – for direct use to targeted people who would be interested in using the product. 

I'm looking forward to seeing how payments are tracked and this assists during tax season. I even may peek into the API a bit that they have made available – it's always nice to tie in great products where you can.  

Blinksale is free to use if you send three or fewer invoices a month. Paid plans range from $12 to $49 a month, depending on the number of invoices you plan to send out. The paid plans allow for customized templates (using CSS), more users, more invoices, more clients, etc.