Forest and the Trees » Code

Flex SDK 3.4 Extracting DataVisualization Source

Doug — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:21:26 +0000

Adobe released a new sdk for Flex which fixes a cross-scripting security threat. So, you download the sdk, unzip it, create a new directory for 3.4.0 in your flex sdks directory. Also extract the data viz zip and put its files in the appropriate directories in the 3.4.0 directory that you just added. (You could do this different ways as well.)

Then in Flex Builder, right click on a project, choose Properties, Flex Compiler, Configure Flex SDKs. And add your new SDK.

So, pretty sure there are plenty of posts on how to do the above. But, now you need to extract the DataViz source. This post explains that. And here’s what you can copy and paste into Terminal to get it to work if you’re on a mac.

java -jar “/Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3 Plug-in/sdks/3.4.0/lib/DMV-source.jar” “/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flex” “/Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3 Plug-in/sdks/3.4.0″

The blog changes the straight quotes to curly quotes, so, you’ll probably have to change that.

Rotating Text without Embedding Fonts

Doug — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:47:14 +0000

I needed this for creating an axis label for a chart. The Flex Charting label was flashing. Basically it creates a bitmap of the text and then rotates that. Obviously, you can’t select text, but, might be useful for someone. Here it is. Click the “add a text field” button. Then change text in the text input component. Rotate using the slider. Right click, view source.

Five Minute Design Patterns Presentation Files

Doug — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:33:41 +0000

Amazingly, made it through ten patterns in an hour – even w/ my long winded intro.

Presentation here: keynote, pdf, ppt.

Code is here. Right-click, view source. There is a different application file for each of the patterns. So, only the first example (the non-patterns example) is viewable on-line.

Thanks to everyone who attended the talk. It was a great turnout and I had a blast.

Kudos to Chris and Rebecca for putting on such a great conference. Flash on Tap definitely rocked. Can’t wait for next year.

Tap Into America!

Doug — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:30:05 +0000

No, not the tour to support Smell the Glove. But, Flash on Tap! Which takes a sophisticated view of sex and puts in on a farm. Excuse me, I mean, takes a sophisticated view of Flash puts it on a beer festival.

Beer! Flash! Talking! Beer (including Haverill, Lagunitas, Smuttynose, and Stone – some of my favorites)! May 28 – 30th at the castle in Boston. It will be fun. You should go.

XML Attributes to Object Properties

Doug — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:41:26 +0000

Now I can copy and paste this code instead of having to remember a.name().toString();

Anyway – this takes
var x : XML =

to
o.name = “Doug”;
o.hadAGoodTimeSleddingOnSunday = “true” //yup you’d want to type that as a Boolean.

var o : Object = {};
var atts : XMLList = x.attributes();
for each (var a : XML in atts) {
var propName : String = a.name().toString();
o[propName] = a.toXMLString();
}

Tour de Flex, Kap Lab Data Viz Components

Doug — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:55:15 +0000

Tour de Flex is a great Flex reference tool. It might be the first Air app I actually use.

And, it features the Kap Lab components. I haven’t used them yet, but, they look like pretty nice data viz tools – and they are freeware. Currently they include the following components: Tree Map, Radar Chart, Visualilizer (node mapping), and Diagrammer (looks like node mapping where the end user can do the mapping).

ADG Color Rows by Depth

Doug — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:53:19 +0000

Really need to start blogging again. Here’s an example using HierarchicalCollectionViewCursor to set the row color of an Advanced DataGrid by depth. Right-click to view source.

Observer Pattern Files

Doug — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:43:52 +0000

Here it is. Right-click, view source. I spent less time on this presentation than I ever have. And it was the first presentation written entirely at Characters. Enjoy.

The image above was taken from ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns. The code was also kind of taken from there. Well, the interfaces were anyway.

Formatting the FlexLib Window Shade

Doug — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:10:54 +0000

Our designer wanted to know how to skin the FlexLib Window Shade, so I put this together. Might be useful to someone. Shows how to set the button property on the Window Shade – but, more generally (and probably more importantly) shows multiple ways to set item renderers. Right click to view source.

Data Grid and ADG Footers

Doug — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:54:43 +0000

[UPDATE 26 Jun 2008] – view source is now fully functional

I made some enhancements to the DataGrid footer posted in Alex’s Flex Closet. This supports resizing columns, locked columns, and horizontal scrolling. It is also implemented in both the Data Grid and the Advanced Data Grid. Licensed under MIT (which I believe is the do whatever the hell you want license – commercial, non-commercial, sell it unedited to someone (although that would be morally wrong)).

I haven’t tested these very much. If you find a bug, please comment.

Demo here. The functions that calculate the content of the footers are in the main mxml. Right click to view source.