July 7th, 2010 by 
Adrian Parr
Flash Camp Manchester is tomorrow!
It is a FREE event, but you need to register online before you go.
Here is the schedule …
12:00 | Registration opens
13:00 | KEYNOTE - Adobe Systems
13:45 | Break
14:00 | INTRODUCING THE OPEN SOURCE MEDIA FRAMEWORK, Edwin van Rijkom (Adobe Systems OSMF Team)
14:45 | Break
15:00 | DEVELOPING WITH YOUR INNER DESIGNER, Mike Jones (Adobe Systems)
15:45 | Break
16:00 | SET YOUR CODE ON FIRE, Michael Plank (PowerFlasher Solutions)
16:45 | Break
17:00 | THE CURRENT STATE OF MOBILE UX, Anthony & Jerome Ribot (Ribot)
17:45 | Break
18:00 | MOBILE FLASH & AIR 2 FOR ANDROID, Mark Doherty (Adobe Systems)
18:45 | Break
19:00 | SPACE INVADING, Seb Lee-Delisle (Plug-in Media)
19:45 | PRIZE DRAW
20:00 | EVENT MOVES TO PUB!
See you there!
Visit the website for more details.
Posted in Adobe, Conferences and Events, Flash | 
No Comments »
August 6th, 2009 by Adrian Parr
Last week Mike Downey announced that he has taken a new job with the Microsoft Developer & Platform Evangelism team for Silverlight. Those of you that have been in the Flash world for a while will know that Mike was Flash’s senior product manager for a number of years. He has always been a great advocate of Flash, Interactive Media and RIAs. His departure from Adobe at the end of 2008 came as something of a shock and I was sure that we hadn’t seen the last of him. I think Microsoft have made a shrewd move employing the talents of Mike and I wish him well with his new position. The competition from Silverlight can only be a good thing for the Flash Platform and the RIA industry as a whole.
You can follow him on Twitter here.
Posted in Adobe, Flash, Silverlight | 2 Comments »
August 6th, 2009 by Adrian Parr
Over at 1stwebdesigner.com they have put together a list of 50 Flash Websites You Definitely Should See. There are some amazing sites on there to check out and take inspiration from. I’m pleased to see the likes of 2Advanced Studios, Magnetic North and Unit9 on there. I hadn’t come across this site before, but taking a brief look through there are some interesting acticles and great lists of things to inspire and educate.
Posted in Flash, Websites | No Comments »
August 19th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
Here is a round up of some of the most popular ActionScript 3.0 (AS3) libraries out there to use. Let me know if I have missed an important one off.
NOTE: This list was originally for my personal use (that I thought I would share), it is not intended to compete with or replace the list maintained by OSFlash.
Update 29/10/08: Ted Patrick has put together a list of ActionScript Cloud/Service APIs that he going to highlight during his Adobe MAX 2008 keynote presentation.
Update 28/11/08: I have just come across the Actionscript Classes website. A very handy resource.
Update 11/01/09: Rich Tretola has a small list of AS3 Libs on his blog EverythingFlex.
Update 12/01/09: The Flashchemist has compiled a similar list on his blog.
Update 27/02/09: Check out Spark Project which includes the FLARToolkit for Augmented Reality
Update 11/08/09: I just stumbled across this (old) list of projects.
Update 19/12/09: Sean “theflexguy” Moore has just written a blog entry called ‘List of 34 More ActionScript 3.0 APIs‘. This is a follow-up to his original post ‘List of 22 ActionScript 3.0 API’s‘.
Update 22/12/09: “30+ ‘Must Try’ Open Source Actionscript 3 Libraries” and “30 MORE Awesome Open Source AS3 Libraries”
Update 28/01/10: “30 Classes AS3 bem úteis!”
Update 29/01/10: “15 Awesome ActionScript 3 Frameworks To Inspire Your Next Project”
Update 24/02/10: Emanuele Feronato has a good list of Isometric Engines on his blog
Update 19/03/10: Tom Krcha has posted a list of Flash Gaming Engines, plus a few others that were new to me
Update 09/07/10: FluxDb has a huge list of AS3 Libraries
3D Engines
3D Game Engines
2D Game Engines
Isometric Engines
3D Animation Framework
3D Physics Engines
Augmented Reality
Animation Tweening Engines
2D Physics Engines
Security
Audio Libraries
Particle Systems
Data Visualization
Loading Kits
OOP Frameworks
Other APIs and libraries
- facebook-actionscript-api - Actionscript API for the Facebook platform.
http://code.google.com/p/facebook-actionscript-api/
- as3facebooklib - ActionScript 3.0 API for Facebook.
http://code.google.com/p/as3facebooklib/
- Yahoo Maps API
http://developer.yahoo.com/flash/maps/
- corelib - ActionScript 3.0 library for several basic utilities (JPEG Encoding, MD5 Hashing, JSON Serialization).
http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/
- as3flexunitlib - ActionScript 3.0 framework for unit testing.
http://code.google.com/p/as3flexunitlib/
- as3flickrlib - ActionScript 3.0 API for Flickr.
http://code.google.com/p/as3flickrlib/
- as3mapprlib - ActionScript 3.0 API for Mappr.
- http://code.google.com/p/as3mapprlib/
- as3syndicationlib - ActionScript 3.0 library for handling syndication feeds.
http://code.google.com/p/as3syndicationlib/
- as3odeolib - ActionScript 3.0 API for Odeo.
http://code.google.com/p/as3odeolib/
- as3youtubelib - ActionScript 3.0 API for YouTube.
http://code.google.com/p/as3youtubelib/
- as3ebaylib - ActionScript 3.0 API for eBay.
http://code.google.com/p/as3ebaylib/
- as3awss3lib - ActionScript 3.0 library for interacting with Amazon S3.
http://code.google.com/p/as3awss3lib/
- as3soundeditorlib - Actionscript 3.0 library for sound playback, spectrum display, and cue point display.
http://code.google.com/p/as3soundeditorlib/
- as3ds - AS3 Data Structures For Game Developers.
http://code.google.com/p/as3ds/
- as3notificationlib - A notification framework written in AS3 for the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR).
http://code.google.com/p/as3notificationlib/
- as3preferenceslib - An AIR library for storing preferences.
http://code.google.com/p/as3preferenceslib/
- as3nativealertlib - An AIR alert that appears in a native window.
http://code.google.com/p/as3nativealertlib/
- ASCOLLADA - actionscript library for parsing Collada files.
http://code.google.com/p/ascollada/
- FZip - An Actionscript 3 class library to load, modify and create standard ZIP archives.
http://codeazur.com.br/lab/fzip/
- AS3 Zip Library - An ActionScript 3 based library for reading and writing zip files.
http://nochump.com/blog/?p=15
- lastfm-as3 - Actionscript 3.0 API to access the Last.fm web services.
http://code.google.com/p/lastfm-as3/
- MapQuest
http://company.mapquest.com/mqbs/4a.html
- Modest Maps - A display and interaction library for tile-based maps in Flash.
http://www.modestmaps.com/
- as3cards - An ActionScript 3.0 card engine and example games.
http://code.google.com/p/as3cards/
- flexircclient - ActionScript 3 based IRC library.
http://code.google.com/p/flexircclient/
- AsWing - A GUI framework and library that allows programmers to make their flash application(or RIA) UI easily.
http://www.aswing.org/
- as3httpclient - ActionScript 3 utils/classes to extend HTTP/HTTPS APIs in Flash Player 9 (onwards).
http://code.google.com/p/as3httpclient/
- DistortionTweener
http://evolve.reintroducing.com/2007/11/18/as3/as3-distortiontweener/
- ascanvas - An adapter of HTML Canvas and fl.display.Graphics
http://code.google.com/p/ascanvas/
- dopplr-as3 - actionscript 3 code for accessing data from dopplr.com’s api.
http://code.google.com/p/dopplr-as3/
- FC64 - an Open-Source Commodore 64 Emulator.
https://mirror1.cvsdude.com/trac/osflash/fc64/
- Google Maps API
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/flash/intro.html
- gmaps-utility-library-flash - Google Maps API for Flash Utility Library.
http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-utility-library-flash/
- FVNC - VNC Client for Flash Player 9 and above.
http://osflash.org/fvnc
- AS3 Parametric Curve Library
http://www.algorithmist.net/as3pc.html
- AWI - AMFPHP-WordPress Integration.
http://www.klr20mg.com/awi/ (in Spanish)
- as3webservice - Open-source Webservice class implementation in AS3 for Flash CS3 IDE.
http://code.google.com/p/as3webservice/
- as3jayrock - AS3 wrapper for Jayrock communication.
http://code.google.com/p/as3jayrock/
- ASAP Library - A library for the development of maintainable, multi-movie, interactive applications.
http://asaplibrary.org/
- Wordpress XML-RPC API
http://blog.absentdesign.com/?page_id=22
- as3maillib - An ActionScript 3 email library.
http://code.google.com/p/as3maillib/
- AlivePDF - ActionScript 3 Open-Source PDF Library – 100% client side PDF generation.
http://alivepdf.bytearray.org/
- purepdf - Flash/Actionscript library for creating PDF files.
http://code.google.com/p/purepdf/
- SWFAddress - Deep linking for Flash.
http://www.asual.com/swfaddress/
- Flash Camouflage - Skinning framework for AS3.
http://code.google.com/p/flash-camouflage/
- Flexlib - Open Source Flex Component Library.
http://code.google.com/p/flexlib/
- Yahoo Astra Flash Components
http://developer.yahoo.com/flash/astra-flash/
- as3-fullscreen-lib - A small lib used for scalling content to the full size of the browser.
http://code.google.com/p/as3-fullscreen-lib/
- coordy - An Actionscript 3 Layout Framework.
http://code.google.com/p/coordy/
- vectorvision - Vectors in papervision3D.
http://code.google.com/p/vectorvision/
- WiiFlash - Communication between the Wiimote and Flash.
http://code.google.com/p/wiiflash/
- Stats - A simple info box that will help you monitor your code performance.
http://code.google.com/p/mrdoob/wiki/stats
- Flash-Optimizing-Tools - APIs that can help optimize a Flash application
http://github.com/EladElrom/Flash-Optimizing-Tools/
- twitterscript - Twitter API in ActionScript
http://code.google.com/p/twitterscript/
- oauth-as3 - OAuth Actionscript library (useful for Twitter clients).
http://code.google.com/p/oauth-as3/
- OAuth - AS3/Flex OAuth Library (useful for Twitter clients).
http://github.com/srohde/OAuth/tree/master
- NabaztagAPI - Nabaztag API wrapper for Actionscript 3.
http://www.iotashan.com/NabaztagExplorer/
- SWFObject - Standards-friendly method to embed Flash content using one JavaScript file.
http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/
- tweetr - AS3 Twitter API
http://code.google.com/p/tweetr/
- myLib - A powerful open source framework designed for advanced components programming with Adobe Flash AS3 projects.
http://mylib.samystudio.net/
- as3scribdlib - ActionScript 3.0 API for Scribd
http://code.google.com/p/as3scribdlib/
- FDOT - A collection of ActionScript 3 classes that make hard things easier.
http://onflash.org/ted/2009/08/fdot-making-hard-things-easier.php
- xpath-as3 - An XPath implementation for ActionScript 3.0
http://code.google.com/p/xpath-as3/
- DirectorAS3 - Library for SlideShowPro Director
http://www.tuftandco.net/DirectorAS3/
- SWX - The Native Data Format for Adobe Flash
http://code.google.com/p/swx-format/
- openplatform-flash - AS3 client library for The Guardian Open Platform
http://code.google.com/p/openplatform-flash/
- ARTionscript - An AS3 ‘Generative Art’ Framework
http://artionscript.com/
- ffffound-as3-api - FFFFOUND! (unofficial) AS3 API
http://toki-woki.net/blog/p336-ffffound-as3-api
- colormunch - Actionscript (AS3) library for the Adobe Kuler API
http://code.google.com/p/colormunch/
- GpxAS3 - A library for parsing and manipulating GPX (GPS Exchange Format) files.
http://github.com/ryanstewart/GpxAS3/tree
- gaforflash - Google Analytics Tracking For Adobe Flash
http://code.google.com/p/gaforflash/
- minimalcomps - Minimal ActionScript 3.0 code only UI components (Keith Peters)
http://code.google.com/p/minimalcomps/
- HYPE Framework - A collaborative visual framework (Branden Hall and Joshua Davis)
http://hype.joshuadavis.com/
- TempoLite - A small, efficient media library
http://blog.coursevector.com/tempolite
- SoundManager - Makes adding sounds to your projects super simple
http://evolve.reintroducing.com/2008/07/15/news/as3-soundmanager/
- TextFlowPro - Enables you to flow a series of textfields together so that they act as a single text container
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2009/01/editable_multif.html
- AnimatedBitmap - Provides functionality for Bitmap objects that are animated by using a series of still images
http://blog.hexagonstar.com/animatedbitmapclass/
- Active Window Blur
http://blog.onebyonedesign.com/?p=81
- SWFsize - Works with SWFObject and provides control over the swf’s container metrics
http://chargedweb.com/swfsize/
- as3-signals - Signals is a new approach for AS3 events, inspired by C# events and signals/slots in Qt
http://wiki.github.com/robertpenner/as3-signals/
- swffit - Not an AS3 library, but a JavaScript file that adds scrollbars to the browser when smaller than a specified size
http://swffit.millermedeiros.com/
- libscorm - Not an AS3 library, but a JavaScript library for creating SCORM 2004 courses in Flash or HTML
http://code.google.com/p/libscorm/
- pipwerks.SCORM - Adding basic SCORM functionality to an existing Flash file
http://pipwerks.com/2008/04/27/how-to-add-basic-scorm-code-to-a-flash-movie/
- custom-context-menu - Capture right-click events in Flash / Flex (AS 3)
http://code.google.com/p/custom-context-menu/
- Library & LibraryManager - For using external assets in your flash projects.
http://www.tink.ws/blog/library-librarymanager/
- DataStructures - HaXe/AS3 library for game developers
http://code.google.com/p/polygonal/
- miditoflash - Receive midi events in Flash from any midi device through Java and JavaScript
http://code.google.com/p/miditoflash/
- ASBlender - Actionscript 3 library for reading Blender .blend files
http://wiki.github.com/timknip/asblender/
- OpenPyro - An Open Source ActionScript 3 framework built for creating Rich Internet Applications
http://www.openpyro.org/
- TurboSignals - A library implementing the signals and slots design pattern
http://jacksondunstan.com/turbosignals
- evoTinyEngine - Demo scene engine
http://www.simppa.fi/blog/opensource-demo-engine-evotinyengine/
- FlashSURF - SURF (Speeded Up Robust Features) feature extraction library written in Flash using Alchemy
http://code.google.com/p/in-spirit/wiki/FlashSurf
- XML-RPC - Easy way to get Flash to transfer data with an XML-RPC endpoint
http://danielmclaren.net/2007/08/03/xmlrpc-for-actionscript-30-free-library
- as3-rpclib - Actionscript 3 RPC libraries for flash-remoting(amf0), xml-rpc, json-rpc
http://code.google.com/p/as3-rpclib/
- as3swf - Low level Actionscript 3 library to parse, create, modify and publish SWF files.
http://github.com/claus/as3swf
- BrowserCanvas - The World’s Easiest Way to Dynamically Resize Flash
http://www.dncompute.com/blog/2008/06/23/browsercanvas-the-worlds-easiest-way-to-dynamically-resize-flash.html
- Chain - Delayed function calling
http://blog.stroep.nl/2009/11/delayed-function-calling-chain/
- App Analytics - Complete analyrics solution for Adobe AIR applications
http://www.appanalyticshq.com/
- governor - A multithreading script engine
http://code.google.com/p/governor/
- mojocolors - An Actionscript 3 color library inspired by the great Nodebox Colors library
http://code.google.com/p/mojocolors/
- flashdraw3d - A very lightweight 3d drawing API for Flash
http://code.google.com/p/flashdraw3d/
- Sprouts - An open-source, cross-platform project generation and configuration tool
http://projectsprouts.org/
- ZaaIL - 40+ Image format support for Flash
http://www.zaalabs.com/2010/04/introducing-zaail-40-image-format-support-for-flash/
- MouseWheelTrap - A fix for unwanted simultaneous Flash and browser scrolling behaviour in AS3
http://code.google.com/p/mousewheeltrap/
- FLVSlicer - A simple FLV slicer and merger
http://code.google.com/p/flvslicer/
- Fluxus - AS3/Flex library registry similar to Ruby Gems
http://fluxusproject.org/
- EventController - Event Management made easy
http://fla.as/ec/
- as3-jaws - Just Another (AS3) Web Service Client (for .NET web service)
http://code.google.com/p/as3-jaws/
- CJSignals - ActionScript 3.0 Observer Framework (a new approach for ActionScript 3.0 events)
http://code.google.com/p/cjsignals/
- Reflex - A light weight component framework being built for the Flash Platform
http://reflex.io/
- Merapi - A bridge between AIR and Java
http://www.merapiproject.net/
- AS3-P2P-LIB - ActionScript 3 Lib for the new P2P API in Flash Player 10
http://github.com/devboy/AS3-P2P-LIB
- dropbox-as3 - ActionScript 3 Dropbox API
http://code.google.com/p/dropbox-as3/
- TransformManager (AS3) – Interactively Scale/Rotate/Move DisplayObjects (Commerical)
http://www.greensock.com/transformmanageras3/
Posted in AIR, ActionScript 3.0, Augmented Reality, Flash, Flex, Papervision 3D, Tweening | 84 Comments »
July 18th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
This morning I finally got around to watching an interview Colin Moock did with Jim Corbett back at Flash In The Can 2008 in Toronto. Jim is one of the software engineers working at Adobe on the Flash Player. The interview is 50 minutes long and has some interesting insights in to the Flash Player, the history and culture of the team behind it and they discuss current and possible future directions the Flash Player will take.
Watch the video here.
Posted in ActionScript 3.0, Adobe, Flash | No Comments »
March 27th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
I use SWFObject regularly to embed my SWFs in the HTML page. But was not sure how to display alternate SWFs depending on the Flash Player version installed on the end user’s machine. However, I have just come across a blog entry by David Stiller that clearly explains how to do it.
http://www.quip.net/blog/2008/flash/using-swfobject-for-more
Posted in Flash, HTML | No Comments »
February 1st, 2008 by Adrian Parr
Last night was January’s London Flash Platform User Group meeting at the CosmoBar in Clerkenwell. The speakers were Paddy Keane talking about his experience of using PureMVC and Rob Bateman talking about the history of 3D on the web. The event was so popular that Tink had to send an email out to everybody warning that over 120 people had signed up to go, and that places would have to be on a first-come-first-served basis (normally we only get around 40 - 50 people). Anyway, here is a quick bullet point summary of what they covered.
PureMVC (19:00 - 20:00) - Paddy Keane
- Why use a framework?
- gives agility to the project and code
- helps with risk management
- good when features are changing
- Based on Model, View, Controller but with additional Façade
- gives code clarity
- shows your coding intent
- need to have good Development Process
- start with a list of features
- mock-up features and then test
- The best way to get started with PureMVC is to read the Best Practices document and then read it again
The 3rd Way: Handling 3D on the Web ( 20:15 - 21:15 ) - Rob Bateman
Posted in ActionScript 3.0, Conferences and Events, Flash, LFPUG, Papervision 3D | No Comments »
January 30th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
If you are anything like me, then when you need to find your Flash Shared Object (SOL) files, you can never find them on your computer. Well, just as a reminder, they can be found here on a PC …
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Macromedia\
Flash Player\#SharedObjects\<random string>\<domain>\
<path from webserver>\<filename>.sol
and on a Mac they can be found here …
Macintosh HD:Users:<username>:Library:Preferences:Macromedia:
Flash Player:#SharedObjects:<random string>:<domain>:
<path from webserver>\<filename>.sol
I also recently noticed that the path to data saved from Adobe AIR apps is stored here on a PC …
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\
<AIR App Reverse Domain Name>\Local Store\#SharedObjects\
<flashname>.swf\<filename>.sol
and on a Mac they can be found here …
Macintosh HD:Users:<username>:Library:Preferences:
<AIR App Reverse Domain Name>:Local Store:#SharedObjects:
<flashname>.swf\<filename>.sol
Hope this is of some help, and will save you a bit of time trying to find them.
There are also a few useful tools out there that will allow you to check (and modify) the contents of SOL files. Try ASV SOL Viewer and Editor, SolVE: Local Shared Object Viewer/Editor or SOLReader.
Posted in AIR, Flash | No Comments »
January 29th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
Last week O’Reilly launched the InsideRIA website, a portal/blog for Rich Internet Application developers around the world. It looks like it is going to be a great resource and it currently has articles written by respected people such as Colin Moock, Rich Tretola, Tony Hillerson, David Tucker, Tony MacDonell, Andrew Trice, Andre Charland, Jonathan Snook and Raymond Camden.
The also have an InsideRIA Atom feed (which I have added to my Google homepage).
Posted in AIR, ActionScript 3.0, Adobe, Flash, Flex | No Comments »
January 28th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
This Thursday (31st January) there is a London Flash Platform User Group meeting. The speakers lined up are Paddy Keane talking about PureMVC and Rob Bateman talking about 3D in Flash (Away3D, Papervision3D and Sandy). It should be very interesting.
As always, a big ‘thank you’ to Tink for organising the event.
Time: 19:00 - 23:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Venue: CosmoBar, 50-54 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5PS (click for map)
Posted in Conferences and Events, Flash, Papervision 3D | No Comments »
January 28th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
Hooray! I managed to get a ticket to the Colin Moock ActionScript 3.0 training day being ran by Adobe. I’ll be attending the London event on Monday 3rd March 2008. The event is being held at Vinopolis, the famous wine tasting venue (map here). I hope we get some free wine to help us get our heads around the nitty-gritty of AS3. See you there, if you are going as well.
Posted in ActionScript 3.0, Adobe, Conferences and Events, Flash | No Comments »
January 28th, 2008 by Adrian Parr
Back in November 2007 I went down to Brighton for the Flash On The Beach conference. It was a fantastic event (as it was in 2006) and John Davey did a great job of organising the event and getting a wish list of speakers from around the world. Here is a list of the speakers that I managed to catch across the three auditoriums.
Monday 5th November
Tuesday 6th November
Wednesday 7th November
All of these presenters are doing some amazing work and I came away from Brighton really inspired and eager to learn more. Here’s looking forward to Flash On The Beach 2008!
Posted in AIR, Adobe, Conferences and Events, Flash, FlashLite, Flex, Papervision 3D | No Comments »
