The Flex/Flash/Apollo Project I've been at my latest project for a while, writing bits and pieces of it when I've gotten a chance. Since the Flash CS3 Flex Component kit was announced I've wanted to build something that used it. I had the idea of making an Apollo application to show that the kit wasn't just for Flex. Then I had a better idea: write an application for both Apollo and Flex, using Flash CS3 Flex Component Kit as well as a Flex Library Project to tie everything together.

Flash CS3,Flex,Connectivity,Flex Builder I've now had a chance to use the Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3. It worked as advertised for me. Check out Glenn's presentation on the Adobe Labs page. If you are interested in this example, you will need to follow the instructions given on that page to upgrade Flex 2 and get the Kit for Flash CS3. Both are pretty easy to install. I'm going to use the ball-and-star Flash SWF from the previous examples. This really shows how far things have come.

On the heels of my last article, Adobe has just released the Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3 on Adobe Labs. This ultra-cool kit lets you use Flash MovieClip symbols seamlessly in Flex. This is really an impressive piece of work. All of the effort by the Flash and Flex teams comes together here. You'll see why changing to ActionScript 3 was so important and how fluid the workflow has become. If you've been waiting to use Flex 2 or can't decide if Flash CS3 is right for you, now's the time!

Awhile ago I wrote an article, Using ActionScript 2 SWFs with Flex 2. In that article I showed how you can communicate between a SWF written with ActionScript 2 and a Flex 2 SWF, written in ActionScript 3. The communication is done with LocalConnection as if the two SWFs were in separate Flash Players. That is effectively true since each SWF is put into its own virtual machine within the Flash Player. With the release of Flash© CS3 you no longer have to use LocalConnection.

I get a number of questions from people with large Flex applications that have run into a problem. For example, someone might have a TabNavigator and sometimes one of the tabs doesn't show up or a tab remains even if the child component has been removed. Isolating the problem can be difficult because the Flex application is large and requires data from a server or some other resource that makes it nearly impossible to send to us in Flex Product Support.

After I received a comment on the previous Apollo Music Player article I decided to implement the missing feature of selecting the music library directory. The new version, available for download here or on the previous article, has an option button on the Library panel where you can select the directory containing the music files. If you are interested in seeing how to use the Apollo File class and supporting UI components such as FileSystemList, take a look at this new source code.

Apollo,Music If you haven't checked out Adobe Apollo on Adobe Labs yet, what are you waiting for? Apollo is a platform-independent runtime system. Apollo applications can mix Flash, HTML, and PDF content all in one application. If you download the Apollo alpha trial you'll find some great examples. I decided to try my own hand at an Apollo application and created a music player.

Not too long ago I read a question from someone who wanted to know how to make the Accordion control display more than one child at time. The response said to use a VBox. This question and the response intrigued me, so I set out to create a control which would allow any number of its children to be open simultaneously. After some tinkering I came up with the Stack components: VStack and HStack, show in the following figures.

Check out Adobe® LiveCycle Data Services 2.5 Beta on Adobe Labs. Here are just a few of the new features: Server-side PDF Generation AJAX Data Services A new SQL Adaptor JSP Tag Library This is a beta test and your input is welcome and appreciated.

We've just released a hotfix for Flex 2.0.1. Check out the list of things that are addressed by this hotfix and download it if you are affected by any of these items. Hotfix 1 for Flex SDK 2.0.