In a previous article, I blogged about Flex i18n and an “Inversion of Control” (IOC) approach to radically simplify localization issues within your Flex solutions. That article discussed the issues with the current, traditional localization implementations [used in Flex applications] and then presented the new LocalizationMap solution. In this Part 2 on Flex l10n solutions, I offer a video tutorial, a demo of a Registration application localized to support Spanish and English, and an architecture diagram of LocalizationMap usages. Also included with the live Flex demo is source...

At some point, Flash and Flex developers encounter the issues of modifying a Flex/Flash rich internet application (RIA) to support another language and accomodate software changes for specific cultural preferences. This article focuses on localization of Flash solutions implemented with Flex 3 or Flex 4. Both Flash CS4 and the Flex frameworks provide localization tools and programmatic support features for Flash applications and widgets. Unfortunately the support for localization differs significantly between the toolsets and frameworks offered. Internationalization (i18n) is the process of generalizing...

I have been working on a new ThunderBay SaaS product for months now. And two of the myriad issues I have had to consider is that of user management and licensing and intellectual property protection (IPP). Now many people will argue that one should not protect source code as IP, but rather business processes as IP. When it comes to online Flex products, however, I could not disagree more! Do you know how ridiculously easy it is to reverse-engineer/decompile a Flex 3 application and its AVM byte code? Try it: simply use SWFDecompiler to open any SWF. Even if that .swf file has been optimized for...

This approach to component development and architectures will change your perspective on Flex software development! Consider the myriad situations when you want to add sophisticated functionality like zoom, drag-n-drop, swapping, MDI window minimizing, etc. Instead of designing subclasses or building complex compositions of nested components, developers can create distinct behavior components. These behavior components are then dynamically attached to target components and inject functionality. I must admit that this software concept is not new. Consider the very popular JQuery UI Interactions....

While working at Ustrive2, Inc. I initiated some redesign efforts for the Sellit Administrator tools. Focused on creating a fantastic, rich user experience, The dev team [DanM, JesseF, MichaelF, and MikeC] used Fireworks CS4 to quickly iterate through several design prototypes and deliver designs that satisfied many complex feature requirements. One aspect of those designs was to create a sense of depth [and engage the user] by judiciously highlighting key components with lighting and reflections. Many of the resulting storyboard pages contained 2 or more components with reflections. Manually...