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Q: When is Flex 2.0 coming out, what will be in Flex 2.0? We have released some information on Mistral in the Flash Platform Whitepaper (page 21) http://www.macromedia.com/platform/whitepapers/platform_overview.pdf http://www.macromedia.com/go/platform mike chambers [EMAIL PROTECTED] flexcoders@yahoogroups.com wrote: > Flexcoders Frequently Asked Questions > Last Updated: 30th May 2005 > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Contributors: > > Matt Chotin, Steven Webster, Alistair McLeod, Tariq Ahmed, Jeff Tapper, > Peter Farland, Abdul Qabiz, Tracy Spratt, Jesse Warden, Dan Harfleet, > Manish Jethani, Dimitrios Gianninas > > > 1. What is Flexcoders? > 2. How does Flexcoders relate to the Macromedia Flex Forum on > www.macromedia.com? > 3. Who posts to Flexcoders? > 4. Resources to check before asking a question > 5. Guidelines for effective question-asking > 6. FAQ > > > 1. What is Flexcoders? > > Flexcoders is a forum where developers can ask questions about Flex, > FlexBuilder, and Flex-related technologies (like Cairngorm, FlexUnit and > SynergyFLEX). The community is made up of everyday Flex developers as > well as Macromedia employees. However, this is not an official > Macromedia-sponsored forum, it is actually moderated by the folks at > iteration::two, a consultancy responsible for authoring the book > Developing Rich Internet Applications with Macromedia Flex. > > > 2. How does Flexcoders relate to the Macromedia Flex Forum on > www.macromedia.com? > > Both the Macromedia Flex Forum and Flexcoders provide help on issues > related to Flex, and neither is an official support mechanism. Some > people monitor both forums, some only one. It is up to you to decide > where you might have a better experience getting a question answered and > being able to subsequently help others. > > > 3. Who posts to Flexcoders? > > Everyone who has a question or an answer. Many members of the Flex > development team read and respond to Flexcoders as well as other > Macromedia folks who monitor the community. > > Some recurring Macromedia folks are: > > David Mendels: EVP and GM, highest-level executive in charge of Flex. > Lucian Beebe: Sr. Product Manager, Flex. Matt Chotin, Manish Jethani, > Abdul Qabiz, Gordon Smith, Peter Farland and many more: Engineers on > Flex. > > Active community members include: > > Steven Webster (Technical Director at iteration::two and co-author of > Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex), Alistair McLeod > (Development Director at iteration::two and co-author of Developing Rich > Clients with Macromedia Flex), Jesse Warden (JesterXL - Flash badass > playing with Flex), Tracy Spratt (long-time member, holder of all > knowledge related to 32K limits), Jeff Steiner (maintainer of > www.flexauthority.com), Tariq Ahmed (maintainer of www.cflex.net), Jimmy > Gianninas (long-time member, developer at Optimal Payments). > > And so many more! > > > 4. Resources to check before asking a question > > The Flexcoders Mail Archive (better searching than YahooGroups): > http://www.mail-archive.com/flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com > > http://www.cflex.net/showfaq.cfm > http://livedocs.macromedia.com/flex/15/asdocs_en/index.html > http://www.macromedia.com/go/flex15_java_livedocs > http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm > http://www.cflex.net http://www.flexauthority.com > http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flex http://coenraets.com > http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna/ http://www.google.com > > The Book "Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex" (check your > favorite bookstore) > > > > 5. Guidelines to effective question-asking > > Include a useful subject; this will help people find their own questions > and answers later. > > Explain what you are trying to accomplish. > > Explain the error (include compilation errors or a description of the > runtime behavior). > > Be prepared to break your problem down into a simpler scenario in case > someone wants to try to debug the code themselves. Remember, private > web services are inaccessible; you may need to create some dummy data to > emulate problems. > > Phrases to avoid: > > "URGENT" (we all have deadlines, no one is intentionally delaying a > response to you) > > "Please send code" (this is very frustrating to read as it implies you > aren't interested in learning anything on your own. Where code is > appropriate you can expect someone to provide it, but in many cases you > will learn more by doing it on your own with appropriate guidance. It > may be that you're on a deadline and just want to finish, but many of > those who respond regularly would prefer to "teach you to fish" so that > you can answer your own questions next time and even help out others). > > > 6. Mini-FAQ > > > > Q: Can I mail Matt, Manish, Abdul, Pete, Gordon, iteration::two, or > anyone else for that matter off-line with my question? > > A: Please don't! If someone is capable of answering your question on- > list please believe that it will be done. Everyone on the list has > full-time jobs doing their own work and often answer flexcoders on their > own time; mailing them off- list doesn’t endear you to them. If no one > answers on-list in a reasonable amount of time (24 hours) you can try to > rephrase the question and perhaps include more detail (including a > version of the problem that someone can run without doing any setup on > their own machine). > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: When is Flex 2.0 coming out, what will be in Flex 2.0? > > A: Macromedia has not announced the schedule for Flex 2. Details of the > release are expected to come in the next few months, but for now there > is no real public information about features or anything else. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: What does "Branch between ... and ... around line ... exceeds 32K > span" mean and how do I get rid of it? > > A: Don't panic. Your app is NOT too big for Flex to handle. True, the > 32k limit is a real Flash Player limitation to the size of certain > structures like if blocks and for loops. But you don't really care > about that right now, because you don't have any direct control over > those things. Here is some information that will help you get back to > coding: > > There are two main reasons you might the 32k issue. The primary cause, > and the one to address first, is the architecture of your application > code. The 32k error message asks you to "refactor" your code. > Refactoring is essentially the process of modifying the structure of > your source code while keeping the same functionality. In the Flex > world, this means moving some parts of the code out of a main file and > into separate components. One way to do this is to use custom mxml > components. So instead of, say, having several hundred lines of mxml in > a child container of a ViewStack, you put that mxml code into its own > component file, and have a single line in the ViewStack to reference it. > Do that for all the ViewStack children and 1000 lines of code can become > 30. Decreasing the total number of visually rendered mxml tags in a > single file will help avoid the 32k limit. Another type of refactoring > is to move ActionScript code into its own class. Important note! Just > putting the AS code into a file and then using the #include directive or > the <mx:Script source="filename"> to include the code will NOT help with > the 32k problem. You MUST create a true AS class that contains the > functionality. Around two thousand lines of mixed mxml and AS code and > you are in danger of the 32k error. I have not found an upper limit > whatsoever to code length in a class. > > The second cause of the 32k error is not your fault. During compile, > Flex generates AS code out of your mxml source. Then it compiles that > into the Flash swf. In that process it makes decisions on how to break > up your source and generate the AS class code. In Flex version 1.5, it > doesn't always make the right decision, and the result is the 32k error. > IF you are confident that you app is already efficiently "refactored", > and you suspect you might be at one of these boundary conditions, first > try compiling the app with ?debug="true" in the url. If the app > compiles, then you are surely at a boundary condition. What is > happening is that debug adds code to your source during > generate/compile. This additional code causes Flex to change the > structure of the AS classes so that the 32k limit is not hit. Hmm, more > code? Yeah. Try just adding 50 or so lines of code, even if it is > bogus. Usually, this will get you working. Now, when you add more real > code go on and remove the bogus stuff, you don't want it in your > production code! > > A final hint. After hitting a 32k error, and trying one of the above > solutions, if you still get the error, delete the temporary generated as > code. It is located in ..\MyAppServer\flex(flexroot or contextroot) > \WEB- INF\flex\generated\*. You can delete all the folders safely (make > sure to restart your Flex server). > > This can be an aggravating and somewhat scary problem, and it always > seems to happen just before an important demo. Just use good, modular > design, and remember the bogus code trick. Macromedia has stated a > committment to improving this situation in the next release. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: What does "Warning: Changes to unknown property, ..., will not be > detected" mean and how do I get rid of it? > > A: Generally speaking, binding needs type information to set up its > change detection functionality, and anything that hides this info can > cause this problem. Don't use > mx.core.application.application.myVariable in binding. If you are > passing a reference to some component into another component via public > properties, type the property variable definition as specifically as > possible. When using "dot.down" notation to specify a property in an > object or model, cast it to a type: > text="{String(myObject.whatever.firstName)}" > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: Is there a Rich Text Editor? > > A: With the current Flex 1.5 component set, there is no Rich Text Editor > unfortunately. There are some limitations in the current Flash Player > that make such an editor difficult though there are implementations out > there people have used. Macromedia has heard many requests for a Rich > Text Editor and has indicated there might be better support in a future > release. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: How to run Flex as a Service? > > A: Flex is not a server that you deploy and run, it is simply deployed > as part of your web application. So whatever web container you are > using, either Tomcat, JRun 4, WebLogic, etc... so long as you can run > any of those as services, then it will work. To learn how to deploy > Tomcat, JRun 4 or any other Java server as a service, please refer to > the appropriate documentation for the server you are using. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: Does Flex work on my platform? > > A: Probably, search the archives if you have a specific question about > your platform before posting to the list. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: How do I get Flex to query my database? > > A: Flex does not have any native database integration functionality. you > will require some server-side tier that will do the database access and > send the data back to Flex via one of three protocols: > > * RemoteObjects: Fastest. communicates with server side EJB's or POJOs using > AMF, a binary, compressed format. > * HTTPService: uses HTTP protocol. Sources can be JSP, ASPx,.NET, files, any > url > that returns HTTP. > * WebService: Slowest. Uses SOAP protocol. Sources can be .Net, or any > WebService. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: I'm sending my request, and I see the data traffic in the command > window, but the result is always empty. > > A: You are probably trying to read the result immediately after the > send(), right, expecting synchronous behavior? You can't do this. See > "How do I make synchronous data calls?" > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: How do I make synchronous data calls? > > A: You CANNOT do synchronous calls. You MUST use the result event. No, > you can't use a loop, or setInterval or even doLater. This paradigm is > quite aggravating at first. Take a deep breath, surrender to the > inevitable, resistance is futile. > > There is a generic way to handle the asynchronous nature of data service > calls called ACT (Asynchronous Call Token). Search for this in > Developing Flex Apps doc for a full description, but here it is in a > nutshell. This example uses HTTPService but will be similar for > RemoteObject and WebService: > > * First, create a function to handle the data return, like "onResult()" > * In the HTTPService tag, put this function name in the "result" property, > passing in event. <mx:HTTPService id="mxdsGetData" result="onResult(event)" > ...> > * Invoke the call in script: > //invokes the call to the HTTP data service > var oRequestCallbject = app.mxdsGetData.send(oRequest); > //we will use this string value in the result handler. > //Yes, you CAN set this AFTER you invoke send() > oRequestCall.MyQueryId = "WhateverIWanttoUseToIdentifyThisCall" ; > * In the result handler, which will be called every time the data service call > returns, you identify what the returned data contains like this: > var callResponse = oEvent.call; //get the call object > //gets the value of this property you set in the call > var sQueryId = callResponse.MyQueryId; > //will be "WhateverIWanttoUseToIdentifyThisCall"; > trace(sQueryId); > > You can use this sQueryId value in a switch to do the correct > processing. Alternatively, you can pass reference to a handler > function directly. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: When I have only a single record, it does not display in my DataGrid > > A: This is a known issue that is caused by Flex's inability to > differentiate between an object and an array with a single row. the > solution is to ALWAYS use "toArray()". Here are some examples: > > In MXML: > <mx:DataProvider> > {mx.utils.ArrayUtil.toArray(modelAccidents1.accidents.accident)} > </mx:DataProvider> > > And the inline format: > > dataProvider={mx.utils.ArrayUtil.toArray(testSrv.result.result.error)} > > And in ActionScript: > myControl.dataProvider = > mx.utils.ArrayUtil.toArray(testSrv.result.result.error) > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: I have two alerts in my code, but they are displaying in reverse! > > A: Actually, it is worse that that. Alerts, and "Modal" pop-up windows > are not truly modal. They prevent user interaction with the interface, > but they do NOT block code execution. What is happening is that both > alerts are displaying, and the second one is on top of the first. The > way to get the behavior you want is to use events and handlers. Your > code must display the alert or modal pop-up, the end. When the user > dismisses the prompt, you then complete the processing. You should be > able to find some examples if this on one of the sites listed in > "Resources" > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: The columns in my DataGrid are in some strange order! > > A: The order is typically the reverse of the order in which they were > added. If you need a specific order, specify that and many other good > things by using DataGridColumn tags. See the docs. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: Can I embed HTML in my Flex application? > > A: Flex supports a limited subset of HTML in its TextArea and some other > text- related classes. There is also a new article by Christophe on his > blog discussing how to fake HTML with an IFRAME ( > http://coenraets.com/viewarticle.jsp?articleId=95). > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: How can I make FlexBuilder faster? > > A: In order to improve FlexBuilder performance, it is best to disable > the "Design View". This can only be done in FlexBuilder 1.5 and to do > so, please follow these steps: > > * Select "Preferences" under the "Edit" menu > * In the "General" section, remove the check mark next to > Enable MXML Design View" > * click on "OK" > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: Flex Builder debug does not stop at breakpoints in components > > A: The safest way to set breakpoints in component files is to use the > Files list. Start the debugging session, nav you app to where you want > to start debugging. Click the "Files" button on the Debug Toolbar, or go > Menu Debug\Files. Select the component you want, usually the .mxml or > .as files. The list strips out underscores in filenames, and can be very > long, but this method always works. FB will open a temporary file, set > the breakpoints, and away you go. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: Are there frameworks available for Flex? > > A: Yep! > Cairngorm: http://www.iterationtwo.com/open_source_cairngorm.html > FlexUnit: http://www.iterationtwo.com/open_source_flexunit.html > SynergyFLEX: http://www.mossyblog.com/archives/473.cfm (this link is for > 1.0.0a) > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Q: When will Flex for .NET be available? > > A: Macromedia has not announced a date. > > // END > > > > -- > Flexcoders Mailing List > FAQ: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flexcoders/files/flexcodersFAQ.txt > Search Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! 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