When meeting with clients and potential employers, I’m often asked If I have experience working with API’s (application programming interface). The answer is yes, and then I follow up with, “Have you reviewed my blog?” Just recently, I was asked the API question in an interview and a few minutes later the interviewer wrote this pseudo code on the dry erase board. var _username:String; var...

I’m essentially posting this, as a response to search terms that people frequently use , which eventually direct them to an old posting on loading images. Unfortunately, the posting does not cover loading an image directly from the flash library, but the method is fairly simple. When you import a bitmap into Flash, you can modify that bitmap and use it in a variety of ways, the simple usage is to display...

Here’s an AS3 example using the url shortening service bit.ly Bit.ly is a utility that allows users to shorten a long URL, share it, and then track the resulting usage. Why would you want to shorten your Url? Url shortening makes it easier to include the link in an email or Twitter post without it breaking or taking up space. Bit.ly basically redirects a click from the short url to the destination URL...

Bandwidth detection can be used in a flash site to load optimized assets for the client based on the detected bandwidth. Unfortunately, the Flash Player does not have a native bandwidth detection system, so we can’t accurately predict the users bandwidth. Bandwidth test results vary greatly due to many factors like latency, but, we can get an idea of the users download bandwidth by using flash to download...

At some point in your Flash career you will be asked to implement some sort of Flash widget that communicates with the latest social community apps, like Facebook and Twitter. This post was influenced by a clients request for an application that would display Twitter feeds based on a particular search term . The following example is a proof of concept based off the clients inquiry. Press the Search button to...

*******UPDATE ************ Just watch! ***************************************************** I have been developing for the Flash platform since 1998. Throughout the years, I have read and heard endless commentary on the death of Flash. Groups of people hate it, are annoyed by it, complain that it crashes their computer, that it has no place in the mobile space, that it steals your girlfriend and eats your...

(continued from Arduino & Flash AS3 (part 4)). At this point you should have the Arduino communicating with Flash. Unplug the Arduino from the USB cable. We are now going to build this simple button circuit : Grab your bread board, button, resistor and jumper wires and lets build a button. The button schematic is quite simple, but for some it may seem daunting, so I broke down the symbols. The following...

(continued from Arduino & Flash AS3 (part 3)). Bring the NOISE! This post originally started from a conversation I had with a fellow Flash engineer who attended my past exhibition. In my last exhibition I created an Arduino based synth in which users could interact with. So in keeping with the audio spirit, I decided to show you guys how you could easily control an mp3 in Flash with the Arduino micro-controller...