Software, Fitness, and Gaming – Jesse Warden

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  • Flash Lite 2: SetInputTextType & Slash Syntax

    Flash Lite 2/2.1 has an fscommand2 called “SetInputTextType”. One of the reasons for its existence is that TextField.restrict is not supported in Flash Lite 2 / 2.1. My guess is, to make it easier for the Flash Lite Player engineers to support some forms of TextField restriction values, they found what was commonly supported on devices, and gave those as options. That way, they don’t have to write crazy parsing routines to translate your restrict values, which are typically just a string of accepted characters in a semi-RegEx like format.

    Instead, you pick from 6 options like “Numeric”, “Alphanumeric”, etc. and make sure your phone actually supports the mode you are using.

    For example, I’m creating a NumericStepper. Normally, one would assume you could go TextField.restrict = “0-9”. If you export for ActionScript 2 or 1, this will allow only numbers to be entered into the TextField by the user. However, as previously stated, it’s not supported in Flash Lite 2 / 2.1.

    The problem with SetInputTextType, though, is that it relys on the Flash 4 targeting syntax which we all love to loathe (even though it made most of our careers). While the docs give an example, it’s on _root, and doesn’t take into account the way variables work in slash syntax vs. dot syntax. As soon as you nest yourTextField into another MovieClip, you need to take this into account.

    Basic steps:

    – give your textfield’s variable property a name with a suffix of “_var”
    – for the 2nd argument of SetInputTextType, go:

    _target + ":" + yourTextField.variable

    The _target property will hold the old slash syntax to get to your component, and the colon is used for accessing variables in slash syntax (vs. a dot like in dot syntax).

    So, in my case:

    __valueField.variable = "__valueField_var";
fscommand2("SetInputTextType", _target + ":" + __valueField.variable, "Numeric");

    I sure hope if they make Flash Lite 3 use ActionScript 3, it also uses the ActionScript 3 clean api mentality of abandoning this slash syntax crud. Currently, it makes all the new fscommand2 calls feel legacy. Slash syntax throws me for a loop every time.

  • Flex 2 States & Transitions Example: Pimp My Login

    I always make these more complicated than they need to be, but it’s so much fun, I can’t help it. Regardless, here is an example of 2 login forms built in Flex 2. One uses simple states to represent the main, logging in, and error states that a typical login form can show. The second one does the exact same thing, based on almost the exact some code, but has the addition of transitions. Where “states” are changes to the component when it is a different circumstance, “transitions” are changes between those states. A Flex component that has states, but no transitions immediately changes from one state to the next visually. If you add transitions, you have control over how a state changes from one to the next.

    Both examples below are simple. If you click submit, it’ll disable the fields, and then go to an error state. After 2 seconds, it’ll reset. If you fill in something for the username and password fields, it’ll go to a success state instead of an error state instead. The top one uses state tags inside an MXML component. The bottom does the same with the addition of transition tags to animate between those states.

    As mentioned, the code base is exactly the same with 3 modifications between Login.mxml, and Login2.mxml.

    1. I removed the setting of the border color to red from the error state tag, and put it in the transition instead since I wanted timing control of when it turned red.
    2. The logging in state in Login2.mxml adds a SWFLoader that loads an animation.
    3. The Login2.mxml doesn’t reset itself 2 seconds after the error state is shown. Instead, I have the ending of the transition call a function to do it instead. This gives the transition enough time to finish before a new state is shown.

    We had to use ViewStacks or destroy & create this stuff manually, with no DisplayList mind you, in Flex 1/1.5. The ability to have the same component represent its state declaratively as well as have control over how those states change is awesome! In an ideal world, you can comment out the transition tags, and the component will still work just fine; it’ll just have abrupt changes. To me, if you get a proper designer / information architect involved, the experience in having appropriate transitions to guide the users attention vs. abrupt GUI changes without them is night and day.

    Why blur things out? Degrade importance, and allow the depth of field effect to allow the user to focus on the most forefront content.

    Why show loading animations? To build the user’s confidence that the application is “doing something” vs. appearing broken.

    There are various proven tested techniques you can implement, none of which I probably show correctly.

    Login Form State & Transitions Example – View Source | ZIP

  • Flex Community Pulse Survey Results

    Being anonymous is l@m3. Besides, cflex.net is getting hammered. lol, 404!

    1. At what stage of technology selection does Flex play in your immediate team?

    – Fully committed

    2. How long have you been using Flex?

    – 2 years+

    3. What would you consider your expertise level?

    – Advanced

    4. Outside of Flex, what have been and continue to be your primary technologies?

    – PHP
    – Flash

    5. Do you use the Flex Data Services (FDS) product?

    – No

    6. When it comes to Flex, what did you used to struggle with, that you no longer have problems with?

    – Dynamic layout. Using declaritive layout in Flex with it’s built-in LayoutManager saves me oodles of time when doing GUI’s. CSS inheritance helps too.

    7. When it comes to Flex, what are you currently struggling with, or wish were improved, made better, had more of, etc…

    – Integration of Flash designs.

    8. How many years have you been programming in general?

    – 6-10 years

    9. How many developers are in your immediate team?

    – n/a – unemployed (if I was, 1-5)

    10. How many employees are at your company?

    – n/a – (if I was employed 101-150)

    11. Has Flex been adopted by your entire company/top level business unit as a primary technology?

    – Yes

    12. What prevents your company from taking things further with Flex?

    – Nothing, we’re 100% Flex or bust!

  • Cyborg2006

    Skillz.

    Via Milkshoes.