Hi folks! Today, while mounting some of my projects into AIR, I realized that it would be great if I could pusblish AIR badges over Facebook. You know what? That is possible! I have created a simple flex application + facebook application that, based on parameters, generates AIR badge for an app. Now its time to share the stuff with you, feel free to publish your AIR badges, and let me know how do you like it.

How to use it?

1. Use application inserted below, or open (and bookmark) it in new window, or use AIR publisher facebook application
2. click connect (if using facebook application it connects you automatically)
3. fill desired parameters (click “fill example” button to demonstrate working parameters for one of my applications)
4. click “publish” button
5. wait for Alert with publishing status (displays post id if succeeded)

By default it publishes AIR badge directly into your facebook stream (wall), plus if you click “Like” on my facebook application (facebook restriction), it also publishes the badge into AIR publisher application wall.

How would your facebook post look like?

var a:uint, b:uint = 0;
loopA:for(a = 0; a < 10; a++)
    loopB:while(b++ < 100)
        loopC:for each(var c:uint in [0,1,2,3])
            break loopB;

trace(a, b, c); // traces "10 10 0"

Where to go from here

• Nocreativity.com
• See it in action on wonderfl.net

<allowBrowserInvocation>true</allowBrowserInvocation>

Now your AIR application will respond correctly with its installed version. With this setting on, the installed AIR application can be launched via the browser invocation feature (by the user clicking a link in a page in a web browser). Be sure to consider security implications.

Now, to get version info from any application running in flash player (or AIR) you simply call getApplicationVersion() method on air.swf file located on adobe domain.

var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
loader.load(new URLRequest("http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/browserapi/air.swf"));

function onComplete(event:Event):void
{
    // applicationID - <id>sk.yoz.whatever</id> defined in app.xml
    // publisherID - WindowedApplication().nativeApplication.publisherID
    Object(loader.content).getApplicationVersion(applicationID, publisherID, appVersionCallback);
}

function appVersionCallback(version:String):void
{
    if (version == null)
        // application is not installed
    else
        // installed, compare variable version with some desired
}

Please consider this code as extract from AIRInstallBadge package downloaded from Adobe. The badge also uses more advanced features, make sure to read the article or see the source code.

Where to go from here:

• Getting started with the custom install badge
• Interacting with an AIR app from a browser based app
• Using the Adobe AIR Install Badge

Google Wave is an online software application formerly developed by Google. Soon after you get used to this new collaboration tool, you may leave behind old spammy e-mails used for communication. While creating waves is easy and intuitive, there is no button to print the wave . Though, there is a chance. Print tip originally posted in comments on googlewaveinfo.com. In order to make this work, you have to run chrome with custom user-agent (iPhone 3).

1. run

   chrome.exe -user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16"

2. fire up google wave
3. click ‘Go ahead’
4. select wave
5. print using browser’s print page functionality

Based on your applications origin (AIR / flash player) you may define a few types of communication nature:

• SWF to SWF on a same domain
• SWF to SWF on different domains
• AIR to SWF
• SWF to AIR
• AIR to AIR

Let’s suppose, we use the following variables and client definition for receiver:

var localConnection:LocalConnection = new LocalConnection(); // both sender and receiver
localConnection.client = someInstanceWithPublicMethods // receiver only 

SWF to SWF on a same domain

This one is pretty common and simple situation:

// receiver
localConnection.connect("connectionName");

// sender
localConnection.send("connectionName", "methodName");

SWF to SWF on different domains

Based on apps nature – for generic/unknown domains you can use super generic form (works for every combination domain/swf/air). Notice the underscore character “_” with connection name:

// SWF receiver on unknown domain
localConnection.allowDomain("*");
localConnection.connect("_connectionName");

// SWF sender on unknown domain
sendingLC.send("_connectionName", "methodName");

… or more secure version, where you define exactly the domain you are targeting:

 // SWF receiver on domain1.com
localConnection.allowDomain("domain2.com");
localConnection.connect("connectionName");

// SWF sender on domain2.com
localConnection.send("domain1.com:connectionName", "methodName");

AIR to SWF

Now its getting tricky, please focus. Air app calls method on swf on some exact domain:

// SWF receiver on domain1.com
localConnection.allowDomain("app#SENDER*AIR*ID"); // e.g. "app#sk.yoz.air.SenderApp"
localConnection.connect("connectionName");

// AIR sender
localConnection.send("domain1.com:connectionName", "methodName");

… or the same super generic method mentioned earlier for unknown/generic receiver swf file location

// SWF receiver on unknown domain
localConnection.allowDomain("*");
localConnection.connect("_connectionName");

// AIR sender
localConnection.send("_connectionName", "methodName");

SWF to AIR

… now the opposite standing air receiver and swf sender:

// AIR receiver
localConnection.allowDomain("domain1.com");
localConnection.connect("connectionName");

// SWF sender on domain1.com
localConnection.send("app#RECEIVER*AIR*ID:connectionName", "methodName");
// e.g. "app#sk.yoz.air.ReceiverApp:connectionName"

… or use super generic form:

// AIR receiver
localConnection.allowDomain("domain1.com");
localConnection.connect("_connectionName");

// SWF sender on domain1.com
localConnection.send("_connectionName", "methodName");

AIR to AIR

This one is hefty, make sure to substitute with correct ids:

// AIR receiver (sk.yoz.air.ReceiverApp)
localConnection.allowDomain("app#SENDER*AIR*ID"); // e.g. "app#sk.yoz.air.SenderApp"
localConnection.allowDomain("localhost"); // may help with local testing
localConnection.connect("connectionName");

// AIR sender (sk.yoz.air.SenderApp)
localConnection.send("app#RECEIVER*AIR*ID:connectionName", "methodName");
// e.g. "app#sk.yoz.air.ReceiverApp:connectionName"

… or once again the generic form, now possible even without allowDomain()

// AIR receiver
localConnection.connect("_connectionName");

// AIR sender
localConnection.send("_connectionName", "methodName");

Where to go from here:

• LocalConnection Reference for AS3 / FP10.0
• Adobe Forums: Local Connection Air to Air
• Adobe Forums: Local Connection From Air to Air
• The infamous Error #2044: Unhandled StatusEvent:. level=error, code= on LocalConnection
• Error #2044: Unhandled statusEvent

stage.showDefaultContextMenu = false

In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on one or more bit patterns or binary numerals at the level of their individual bits. Bitwise operations are extremely fast and compact. Anytime we can speak to a computer in its native binary tongue, we save room and gain speed (moock.org). Now, lets see how it works. I have created a small flex application, try playing with numbers (input decimals) to understand what is actually happening with bits using different operators (10 and 3 are good inputs).

View Source for application is enabled

• Bitwise operation
• ActionScript 3.0 Language and Components Reference – Operators
• Using bitwise operators in actionscript

var list:Vector.<Vector.<int>> = new Vector.<Vector.<int>>();

…or shorter declaration:

var list:Vector.<Vector.<int>> = new <Vector.<int>>[];

now your vectors have two dimensions, I mean:

list[0][0]

Pixel Bender for Flash Player lets you play some more advanced games. Based on your needs you can force your kernels to “eat” not only BitmapData, but also ByteArray-s or Vector-s. With this knowledge, you can simply use Pixel Bender kernels for some fast math or processing like 3D engines (3D to 2D projection) etc. Lets have a look at some simple demos, how to push vector and raw bytes directly into shader via ShaderJob:

Vector.<Number>

Simple (one-dimension) vector may be recognized by pixel bender as 3-channel input just as simple as providing correct width/height for shader:

var src:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
while(someLooping)
{
    src.push(x);
    src.push(y);
    src.push(z);
}

var shader:Shader = new Shader(code);
shader.data.src.input = src;
shader.data.src.width = src.length / 3; // forces pixel bender to use image3 as input
shader.data.src.height = 1;

var res:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>();
var job:ShaderJob = new ShaderJob(shader, res, src.length / 3, 1);
job.start(true);

for(var i:uint=0; i<src.length; i+=3)
{
    x = res[i];
    y = res[i+1];
    z = res[i+2];
}

ByteArray

If you are more in “low-level” things, try using raw bytes as input. Do not forget to setup LITTLE_ENDIAN for source and result variables. Also make sure width*height*4 results in source bytes length.

var src:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
src.endian = Endian.LITTLE_ENDIAN;
src.position = 0;
while(someLooping)
{
    src.writeFloat(x);
    src.writeFloat(y);
    src.writeFloat(z);
}

var shader:Shader = new Shader(code);
shader.data.src.input = src;
shader.data.src.width = 256; // e.g.
shader.data.src.height = src.length/4/256;

var res:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
res.endian = Endian.LITTLE_ENDIAN;

var job:ShaderJob = new ShaderJob(shader, res, 256, src.length/4/256);
job.start(true);

res.position = 0;
for(var i:uint = 0; i<src.length/4; i++)
{
    x = res.readFloat();
    y = res.readFloat();
    z = res.readFloat();
}

Lets have a look at how pixel bender handles input and outputs. As with current version of pixel bender/flash player it seems like:

'res' : cannot have 1 or 2 channel outputs

… but you can use 3 or 4 channel outputs (float3, pixel3).

<languageVersion : 1.0;>
kernel threed <namespace : "sk.yoz";vendor : "Yoz";version : 1;>
{
    input image3 src;
    output float3 res; // or pixel3
    void evaluatePixel()
    {
        res = sample(src, outCoord());
        // we have res.x, res.y and res.z
    }
}

Where to go from here:

• Using Pixel Bender to calculate information
• Number crunching with as3 and pixelbender
• Using Pixel Bender with Flash Builder 4 as a number crunching engine
• Flash 10, Massive amounts of 3D particles with Alchemy (source included).

The code behind testing application:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
    xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
    xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx"
    width="100%" height="100%" applicationComplete="init()">
<s:layout>
    <s:HorizontalLayout/>
</s:layout>
<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
    import flash.net.navigateToURL;

    import org.osmf.net.NetConnectionCodes;
    import org.osmf.net.NetStreamCodes;
    private static const HANDSHAKE_URL:String = "rtmfp://stratus.rtmfp.net";
    private static const DEVELOPER_KEY:String = "PUT***YOUR***OWN";

    private var netConnection:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
    private var netStream:NetStream;
    private var netStream2:NetStream;
    private var netGroup:NetGroup;
    private var d0:Date

    private function init():void
    {
        d0 = new Date();
        netConnection.connect(HANDSHAKE_URL + "/" + DEVELOPER_KEY);
        netConnection.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, onNetStatus);
    }

    private function netConnectionConnected():void
    {
        var groupSpecifier:GroupSpecifier = new GroupSpecifier("somegruop");
        groupSpecifier.serverChannelEnabled = true;
        groupSpecifier.multicastEnabled = true;
        groupSpecifier.ipMulticastMemberUpdatesEnabled = true;
        groupSpecifier.postingEnabled = true;
        var groupspec:String = groupSpecifier.groupspecWithAuthorizations();

        netStream = new NetStream(netConnection, groupspec);
        netStream.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, onNetStatus);
        netStream2 = new NetStream(netConnection, groupspec);
        netStream2.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, onNetStatus);
        netGroup = new NetGroup(netConnection, groupspec);
        netGroup.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, onNetStatus);
    }

    private function onNetStatus(event:NetStatusEvent):void
    {
        var code:String = event.info.code;
        var time:Number = Math.round((new Date().time - d0.time)/10) / 100;
        log.appendText(code + " (" + time + " sec)\n");
        switch(code)
        {
            case NetConnectionCodes.CONNECT_SUCCESS:
                netConnectionCheckBox.selected = true;
                netConnectionConnected();
                break;
            case "NetStream.Connect.Success":
                if(event.info.stream == netStream)
                {
                    netStreamCheckBox.selected = true;
                    netStream.publish("test");
                }
                else if(event.info.stream == netStream2)
                {
                    netStream2.play("test");
                }
                break;
            case "NetGroup.Connect.Success":
                netGroupCheckBox.selected = true;
                break;
            case NetStreamCodes.NETSTREAM_PUBLISH_START:
                netStreamPublishCheckBox.selected = true;
                break;
            case NetStreamCodes.NETSTREAM_PLAY_START:
                netStreamPlayCheckBox.selected = true;
                break;
            case "NetGroup.Neighbor.Connect":
                netGroupNeighborCheckBox.selected = true;
                break;
        }
    }

    private function onReadMore():void
    {
        var url:String = "http://blog.yoz.sk/2010/06/quick-tip-ports-required-for-rtmfp/";
        navigateToURL(new URLRequest(url), "_blank");
    }
]]>
</fx:Script>
<fx:Declarations>
    <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
</fx:Declarations>
<s:VGroup>
    <s:HGroup verticalAlign="middle">
        <s:CheckBox id="netConnectionCheckBox" enabled="false"/>
        <s:Label text="NetConnection" />
    </s:HGroup>
    <s:HGroup verticalAlign="middle">
        <s:CheckBox id="netStreamCheckBox" enabled="false"/>
        <s:Label text="NetStream" />
    </s:HGroup>
    <s:HGroup verticalAlign="middle" paddingLeft="10">
        <s:CheckBox id="netStreamPublishCheckBox" enabled="false"/>
        <s:Label text="NetStream.Publish" />
    </s:HGroup>
    <s:HGroup verticalAlign="middle" paddingLeft="10">
        <s:CheckBox id="netStreamPlayCheckBox" enabled="false"/>
        <s:Label text="NetStream.Play" />
    </s:HGroup>
    <s:HGroup verticalAlign="middle">
        <s:CheckBox id="netGroupCheckBox" enabled="false"/>
        <s:Label text="NetGroup" />
    </s:HGroup>
    <s:HGroup verticalAlign="middle" paddingLeft="10">
        <s:CheckBox id="netGroupNeighborCheckBox" enabled="false"/>
        <s:Label text="NetGroup.Neighbor" />
    </s:HGroup>
</s:VGroup>
<s:VGroup width="100%" height="100%">
    <s:TextArea id="log" width="100%" height="100%" text="For success connection, opened UDP ports in range 1024..65535 required.&#13;Run two instances to test NetGroup neighboring.&#13;" />
    <s:Button label="Read more about RTMFP requirements" click="onReadMore()"/>
</s:VGroup>
</s:Application>

Where to go from here:

• Quick tip: Ports Required For RTMFP
• RTMFP Connectivity Checker
• RTMP and RTMPT tester
• Adobe Flash Media Server port connectivity survey (HTTP tunneling)
• Port tester for Flash Media Server and Wowza Media Server