Since the integration of the Flash and PDF ( since ColdFusion 8 ) platforms, more and more developers are flocking towards ColdFusion again, and it is seen as a great alternative to meet business needs quickly and effectively, and more and more businesses are hiring ColdFusion developers because of that.

Read more about ColdFusion 9′s key features and download links…

Some of the Coldfusion 9 features include:

• ColdFusion Object Relational Mapping (ColdFusion ORM) – a powerful Rapid Application Development (RAD) solution for building data-centric applications
• Offline application support for AIR applications
• Enhanced Flash remoting capabilities
• A broader set of Ajax controls that leverage the new Ext JS 3.0 library
• Improved PDF functionality
• Integration with other products and technologies such as Microsoft SharePoint and OpenOffice
• Server Manager – an AIR-based desktop application to centrally manage multiple ColdFusion servers from a single location
• Powerful search capabilities using Solr, an open-source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library
• database enhancements and significant performance enhancements such as, granular control over caching, in-memory file capabilities, and improved clustering
• many language and CFC enhancements

You can download the ColdFusion 9 beta here, the ColdFusion builder beta can be found here (Adobe Labs membership required). As always, these are betas and may still contain a ton of bugs, so make sure you backup and existing projects, just to be safe

This new player will enable developers and integrators to create rich, expressive applications targeted to the latest version of Adobe’s Flash technology, with the ability to distribute their apps including the runtime installer to millions of open OS mobile devices with a streamlined workflow and reduced time to market.

For now, the distributable player is only available on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile devices, but more devices are to follow very soon…

An integrated, updatedable solution

The runtime is part of a solution that includes the Flash Lite 3.1 Distributable Player and Adobe Mobile Packager, with authoring support provided via Adobe Flash CS4 Professional and Adobe Device Central CS4 (or via Adobe Flash CS3 Professional and Adobe Device Central CS3). Adobe Mobile Packager is a desktop tool enabling developers to transform an swf file into an install-package for S60′s and Windows Mobile devices.

The distributable player works in a similar way to Adobe’s Flash 10 Player – once installed and if you have a mobile device that allows OTA (over-the-air) updates, the application will update itself, ensuring that every user has the latest version of the mobile player installed.

The distributable player solution allows you to create rich mobile applications that:

• Target the latest Flash Lite player, by mimicking the successful Flash Player desktop model of content triggered downloads but for applications. Developers no longer need to worry about whether the device has the latest Flash Lite runtime.
• Reach millions of open OS smartphone users in the US, UK, Italy, Spain and through free direct-to-consumer distribution, new off-deck aggregator partners (GetJar, Thumbplay, Zed), or your existing distribution channels.
• Improve end user experience through easy installation and visual icons for Flash Lite applications.

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Easy distribution and marketing

There are several ways that a user can discover the application you developed, depending on the distribution channel, some examples of how the consumer may discover the application are:

• Catalog of one of Adobe’s Aggregator partners such as GetJar, Thumbplay and Zed
• Your own/the aggregator/other distribution channel desktop or mobile website
• A print or TV ad, with an SMS shortcode or web address

At the moment, Adobe’s Flash Lite solution is only available on Windows Mobile and S60 devices in India, Italy, Spain, UK, and the U.S., however additional countries will be added over time.

If you would like to give this new distributable player a try and work on your own mobile Flash application, why not have a look at the link below.

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Related information:

• Adobe’s Distributable Player Solution information (Abobe Labs)
• Download the Distributable Player

But what gets me going of late is the inability of some websites to display their PDFs properly…

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The problem with PDF links

I was reviewing a website a few days ago using my usual set of browsers (IE 5.5 – IE7, FF2 FF3, Opera 8 – 9.5, Safari) then I was going through a product page and clicked on a link to read more about a link called “Course documents”. This was when my old test machine’s fans started spinning up and the task manager showed a significant increase of Memory and CPU usage. Acrobat was loading up while IE6 and IE5.5 came to a grinding halt. After about a minute of nothingness the browsers displayed a 3 page PDF with a 1 page full-size image and 2 pages of information about the course.

Now in that time I, the average user, could have been under the impression that the site is crashing my browser, so I would have tried to close the browser forcefully. Or I could have been saying “F*** this, I’ll go elsewhere”.

Not showing your users what link opens a PDF is one of the most annoying things you can do to your users! Not only that, it is a usability and accessibility issue!!!

So I wrote my report to the client, asking them to indicate their PDFs properly. This is what they came back with:

Well done, at least you have the word “Download” appearing within the link. Still not best practice, but at least something – if you are f***ing lazy. So I sat down with the client again and suggested a couple of ideas to his development team:

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Best practice for PDF links

1. Link location: think about moving PDF downloads either into another location entirely, or – if that is not possible or not wanted due to the design and layout – distance the PDF link from other links.
2. Show a file size: here in the EU we still have quite a number of users with dial-up or very slow connections, so it is best practice to show your users what they can expect and how long it may take them.
3. Display a PDF icon: the best visual reference that the link you will be clicking on will be a PDF

In the end the problem was finally solved:

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Conclusion

This was an interesting exercise with that client. And I really wished everyone would do this. Displaying PDF links properly isn’t difficult, it makes you look a lot more professional and you make your site a hell of a lot more usable and accessible. Come on, do your part!

Yesterday Google announced an update to their search engines with the help of Adobe Labs. Read more about this new development after the break.

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So how does it work?

As part of their Open Screen Project Adobe has released a technology to both Google and Yahoo that enables the engines to crawl and index swf files.

Adobe Labs developed a Searchable SWF library for Google to develop an algorithm for search engines that explores swf files in the same way that a person would, by clicking buttons and entering input strings. The algorithm then remembers all of the text that it encounters while going through the file, and that text content is then listed and ready to be indexed.

In addition to that, any URL linked from the flash file will also be indexed in the same way as normal text-links would. Please note however that this only applies to static and dynamic text, text that was “broken down” in Flash to an outline will not be found and indexed.

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Limitations

A few limitations remain in Google’s ability to index SWF files:

1. Google’s crawlers do not execute some types of JavaScript. So if a web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.
2. Currently Google does not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files, meaning if a Flash file loads content via XML, HTML or another flash file then Google will separately index these resources, but it will not (yet) be considered part of the content of the Flash file.
3. Flash files using bidirectional languages (such as Hebrew or Arabic language) are currently not indexed as it provides a difficulty for the algorithm at this point in time.

Having said that, Ron Adler and Janis Stipins (Google) already commented:

We’re already making progress on these issues, so stay tuned!

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Good times for the flash designers and developers, however, making your Flash files visible is one thing, actually making a ranking difference is another. I would think we would have to wait a couple more months until Adobe’s library and Google’s algorithm improve indexability and deep-links, and then we’ll see how we go from here.

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Additional reading:

• Adobe’s Open Screen Project
• Google’s Weblog
• Adobe’s SWF searchability FAQ

For the full list of features please continue reading below the break…

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Key new features

Among a great number of improvements and additions, these are the key features flash developers were looking out for:

Custom Filters and Effects – Flash Player 10 allows developers to create their own filters via Adobe’s Pixel Blender (those of you using After Effects CS3 will feel at home!) and to embed them into your flash movie. Since these filters are portable you can also share them with others (expect download sections for these filters to pop up everywhere once Flash Player 10 is in final release)

Enhanced Drawing API – drawing will be a lot easier in Flash Player 10, you can now use 3D APIs and re-styleable properties, and all that with a lot less code to use!

Advanced Text Layout – Adobe has been putting a lot of work into a new text layout engine allowing a lot more controls by providing support for more typographic elements, vertical text and right-to-left layout

3D Effects – This is where it gets interesting: Flash Player 10 allows a lot more flexibility and interactivity for objects through 3D space. The new motion engine will be a lot easier to get your heads around, plus APIs will extend your ActionScript 3.0 knowledge easily without having to rethink how you did 3D animations in the past. I am personally very excited about this part of the new features as up until now my 3D flash work was a code-mess (then again, who says it won’t be this time round!)

Visual Performance Improvements – Flash Player 10 will make a lot more use of your GPU when it comes down to rendering your animations. Thanks to that move, the CPU will be freed up quite a bit to allow more processing power for other applications – or your flash code.

Colour Management – an improved colour management system allows you to work more accurately to your client’s current website and brand without looking “out of place” or “a bit off”. Opt-in colour management allows you to convert SWFs into sRGB (standard RGB) and works with the monitor’s ICC colour profile, turning the entire SWF into a colour-managed object.

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Rich media improvements:

Flash Player 10 will also improve your work on rich media applications and media streaming. Since bandwidth is a massive factor when it comes down to enjoying flash animations and applications to the fullest, you’ll be pleased to hear that Flash Player 10 will also feature dynamic streaming to change bitrate depending on the current network conditions. Through Quality of Service metrics via ActionScript’s network and CPU information detection developers will be able to take control of video playback and dynamically adjust playback. Have a look out for Flash Media Server updates soon!

Furthermore, the new Real time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP) allows for a secure UDP-based network connection, allowing for an improved media delivery and real-time communication with your Flash Media Server environment. which helps protect media delivery.

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My thoughts on Flash 10

So far I am enjoying Flash 10′s pre-release, and I am looking forward to learning more about the new 3D effects and Dynamic Streaming capabilities. With regards to the enhanced drawing API, what I would like to see at some piont is also a pressure-recognition for graphics tablets. Well, its still pre-release, let’s see what else Adobe Labs has in store for us