This code comes in handy if you’re trying to remove \n (a break line) from a string and you want to replace it with something else (line a comma, as shown in the example below) you can use the following code:

string.replace(/[\r\n]+/g, ",");

Download it for free from Google Play.

Here you have a video demonstration:

I’ve made a nice utility class for this simple task.
Not sure if it’s the best way but it works perfectly fine.

Basically I have an array where the items need to be in alphabetical order instead of numbering them with 1,2,3,4,etc.

 
Example:
0 > A
1 > B
2 > C

I’ve made a nice utility class for this simple task.
Not sure if it’s the best way but it works perfectly fine.

If you need to do the same thing your ActionScript project, please feel free to use this code.

package com.vamapaull.utils
{	
	public class NumberToLetter
	{
		public static function convert(number:Number):String
		{
			var letter:String;
 
			switch(number)
			{
				case 0:
				{
					letter = "A";
					break;
				}
				case 1:
				{
					letter = "B";
					break;
				}
				case 2:
				{
					letter = "C";
					break;
				}
				case 3:
				{
					letter = "D";
					break;
				}
				case 4:
				{
					letter = "E";
					break;
				}
				case 5:
				{
					letter = "F";
					break;
				}
				case 6:
				{
					letter = "G";
					break;
				}
				case 7:
				{
					letter = "H";
					break;
				}
				case 8:
				{
					letter = "I";
					break;
				}
				case 9:
				{
					letter = "J";
					break;
				}
				case 10:
				{
					letter = "K";
					break;
				}
				case 11:
				{
					letter = "L";
					break;
				}
				case 12:
				{
					letter = "M";
					break;
				}
				case 13:
				{
					letter = "N";
					break;
				}
				case 14:
				{
					letter = "O";
					break;
				}
				case 15:
				{
					letter = "P";
					break;
				}
				case 16:
				{
					letter = "Q";
					break;
				}
				case 17:
				{
					letter = "R";
					break;
				}
				case 18:
				{
					letter = "S";
					break;
				}
				case 19:
				{
					letter = "T";
					break;
				}
				case 20:
				{
					letter = "U";
					break;
				}
				case 21:
				{
					letter = "V";
					break;
				}
				case 22:
				{
					letter = "W";
					break;
				}
				case 23:
				{
					letter = "X";
					break;
				}
				case 24:
				{
					letter = "Y";
					break;
				}
				case 25:
				{
					letter = "Z";
					break;
				}
			}
 
			return letter;
		}
	}
}

UPDATE:
I’ve thought a bit more and came to the conclusion that the previous code with the switch statement is too messy.

A better way to do this is to simply make an array with all the letters in the alphabet and then return the letter using the number you want to convert.

New code:

package com.vamapaull.utils
{	
	public class NumberToLetter
	{
		public static function convert(number:Number):String
		{
			var letters:Vector. = new Vector.;
			letters.push( "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J",  
					"K", "L", "M", "N", "O", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T",  
					"U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z");
 
			return letters[number];
		}
	}
}

Lately I’ve been absent because I have been working on a cool Book Creator Flash application.

This project was a new experience for me since I got to work with Flash and server-side code.

The application is made for kids between the ages of 8 and 12 years.

It’s a Book Creator type of app that lets you configure a simple book. You can then print the book to your local printer or save on your profile.

You can add/remove pages, select from a library of templates, add images, add text and add page backgrounds.

When you select a text field you have the option to choose from the embedded fonts, change text color, size, make it bold / italic / underline and change the alignment of your text.

You also have the ability to set the book orientation to landscape or portrait.

I thought it wold be a good idea if I post the answer here in case someone else needs to do the same.

This is the ActionScript code:

if(node.@attributeName in node)
{
    //the attribute is here
}

As you can see, the code is very simple, “node” is your actual XML node and “attributeName” is exactly what it says, the name of your attribute inside the XML node (the one that you are checking to see if it is there).

If you trace the width and height values of the container, everything seems to be fine. Only if you run and look at the SWF you’ll notice a visual difference between those two (top image).

ActionScript Code:

import flash.display.Sprite;
 
var rectangle:Sprite = new Sprite();
var rectangleLineStyle:Sprite = new Sprite();
 
with(rectangle)
{
	graphics.beginFill(0x333333);
	graphics.drawRect(0,0,50,50);
	graphics.endFill();
}
 
with(rectangleLineStyle)
{
	graphics.beginFill(0xd5e7ed);
	graphics.lineStyle(3, 0xff0000, 1, false, LineScaleMode.NONE);
	graphics.drawRect(0,0,50,50);
	graphics.endFill();
}
 
addChild(rectangle);
addChild(rectangleLineStyle);
 
rectangle.width = rectangle.height = 200;
rectangleLineStyle.width = rectangleLineStyle.height = 200;

Both rectangles have the same width and height. Notice how the one with lineStyle is much smaller?

I’m not sure what the problem is, but there seems to be a fix (kind of).

Through some trial and error I found that if you use CapsStyle.ROUND and JointStyle.MITER like so, the problem disappears:

graphics.lineStyle(3, 0xff0000, 1, false,  LineScaleMode.NONE, 
					   CapsStyle.ROUND, 
					   JointStyle.MITER

However, it’s not perfect. If you have a much smaller rectangle, let’s say you create:
drawRect(0,0,10,10);

Instead of:
drawRect(0,0,50,50);

Then you will still notice a bit of a difference.

If you want to make a rectangle with lineStyle that can be scaled and you want to get rid of this problem completely, an easy fix wold be make the rectangle bigger and scale it down instead of making it smaller and scale it up. In this scenario, the visual rectangle seems to maintain the real width and height values.

Today I helped a friend who needed an expandable banner embedded into a news website. At first, I had the instinct to searching on Google and giving him an URL or something where he can read more about this. To my surprise, none of the info I got through search engines was relevant or complete for this specific subject.

This led me to create an example and now I want to share that example with those searching for how to make an expandable Flash banner.

HTML and JS Code:

<body>
	<div style="position:relative; width:600px; height:120px; z-index:1000; background-color:none;">
		<div id="expandableBanner" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(0px, 640px, 120px, 0px);">
			<object id="banner" width="640" height="240" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0">
				<param name="movie" value="ExpandableBanner.swf">
				<param name="quality" value="high">
				<param name="wmode" value="transparent">
				<embed width="640" height="240" src="ExpandableBanner.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
			</object>
		</div>
	</div>
</body>
 
<script type="text/javascript">
	function expand() {
		document.getElementById("expandableBanner").style.clip="rect(0px 640px 240px 0px)";
	}
	function retract() {
		document.getElementById("expandableBanner").style.clip="rect(0px 640px 120px 0px)";
	}
</script>

ActionScript code:

package
{	
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.display.StageAlign;
	import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
	import caurina.transitions.Tweener;
 
	public class ExpandableBanner extends Sprite
	{
 
		public function ExpandableBanner()
		{
			super();
 
			stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
			stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
 
			//make the close button invisible
			closeButton.visible = false;
 
			//add the hand cursor on the content MovieClip
			theContent.buttonMode = true;
 
			//add event listener on the close button
			closeButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, retractBanner);
 
			//add event listener on the content MovieClip
			theContent.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, expandBanner);
		}
 
		protected function expandBanner(event:MouseEvent):void
		{
			//check if the close button is not visible and if ExternalInterface is available
			if(closeButton.visible == false && ExternalInterface.available)
			{
				//call the "expand" JS function
				ExternalInterface.call("expand");
 
				//expand the height of the mask
				Tweener.addTween(theMask, {height:240, time:1});
 
				//set visibility to true for the close button
				closeButton.visible = true;
			}
		}
 
		protected function retractBanner(event:MouseEvent):void
		{
			//check if the close button is visible and if ExternalInterface is available
			if(closeButton.visible == true && ExternalInterface.available)
			{
				//change the height of the mask back to 120px, when the tween is complete, call the function "callRetract"
				Tweener.addTween(theMask, {height:120, time:1, onComplete:callRetract});
 
				//make the close button invisible
				closeButton.visible = false;
			}
		}
 
		protected function callRetract():void
		{
			//call the "retract" JS function
			ExternalInterface.call("retract");
		}
	}
}

I have worked on this application for a few months and now I see it’s finally implemented into greetingsisland.com.

The project was for two Flash applications, Cards and Invitations, both very similar with very few different features.

It lets you make your own greeting card and invitation design. It’s great looking and easy to use, especially for kids. After you’ve made the perfect greeting, you can either print it on your home printer or save it as a PDF file.

The development itself was demanding and very rewarding, as I got to use techniques like singleton pattern, I’ve used the Facebook API to retrieve photos from Facebook albums and I’ve learned some new coding styles from my friend Biro Barna.

Go on, check it out and let me know if you like it

Since I didn’t find any information about how to do this (and I found some other people trying to find out how it’s done) I thought I should give it a try. I posted the final result below if someone else needs to know how to both save the PDF file on the server and download it to the user’s computer.

ActionScript 3 AlivePDF code:

_pdf.save(Method.REMOTE, "save.php", Download.ATTACHMENT, "MyFile.pdf");

PHP code that will save the file on the server (inside a specified folder) and save it to the user’s computer too:

<?php
 
if(isset($GLOBALS["HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA"])){
	$pdf = $GLOBALS["HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA"];
	$name = $_GET["name"];
	$save_to = "pdf/". $name;
	file_put_contents($save_to, $pdf);
 
	// add headers for download dialog-box
	header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
	header('Content-Length: '.strlen($pdf));
	header('Content-disposition:'.$method.'; filename="'.$name.'"');
	echo $pdf;
 
} else{
	echo "Encoded PDF information not received.";
}
?>

Some programmers from Germany developed a great Flash game that uses your iPhone/iPod Touch to control the game actions.

The concept is very interesting and I could see this being applied on lots of old-school arcade games that are ported to Flash.

After learning about WebSockets we were eager to build a website around this technology. As we are a bunch of oldschool nerds it was obvious to transform the iPhone into a gamepad controlling a Flash Website.

Source: WeekendContent.com

Example of how to apply it to your project:

import com.vamapaull.utils.TimeUtil;
 
time.text = TimeUtil.getTimecode(timeValue);

Results:

The ActionScript class:

package com.vamapaull.utils
{
    public class TimeUtil
    {
        public static function getTimecode(value:Number):String
        {
            var t:Number    = Math.round(value),
                min:Number  = Math.floor(t/60),
                sec:Number  = t%60,
                tc:String   = "";
 
            if(min < 10)                  tc += "0";                          if(min >= 1)
            {
                if (isNaN(min) == true) tc += "0";
                else tc += min.toString();
            }
            else 
                tc += "0";
 
            tc += ":";
 
            if(sec < 10) 
            {
                tc += "0";
 
                if (isNaN(sec) == true) tc += "0";
                else tc += sec.toString();
            }
            else 
            {
                if (isNaN(sec) == true) tc += "0";
                else tc += sec.toString();
            }
 
            return tc;
        }
    }
}

You can play video from YouTube, Vimeo or your FLV, F4V, MP4 files.
It can load JPG, SWF and PNG files.

If you want to buy it, please check the image below

var lastShake:Number = 0;
var shakeWait:Number = 600;
 
var acc:Accelerometer = new Accelerometer();
acc.addEventListener(AccelerometerEvent.UPDATE, onAccUpdate);
 
function onAccUpdate(e:AccelerometerEvent):void
{
	if(getTimer() - lastShake > shakeWait && 
			(e.accelerationX >= 1.5 
			|| e.accelerationY >= 1.5 
			|| e.accelerationZ >= 1.5))
	{
		shakeIt();
		lastShake = getTimer();
	}
}
 
function shakeIt()
{
	trace("device has been shaked");
}

Enjoy!

A very small part of the dying statement is true.
I believe the market is saturated with Flash portfolios / photo galleries / video players, but Flash is not only that.

I hear many developers who are doing just that and who are complaining about it.

My response is: Try something new! Stop doing the same video/photo galleries every single time and start experiment with different things. The Flash environment has a lot to offer, you don’t need to limit yourself only to galleries and video players.

A lot of those who complain are the stock Flash developers (the ones who sell stuff on ActiveDen and similar marketplaces).
Those people need to understand that any market gets saturated and not all the Flash developers are selling stock files and have a living doing so.

Flash may not be the perfect environment and AcionScript may not be the perfect programming language but I believe a lot of good things can come from Flash if you know how to take advantage of it.

And no, the iPad dose not bring the death of Flash. Not everyone sits on the can to surf the web. And Flash is not limited only to the web.

Lately I’ve been working on a lot of projects, one of them being this audio tool. This is my first Flex (aka. Flash Builder) project and it was delivered with big help from my partner Biro Barna.

The tool is made to let people create their own ringtones. You can simply upload any MP3 file and cut it up to 30 seconds, add fade in / fade out if you want and then give it a name and save it. Then a new page will let you download the ringtone in iPhone format or MP3 format.

I’m in the process of remaking my portfolio site. When it’s done I will post more of my projects.

Enjoy!

Today I made some experiments with AIR for Android. The process was very smooth and I like how simple everything is, in just a few minutes I managed to compile an application and play with it on my Android device. Totally love the way that I can reuse the ActionScript 3 code and make beautiful applications for Android!

Not so many good words about the Android Market. I started an account, then I was asked to pay a fee of $25 and then when my account was created I noticed that I can’t really make paid applications for the Android market since Google Checkout is not available in Romania. How messed up is that? You want people to develop applications for your marketplace, you request a fee and then they have no way to at least get some of that money back. It’s not that I can’t live without 25 bucks, but that really sucks, I feel like I’m giving them money so I can develop for their marketplace and help it grow a little more (so they can earn even more money). I love Flash related technologies and Android, but this doesn’t have any logic.

Anyway, I tried to implement an older youtube player into my AIR application so I can test it out and see how it works. The problem was that when I played a video and hit the hardware back button on my device, the video was still playing because the application minimized instead of closing (as I imagined it would). Then I started to search for a solution, and sure enough, I found it very fast on Tom Krcha’s blog. To close the button when you hit the back button you first need to register a handler:

if(Capabilities.cpuArchitecture=="ARM")
{
	NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, handleKeys);
}

Then you need to make the function for that handler:

function handleKeys(event:KeyboardEvent):void
{
	if(event.keyCode == Keyboard.BACK)
	NativeApplication.nativeApplication.exit();
}

That’s it. I will continue to work with AIR for Android and hopefully make some cool apps