So I’ve been using Firefox/Mozilla pretty zealously and only use IE when I have to—simply because I hate using the browser now. But now I am totally sold on Firefox for one simple tool that I didn’t realize existed until now…

Live Bookmarks

When you browse to a blog (or even any website) that has an RSS feed of some sort, a little orange icon (in Firefox) appears in the bottom right corner of my browser and invites me to add that site as a live bookmark to my bookmarks. If I click it, it gives me various RSS options and then where to keep my bookmark stored at.

Here’s the cool part… if I click through my bookmarks and get to that live bookmark, it gives me the last few posts from that RSS feed and allows me to quickly see at a glance if there are any new posts. If there are, I can get to it in a SINGLE CLICK without having to type in anything or whatever.

PURE GENIOUS.

If you haven’t switched to Mozilla or Firefox, what are you waiting for?

Filed under: XML / XHTML, \\\ ETC ///
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Came across a great color mixing utility—web-based and cross-browser compatible. Saved a copy over at my website:

http://www.designbymichael.com/colormixer/

Another cool one that actually has built in simulations of various color-impairments (i.e. color blindness):

http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html

Filed under: Applications, Websites, \\\ ETC ///
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Well, being a home-owner sure is taking a toll on my geek status. Last week I think I spent maybe an hour cumulatively on the computer last week (at home). In fact, the past few weeks I’ve been outdoors more than I have the past four years that I’d been living at the apartment. Now that’s bad. Er, good.

Take a look at the newly landscaped front yard. Of course I’m not finished with it yet, but the area underneath the pine tree is really shaping up. I planted a ton of hastas, added some cypress mulch (which is quite inexpensive — six huge bags for $10.00 at Home Depot), and hung some bird feeders of varying varieties.

But I won’t have too much to worry about losing geek status—I’ve got a rather large project ahead of me, updating a website with over 6,000 recordsets to update. That’s over 80 hours of labor. Uh, ouch.

Filed under: Development, Home Improvement
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So following up to my other follow-ups on the UI list selection boxes, I’ve added functionality that can move a selection up or down in the list order. In this example, the UI list box instance name is selectedModulesBox.

Here’s the code that makes it move up in the sort order:

// ######## this example moves an item up in the sort order (example: from index 2 to index 1)
on (release) {
// the UI list instance name is "selectedModulesBox"
selectedIndexNumber = selectedModulesBox.selectedIndex; // get current selection index number
previousIndexNumber = selectedIndexNumber - 1; // get the destination index number
if (selectedIndexNumber > 0) {
// temporarily store the data we're going to be moving into some variables so we don't lose it
movingSelectedItem = selectedModulesBox.getItemAt(selectedIndexNumber);
movingPriorItem = selectedModulesBox.getItemAt(previousIndexNumber);
// replace the data in originating and destination indices
selectedModulesBox.replaceItemAt(previousIndexNumber, movingSelectedItem.label, movingSelectedItem.data);
selectedModulesBox.replaceItemAt(selectedIndexNumber, movingPriorItem.label, movingPriorItem.data);
// move the selection box up in the order
selectedModulesBox.selectedIndex = previousIndexNumber;
}
}

to move it down in the sort order, use this code:

on (release) {
selectedIndexNumber = selectedModulesBox.selectedIndex;
nextIndexNumber = selectedIndexNumber + 1;
if (nextIndexNumber < selectedModulesBox.length) {
movingSelectedItem = selectedModulesBox.getItemAt(selectedIndexNumber);
movingNextItem = selectedModulesBox.getItemAt(nextIndexNumber);
selectedModulesBox.replaceItemAt(nextIndexNumber, movingSelectedItem.label, movingSelectedItem.data);
selectedModulesBox.replaceItemAt(selectedIndexNumber, movingNextItem.label, movingNextItem.data);
selectedModulesBox.selectedIndex = nextIndexNumber;
}
}

What is actually forcing the selection highlight to move with the change in order is the line: selectedModulesBox.selectedIndex = nextIndexNumber;. What that’s doing is simply saying that the new selectedIndex value in the UI list is the destination index number.

Lose ya? Leave your questions and I might be able to answer them.

Filed under: Actionscript, Flash (Macromedia)
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In a follow-up to my previous post, I mentioned that I had two UI components (selection lists) that I wanted to be able to add to list2 from list1 by selecting items in list1 and clicking a button. Likewise, I wanted to remove selected items from list2 by clicking another button.

Because I’m pretty new with Actionscript 2.0, I’ve had to hunt-n-peck through the help guide in Flash and try different things out. So here’s all you need to do to make it work.

First you need two instances of a UI list box. For this example, List1 has a list of items to choose from. List2 is the target list where we want to transfer our selection to with the click of a button. Give the first UI list box an instance name of List1 and the second List2.

You’ll need two buttons, one to transfer selected items from List1 to List2 and one to remove selected items from List2.

On the transfer button, use this actionscript:

on (release) {
tempArr = new Array();
tempArr = _root.List1.getSelectedItems();
for (i=0; i _root.List2.addItem(tempArr[i].label, tempArr[i].data);
}
_root.List2.dataProvider = tempArr;
}

What this code essentially does is goes through List1 and throws the selected items into an array (tempArr). We cycle through that array and add the label and data to List2.

On the remove selection button, use this actionscript:

on (release) {
myArr = new Array();
myArr = List2.selectedItems;
for (i = 0;
i < myArr.length;
i++) {
List2.removeItemAt(List2.selectedIndex);
}
}

This snippet makes an array of the selected items in List2 and simply removes them from the List2 UI list. Pretty straight forward stuff.

The most complicated part of getting to this was understanding what I could and couldn’t do with these lists. Hope you find this useful.

Filed under: Actionscript, Flash (Macromedia)
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It seems that I’ve been spending less and less time on my PC at home these days now being a home-owner. Lately I’ve been focusing on getting the yard into shape, taking a bit of a break from finishing the bathroom. A lot of landscaping ahead of us—we wanna get the grass back into shape and get a flower garden going this year.

I’m doing some interesting Actionscript-related things at work these days. That module selection application that I eluded to in a prior entry is taking an interesting turn. I’m trying to do some moderately-complicated form work within Flash—form work that could be done in a heart-beat using JavaScript… but not so easy in Flash.

I’ve got two UI (User Interface) component objects and am trying to transfer selected data from comp1 to comp2 and remove data from comp2 based on which button you choose.

To transfer from one UI comp to another:

on (release) {
tempArr = new Array();
tempArr = _root.selectionBox.getSelectedItems();
for (i=0; i _root.targetBox.addItem(tempArr[i].label, tempArr[i].data);
}
_root.targetBox.dataProvider = tempArr;
}

Slap that code in a “transfer” button and it will copy the data from selectionBox over to targetBox. Now where I’m stuck is removing the selected data elements from targetBox. That’ll be todays’ project.

Filed under: Actionscript, Flash (Macromedia), General, Home Improvement, Home Ownership
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One of the challenges that I face in my Flash development is the handling of dynamic choices in data selection in a not-so-dynamic environment. Because usage and access to databases and dynamic scripting requires an act of congress, I am left with the necessity of improvisation and taking advantage of as many client-side abilities as I can.

Challenge: I’ve got an XML file with an array of choices that the user can choose from. They’re basically flash-based marketing modules—animations with voice-overs about our various services and options. Each user, employee, or employer can choose which modules they want to view and that means that there could be hundreds of thousands of possible combinations of modules that people can view and in the order that they want.

Limitations: A static XML file containing data about the flash modules, HTML, JavaScript,

(more…)

Filed under: Actionscript, Applications, Development, Flash (Macromedia), JavaScript
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I’m re-vamping my blog and hope to have things back and up and running soon. I’ve had to pull some content offline for various reasons and am repurposing this blog. I’ll be posting comments on Flash development, graphic design, gaming, and social/spiritual commentary. All personal commenting is now being moved to a private blog. Sorry for any inconvenience.

All Runescape archived comments are being removed. No one’s donating any moolah for the information/bandwidth usage, so I’m pulling it all offline.

HAH! Tough. You’ll have to live with it you 12-year-old-runescape punks.

Filed under: General
3 Comments