I've been working on a Flex project for a few months now. I just recently decided to add it to my source control system. (I know...I should have done that when I started the project.) For source control I use Subversion. I've been very happy with it. This is the first Flex project I've worked on, hence it's the first time I've setup a Flex project in Subversion. I setup my Subversion project just as I've done with other projects.

I want to access the URL variables in the URL of the page that launches my Flex application. The problem: There is no built-in way to access the querystring or url variables from inside Flex. Any parameters must be passed in as flashvars. I scoured the web and found this: How to get URL query-string variables within Flex application Pretty neat code. Abdul is basically calling the browsers built-in javascript methods for retrieving the URL and querystring values.

Flex now has it's own developer journal at SYS-CON: http://flex.sys-con.com/read/416895.

After almost an hour and some hair pulling I finally figured this one out. SCENARIO:I want to drive a <mx:MenuBar> from an external XML file. Easy enough! Here is my XML: My MXML: No compile errors, but when I run the application i get this: images/mx.MenuBar_Gotcha.jpg" border="1" alt="Screenshot 1"> The answer is so simple, but it eluded me. The <mx:MenuBar> has a showRoot attributes that is true by default.

I finally finished this book. I highly recommend it. The book is geared toward experienced developers looking to jump into Flex development. Flex can be challenging for developers who are used to the traditional page based architecture of web applications. This book does a great job of demonstrating the differences. It also briefly covers some advanced topics like shared objects and skinning.

I'm really surprised at the lack of information for good data access strategies in Flex. I have a Flex application that will use Coldfusion as the back end, but I'd like it to easily adapt to a web service that could be written in PHP, Java, ASP, etc. I can't find any good resources that demonstrate a best practices for this kind of flexibility. There's a lot of talent out there so I know someone has already tackled this problem.

Here's a really cool example of custom item renderer's in a Flex datagrid: Custom Item Renderer's

I've been looking for this solution since I started playing with the Fireworks CS3 prototyping symbols: How can I create New Rich Symbol Flex Components for Fireworks?

Adobe announced that they are going to make Flex open source through Mozilla Public License (MPL). They plan to release Java source code for the ActionScript and MXML compilers, the ActionScript debugger, and the ActionScript libraries that make up the core Flex framework. Flex Builder IS NOT part of this release. Click here to view the article.

It's official! Flex really is a development language. As proof I give you the following language quirk: "...in Flex, months are 0 based, meaning 0 represents January and 11 represents December." - Adobe Flex 2 Training From the Source (ISBN: 0-321-42316) Everyone knows that a true development language has silly quirks like this! I wonder how this decision was made? Is there a benefit to a 0 based date? Just seems counter intuitive to me.