Found this excellent application of AJAX. It’s an AJAX MySQL Designer application. It has intuitive design tools; comprehensive types and allows import/export of your designs for MySQL as well as XML generation and SQL generation.
well done.
Web2.0 is the common name for the ‘next generation’ of web-based products, services and businesses that leverage the platform independence and ubiquity of the Internet. Some would put more restriction on the definition referring to browser plug-ins like Macromedia Flash or specific web technologies like Ajax, but Web 2.0 is a concept that is independent of the technology it is built upon the same way that e-commerce is not a Java, PHP or Ruby dependant product.
If you’re looking for the leading edge of Internet programming, think about Web 2.0 products and services.
ProgrammableWeb.com has (beta) list of Web2.0 applications you can use right now.
Still interested in Web2.0? You’ll want to check out the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference
Like Flickr.com, you can create a free profile and upload media. In this case it’s short video clips instead of images. Like flickr, they use flash to display the media, making it more difficult to copy off of their site. They also include features like links, and RSS feeds.
Simple, straight forward Flash movie player interface is a major plus.
For example,
office sports
extreme 747 landing
Links like this make me wonder how long they can go without a lawsuit…
Family Guy Season 4, episode 8
A detailed list of new functionality that will ship with Flash 8 including BitMap API, Filter API, Text Rendering, Post Processing and External API.
link - flashmagazine.com
Update your operating system, Flash 8 is not going to support Windows 95, NT or classic Macintosh.
Tons of Macromedia Flash 8 and Studio 8 articles.
link - casario.blogs.com
Check out Ripple - a Framework designed to help structure your Flash site so that it may be deep linked and indexed by search engines.
Developing in Actionscript? Don’t do it in Flash. Try the MTASC plug-in for Eclipse
Find other Open Source Flash projects at OSFlash.org.
thanks peterjoel.com
As expected, Macromedia Studio 8 was announced today.
Macromedia employees are already writing about how to make use of its improvements.
Macromedia working on the next generation actionscript editor codenamed Zorn. They’re asking for your ideas. I’ve put in my 2 cents. You should to.
In my spare time I’ve been working on a project for PolymerCode. I’ve been building a Rich Internet Application in Flash MX 2004 with ActionScript 2.0. I’ll post some more details about it when it’s closer to completion.
In the first weeks of development I’ve already encountered a number of shortcomings of the ActionScript 2.0 API. One thing that I’ve found annoying is the richness of the designer tools available, compared to the tools available via the ActionScript API. For example, to draw a dashed line with the drawing tools, you simply draw a line, and set the line type to dashed. In ActionScript there is the MovieClip.lineTo() which does not support dashed line types.
Convinced there was a better solution, I asked the all-knowing Google the way to enlightenment. Lucky for me, someone wrote a solution. Ric Ewing wrote Advanced drawing methods in Macromedia Flash MX. Unfortunately, he and his colleagues at Macromedia wrote the solutions back in 2002, in ActionScript 1.0. To use it I’ve had to update it to ActionScript 2.0. Much of the code is the same, with only a couple of tweaks.
Since Ric offered up this code for use, I think it’s only right that I do the same. I have provided the code in two flavours. One is in the form of a helper class that any AS2.0 class can call to draw a shape on any MovieClip. The second is an extension to the MovieClip class. All of the examples below use the helper class. To use the MovieClip implementation simply subclass it, and write whatever code you need. The attach it to am item in your library selecting ‘linkage’ then checking ‘Export for ActionScript’, and typing your class into the “AS 2.0 Class” text box. I’ll post an example application of this implementation soon.
I offer the following code without warranty explicit or implied. They are presented as is, and in the words of Ric Ewing,
“Some are useful, others whimsical, but all of them are free to use as you see fit. They are free of charge or obligation. I have endeavoured to make these methods robust and useful, however I can make no guarantees about their suitability to your specific needs. I similarly make no guarantees that they are bug or problem free”
Feel free to download the source code for all the examples below.
You will need the latest Macromedia Flash Player to view the demos below.
Download it now
The other day I was surfing around for a Java API when I came upon an interesting paper written by Donald Gordon - a former(?) student of Victoria University of Wellington. Donald wrote the paper as partial requirements for graduating Computer Science with honours.
A Framework for Lightweight Web-based Visual Applications [pdf] takes an interesting approach to the development of rich internet applications. Like the Java Server Faces specification, it controls very complex, dynamic user interfaces entirely on the server. In theory this reduces the complexity providing multibrowser support, and does not require the user to download or install any plugins. By eliminating the need for plugins, you eliminate having to worry about plugin versioning issues or programming API limitations that authors of applications written in Flash or Java Applets have to consider.
Sadly, all I could find is this paper. I haven’t found any other documentation, nor have I been able to find any downloadable implementations or even examples. I think that technology like this has great potential. I hope to see more of it soon.
The ServerSide (TSS) has a couple of posts on using AJAX.
For those of us new to AJAX - the first post links to a great step-by-step AJAX example. In the example, link descriptions are loaded via AJAX on mouse over.
The example itself may not be a good idea from a web design or search engine optimization perspective. Regardless, it is a great starting point for beginners to build a working model.
For more advanced AJAX programmers, TSS has another post linking to a whitepaper from BackBase. [pdf] Mostly promotional material that I think may provide inspiration.
Open Source News
It’s raining code (Hallelujah?) - why open source is good for CIOs.
On a related note - Sun VP of technology Jonathan Swartz recently blasted the GPL. Slashdot has a good discussion regarding Jonathan’s point of view.
New Sites of Interest
O’Reilly launched Code Zoo a neat, new code repository/search engine.
Asynchronous browser communication
Using XML and JavaScript. It’s the same technology makes Gmail so slick - AJAX + Struts online how-to tutorial < drool />
Pure Java Servlet implementation example without Struts.
Rapid Web Development/Prototyping
Lately there has been a some talk about Rapid Web App development/prototyping using Ruby and Rails - Ruby+Rails vs Java+Spring+Hibernate analysis test - the results are all red.
Web Design
Javascript events in Flash - now for Mac
Web Statistics
The problem: many web stats programs use cookies to identify returning users but a large number of people regularly delete their cookies. Want a ‘better’ way? use flash to track return visitors
Content Management
CMS interoperability - talks about the lack of standard, and a little on the direction the community is going.
One the lighter side…
Sur-real life Rocky Balboa. It’s amazing what some people will get away with because they look crazy.
Applying mathematics to sports - How to determine the true NBA MVP?
- The true MVP is the player that adds most value to their team in the category that has the most meaning - Wins.
