Sönke Rohde » Flash

Width Problem with Firefox

Sönke — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:26:36 +0000

Recently I ran into a problem that I had to build a Flash movie which should fit the browser window meaning the Flash movie is embedded with 100%x100%.
The problem I had is that even if I resized the browser window to something like 400×400 the stage.width property still showed 662. This caused that the content layout was wrong because it should take a width of 400 but used 662.

I investigated a bit more and it came out that this is caused by my Firefox browser where I tested the content. When I tested with Safari the minimal width my stage could get was 392 pixel. So WTF is happening here?

Then I tried to disable all Firefox toolbars and voilá, it worked like expected. Without any toolbar my flash content resized correctly to the actual size of the browser window.

Conclusion: Firefox with toolbars enabled prevents that the Flashplayer stage gets below a specific width depending on the stuff you have in your toolbar.
If you want to test small width Flash content which is embedded with 100%x100% be sure to disable all Firefox toolbars.

You can easily test it with this code for Flex:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute"
	resize="resizeHandler(event)">
 
	<mx:Script>
		[CDATA[
 
			private function resizeHandler(e:Event):void
			{
				if(stage != null)
				{
					trace("stage width " + stage.width);
				}
			}
 
		]]>
	mx:Script>
 
mx:Application>

Multitouch for Telekom

Sönke — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:16:53 +0000

My dear friend Jörg worked with foresee on a multitouch application for German Telekom and it went live in their store in Berlin – Mitte beginning of October. The client programming was done with Flash and Flex. I did not see it live but the video looks awesome! Congratulations!

Search SWF – Missing Link

Sönke — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:30:45 +0000

One of the weakness of Flash was the fact that search engines did not index SWF very well. This “missing link” was that indexing SWF was not easily possible. In the past only static textand links were indexed but to be honest – no serious Flash application works with static content. The problem was how to access the dynamic content because all Flash apps are coded differently and use trillions of different techniques to load external data. So the only one who can access all parts of a SWF is the Flash Player itself. For that reason Adobe developed a special headless version which runs on the server.

Mark Anders describes it like this:

“So what we’ve done is to enable the search engines to actually run the app just as an end user would. They can not only run it and see the information that’s displayed, including data dynamically loaded from the network, but can interact with it as well, pressing on buttons and links to interact with the app and explore all of is content.

To enable this we have created a special version of the Flash player that is designed to run on the server as part of the indexing process. As the code executes, there are special API that notify the search engine when something changes and that allow inspection of the textual and other data that would be displayed to the user.

There are other API that enumerate links and allow the indexer to instruct the player to simulate a “click” on various objects that are displayed. In this way, the indexer can navigate the running app.”

This new technology was developed together search industry leaders Google and Yahoo! and Google is rolling out this today! The nice thing is that SWFs do not have to be changed so all existing SWFs are ready to be indexed.

Justin Everett-Church:

“All of this is going on now! Google is already in progress with spidering SWF content through the new system. Over the next weeks and months, you should see some pretty significant impact on the indicies as SWF content is made a first-class citizen for searchability”

Flex UG Hamburg with FC64 – Notes

Sönke — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:34:54 +0000

On Friday we had our Flex Usergroup Hamburg meeting in our Adobe office. Our speaker Claus Wahlers gave us a look behind the scenes aka source of FC64 which he developed together with Darron Schall. Claus started with some “basics” about how the C64 works to get an idea about what has to be emulated. After that he showed us parts of the code and explained the architecture behind which is divided into the CPU, MemoryManager and the Renderer which besides trillion other things does the final setPixel32.

All in all rocket science and Claus could only explain the tip of the iceberg but we got an impression what it means to build an emulator. Further he mentioned that Ralph Hauwert (one of the guys behind Papervision3D) is currently working on a Flash Player 10 version. This should open new opportunities since the new Vector class (typed Arrays) should be a big performance boost and the new sound features could open the door for sound emulation of the SID chip. For more infos and the source check the OSFlash FC64 site.

Our next usergroup meeting will already be in two weeks. David Sowerby from Straker Interactive will show us ZoomFlex which claims to fasten up Flex development and generates code which is based on Cairngorm and the Universal Mind Cairngorm extension. Check the german FlexUG Hamburg blog for more details.

FFK08 Notes

Sönke — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:44:28 +0000

Last week I visited the Flashforum Konferenz. It was really nice to meet old and new guys and I got some faces to names I read a lot. Sascha Wolter and Marc Thiele did an awesome job to provide such a nice conference – thanks!

Above Sascha and Marc announced Serge Jespers who is Adobe Platform Evangelist and did the keynote. Besides many other things he demoed Pacifica which previously only was showed on MAX live. The Pacifica team now has a blog so be sure to subscribe. Pacifica is

“A Flash-based communications platform that allows developers to build highly customized, branded text and voice applications.”

All sessions I visited were pretty cool. See ya next year!

Flash Player 10 Links

Sönke — Mon, 19 May 2008 10:25:23 +0000

The Flash Player 10 public beta release was blogged around the web and I thought I post a few links a found during the last days:

Targeting Flash Player 10 Beta with Flex SDK 3.0.x
Video Tutorial on Compiling for Flash Player 10 and from today three more Video Tutorials by Lee Brimelow
Tinic Uro from the Flash Player team makes noise 1, 2, 3 and explains what GPU acceleration means
RTMFP in Flash Player 10 beta
Astro Dynamic Sound
Flash Player 10 Drawing API
Peer to peer, Speex and UDP
Random Thoughts on Vectors and samplesCallbackData

Have fun!

Flash Player 10 beta on Adobe Labs

Sönke — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:50:45 +0000

The first public beta of the Flash Player 10 code-named “Astro” is on Adobe Labs. Be sure to check out Pixel Bender (formerly known as Hydra) to create custom filters and effects. When you have installed the beta visit the demo site to get some impressions.

Ryan Stewart and InsideRIA posted nice summaries so far.

Adobe Open Screen Project

Sönke — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:40:34 +0000

Adobe and Industry Leaders Establish Open Screen Project. Have a look at the new OSP website and listen to CTO Kevin Lynch.

“The Open Screen Project is dedicated to driving consistent rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. The Open Screen Project is supported by technology leaders, including Adobe, ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to deliver rich Web and video experiences, live and on-demand across a variety of devices.”

Since today the formats SWF 9, FLV and AMF Specs are open and free from license restrictions.

It is all about leveraging Flash and AIR to provide a consistent runtime environment cross-platform and across devices and consumer electronics.

Now is this cool news? I am sure all Flash/Flex/AIR developers open up a beer! I will do now

Some more links:

Hobnox Audiotool now open

Sönke — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:38:19 +0000

Andé Michelle anounced that you can now try out the Hobnox Audiotool withouth a beta invitation or registration.

“Here it is, it’ll supply you with an emulator of some famous little machines, used by DJs, producers and bands all over the planet. Right now, we can equip you with a rebuilt Roland TR-808, TR-909, TB-303 and some floorboards. Interested? Give it a try!”

I tried it out during the beta and really liked the app which works very intuitively as you can simple link the boards and effects by drag-n-drop the cable between them.

Yahoo rejects Microsoft offer and comes up with new Flash/Flex Stuff

Sönke — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:57:42 +0000

You must have heard that Yahoo rejects the Microsoft offer due to undervalue and Microsoft renews bit.

Besides that Yahoo released nice things this week: The first was the long expected Yahoo! Maps AS3 Components and second a very nice 3D Flex appliation called Yahoo! NewsGlobe (btw: I like camelcase brands).

It’s nice to see Yahoo’s involvement in the Flash Platform. Check more on there Flash Developer Center.