My Adobe eSeminar: Basic Application Architecture for Flex Newcomers
October 11th, 2007
Are you relatively new to Flex? I was a Flex newcomer once and I remember what it was like. I worked through some examples in the Flex documentation, read a few articles, set out to write my own app and quickly found myself with a mess and wondering, “Where should I put all this stuff?”. If you’re at that stage now, you should register for my eSeminar next Tuesday where I’ll show you a simple way to design your Flex apps so that they’re easy to maintain and extend.I’ll introduce my approach, which I call EasyMVC. It doesn’t require any special libraries, it keeps the “nerd-speak” to a minimum, and it’s flexible enough that if you later decide you want to use something more advanced like Cairngorm, it will be easy to switch.
Our Flex chat is like IRC with integrated pastebins
October 4th, 2007
Chatting about code can be a cumbersome process. That’s why our Flex-based chat widget has a code input feature that lets you send lots of code without filling up the chat. Just click the code button, type or paste your code, send it, and it will appear on one line with a button to expand/collapse the code area. We even do syntax highlighting as it passes through the server.
We have a bunch of programming topics available here. The most popular one right now is the “Adobe Flex” topic which usually has between 70 and 120 people in it these days. Robert and I are usually in there during Pacific Standard Time and we’re always happy to answer any questions about Flex, AIR, or LCDS.
If you wish one of the other programming topics, like ColdFusion, had more people chatting, just install that topic on your blog and get your friends to do the same. By installing it on more blogs, we can pool our traffic together and keep the room occupied.
If you’ve used the first version of the SearchCoders Dashboard, you may have noticed that the chat required registration. We’ve updated the Dashboard for AIR Beta 2 and threw in our new chat widget which does NOT require registration and the room usually has between 70 and 120 people in it these days. Be sure to download the new version at www.searchcoders.com.
Live Chat from Tuesday MAX keynote
October 2nd, 2007
Robert and I just sat down at the keynote and we’re waiting for the show to start. Stop by the chat at www.chatopica.com/topics/flex where I’ll be reporting on what goes down.
Live chat from the Adobe MAX keynote
October 1st, 2007
Stop by www.chatopica.com/topics/flex and join us in the chat. Robert and I are sitting in the audience waiting for the show to start and we’ll be giving live updates.
AIR Derby winner — Best Flex Community Application
October 1st, 2007
Awesome. Robert and I are happy to announce that the SearchCoders Dashboard was one of the category winners for the AIR Derby contest. To download the app or try out the web-based widget, please visit www.searchcoders.com.
We’d like to send special thanks to all of the Adobe engineers who answer questions on the FlexCoders list. Without them, the SearchCoders Dashboard wouldn’t exist.
Also, congratulations to all the other winners!
Our Flex chat widget now works behind firewalls
September 16th, 2007
One problem with using a Jabber-based solution for chat is that some corporate firewalls will block you. Thanks to Robert Cadena, our Flex chat widget can now communicate using HTTP binding so that firewalls are no longer an issue. You can see our list of available topics at www.chatopica.com/topics. If you have a blog and you’re interested in having chat on your site, just select one of those topics and you’ll find installation instructions.
New chat widget topics: ColdFusion, Flash, Ruby on Rails, and more…
September 11th, 2007
Our Flex chat widget can now be pointed to a number of different topics besides “Flex Programming”. Check out www.chatopica.com/topics to see what we have in there so far. Instructions for embedding the chat widget on your blog are available on each topic page. Be sure to let us know if you install the chat widget on your blog so we can include your site in the list. People who have installed it so far are telling us it’s helping to drive traffic to their sites.
If you’ve already installed the WordPress chat plugin, you can now go to the configuration page and select a different topic if you want.
If there’s a topic you’d like us to add, just let me know in the comments.
Thanks,
Tom
Thanks to the 12+ bloggers who installed our Flex chat widget yesterday!
August 30th, 2007
We’ve been really pleased with the reception that our little Flex chat widget has had. The shared “flex” room has consistently had between 20 and 40 people in it since yesterday afternoon. I’d like to thank these bloggers for installing the widget on their sites.
blog.everythingflex.com (Rich Tretola)
If I missed your blog, please leave a comment with a link to where you installed it. If you’d like to put the shared “flex” chat room on your blog, just check out www.chatopica.com/widget for instructions.
Flex chat update: sounds are off by default, nicknames get remembered
August 29th, 2007
If you’ve been using our chat widget, you’ll be glad to know that we’ve added a toggle to turn the sounds on and off and they’re off by default. We also keep your nickname in a SharedObject so you don’t have to type it in everytime. More enhancements are on the way.
