Taking "Gumbo" For a Test Drive

I wanted to try out my preview copy of Flex Builder 4 (aka Gumbo) that we received at MAX so I thought I'd put together a simple little AIR application. I always find myself looking around for a calendar to quickly reference so I thought this would be a perfect little application to build. If you're like me and still stuck in the Windows XP world this handy little apps just chills out in your system tray and displays the current date. Hover over it and you get the full date, click and you get a fully functioning calendar.

Download the app at http://doubletmedia.com/AIR/DockCal/DockCal.air

Enough about that, on to Gumbo. Initial impression, I like it. It's stable, even for an early build. It seems to be quicker than previous permutations of FB. I like the new code hinting and ties into ASDOCS, they are good for quick reference into what you can do with the components. I haven't had a chance to do much with the new "Gumbonents" yet, I'll have to save that for my next app.

I am having some trouble however, and I haven't been able to find any information on it so far. Since this is an AIR app I wanted to include the update frame work. However, whenever I add in that code (taken from the Tour de Flex app) I receive the following error:

VerifyError: Error #1053: Illegal override of seek in mx.effects.effectClasses.TweenEffectInstance.

Any ideas?

Chrysler AIR app up for a MAX Award

While at Knoware I had the opportunity to work on a very cool AIR application for Chrysler. Joe Johnston has a good write-up and some screenshots and video over at his blog. Congratulations to everyone who worked on the application, and good luck!

Update: Here's the link to the MAX site where you can vote. The app is listed under the RIA section.

Strange 'NOSERVER_FLEX_OUTPUT_FOLDER' Error

Yesterday I was having trouble with FlexBuilder so I upgraded to ver. 3.1. Ever since then I've been receiving the following error.

'NOSERVER_FLEX_OUTPUT_FOLDER\bin-debug\' is not a valid location. The location is relative to undefined workspace path variable 'NOSERVER_FLEX_OUTPUT_FOLDER'.

If I go into the project properties and remove 'NOSERVER_FLEX_OUTPUT_FOLDER' from the Output Folder path I can compile the project. However, when I reopen the project that path gets put back in there and the project won't compile again. Anybody else experience this and know how to fix it?

Move Over iPhone

The latest greatest thing in mobile technology, can't wait to get my hands on one.

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

Copy Children From One Flex Container to Another

Okay, this shouldn't be so difficult but I'm having a helluva time with it. I have two canvases. All I want to have happen is when I add a child to canvas A I want it to also be added to canvas B at the same time. Sounds easy right, but for some reason it's only showing up in the second canvas, not the first. It's driving me crazy. Any ideas out there?

var imageContainer:WallItem = new WallItem();
...
WallModel.getInstance().dropArea.addChild(imageContainer);
WallModel.getInstance().navCanvas.addChild(imageContainer);

When I do this the item only shows up in the "navCanvas" but if I take out the second addChild it shows up fine in "dropArea." What am I missing?

Flex 4 Skinning Video

Looks like there is some very cool stuff coming in Flex 4 with regards to skinning components.

Brightkite & Spamalot

Ryan Stewart kindly sent me a Brightkite invite a few weeks ago. Admittedly, at first I wasn't very impressed. It seemed like a more complicated Twitter without any new added value. I don't really care where people are posting their tweets from. I decided to give it another chance though and the more I looked around the more I liked it. I like that you can post photos of where you're at and what you're doing at that moment. I however, do not have a camera on my phone (pathetic, I know) so this feature isn't particularly useful to me but it is fun to see what people are doing "around me."

There was one thing that really sold me on the service though. This past week the musical Spamalot was in town for several performances. A couple of the cast members had Brightkite accounts and were posting notes and photos of their adventures around town. It was very cool to see what they did while they were here. It provided an interesting view into how a visitor sees your hometown. The things they enjoyed doing, what they felt was interesting enough to take a picture of and post for everyone else to see. I can see where this could be useful if you were going to be traveling to a new place also. You could check out what's going on around that location and get some ideas on what (or what not) to do while you're there.

So, I think I'm sold on Brightkite. I have a few invites to give out if anyone is interested. By the way, Spamalot is a great show. If it comes to your town I'd definitely recommend it.