Code Cook

Christian Cantrell HTML & Apollo

Lots of cool stuff with JavaScript and HTML integration. The HTML component, being able to load in both Google and Yahoo maps at the same time. Nice stuff, but it seems to me like it is just asking for spaghetti code. Of course that is up to the code management of the developer. Pretty cool presentation, but not a whole lot of meat as far as what I’m interested in.

Posted in actionscript, air, flex, news |

Apollo Keynote

Mike Chambers got up and gave a great introduction to the Apollo team and let everyone know about the great swag that was given out to all the attendees:

Adobe really pumped up the swag for Apollo Camp:

• Flex Builder with charting
• Apollo CD with goodies and docs
• Apollo t-shirt
• Apollo Book

Kevin Lynch dropped in to present a good overview about why Apollo and why Adobe might present the bits and bytes of Apollo early. Adobe revolutionizes how the work engages with ideas and information across multiple platforms (This is a huge push…cross platform) and devices.

• Client tchnolgies
• Server technologies
• Applications

Pretty much the standard pitch about Adobe technolgies, but hey it’s Kevin Lynch, he’s been doing this for 10 years. One of the big pushes is for PDF, PDF is being released to ISO.

Apollo is trying toenable web to the desktop. There are a couple differenct engines that are inside of Apollo based on what people are trying to create. Mostly what is happening is people are trying to create tools that bring in more desktop functionality into the web space, also includein gthe mobile space.

- Establishing a first class presence for your application.

Desktop Rich Internet Applications (dRIAs) is the direction Adobe is looking.

SWF and HTML - top level to build applications in Apollo.

SWF - AS, FLex, XM, Video, Audio,

HTML - JS, CSS ,XML

Local Fiel access, netowork status, drag and drop, clipboard access, background processin, mutiple window support, custom window crome.

Examples:

• Companion applicaiton for amazon watchlist
• Feed reader with HTML, Scriptaclous (Web app running as a desktop app)
• Flex word processor (Buzzword) desktop companion to web application.
• PDF Support sample applicaiton - finnancial data applicaiton, PDF support will be supplied via the Acrobat plugin (so if you don’t have it you’ll need to install it)

Timeline:

• H1 - 1st 1/2 of the year (labs next week), Moxie Alpha release, creative suite 3
• H2 - Flex (Moxie), “Phil0″ (Apollo - internet TV app), Flash Media Servier

Q&A:

• No plans to support QuickTime
• Centralized distribution and installation
• Installation super smooth and clean
• Migration from Flex 2 into Moxie…flex team says “Very easy!”
• Kevin Lynch says “Whats Moxie?” really, someone asked a question about migrating current Flex applications to Moxie and he asked what it was…hehe.
• Apollo, most likey will not be the name of the product, someone else has taken it. So they are look at another “cool” name, well just have to wait and see what it is I guess.

Posted in air, news |

Apollo camp!

We’re in San Francisco for Adobe’s Apollo camp. Just had lunch with a couple of the guys from the Flash Player QA team. Definitely a fun bunch to to meet and talk with.

I’ll be sure to update with any nifty things that I get out of the Apollo presentations. only a couple of hours of waiting left.

Keep an eye on my twitter or the apollocamp twitter.

Posted in air |

Expand to the Desktop with Apollo!

I attended the Adobe Developer Week session for Builder Killer Desktop Apps.

What is Apollo?
A Cross-OS run-time that allows a developer to leverage existing assets and knowledge to build and deploy desktop applications.
Apollo will allow you to leverage Flash, HTML, PDF, & Rich Media. With that you have the ability to create RIA’s containing video and other rich media such as 3D. You are also able to create applications that are not constrained by the “Square Box”. So you can create applications with transparencies, rounded corners and all the other fun stuff.

Some of the other details are listed below:

• It will be free!
• You get to use your existing knowledge to build applications
  • You can build applications in many technologies (Flex, Flash, AJAX, HTML…)
• Access to many of the usually expected OS level operations (File management etc.)
• It is cross platform:
  • Windows OS (2K, XP & Vista)
  • Mac OS (Tiger)
  • Linux (No Specifics)
• A developer version will be released on labs.macromedia.com before the end of the year
• The 1.0 release is planned for the first half of 2007
• It’s not Central 2.0. Completely different code base
• The look and feel of the application is completely controlled by the developer
• Command line tools will be provided to build and package the application
• The initial release it targeted to the desktop with future releases supporting additional devices

Here are some screen shots of actual Apollo apps (notice these are not running in a browser yay!):

Audio player with visualizer.

Audio player with visualizer.

Desktop RIA example. Notice the transparency and rounded corners!

Enterprise level travel application for salesforce.com to connect sales people.

Posted in air |