Oscar Trelles

Visit the Macromedia Central Developer Center and download it!

Ever since Central was announced and during the beta testing process, people have been engaging discussions around what’s that Central offers that other existent technologies don’t. With the SDK coming out at any moment, if Central is not here to replace the browser, what is its purpose?

Applications currently featured in Central, including the ones I just directed you to, may give the erroneous impression, and make you think Central is just a repository of flash movies trying to emulate a very limited browser. You may ask what are this applications doing that can’t be done in a web page. The answer can come in many pieces, but there is something that stands out for me: data awareness.

In Central, applications don’t have to just sit there, they can share data. For example, if you had a Restaurant Finder application, in addition to your beloved Movie Finder, you wouldn’t need to fill out another form to get a list of restaurants near the theater you just selected: Restaurant Finder would automatically take the zip code for the theater, and show a list of restaurants matching your query. If you don’t want to eat near the theater, that’s another story applications have preferences you can edit, anyway.

But applications don’t interact directly with each other. Central manages data from all applications running and delivers it on demand to them. For this to happen, data type definitions have to be standard for all applications developed for Central. Currently, there is a blue print on the works, in hands of Macromedia, and it will be extended further more by developers, once Central is definitely out for production.

If you like Central but got bored of Accuweather and Movie Finder, you will be glad to read that some other applications are available right now, for you to try.

You might be already familiar with Central Dev Chat, and chat application originally put together by Mike Chambers and Greg Burch, but enriched with the collaboration of ‘Peldi’ and Kevin Lynch. It has become the place for developers to meet, hang around and talking about everything.

Geoffrey Williams is working on an application that works with Amazon’s web services. He has put an early version for us to test, and you can install it from here.

Fernando Florez, my talented compatriot, has been catching up with the beta testing and has already put together a very nice application, the Funciton Agenda, a personal planner that can export your schedule to Outlook… it’s a shame I don’t use Outlook, but Fernando’s application is definitely worth installing.

One more. Mike Lyda has created FiRe, an app that allows you to make quick text match and replacement in the Central environment.

I have to say though, that none of them makes use of all of Central’s intrinsic potential. All of them are nice samples and good starting points for authentic Central applications.

I just found out I missed an interesting chat earlier today at the Central Dev Chat. Mike Chambers and ‘clinburn’ hosted a feedback session focused on the present status of Macromedia Central. After 20 minutes of asking for people’s thoughts on specific aspects of Central, there was a moment for open questions. Fortunately, David Bisset has posted a log from the session here. Read on.

I’m amazed I haven’t dealt with this issue before. I just never had a real need for support of sub/superscripts character Flash’s dynamic textfields, until yesterday. I spent hours last night poking around forums and mailing lists archives trying to figure out a solution, but there is none. How is that possible? Why has Flash been dragging this issue for so many years?

Fortunately for me, I had a problem similar in nature, years ago. Creativity is a child of desperation. In that opportunity, I created a separate type face to store special characters I needed for the project. Surprisingly, that’s the only documented solution I have been able to find.

Now, I have somebody working on character sets to store sub/superscript characters for 2 different type faces…. I just hope they will have it between 2 hours.

Come on Flash Team, show some love…

Changes to Internet Explorer have already been announced by Microsoft earlier today, in response to the issue regarding Eolas patent covering the use of plugins. To support their developers, Macromedia has put together the Active Content Developer Center, featuring content targeted to smooth the transition and prepare developers for the upcoming version of Microsoft’s browser, due early next year.

Although a tool kit (the Active Content Update Utilities, currently in a private beta) is being prepared to help developer automate the update of their websites to meet the requirements of Internet Explorer (SP1b). Basically, visitors will be prompted for confirmation each a time active content is about to be executed. Manual workarounds to prepare websites for browser changes are already featured in the Center.

Websites that already use dynamic content to detect the Flash plugin and display appropriate content might be not affected. For those using simple object tags can either learn to manually prepare their documents, or wait until Macromedia releases the Active Content Update Utilities.

A couple of days ago, I found a feature on Alexa that allowed me to refresh the default screen-shot they display for my site. It only takes 48 hours and is a great thing. But, unlike contact information, it seems like changing the screen-shot contents is not so critical for them, since there is no need for authentication or confirmation via email. So, looking at the screen-shot of Macromedia’s old site, I decided to try and refresh theirs too…

And voila! Today the screen-shot features the new look of Macromedia. But what is the big deal would you say. Well, although you can’t alter the domain name, you can order a capture from any document at any path within the site. For example, it makes more sense to me to have a screen-shot of my blog rather than my ‘main page’, which is empty. But that’s my personal choice. What is somebody decides to mess up with people’s screen-shots by sending orders to capture non existent documents?

I already sent an email to Alexa’s people regarding this. I just hope this won’t become a big deal, and that Macromedia forgives my intrusion.

Lately, I’ve been popped up this question in many occasions, thus blogging about this may come in place, and might interest some audience. Most people talking in lists I’m in are developers from different levels and backgrounds, and I hardly get to talk to producers from the early days of Flash, when it was a cool way to make animated banners or e-cards. So, what’s in Flash MX 2004 for designers?

The latest generation of Flash has been made to appeal more to application developers all over the place. This is quite evident if we center our attention on Flash Professional. Being a deseloper (my current stats: 60% developer, 40% designer), I’ve found very pleasant improvements in the Flash production environment, the developer inside me is very happy and standing on his tongue. But my designer is quite bored… nothing new has been introduced that can be of use from an artistic point of view.

Timeline effects did you say? Well, some of those cheap tricks are nice, but they won’t make it in a serious production environment. ActionScript Behaviors? Hey, if the designer inside me uses them, my developer will kill him… seriously. Video integration…. well, now that’s something to be excited about, but is not directly a design matter, but important as a production asset.

That’s the reason the balance is still very positive for me, the guy that produces and integrates applications and content. It would be fair to say that Flash (since version 5) has make me cross the development/design boundaries, and that there’s no way back now…

Today, Studio MX 2004 is being presented for the first time to peruvian users of Macromedia products, in a series of sessions hosted by the MMUG-Peru.

A total of four sessions have been scheduled along the day, and all of them are fully booked. About eight hundred people are expected, including myself, since I’ve been invited to participate remotely and answer questions from the attendees.

This event is event will increase awareness of the upcoming Macromedia Latinamerican Tour stop in Lima, scheduled for October 28th, featuring the official presentation of the spanish-language versions of the MX 2004 line of products.