Dynamic Flash

In attempting to upgrade the AirShows application to use the new AIR 1.5 runtime, I tried to simply change the target SDK to Flex 3.2 in the project settings. However, this was giving me all sorts of strange errors, from not launching to displaying the following error dialog when trying to launch the application in debug mode:

On a hunch, I checked the application configuration file AirShows-app.xml file and noticed that it uses the following namespace declaration:

<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.0">

Since the Flex 3.2 SDK actually expects to be building AIR 1.5 applications, I had a feeling that this was the root cause of my problem. A quick change in the namespace to the following solved my problem:

<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5">

Thankfully I didn’t waste a whole lot of time trying to figure this out, but I do wish Adobe had provided slightly more useful error messages.

I’m heading down to Brighton this evening for this year’s Flash on the Beach conference, and right now I’m feeling like a kid on the night before Christmas.

Last year I didn’t plan my schedule in advance, and ended up missing some sessions I’d really like to have seen. This year I thought I’d be ultra-prepared and decide what I wanted to see in advance. With that in mind, here is my personal schedule for the conference:

Monday

1. 09:00-10:00 Keynote: Overview of Flash CS3 Professional - Richard Galvin
2. 10:15-11:15 Localising Flash Content and Applications - Dave Williamson
3. 11:30-12:30 Understanding Adobe AIR - Mike Chambers
4. 13:30-14:30 Adobe AIR for Interactive Designers - Lee Brimelow
5. 14:45-15:45 The Pirates of Accessibility - Niqui Merret
6. 16:00-17:00 Dynamic Abstraction - Joshua Davis
7. 20:00-21:00 Inspired: If it ain’t broke, break it! - Brendan Dawes

Tuesday

1. 09:00-10:00 Flex and ActionScript 3.0 Worst Practices - Ted Patrick
2. 10:15-11:15 Perceptive Interactions & Alternative Interfaces - Craig Swann
3. 11:30-12:30 2D or not 2D, that is the question - Mario Klingemann
4. 13:30-14:30 Mobile Flash Development - Dave Yang
5. 14:45-15:45 Flashing Flex - Tink
6. 16:00-17:00 Breaking away (Processing) - Robert Hodgin
7. 20:00-21:00 Inspired: Beyond the Knowledge - The Art of Playing - Erik Natzke

Wednesday

1. 09:00-10:00 Adobe Town Hall Meeting - Adobe
2. 10:15-11:15 Stylising Flex Applications - Joey Lott
3. 11:30-12:30 Klangfabrik - Andre Michelle
4. 13:30-14:30 Visualising Time - Marcos Weskamp
5. 14:45-15:45 Flex Application Development: Done in 60 minutes - Mike Jones
6. 16:00-17:00 Algorithms to Fill Space - Jared Tarbell

I’m not sure how much of the after-hours partying I’m going to get to. Last year my fellow Yahoos and I sloped off to a local bar and spent the evenings drinking beer and shootin’ pool rather than partying, which is much more my kind of scene.

Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to be going the the best Flash conference on the planet, I’ll see you on the beach.

It’s been more than a while since I posted anything useful on this blog, partly because I’ve been busy with other things and partly because things have been pretty hectic at Yahoo! for the past few months. Now things have calmed down a little, I’m hoping to spend more time coding and writing here, starting with a post tomorrow on how to use the upload functionality of the ActionScript 3.0 Flickr API Library to build a simple Flickr upload tool as an Adobe AIR application.

Update: Okay, so a small post on the upload functionality has turned into a multi-part post on using the AS3 Flickr API Library. Expect the first part around the middle of the week.