When the strings are inside of the CDATA tags the mxml compiler treats them as raw text when generating actionscript to be compiled. Conversely when the strings are outside of CDATA Tags the mxml compiler does all of the conversions from xml encoded values to normal text while creating the generated actionscript.

That makes perfect sense when if you stop and think about it, which I didn’t. :-) Anyway, now you know there is a difference in behavior in how text is rendered depending on source.

It’s easy to render special characters in a <s:Label text=”&lt; &gt; &amp; &quot; &apos;” />. However, if the string is added to the Label text by a [Bindable] variable then it doesn’t render the special characters but just gives you the plane text of the variable.

More about this topic from help.Adobe.com: Using the text property.

Example that works

<s:Label text="&lt; &gt; &amp; &quot; &apos; " />

Will display exactly what you would want: < > & ” ‘

However this doesn’t work

[Bindable]private var specialChars : String = "< > & " '";
...
<s:Label text="{ specialChars }" />

In that case you get the unrendered string back: &lt; &gt; &amp; &quot; &apos;

Fortunately you can just use the characters you want to display, such as:

[Bindable]private var specialChars : String = "< > & \" ' ";
...
<s:Label text="{ specialChars }" />

Which does work correctly.

The real question is, “Why does it work that way.” To which my reply is, as always, “I don’t know! I didn’t build the fucking thing!” – from?

Bizarre Label text behavior originally appeared on polyGeek.com on December 7, 2011.

<s:List
	id="myList"
	dataProvider="{ myAC }"
	itemRenderer="rend.someItemRend"
	width="100%" height="100%"
	creationComplete="onListCreationComplete()">

	<s:layout>
		<s:VerticalLayout />
	</s:layout>

</s:List>

When the <List> has been created we can set a listener for the PROPERTY_CHANGE event on the myList.scroller.viewport

private function onMovieListCreationComplete():void {
	myList.scroller.viewport.addEventListener(
		PropertyChangeEvent.PROPERTY_CHANGE, onListScroll );
}

And then here’s the handler for the PROPERTY_CHANGE event.

private function onMovieListScroll( e:PropertyChangeEvent ):void {
	if ( e.property == "verticalScrollPosition" &&
		e.currentTarget.numElements - 1 == movieListLayout.lastIndexInView ) {

		//	EOL
		trace( "End Of List" );

		}
	}
}

In my RunPee app – tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie without missing anything – there are settings that let the user pick how far back in time to display movies in the <List>. The default is 6-months. But they can also go back for a year, two years or forever. If they reach the end of the <List> and the settings aren’t already set at forever then I display a message that they can change the settings on the Options Screen. I could display the settings right there for them but I’m trying to encourage the user to visit the Options Screen so that they will know what’s there. ( I know that people like me and you usually look for the options of an application before we do anything else but most people don’t. That’s why we’re geeks and they’re not. )

When the message is displayed then I update the userSettings local database and record that they have seen it so that I don’t ever show it to them again. I figure once is enough. I don’t want it to be annoying.

Detecting the End Of List ( EOL ) event originally appeared on polyGeek.com on October 22, 2011.

Personally I like the cookbook format. I want quick intros with just the information I need and then a short and specific example. That’s exactly what this book offers.  All of the examples are created using Flex with Flash Builder although they could easily be used in a pure Actionscript application as well.

See the book at Amazon.com | Packtpub.com

I’m not much of a Facebook guy. I’ve had an account for ages but I rarely use it. When I do it’s just to post to my wall. I’ve never even uploaded an image to Facebook. So I’m really a novice when it comes to understanding Facebook itself let alone the API. I was really happy that this book covered the basics and didn’t just assume I was a Facebook power user.  The first few chapters of this book did a great job of breaking down how the app ecosystem works and how to work with OAuth and Facebook permissions. Things that we totally new to me.

With that out of the way I was surprised at just how easy it was to get up and running right away. One important thing to know – and the author covers this right up front – is that the code examples don’t t use the Facebook API that Adobe and Facebook collaborated on. It uses a forked version of that API that has been improved upon. There are some pluses and minuses to this approach. Fortunately both APIs look and work almost identically and have the same capabilities. There is only one exception to that. The official API can be used with AIR mobile applications using Flex but there is currently no equal for the API that the book uses. But the author told me that it will be ready soon.

The current project that I’m working on is an AIR mobile app that requires some Facebook integration. I was able to use the explanations and follow the examples in this book along with the API that Adobe created to do exactly what I was trying to achieve.

I’ll have lots of AIR mobile tutorials with Facebook integration coming soon.

Book review : Flash Facebook Cookbook originally appeared on polyGeek.com on September 30, 2011.

You can see the entire list of sites that are included in the search. If you see one that’s missing let Paul know about it.

Search Engine dedicated to Actionscript and Flex originally appeared on polyGeek.com on February 8, 2011.

Here is the updated Blogroll.php file used in this example. Note: I added a bit to the userAddBlog() method to send an email to the administrator any time an blog entry is added – commented out – and also used mysql_real_escape_string() to prevent code injection.

Don’t forget to update your blogroll table with the is_approved field and then set all existing rows to 1 with: UPDATE `blogroll` SET `is_approved` = 1;

Addendum: I forgot to add this to the video but the getBlogrollByPage() and getBlogrollCount() methods also need a slight update so that they will only select entries that have been approved. They now look like this:

function getBlogrollByPage( $start, $count ) {
	$sql = 	"SELECT * FROM `blogroll`
				WHERE `is_approved` = 1
				LIMIT ".$start.", ".$count;

	return mysql_query( sprintf( $sql ) );
}

function getBlogrollCount() {
	$sql = 	"SELECT COUNT(*) AS 'count'
				FROM `blogroll`
				WHERE `is_approved` = 1;";

	return mysql_query( sprintf( $sql ) );
}

The is_approved = 1 makes sure that only those blogs that have been approved by the administrator will show up.

( Visit the video index. )

Introduction to AMFPHP with Actionscript : Blogroll part 5 originally appeared on polyGeek.com on March 29, 2010.

We’ll be expanding on the code from the previous 3 videos. ( Visit the video index. )

Introduction to AMFPHP with Actionscript : Blogroll part 4 originally appeared on polyGeek.com on March 29, 2010.

We’ll be working with the code expanded upon in the previous two videos in this series.

Introduction to AMFPHP with Actionscript : Blogroll part 3 originally appeared on polyGeek.com on March 29, 2010.

The code from the previous video tutorial will get you through this one.

Introduction to AMFPHP with Actionscript : Blogroll part 2 originally appeared on polyGeek.com on March 29, 2010.

Here is a look at the finished app. Simple as it is it does cover the essentials of database driven apps:

• Retrieving data from a database
• Passing variables to the server to modify the MySQL code
• Modifying data in the database
• Adding new data to the database

Here in part one I’ll show you how to set up Flash Builder or your Flash IDE to get started using AMFPHP to connect your Flash based app with a database. I assume that you already have a hosting server running that can support PHP and you have AMFPHP on that server. If not then check out this short video tutorial on setting up AMFPHP.

Here’s the source code that you’ll need for this project.

Introduction to AMFPHP with Actionscript : Blogroll part 1 originally appeared on polyGeek.com on March 29, 2010.

Drag the slider up and down and you can see just what parts of Antarctica are sitting on land and what parts are sitting on the sea floor.

This isn’t a prediction of what would happen if Antarctica melted. It’s just a map of what Antarctica would look like if you couldn’t see the ice.

Now I can see why scientists are so concerned about Western Antarctica. That’s the part they believe will go first and it could, according to some, go very quickly.

Lets talk code

From a code perspective I love this example Flex application because of it’s simplicity. It’s a great example of how powerful the Flex framework is because there is absolutely no Actionscript in the source code here. I didn’t have to write code to load the images, or to change the alpha of the top image when the slider changes. Nothing like that. All made possible through the magic of data binding.

[cc lang="actionscript3"]
package com.polyGeek.patterns {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	public class WavyCircle extends Sprite {
		public function WavyCircle( s:Sprite, radius:int, amplitude:int, period:int, rotation:Number ) {
			super();
			var step:Number = 0.01;
			var len:Number = 2 * Math.PI + step;
			for( var i:Number = -0.01; i < len; i+= step ) {
				var r:Number = radius + amplitude * ( Math.sin( period * i ) * Math.cos( period * i ) );
				if( i >= 0 ) {
					s.graphics.lineTo( Math.sin( i + rotation ) * r, Math.cos( i + rotation ) * r );
				} else {
					s.graphics.moveTo( Math.sin( i + rotation ) * r, Math.cos( i + rotation ) * r );
				}
			}
		}
	}
}[/cc]

What’s under Antarctica? originally appeared on polyGeek.com on October 15, 2009.