Compiled code is bliss

In the past couple of days I've working on updating some functionality in one of our legacy apps at work. The app consists of many JSP pages and after making making one must considered minor changes, the Javascript on the page failed to function as it should. I keep getting an error stating that a hidden form field was no longer available. I was using Firebug in hopes of finding the issue and then resorted to looking thru all the HTML with my eyes and couldn't find any missing tags or anything of the sort. Also doing a "view source" was clearly showing me that the hidden form field was indeed there. So what was wrong?

After looking at the code I changed, I noticed that my IFRAME tag was not being closed with a corresponding IFRAME tag. And that is what cause the Javascript error. Of course nothing told me this was the case, so lost a couple hours of development trying to the root cause of my problem.

Needless to say in Flex this would have never happened. In Flex Builder, if I would have forgotten a closing tag in some MXML file the editor would have shown it to me right away and I would have corrected it immediately. And for those using only the command line Flex compiler, the same would have happened, the compilation would have failed and the appropriate error message displayed with the exact line number.

Needless to say compiled code is a bliss :)

Also, the amount of Java code written to populate HTML Comboboxes is crazy, long live Flex and its data-driven controls, where simple data-binding does wonders. Fewer lines of code, less error prone and thus better productivity.

DataGrid Cell Focus

If you want to put the cursor in a specific cell of an editable DataGrid so the user can begin editing right away, then here is the sample code you need:

emails.editedItemPosition = {rowIndex: 1, columnIndex: 1};

Enjoy :)

Flex Effects

Found this site that has very interesting effects that can be a very effective use of transitions within an application. Right-click to view the source and download it for use in your own applications.

MAX Day 2: Quake in FP, client side data services and Flex for Visual Studio

Just sat in the Tuesday keynote and there have been numerous interesting info to come out. Here they are in no particuliar order:

• Project Alchemy: is a toolset that allows you to convert C/C++ code to AS3 and then run in Flash Player or AIR (they showed C encryption library, Quake and Mario bros running!)
• Coldfusion Bolt: an eclipse based IDE for next version of ColdFusion (codenamed Centaur)
• Flex Builder 4: you can easily auto connect to server-side data, includes a network monitor and finally has client side data services (commit/rollback functionality)
• Visual Studio 2008: now supports Flex development (no details)...also native AMF support in .NET is coming

Thermo now Flash Catalyst

The product known up to this point as Thermo, the designer centric tool that generates Flex code, now has the official name of Flash Catalyst. You can view some information about it at the Adobe labs and a beta will be available sometime next year. It still has a way to go, but it looks very promising. They were actually handing out a preview build at one of the sessions here at MAX, for MAC only however.

AIR Unleashed available at MAX Store

The book I helped co-write "AIR Unleashed" is available at MAX Store for those that are at the conference, so I obviously recommend you checking it out :) We did the book signing today right in front of the store, but wasn't able to blog about it until now due to the wireless connection issues!

MAX 2008 just around the corner

Yup, only 6 days left till MAX 2008 North America starts and I am excited! There are still some spaces left, so those of you still thinking about it, don't waste anymore time, go to the MAX site and register now! For those that have never been before, you will definitely learn something you didn't know from the various sessions; the General Sessions offer exciting sneak peaks into the future of Adobe products and recently they posted the list of Bird of a Feather (BoF) sessions. The BoF sessions are were you get a chance to meet the Flex and AIR teams and much more :)

Also, the MAX 2008 site now contains a list of the MAX Awards finalists (I had the honor of being one back in 2004) and althought I'll wait till the conference to see them in action, I found this preview of one of them, the Car Diagnostic AIR application, pretty cool.

Enjoy!