IDEFactory... currently in Beta… soon in production…

When using Adobe Flex to build enterprise scale systems, the limitations of Flex Builder becomes not only very apparent, but also a limitation for productivity and flexibility (note the irony :-) )

However, a group of talented developers have started on the quest to deliver architectural features to us inside Flex Builder… fortunately they have decided NOT to change the base, but build it as a plug-in to Eclipse / Flex Builder.

IDEFactory… looking really good sofar (however not in this picture :-) )…

http://www.idefactory.com/

.NET Reflector... no more Lutz Roeder

It appears that Luts Roeder have decided to leave development and maintenance of .NET reflector...

If you have ever used Reflector, you probably already know how cool a tool it is...
Creator and Inventor has left it to Red Gate to continue the further development...

Check it out...
http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-future-of-reflector-/

"Is it Flex ?" Online Service (by James Ward)

James Ward created an online service some time ago to test if a SWF is created with the Flex compiler.
It can come on quite handy :-)

Check it out...
http://www.jamesward.com/is_it_flex/

Synergy working with Microsoft Windows Vista

There has been a lot of discussion about getting the 2 year old release of Synergy, which at the moment is the latest release, to work on Vista OS. The very old release could be indicating that there would likely be problems getting the darn thing to work with Windows "Trouplemaker" Vista.
However, due to the low-tech techniques used by Synergy (TCP over IP) there are no problems if you run the Synergy process with local administrator privileges.

This is good news, because at current Synergy is still the only one to support all platforms (Some setup issues with Leopard which are solvable).

However, despite the latest release being from 2006, it appears that the lead-dev behind the application is planning a new release during 2008.

Check it out if you are interested in a Software based KVM switch which works with any machine supporting TCP over IP.

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

Adobe Flex Resources Tool Suite

I plan to implement a small set of tools to facilitate handling of resource files in Adobe Flex.

I will address the following objectives:

1. objective
It must allow editorial staff to update and manage resources.
* Client should be implemented in AIR / Flex.
* Server should be implemented in .NET

2. objective
It must allow editorial staff to compile resources to their final output.
* Should use the Flex SDK compilers based on Java.

3. objective
It must allow editorial staff to deploy updated resources.
* Should be possible to do 24/7 without causing downtime.

4. objective
It could facilitate that editorial and technical staff can work in parallel, respectively translating and updating resources to their initial values by the editorial staff and creating the points in the application where each resource will be used by the technical staff.
* Points still needs to be determined.

Xoopit turns your Gmail into a multimedia heaven

Firefox extension Xoopit turns Gmail into a robust, searchable media management tool for every piece of media that comes through your inbox. By indexing every attachment as well as every link to photos and videos from sites like Flickr, Picasa and YouTube, Xoopit allows you to easily search for and find any picture or video and view it from directly inside Gmail.

Imagine this: You're looking for a YouTube video that you were sent a link to recently, but you really don't know where to begin your search. With Xoopit installed, you can just click the Videos tab and you'll see this:



Check it out...
http://www.xoopit.com/

HTML Code Formatter

Mike Chambers have created a simple, yet extremely cool app.
It's a service which formats code into HTML on Google Add Engine.

Excellent... :)

Check it out...
http://xzfv.appspot.com/s/format.html

ItDepends : A tool for visually exploring the dependencies between classes and packages in an Adobe Flex application

Currently I am converting an existing application with about 3.500+ classes to use RSL's. It's proven to be rather difficult because we are using a lot of different libraries and modules with quite a number of dependencies between libraries. Despite no libraries having direct circular dependency, there are some indirect dependency-circles in the system.

When moving to a RSL-based architecture it becomes extremely important to understand the class-definitions included in each library and modules.. and more importantly to know exactly when they are both loaded, needed and used.

ItDepends is a tool for visually exploring the dependencies between classes and packages in an Adobe Flex application.
It's a great aid when undertaking my task, but even during the normal development of modular applications it can be valuable to use it when considering how to break up the application to increase performance as well as general system quality.



Check it out...
http://code.google.com/p/it-depends/

Thunderbolt : A logger extension for ActionScript 2 and 3

ThunderBolt is a logger extension for ActionScript 2 and 3 as well as Flex 2 and 3 applications based on the Firebug add-on for Firefox.





It looks very promising, and knowing Jens Krause's ordinary high level of ingenuity and as well as quality, I am willing to give it a shot.

Features:

* Detailed information (class, file, line number, time, frame)
* Log levels (info, warning, error, fatal)
* Interactive tree view for complex object structures
* Profiling (time spend during code execution)
* Collapsible grouped output
* Filter log by classes and packages
* Interactive console (inspect and modify object on runtime)
* Log levels: INFO, WARN, ERROR, DEBUG (FATAL, ALL)
* Tree view for complex object structures such as class identifier and its properties
* Custom LogTarget based on Flex Logging API including filters
* memory snapshot
* stop logging flag
* SWC components for logging using Flex 2/3 or Flash CS3

Power Designer 15 : Now in Beta

I'm a great fan of system modelling, and therefore I am a great fan of a good system modeling tool.
Among the best imho. is PowerDesigner from Sybase and now its out in its most recent and 15th edition which is out there available in the first public Beta.

Check it out:
http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1056477

Adobe "Thermo"

Both before and after Adobe MAX Europe 2007 we have discussed which role Thermo is going to play in the integration between the graphics department and the development department.
To clarify a couple of things Narciso Jaramillo has posted some of his thoughts on his blog which are worth reading if interested in the emergence of Thermo.

Check it out:
http://www.rictus.com/muchado/2007/10/07/thoughts-on-thermo/

Note:
Narciso is part of the Adobe Flex Team.

Adobe Flex Builder : TODO/FIXME plugin

Among the many many cool things I have taken with me from the Adobe MAX Europe 2007, is the knowledge of Dirk Eismann who has been a Macromedia Fellow since 1996.

The first of what I expect is going to be many posts relating to this very sharp and super cool guy is a TODO/FIXME plugin he has implemented for the Eclipse-based Adobe Flex Builder.

Check it out:
http://www.richinternet.de/blog/index.cfm?entry=911D4B57-0F0D-5A73-AF6F4D4D04099757

Many thanx to Dirk for sharing this very cool plugin with us, the community...

Adobe "Thermo"

Adobe's upcoming new design tool, codenamed "Thermo" enables designers and developers to create working application prototypes, design application transitions/motion, and transform static UI mockups into declarative MXML source.

Adobe Thermo:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Thermo

Adobe Flex Builder 3.0 B2 now here

In the new and inspired effort from Adobe to be more extrovert about their development efforts, especially towards the RIA development community to which I suppose I belong, Adbobe has now released the latest Beta version of the Flex Builder both as standalone application as well as the Eclipse plugin.

According to Adobe the changes in this release are primarily changes based on feedback from the development community... its nice to see that the effort put into the early-release program by the development community is being rewarded.

I have been using the B1 edition since it was released and I have had only minor instances of mishaps and no critical losses nor unintended alterations of data, so I don't hesitate to use the B2 as my primary development environment. If I encounter any issues I will post them here as well as in the Adobe-JIRA.

Link to the latest edition of the Adobe Flex Builder:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder3/

Subversion integration for Microsoft Visual Studio

VisualSVN provides simple way to manage changes to source code inside Visual Studio using Subversion.
I have installed it now and is using it for the next 30 days which is the duration of the trial version.
Sofar have all the functionality been flawless, but I suppose its not a surprise as its actually just a integration point to the Tortoise I already had installed. This also means that we still get to use some of the beautyfull windows from the Tortoise client.

I have been frustrated so many times that I could not manage my SVN files so this is a really nice tool to have...
However, I still have not found the DELETE button within VS, so I am wondering if I cant delete files from within VS, and then I must say that I am hesitant in embracing it to much... however, sofar it beats the good old Tortoise by many measures, so I will continue to use it throughout the trial period...

Check it out... http://www.visualsvn.com/