Smashed Apples by Brian Holmes

Amazon Web Services SimpleDB Survey

If you feel like I do about Amazon Web Service’s SimpleDB, that’s it’s not “Simple” at all, you should fill out the this survey and let the SimpleDB guys know how you feel. … Er. I guess you don’t have to feel like I do at all. If you feel like SimpleDB is great, let them know that as well.. 

Tags: SimpleDB, Amazon+Web+Services

3D Searching via Flex

I came across a few search engines that have deployed flex interfaces. You can find them searchme and brynsbrain.   Looks like searchme is using Doug McCune’s CoverFlow component. Is that verifiable? I really like the idea of using a flex interface to improve searching results. I guess it’s time to start looking into the google search api.

 

Tags: search, google+search+api

Fort Collins Flex User Group ( fortfug.com )

Just wanted to put a note out there that if you live in Northern Colorado ( Longmont to Cheyenne, or even Denver) and you’re interested in flex/air/rich Internet technologies I’ve started the Fort Collins Flex User Group. Our first meeting will be on May 6^th in old town. Our site will be located at http://www.fortfug.com. You can sign up for the group at http://groups.google.com/group/fortfug?hl=en or you can follow our calendar of events at http://calendar.fortfug.com.

Email me directly if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Brian..

Tags: Fort+Collins, Flex+User+Group

Amazon Service Health Dashboard

Monitor AWS services from your browser. You can find more info here. There’s even rss feeds for those of us that are addicted to rss feeds.

Tags: cloud+services, amazon+web+services, Service+Health

Bedlam Break

Check out the World From Your Window over at The Atlantic website. It’s a great way to visit the world and waste your time or break the bedlam. Oh, and it was obviously built in flash or flex.  The should’ve used degrafa.

My Struct() Custom Data Type that Binds

I’ve wanted to have a struct (hashtable) class that I can use for some time that also bind to controls like List, DataGrid, etc… Dictionary works fine, it just didn’t update the bindings. I just hadn’t figured out how to make sure how to make sure it’s dispatching events.  But I finally got around to creating a class that behaves more like a cold fusion struct that I can bind to. You can’t bind to it using brackets, but you can read values by key and set values by key. To bind by key there’s a method you have to go through.  You can get the class here

Struct.as (1 KB)

Here’s a brief run down of use cases:

Create a new Struct

[Bindable]

public var struct : Struct = new Struct();

Set a value 

struct[key] = value or struct.addByKey(key,value);

Read a value

struct[key] or struct.getByKey(key);

Bind to a value by key

{ struct.getByKey(key) }

Tags: Struct, Action+Script+3.0, Custom+Data+Type

Global classes and static global functions sans import

Global Classes

To define a global class simply create your class at the root of your project within the default package as follows:

package

{

public class MySweetNewType

{

}

}

 

 

No more importing. Although this is discouraged by flex builder there are some very legitimate reasons why you might want to have a global class defined that is automatically imported into everything. Utility classes, user classes, permission classes, custom data types are some that come to mind. My rule of thumb on this is that the frequency of use justifies the means. If I find I'm using a class over and over again and I have to constantly import it, I put it in the default package and refactor.

But if you’re using a class over and over again, it’s time to think about a reusable Library. Just drop your class at the root of your library and reference the project and it works without importing as well.

 

Global Function

You can’t define a global function that rests at the root of the package and automatically gets imported (that works, it shows up in code hinting tho). But you can define a class with a static function that gets you close enough. If you get creative with your class name ( remember class name and file name have to be the same ) you can get close enough to a global function as is necessary. An example is below. this allows you to call echo with the simple syntax of $.echo(‘hello’). This works good for functions you find very repetitive. Using the dollar sign as my class name makes it very apparent that it’s not just any old function. I’m not sure if this has any side effects so if anyone knows or finds out let me know. So far it’ has passed the smell test.

 

package

{

public class $

{

public static function echo(phrase:String):String

{

trace(phrase);

return phrase;

}

}

}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Action+Script+3.0, Flex

PyAMF 0.3 released

The guys at PyAMF released version 0.3. It fixes some of the hacks i hacked out to get up and running with Google App Engine. You can read more about it over at their blog. Also, here’s their tutorial for getting  setup.

Tags: PyAMF, Google+App+Engine, Cloud+Services

The Cloud Moves Fast

Hope you didn’t blink when Google released App Engine. You might’ve missed that they just released version 1.0.1. You can get the new download at the google code page. Looks like (at least on windows) you have to uninstall the previous version.

The few issues fixed can be found here and here.

It’s good to know that the code base is actively being developed. Also, it’s encouraging developers to get involved with the project. Us developers really don’t have much of an excuse anymore. If you want to get your bugs fixed you better create an issue and star it.

 

 

Tags: Google+App+Engine

Bedlam Break

I don’t watch the Simpsons for old times sake, but I still laugh at things like these. Call me old fashioned or don’t call me at all.