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

Last time I wrote about this Yahoo / Flash mashup I connected the Yahoo map’s API through Flash and PHP to a MySQL database and was able to write / read from the entries. My next goals were to integrate a user-login, adding links, implementing moderation and a Flash image uploader script.
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Integrating a PHP uploader script

A very important aspect for both users (and our clients) is to be able to ‘take part’ and ‘be part’ of shaping the user-generated content area of a site, to leave their mark. Naturally, images and content are the weapons of choice, as such the next step was to work on an image-uploader. The task:

Develop an image uploader script through Flash that would allow users to upload an image from their desktop, store it online in a writeable folder on the server and reference to it from the SQL database and display the image for the relevant post for the relevant user.

This wasn’t such an easy task. I had a good look around how Flash tutorial websites I usually frequent handle image upload. After some working I managed to get the PHP side of things working – which also had its own issues to start with, it would not update file names properly (see image to the right, click to enlarge)! After some fiddling around I managed to get the php script to work, and if you like you can download it here:

Please download the file here: fileupload.zip (~800 bytes)

What the script does is it defines the maximum file dimensions (180×300 max in either direction) and uploads the file to a temporary directory (/tempstore/) before giving it a timestamp and name-change and putting it into the /images/ directory.

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Connecting PHP with Flash

This was a bit (okay, a hell of a lot) more complicated: through the variables ‘FileReference‘ and ‘browseListener‘ and a couple of other event listeners I managed to tell Flash how to use the “Browse…” button and how to handle the uploaded image. At the moment the Flash file uploads the image to the database correctly, but it will break if the image does not have the correct size, so I need to work on getting the image-resizer to work. Once that works I’ll upload the source as well.

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Sneak Peak for the image-uploader (snapshot of 9th July 2008)

The main uploader:

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The uploaded image and adding information:

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…and the result:

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Conclusion and next steps

Well, so far it is looking very promising with the image-uploader! Obviously we are still some way to go with it, but I think the project is starting to take shape! Integrating browse and upload functionality in Flash took some work, but thanks to ActionScript 2.0′s event listeners it worked out reasonably well and connected to the database. Obviously we are still taking about only one user at a time, so I would need to review the php code at a later date to also make sure there is a folder structure per user present, but that should not be too much of an issue. Watch out for the next entry on this mash-up, by then I will have the uploader finished and maybe add the ability to upload multiple images to show a slideshow, we will see!

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Lastly, if you enjoyed the article – or just the flash map – then please leave a comment, I would really appreciate it, as it gives me always another boost to write more

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

What we would like is some sort of members-only application that allows our users to track their journeys with us and to maybe blog about them, but it should look swish and very easy to use. We would like a similar functionality for our travel guides who would then post information about the tours.

The idea of a blog is a great tool for customer retention, if done right it allows users to post comments about their journeys, maybe with images to keep a log of what they are doing while on that trip. It would allow visitors to see what is going on on a journey with <Company Name> and what you can do or what the user(s) saw and took part in. Obviously, I wanted to offer a little bit more than just a blog. My idea was to work on a map-blog…

(Please note, if you would just like to see the map in action, just scroll down to the bottom of this page)

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Integrating with new technologies

For (flash) designers and developers there are a number of new technologies that give a user access to content and functionality that was not possible a year or two back. Let us take Google or Yahoo for example: developers are given access to a great and increasing number of technological toys to play with: application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate content such as Flickr images and albums, mail, rss feeds or maps.

Anyone, from an individual to a development company, has access to these API components, and more and more people are using them to give their clients (or their portfolios) a WOW-factor.

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Travel blog + map = travel journal

Looking at the possibilities our CMS at work has (remember, its is aspx / .net) there was quite a range of possibilities we could offer our client something for the money. The obvious would have been setting up blog-facilities based on either each tour or destinations, giving registered users who have participated in a tour to blog and comment about it (we would run the user’s access against their booking history to grant write-rights). We could also set up forums and sub-forums to allow users to add comments about trips or destinations.

However, travel blogs or forum posts can be a bit text-laden, and the interaction only consists of a user posting, others reading and (if they like) commenting on posts.

Some time ago we did some Google Earth integration to one of our clients’ website which allowed the client to plot out tours on Google Earth, to give the user the ability to ‘see’ the tour and where it is going and what is going on. The idea of combining a map with a travel blog kinda became obvious.

With both Google Maps and Yahoo Maps giving excellent access to and support for their APIs I wanted to work on integrating a mapping solution with our user and blog-database. In the end I went for Yahoo Maps simply because their development network had a tremendous amount of information and code-snippets to get started with.

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Yahoo maps and ActionScript – (API) key to success?

Once the extension was downloaded and a API key registered I went on integrating the map into the workspace. Just import / drag the component into the stage. You can edit its size simply by entering a new width and height into the properties (by default on the bottom of the stage). Your next step will need to be to check out the parameters. The screenshot on the right (click to enlarge) shows you where you can find the API in Flash CS3 and what parameters you will need to change by default, such as API key, zoom factor or starting location (by default USA map).

Now that we have a working API-integration into flash I tackled the next step: integration of a server-database to read posted points as well as add points to it. (In this example I used PHP / MySQL as this blog is based on a PHP system). You need to set up a database via PHPMyAdmin for example. Here is a sql-database for you to have a look at and use:

Please download the file here: entries.zip

So, what do we have in this database now: We have an ID (unique value for each entry), lat and long, a date (for timestamping entries), a short info and a descritption. These are the fields I will be using for now.

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Writing to and from the Database

The next steps are to read from and enter information to the database through PHP. A simple

$sql = “INSERT INTO entries (id, lat, lon, date, info, description) VALUES (”, ‘$lat’, ‘$lon’, ‘$date’, ‘$info’, ‘$description’)”;

for entering information should do the trick. Which it did. I am not going into very much detail here, as the project is very code-heavy, but if you are interested in knowing more please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

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The first travel journal test

Here is now a first map-test (please note that I have disabled entering notes at this stage):

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Closing comments and future plans for this project

Getting the API to work was a bit tricky, and it took me a couple of hours to figure out what could be done and what didn’t when it came down to connecting to a database.

• User-access: At the moment any user can access the map, as such I will need to work on a login-based system, with each login having their own database table, and maybe a selector at the start to see whose trip journal you would like to visit. This should hopefully not be too difficult *touch wood*.
• Image and video-upload: I will need to write an image upload script that saves the images on the server in the user’s folder and give each one a unique ID just in case. I’ll have to also look into resizing options and video compression if we are not using youtube etc
• Linking: Users should be able to cross-link or link to products / posts / etc
• Moderation & Administration: …and ideally all of the above should be moderated and maintained
• Plus, I want this to work in Adobe AIR later on as well, so I will need to rewrite a bit of the code later!

Lastly, if you enjoyed the article – or just the flash map – then please leave a comment, I would really appreciate it, as it gives me always another boost to write more

[UPDATE: I have updated this project's progress here]