Software, Fitness, and Gaming – Jesse Warden

Blog

  • Yahoo Opens Search Engine to Developers

    “Search firm makes a bid for enterprise business

    Yahoo has launched a network giving developers access to the company’s technology through web services-based APIs.

    The interfaces allow application developers to create services that mix search results from an intranet with web search results or stories from Yahoo News. They can also use Yahoo’s spelling correction technology to check online forms filled out by employees or customers.”

    It’s really great to see company’s with awesome technology making them available via web service API’s. I love how everything can be made interoperable for a price. A technology you think is useful can be accessed from anywhere with a connection, and everyone can use the same thing in different ways. It’s been pretty cool to see Amazon & PayPal’s usage of them, so naturally it’s nice to see Yahoo! follow suit. Too bad I don’t use their search engine, but the more the merrier. As a consumer, I dig options.

    Via her majesty.

  • Compile Flash From Dreamweaver/FlexBuilder

    Those of you who have used SciteFlash from bomberstudios.com know that one of the key features of that editor was its ability to cause Flash to compile directly from SciteFlash’s coding IDE. This way, you could code like normal, and press Control + 1 to cause Flash to test movie, just like you would do Control + Enter in Flash to test movie. This was beneficial because you didn’t have to ALT + Tab (or click on Flash in the taskbar) to switch to Flash just so you could compile.

    I’m using Dreamweaver, just like I did in Flash MX (because Dreamweaver had tabs back then, Flash didn’t), because I’m doing some crazy re-factoring, and Dreamweaver has some awesome find and replace features. …however, same problem; don’t want to switch to Flash just to compile. However, I have a JSFL folder in my class directory that I’m viewing in Dreamweaver’s Files panel (which is what Flash’ Project Panel should be). I dropped a JSFL file in there called “compile.jsfl” that just does:

    fl.getDocumentDOM().testMovie();

    All I have to do is double-click it in Dreamweaver, and it’ll go back to Flash and compile my only open FLA. Haven’t figured out how to map to a Dreamweaver keyboard shortcut yet, but anyway, awesome!

  • Valve vs. HL2CTF Team

    Valve, the company that made Half-Life 1 and 2 was challenged by the Half-Life 2 Capture The Flag Team to a game of Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag. To quote the news release that Valve issued today, “…we’ve been challenged to a game of Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag by the team that created this mod. We noticed on their website that they want to “beat up on Valve” in a match that starts today at 6:00 pm PST. While our relationship with the MOD community usually involves us providing tools and support, we’re more than happy to give them a beating in their own game.”

    You can attempt to spectate, but if you haven’t signed up already, I’d just wait for the aftermath coverage.

    More info at the guys who made the mod.

    Reminds me of another company I know…

  • Changing MovieClip Class Name via JSFL

    Re-factoring your classes’ package path isn’t so bad. With 1 find and replace command in Dreamweaver/FlexBuilder, you can change it from “company.” to “com.company.” in just 3 seconds on all of your classes without having to open all, or any of them.

    …this isn’t so easy with MovieClips in Flash. FLA is binary, and to access the AS2 class name, which associates a MovieClip with your class, you have to right click on a symbol in the library, manually change the name in a cramped text input field, and click ok… then repeat this for your other 39 classes, or more.

    Or you could use JSFL. Programmer I work with educated me why you prefix class paths with “com.” and “net.”. I’ve forgotten why it’s important, could of sworn at the time I had an epiphany of understanding, but regardless, here’s the code to quickly change all of your AS2 + linkage ID’s to point to a new class path/linkage ID name. I include linkage ID because typically your linkage ID and AS2 class path are, and should be, identical.

    function d(o)
{
        fl.trace(o);
}

function init()
{
        fl.outputPanel.clear();
        var i = fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items.length;
        while(i--)
        {
                var linkage = fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageIdentifier;
                var className = fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageClassName;
                var testingString = className;
                if(testingString != null)
                {
                        if(testingString != "")
                        {
                                var a = testingString.split(".");
                                if(a[0] == "roundboxmedia")
                                {
                                        a.unshift("com");
                                        d("old:");
                                        d(fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageIdentifier);
                                        d(fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageClassName);
                                        fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageClassName = a.join(".");
                                        fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageIdentifier = fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageClassName;
                                        d("new:");
                                        d(fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageIdentifier);
                                        d(fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items[i].linkageClassName);
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
}

init();