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Oh, so you haven’t heard?

The largest ActionScript conference in South East Asia is around the corner! Yes, last year was a total blast that within 2 weeks we already had a sold-out conference! This year’s edition is going to prove to be even more exciting; 2 full days of conference, more speakers, and definitely more seats (500 to be exact) to accommodate the earnest crowd! *yay!*

Oh, so you didn’t know?

1 in 10 registrants stand a chance to win a FDT Pure license! That’s 50 licenses to be given away! FDT is such a powerful ActionScript tool that it has garnered many good testimonies from ActionScript celebrities. You’ll find yourself to be more than just happy if you are one of the lucky winners who walk away with a shiny new FDT Pure!

Oh, so you want to know where to register?

I hear you! Head up to the official registration page! Be wise now; register early for the early bird price.

See you at The ActionScript Conference 2009!

[UPDATE: Thanks to Matt, I've added in OSX paths to the Flash Players.]

For those folks who have upgraded to Adobe Flash CS4 and also installed FDT 3 as your editor, you would have realised that when you create a new Flash project in FDT, there will no longer be a Flash_CS3 language type in the Project Language drop down. It is missing by default, but in this article, I’ll go through with you on how to get those much needed project languages back into your FDT development environment.

Step 1:

In your New Flash Project dialog, click on the “Configure defaults…” link button.

Step 2:

That will lead you to the Core Libraries dialog panel in Preferences, which you can usually access via the menu:
Window > Preferences… > FDT > Core Libraries

First, click on the AS3 Core Libraries tab, and then click on the Add button.

Step 3:

The Core Library dialog is where you will create your new core libraries. Choose Flash CS3 for type, and give your core library a name. In my case I gave it “CS4_FP9″, which stands for “Flash CS4 using Flash Player 9″. Of course, you can give any fancy name that you want. To proceed in choosing a path variable for your core library, click on the Browse button.

Step 4:

Now the Link Libraries dialog will be opened, and it is here where we can choose which library to be used for the path variable. Click on the “New…” button.

Step 5:

This is the final step. In the New Variable dialog, first give a name for your new variable. I chose to use the same convention when naming the core library, which is “CS4_FP9″. Again, it is up to your own fancy in giving it a name. In the Location field, click on the Folder button and browse to:
Windows XP: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\FP9
OSX: /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/FP9

If you are working on Windows Vista or Mac OS, please kindly let me know the path by leaving a comment below. I’ll update this post thereafter. Thanks.

That’s it! You’re done! Well almost if you ask me. We do want to be able to use Flash Player 10 in our projects too right? Click on all the OK buttons but stop when you are back in the Preferences dialog box. From here, repeat Step 2 to 5. The location for the Flash Player 10 swc is in:
Windows XP: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\FP10
OSX: /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/FP10

Done!

After finishing the above, you can now truly click on all the OK buttons to get back to the New Flash Project dialog, and see that you can now target the correct Flash Player while developing with FDT. Happy coding!

There are a few reasons why I will use the Gaia Framework whenever I can; it is fast to development with, versatile enough for a vast variety of tasks, well supported by both the community and the author, and it is constantly updated with new features. Today however, I want to share with you regarding the speed factor of developing with the Gaia Framework.

When I first started out my previous project, Royal Salute Eastern & Oriental Duty Free Promo, I spent less than a day to set up the core structure of the site. By the end of the second day, all the pages were nicely integrated, completed with transitions. Form validations were set up by the third day with the PHP backend, and by the fourth day, URL validation.

You might be wondering what is URL validation at this time, so I’ll just do a quick explanation. Gaia Framework integrates deeplinking, so each section of your website has a nice URL by itself. Trouble comes when the site requires validation, of age or requires logging in, before the user is allowed access into the site. I’ve seen examples of sites that a developer would choose to forsake deeplinking because there might be such a requirement. So yeah, all I want to say at this point is that it is not difficult to implement, especially so with the Gaia Framework.

I have to say that development time was so speedy because the site itself was not complicated; you can take a spin around. However, I can still safely vouch that Gaia Framework will still aid a Flash developer big time even in larger, more complicated projects.

Here are some other screen shots from the website:

I’m always overly obsessed when it comes to placement of text in Flash IDE. If the font is a pixel font, and it does not lie exactly on whole numbers in the x and y axis, then the font will appear blurred. From this habit that I had in handling pixel fonts, it soon spread to all objects that I had on the stage; I would want *everything* to be lying perfectly on whole numbers in both axis.

As you might have guessed, this pixel perfect habit of mine drove me rather mad whenever the rest of the team did not bother about it. I could easily spend hours just perfecting the coordinates. Yes, it’s highly possible more of a disease than a habit. *loL~*

Anyway, as I was playing around Flash IDE today, I found the cure! Snap to Pixels! Why haven’t I explored this in all my years with Flash?!

So if you are suffering from pixelperfectitis as well, here’s your medication.

View -> Snapping -> Snap to Pixels

Ahh… How nice to find a cure…

Yes this is the real deal, and I share it with much excitement!

For those who haven’t heard about Flash&Flex Developer’s Magazine (FFDMag), you might want to get an introduction when I first did a review for their magazine. For the rest, you would have understood intimately how excited I felt when I got to know this news.

Head along towards the free issues section in FFDMag to download all but the latest issues. There are currently 4 issues available for download:

HaXe New Way to Dock

A Breath of Fresh AIR for Desktop Apps

Flash CS 4 New Features

Flash Games Programmer

Happy reading!