IFBIN - Great Software By Example

Peter contributed this example using the flash.display.BitmapData.floodFill method. The example provides a Bitmap based coloring book. The 'floodFill' method works dynamically with BitmapData in filling in a color of similar adjacent pixels.


This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Darron has made some impressive progress on FlashVNC, a pure AS3/AVM2 VNC client. Flash VNC will allow a developer to run legacy applications within Flash Player 8.5. It also allows for seamless screen sharing and control with just Flash Player 8.5.



You can read allot more about FlashVNC at Darron's Blog. Implementing the RFB protocol within Flex Builder 2 took a mountain of work. There were many milestones that Darron has had to work through. One of the biggest hurdles was implementing a DES encryption class and managing all the incoming and outgoing binary messages.

The roadmap for FlashVNC has several stages of development. FlashVNC will be a Flex 2 component allowing a developer to add VNC support into Flex easily. Something like so:

<ifbin:FlashVNC server="vnc.xbe.ifbin.com:1923"/>
or
<ifbin:FlashVNCView server="vnc.xbe.ifbin.com:1923"/>

We are working on a customized VNC server to allow process isolation on a server. This allows you to serve a single application instance running on the server for FlashVNC. FlashVNC internally implements a BitmapData instance allowing a developer to customize how the screen is displayed. Providing a PIP preview of a remote desktop is completely possible along with viewing several FlashVNC components concurrently.

I need to applaud Darron for his work on FlashVNC. Darron is one of the best developers I have worked with, he doesn't see problems, he sees solutions. It is an honor to have him working with IFBIN as an author partner and his work stands on its own.

This example is available with full source and documentation within Flex® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Guy contributed this example for Free Friday. The example uses perlinNoise and the displacement map filter applied to a movieclip containing a flag graphic to create the effect of a flag blowing in the wind.



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

ASProject Basic is a simple AS3 ActionScript Project that covers a wide range of new features in AVM2/AS3. The example covers custom Sprite Classes, Graphics API, DOM Events for enterFrame, mouseDown, resize, and compiler settings.





First off this example is simple on purpose. It is intended to help you understand the essential basics in using AS3 and ActionScript Project for creating games, components, and applications. ASProject is a type of project in Flex 2 that provides low level access to the ASC AS3 compiler built into Flex Builder 2.

In the example there are 3 Box instances created using the Graphics API (Drawing API in AVM1) that are added to the DisplayList using addChild. Each Box has some events that control the spinning of the red box as follows:

mouseDown on Blue Box makes the RedBox spin faster/positive.
mouseDown on Green Box makes the RedBox spin slower/negative.
mouseDown on Red Box reverses the direction that it is spinning.

Also if you view the example within its own window, you will see that it is positioned dynamically based on the 'resize' event. I also added in some compiler settings into the example that allow modification of the SWF background color, frame rate, and swf default size.

This example is available with full source and documentation within Flex® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Guy contributed this example using flash.display.BitmapData.pixelDissolve method and a custom slider. The example dissolves two BitmapData instances together dynamically at runtime using a custom slider control. Great work Guy!



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

ZornChat is a simple chat application build using Flex2/AS3/AVM2 and the IFBIN Comet AMF Server. This example includes full Flex 2 source code for the Zorn Chat client MXML application. It uses flash.net.Socket to send Binary AMF packets to the IFBIN Comet Server.




Requires Flash Player 8.5 within the Flex
Zorn Chat and Comet AMF Example

IFBIN will be shipping other examples using Comet within Flex By Example. The Zorn Chat client is showcased within Macromedia Labs.

More to come.

Ted ;)

Starting today Flex® By Example is available for pre-purchase. The pre-purchase subscription includes 18 months of top quality examples for Flex 1.5 and Flex 2.0.

Until the official 'Flex By Example' Launch at Spark Europe, IFBIN is offering an 18 month subscription to 'Flex By Example' for the price of our regular 12 month subscription at $250.00 per developer. Early adopters receive an additional 6 months for purchasing 'Flex By Example' before Nov. 17. UI access to 'Flex By Example' will be enabled later this week and allow installation access to Flex examples. We have some amazing content in development for 'Flex By Example' and considering all the new stuff in AS3 and AVM2 getting the 6 additional months will be well worth it.

We look forward to supporting you as customer.

Welcome to Flash® By Example!

Regards,

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder/CEO

We added 2 new payment options today for purchasing IFBIN products. You can now purchase IFBIN products in over 30 currencies at 2CheckOut.com or you can pay by check via ACH at PayByCheck.com.

IFBIN Purchase Options

We selected these top quality services because they can provide better security and service than IFBIN, or most companies for that matter. We are excellent at making examples but Paypal, 2CheckOut and PayByCheck are excellent at payment processing and security. As IFBIN is never in possession of your payment details, we never expose you to undo security risk of information theft or fraud. Here are links to the payment providers:

https://www.paypal.com/
http://www.2checkout.com/
http://www.paybycheck.com/

Several people have commented that IFBIN's use of payment providers is immature but I question that logic. Would you provide your payment details to a company with little payment experience or would you work with companies that service millions of transactions per day. IFBIN's use of these payment providers allows us to stay focused on providing you with the best example content for Flash and Flex as a customer. Better security, Better payment options, and Better examples.

I look forward to working with you as an IFBIN customer.

Regards,

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder and CEO

Mario contributed this example using flash.display.BitmapData.noise. The example allows you to explore distorting an image with noise directly or through blend modes. The example is a great way to understand BitmapData as many of the concepts are utilized in this single example.



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Today's Free Friday example is from 'Flex By Example' and uses the new IFBIN Web Installer. Icon City provides an example of adding icons into Flex controls from an external asset. The example uses both variable binding and the Embed syntax for adding icons to controls.



Download IFBIN Service 1.1.0 for Apple OSX

Download IFBIN Service 1.1.0 for Windows

This example is available with full source and documentation within Flex® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Tink contributed this example using flash.display.BitmapData.dispose. The example shows how to dispose of BitmapData memory directly. The dispose method was created to allow developers to free memory within BitmapData objects without relying on the garbage collector.


For every pixel within a BitmapData Object, the player allocates 4bytes of memory per pixel, essentially 1 byte for Red, Green, Blue, Alpha data within each pixel. If you create a 300px X 300px BitmapData Instance, the player has used 360,000 bytes or 351 kilobytes of memory. The problem is that this memory left alone will not get freed in the garbage collector until all references to the BitmapData instance are removed combined with an incremental sweep of the garbage collector. Instead of waiting for these to occur, you can use 'dispose' to directly free the allocated memory within the player.

In the above example, pressing dispose frees the memory allocated to the BitmapData object showing on the stage in red.

This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Guy contributed this example using flash.display.BitmapData and WebCam input. The example processes real-time video providing a custom pointallism effect from video pixel data.



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

In the 48 days since launch, IFBIN authors added 100 high quality, well documented examples into Flash By Example. Today we officially reached 200 examples on the service. Great work by the IFBIN Author, way to go team.

More to come,

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder & CEO

ZornChat is a simple chat application build using Flex2/AS3/AVM2 and the IFBIN Comet AMF Server. The Comet AMF Server uses binary sockets to deliver multiuser application using AMF binary. The ZornChat client and the Comet AMF Socket Server will ship in Flex By Example!



Requires Flash Player 8.5 within the Flex
Zorn Chat and Comet AMF Example

Flash Player 8.5 contains a new class flash.net.Socket that provides a real binary socket for Flash. The new socket class supports reading and writing AMF binary along with GZIP compression. The Socket class will revolutionize integration with servers and broaden the use of multi-user applications.

Zorn Chat sends all messages using AMF objects. The client sends something like so:

cometClient.writeObject( {name:"Ted" , message:"Hello:)" } )
cometClient.flush()

The Comet server receives the AMF binary of the message, reads it and sends it to all attached clients. Currently Comet can read AMF Binary but it cannot write. We are working to change that so that writing multi-user application with Comet is really simple. The server is written in Python using the IFBIN Sync libraries. The current Comet server has been tested up to 500 concurrent users sending messages every 10 seconds. The Comet server ships with full source and allows for easy customization.

IFBIN will be shipping other examples using Comet within Flex By Example. The Zorn Chat is showcased within Macromedia Labs.

More to come.

Ted ;)

IFBIN will have a strong presence at Spark Europe as 9 presenters are IFBIN Authors. IFBIN is working with United Digital Artists to support this amazing conference as a partner. This is one conference that I would not miss. Details follow...

SPARK, Europe's Premier Flash Conference at Paradiso, Amsterdam Nov 16-18

SPARK, Europe's premier Flash conference showcasing the Macromedia® Flash® platform for developing content and applications, will be held November 16-18 in Amsterdam. The jam-packed, three-day, event features educational and inspirational seminars on motion graphics, video, mobile, interactivity, and open source. SPARK is produced by United Digital Artists and sponsored by Macromedia®, and will be held in Amsterdam’s celebrated Paradiso, the historic music venue whose stage has hosted everyone from the Rolling Stones to Phish.

The SPARK conference program includes:

*Keynote address by Kevin Lynch, Macromedia’s Chief Software Architect
*Exhibition area, bookstore, networking receptions and parties
*6 half-day workshops on: new Flash 8 features (Filters, Bitmap, API, Mobile Emulator, Video Components, File Upload/Download), new Actionscript features, Video Authoring, and more.
*24 one-hour seminars on: Flash 8 Imaging, Illustration and Graphic Effects, Games, Audio, Animation, Interactivity and Motion, Components, Devices, Flex, RIAs, E-learning, Database Connectivity, Web Services, Video Interactive Experiences, New ActionScript Features, Integrating Flash with HTML, JavaScript, and Ajax, Flash and Open Source, Mobile Flash 101, Advanced Flashlite, New APIs (BitmapData, FileReference, ExternalInterface), Flash and Dreamweaver, Photoshop and AfterEffects.

A partial list of the talented, international designer and developers presenting at SPARK includes:

MATHIEU ANTHOINE,Yamago (France)
ARAL BALKAN, Ariaware (UK)
CARLO BLATZ, Powerflasher (Germany)
FRANCIS BOURRE, Tweenpix (France)
VERONIQUE BROSSIER, Developer (France)
MIKE CHAMBERS, Macromedia (US)
DANNY DURA, Macromedia (US)
HOSS GIFFORD, FlamJam (UK)
FOLKERT GORTER, Superfamous (Netherlands)
TOM GREEN, Humber College (Canada)
CHAFIC KAZOUN, Atellis (US)
MAX KISMAN, Animator (Netherlands)
MARIO KLINGEMANN, Quasimondo (Germany)
JOOST KORNGOLD, Renascent (Netherlands)
KEVIN LYNCH, Macromedia (US)
ANDRE MICHELLE, Game Developer (Germany)
ERIK NATZKE, Natzke Design (US)
STEFAN SAGMEISTER, Sagmeister Inc. (Austria)
GRANT SKINNER, gskinner.com (Canada)
CRAIG SWANN, CRASH!Media (Spain)
ANGIE TAYLOR, Filmmaker (UK)
THIJS TRIEMSTRA, Collab (Netherlands)
OWEN VAN DIJK, Mutoid (Netherlands)
GUY WATSON, Flashguru (UK)
SASCHA WOLTER, Flashforum (Germany)
And more to come…

PLUS MACROMEDIA’S FLASH 8 TEAM:
MIKE DOWNEY, Product Manager (US)
DOUG BENSON, Senior Director Product Development (US)
GILLES DRIEU, Senior Engineering Manager (US)
SEAN KRANZBERG, QA Manager (US)

EARLY REGISTRATION DISCOUNTS UNTIL OCT. 21
Save up to $70 (56 euros) if you registered by Oct 21. You pay only $125 (100 euros) for the SPARK Workshop (Nov 16) and only $$245 (196 euros) for the two-day SPARK Conference (Nov 17-18). Macromedia User Group members can save an additional $80 (64 euros) on the combined three-day event.

United Digital Artists, the creator and founder of SPARK, is a Paris, France-based company that has co-produced 12 Flash conferences and festivals in the US which attracted nearly 20,000 designers and developers. SPARK is United Digital Artists’ third event in Europe.

For more information about discounts and the SPARK event, visit http://www.sparkeurope.com).

See you at Spark Europe!

Ted ;)

Richard provided some Particle Classes in a prior example and I created this example reusing his classes. The example uses cacheAsBitmap to animate 500 particles with alpha transparency. As the alpha transparency is cached, the Player can render hundreds of MovieClips with a low performance hit.


Download IFBIN Service 1.1.0 for Apple OSX

Download IFBIN Service 1.1.0 for Windows

This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Richard created this impressive Flash Lite game using Flash 8 Professional. The example presents a 3D maze game. I am impressed especially considering this is supporting Flash Lite.



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

IFBIN Service 1.1.0 on OSX and Windows supports integration with Flash. This allows you to install Flash By Example files from within Flash MX 2004 and Flash 8. Simply start up the IFBIN Service and open the "IFBIN - Flash By Example" Panel.

DOWNLOAD IFBIN Flash Panel MXP version 1.1.0

Flash Integration Requires IFBIN Service 1.1.0

DOWNLOAD IFBIN Service 1.1.0 for OSX

DOWNLOAD IFBIN Service 1.1.0 for Windows

IFBIN in FLASH! :)

Regards,

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder / CEO

Today marks the release of the IFBIN Service Version 1.1.0 for Windows. I would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on the beta. We listened and made the changes that were needed for 1.1.0.&

DOWNLOAD IFBIN Service version 1.1.0 for Windows

The "IFBIN Service" is desktop service (HTTP Server) that allows IFBIN Networks to securely distribute and install software examples through Flash® by Example, Flex™ by Example, and future products.

Features:

- Secure 1-Click installation of software examples to your local machine.
- File encryption and File verification for all examples.
- 1.7Mb download
- Compatible with Windows™ 95, Windows™ 98, Windows™ 2000, Windows™ XP, Windows™ Server 2003

We look forward to your feedback on this release of the service. If you have any trouble with installation or running the service, please send an email to support@ifbin.com, we will be happy to help.

IFBIN on WIN32! :)

Regards,

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder / CEO

Today marks the release of the IFBIN Service Version 1.1.0 for Apple OSX. I would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on the beta. We listened and made the changes that were needed for 1.1.0.&

DOWNLOAD IFBIN Service version 1.1.0 for Apple OSX

The "IFBIN Service" is desktop service (HTTP Server) that allows IFBIN Networks to securely distribute and install software examples through Flash® by Example, Flex™ by Example, and future products.

Features:

- Secure 1-Click installation of software examples to your local machine.
- File encryption and File verification for all examples.
- 290Kb download, 9 times smaller than WIN32!
- Compatible with OSX version 10.3 or higher

We would like to publically appologize to OSX users for the delays in shipping on Apple OSX. It takes time to create quality software and we ran into numerous delays in shipping on OSX. From now on, all releases of the IFBIN Service will ship cross-platform.

We look forward to your feedback on this release of the service. If you have any trouble with installation or running the service, please send an email to support@ifbin.com, we will be happy to help.

IFBIN on OSX! :)

Regards,

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder / CEO

Rob provided this example using the flash.display.BitmapData and PrintJob classes. The example adds a "Print Screenshot" menu and allows the user to interactively print the contents of a movie. The technique is useful as it captures the screen without delay and supports any type of content.



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

Big news tomorrow... :)

More to come.

Ted :)

Guy contributed this example using flash.display.BitmapData. The example provides an flood fill effect on an image using Flash® 8. The image is progressively draw on stage using colors read using getPixel and written using setPixel on the BitmapData instance.



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Using Stage.onResize, Stage.width, and Stage.height to resize and reposition MovieClips is essential for scalable dynamic interfaces. In this example I am using the Stage class to position 9 MovieClips dynamically within the player.


Open Example in a new Window

Download IFBIN Service 1.0.1 for 1-Click Installation and Example Configuration

Stage Positioning Example ZIP

This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Macromedia has revealed the next generation of the Flash Platform and the future of Flash applications looks very bright. Are you ready for the jump to lightspeed?

This announcement is a brand new day for the Flash Platform. ActionScript 3 and AVM 2 are a revolution. They provide a clean new API and a new language while remaining full backward compatibility. Macromedia has addressed many of the core weaknesses of the Flash Platform in Player 8.5 and focused on performance as the key to the next generation. With these changes the Flash Platform is going to grow for years to come.

IFBIN will be releasing examples for Flex 1.5 and Flex 2.0 starting Monday Oct 24 when Flex By Example is available for sale. We have some amazing tools in development for Flex and we look forward to extending what Flex 1.5 and Flex 2 can offer. With a new language, new APIS, new Flex tools, and a new player, IFBIN will be busy for a very long time.

More to come! :)

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder

We have been working on a toolset for editing/generating Flex MXML called REX. REX is a generator/parser for MXML. The purpose of REX is to make human editing of MXML much easier.

Lets face it XML is not the best human readable format. Machines love it, but we humans cannot visualize the hierarchy that we are editing easily and the tag formatting quickly becomes an undue burden. Worse still XML can be arranged in many different base layouts yet still maintain the same parsed meaning. This variability makes it an imperfect format for human editing, yet a wonderful data interchange format. Although there are a wide range of XML editors available, they still lack the power that plain text provides. Rex provides an ASCII text format that is easy to read allowing the generation of MXML in a round trip fashion.

REX started out of the need format MXML documents in a standardized manner for Flex By Example. Ideally we would receive MXML projects, run them through REX and the MXML would be perfectly consistent across every Flex By Example MXML document. With that completed, I explored creating a generation format that used a simple ASCII format similar to Re-Structured Text in Python. In my initial tests, it looked feasible to create a file format that would be easy for humans to edit yet could be processed into MXML and back. Below is an example of REX and its MXML equivalent.

REX Example:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xml
   .version = "1.0"
   .encoding = "utf-8"

mx:Application
   .width="100%"
   .height="100%"

   : This is a comment

   mx:Hbox
      .width = "100%"
      .height = "100%"

      mx:Button
         .label = "Hello Rex 1"
         .width = "200"
         .height = "40"

      mx:Button
         .label = "Hello Rex 2"
         .width = "200"
         .height = "40"


Example MXML:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application width="100%" height="100%" >

   <!-- This is a comment -->

   <mx:Hbox width="100%" height="100%" >

      <mx:Button label="Hello Rex 1" width="200" height="40" />

      <mx:Button label="Hello Rex 2" width="200" height="40" />

   </mx:Hbox>

</mx:Application>

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

TABS have Meaning in REX!!!

In REX, tabs have meaning and shape the hierarchy of the document. A single tab implies that a name is a child element or an attribute. If you preface the indented name with a '.' it becomes an attribute and without it is an element. This is easy to get used to and the lack of tags makes readability and errors very easy to see.

Comments in REX are created by using ':' or '::' for a line or block comment anywhere within a REX document. Just preface any line with : and it will be a comment, or preface a block with :: and the block will be commented. No more editing comments in multiple locations or searching for the end of a comment block.

REX also assists with CDATA blocks and inline style sheets. Simply add a CDATA as a block and the entire block will be within a CDATA tag.

What is interesting with REX is that ActionScript no longer looks out of place in an MXML document. With REX, you can have AS methods inline and the script blocks do not look out of place at all.

REX is not for everyone, it is strict and is designed for professional use. I wrote it to solve a host of problems with XML editing in general. We also found that REX was excellent for MXML generation. We used REX to generate MXML examples for Flex By Example providing base examples covering the base MXML tags in Flex 1.5.

REX will ship with full source in Flex By Example. We are also looking at creating an Eclipse perspective that uses the REX format.

More to come,

Ted ;)

We made a mistake with the IFBIN Subscription Terms of Use. The terms were overly strict and frustrated our customers and potential customers. Effective today we are changing the IFBIN Subscription Terms of Use to address these issues.

We need to support use of the subscription examples without burdensome terms of use. It makes no sense to purchase a product that you cannot effectively use. We do not want to be in the business of regulating customer use, we want to be in the example creation business. IFBIN needs to remove the barriers preventing wide use of the subscription examples for consulting and commercial use. With the help of our development team and our customers, we are making changes today to enable wide use of the examples.

IFBIN Subscription Terms of Use:

Example use is limited to a single developer per subscription.

IFBIN Subscriptions are licensed per developer. Several developers cannot share a single subscription for team development. We have priced the subscriptions so that individual developers and teams can purchase without a burden. All subscription are priced at $250 for an annual subscription per developer.

Customers can provide integrated example source to consulting clients.

We want customers to use the examples in commercial work. We actually encourage you to use IFBIN for this very purpose. It makes sense to allow any code used for this purpose to be distributed in a royalty free manner. You may distribute integrated example source to consulting clients and your consulting clients do not need to own an IFBIN Subscription.

Customers can use examples beyond the subscription period.

An IFBIN Subscription provides a single developer access to the examples for a period of 1 year. After 1 year, you will not be able to install or update examples without a subscription renewal. You can now continue to use the examples that were installed during the subscription period. IFBIN needs to continue to develop new examples to earn your business on subscription renewal. If you have purchased a subscription, you may use the examples commercially beyond the subscription period.

Ideally these simple terms will enable anyone to use IFBIN subscription to deliver the solutions needed on commercial or consulting projects.

More to come,

Theodore Patrick
IFBIN Founder / CEO

There is a new feature in Flash 8 in the Array object. You can now sort an Array based on multiple column values using different sort types. This example sorts a DataGrid based variable column values and mixed sort types.



This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)

Darron Schall completed this new component extending the Macromedia V2 Text Input component. The example adds a formatted mask onto the text input to make data entry much simpler for the end user.


Usage could not be easier. Within the component properties panel, simply designate an import Mask and the component will auto-format all text entered into the component. The 'text' property will return the fully formatted value but the new 'value' property will return just the input data without the mask.

trace( tiUsPhone.text );
// Output: (555) 333 - 4444

trace( tiUsPhone.value );
// Output: 5553334444


The masks are created using the following "input placeholder" characters
"#" - any digit (0-9)
"a" - lowercase letter
"A" - uppercase letter
"Z" - any letter
"*" - any letter or digit


Nice example Darron.

This example is available with full source and documentation within Flash® by Example.

More to come.

Ted :)