joshbuhler.com

Was recently working on a project that required loading the policy file from a location other than the default one. So, I tried using System.security.loadPolicyFile, but everytime I had Flash check my syntax or tried publishing, I’d get a “method not found” error. This was driving me nuts because because the method was showing up in the code-hinting box, so Flash obviously knew that it existed, it just couldn’t find it.

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I know that with the 7.2 update, Macromedia made some major improvements on the last release of Flash IDE, as well as improvements in the documentation. However, it seems that even more improvement needs to be done.

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I know I’m kinda behind the times on this one, but I finally got around to setting up and using Xcode as my ActionScript Editor. I followed the instructions from pixelconsumption.com, along with some modifcations from Aaron Spjut.

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Now, I can’t guarantee that anyone’s problems could be solved by chatting with Eliza, (in fact, they may get worse) but at least it’s fairly entertaining when you’re bored.

Eric’s recent posts showing all of the stuff he’s been doing lately with remoting and web services has got me interested in doing more with them. I’ve been doing some searching for some free ones to play with, and found Eliza here. I’ve seen various versions of this program around, and they all seem to make a little more sense than this one does, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun chatting with someone who seems to have some problems of their own with this version.

It’s not the most elaborate thing, but it also goes to show how quickly you can incorporate an existing web service into your work. I think I spent a total of 15 minutes getting this put together and online once I found the service to use.

More Info: (Wikipedia.org)

ELIZA
Joseph Weizenbaum

A while ago I found a way to redraw an image using a combination of php and Flash’s Drawing API. I had meant to post a tutorial on how to do it, and put it off for a while. But now, looks like I don’t have to - EML Labs has posted something similar, along with a pretty good explanation of how it’s done, and they’ve included source files as well. It’s definately worth a look, download the source and play with it. See what kind of effects you can get out of it.

The version they’ve posted shows how to redraw the image pixel by pixel, as well as the method that I decided on, redrawing every few pixels. I went with the latter method because I found that trying to go pixel by pixel you could easily crash Flash. (Plus, I liked the “cross-stitch” effect I got with mine.) I guess now I’ll have to finish my version, and add all the other neat effects I never finished.

Link to my version: www.joshbuhler.com/drawing

Original Post

Ok - I’m asking for a little help here. For some reason, I just can’t figure this one out. I have a swf that’s loading sounds from a content server. When I test the movie in the Flash IDE, my sounds don’t work. onSoundLoad() is triggered with success = true. However, if I trace the .duration of that sound after it has loaded, the .duration = 0.

BUT - if I take the swf I just published, and load it into a browser window, the sounds work fine. That’s loading the swf only into the browser. If I then try loading an html page containing that swf into my browser, the sounds quit working.

I’m stumped. If anyone has an opinion or idea as to what’s going on, I’d love to hear it.

Not much in today’s post. I was checking my web stats last night, and the search terms “actionscript testing for even number” showed up in the top ten searches from Google. I haven’t posted on this, so I don’t know how I got these search terms in my logs ( I once got “deep frying turkeys”), but as a service to whoever was looking for that, here you go:

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Following up on my post/tutorial about using the DrawingAPI of Flash, I wanted to mention Keith Peters at Bit-101.com. Just in case you’ve never seen his site, you need to check it out. This guy does some amazing stuff using the drawing methods. Lots of 3D work, some Inverse-Kinematics stuff, you name it. If you have been to his site, but not for a while, he’s just redesigned it, and started posting more experiments there to play with. He’s also the author of one of my favorite Flash books, Extending Flash MX 2004. It’s where I learned about using the JSFL and building my own components and commands. Definately worth checking out the book.

When Flash MX was introduced, several new features were added to both the authoring enviroment and to ActionScript. My favorite group of new methods added were the drawing methods added to the MovieClip class, also referred to as the Drawing API. This tutorial will try to help you in understanding and using these methods.
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XML is a great way to transfer data back and forth from a server in dynamic Flash applications. You get the benefits of it being easy to work with, easy to edit, and it’s human-readable. However, there are occasionally times when the XML you use can be too much in it’s description of the data, and the file size of your XML balloons, effectively destroying the goal to transfer as little data as possible to speed your network transfers. Large amounts of XML can also eat up your bandwidth.

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