Resize and crop for Image Shack Uploader

I am about to release new feature for Image Shack Uploader application. On the screen shot you can see Resize/Crop Tool:

There will be possible to crop image or resize it and upload on server. This window can be configured in options. I hope it wil be useful.

Open file from AIR using Merapi bridge

When I finished with vista style experiment I was thinking what if merapi could help to open files from AIR application. On the screen cast below I will show AIR application which could open MS Office file:


Before run my AIR application I needed to start java bridge (java project from Eclipse). I decided to zip all needed libraries into one runnable JAR file and run it from BAT file. But I still wanted to make one runnable file to start java bridge and AIR application together. One day, browsing on Merapi forum I found entry with solution to my problem. Using NSIS installer author has been built exe file.
The Bridge class from the Merapi library has a method called systemExecute with one string parameter Path. I tried to use this method with path to notepad.exe file, but in the result I had an error on Java side. I think this method was added to implement such feature as executing files from AIR application. Will check with new version of the Merapi library.

Update: Source code for Java project and for AIR project. In the java archive you could find runnable .jar and .bat files.

AIKI-JUTSU TAKEDA-RYU MAROTO-HA

Experiment: Fake Transparency

Recently, I have tried to make window for AIR application in vista-style . I mean, transparent window and blur effect applied on it.


I realized that I can make transparent AIR window and apply blur effect on it, but all objects on this window will be blurred as well. After some research, I understood that it is impossible to implement such feature like window in vista-style with AIR 1.5. Then I decided to try to make a desktop screenshot, copy area under the window and apply it to the backgroundImage property. But there was another problem, AIR 1.5 could not do a screenshot. So I decided to postpone this experiment to next version of AIR.

But some days ago, on the everythingflex blog I found post about Java bridge to AIR application called Merapi. Using this bridge, AIR application could do a screen shot. I decided to a bit amend sample in that post. The result of my experiment is below:



Original size.

Update: Source code for AIR application is available here.

Enterprise Flex with BlazeDS, The Book

In my morning subscriptions I found interesting post on Flex Pasta blog where Brian Telintelo announced that his book "Enterprise Flex with BlazeDS" has been published. The introduction and list of chapters looks interesting. On lunch I am going to check is this book in «Borders». I hope it is already in Singapore.

Update: Unfortunately, it is not, because it is just published and will be available in month. So I made pre-order.

Loading Image progress

Sometimes, in my projects, I needed to display progress of the image loading. It is not a big deal to display some animation stuff or some text during the image loading. But what if we need to display real progress of the loading, I mean percentage? After doing some research in internet, I found unusual solution to this problem. I think it is kind of trick where you can add ProgressBar as a child to Image. Another words, extend Image class adding ProgressBar which will display progress of its own loading.
This solution I found on Tony Fendall's blog and please check it out with source code.

Update: ImageShack uploader and auto update

Today I have implemented auto-update functionality for ImageShack Uploader application.
Now source code is available on Google code.

Update: Adobe QA team just approved my application and now it is available on Adobe AIR Marketplace.

Multitouch technology with AIR

Last year, in June, I attended one of the most interesting session of Singapore Flex User Group, session was about multitouch technology. Christian Moore from NaturalUI made a great presentation about history of this technology, how it works and how to create multitouch application using Lux library and ActionScript 3.0.

Even more, Hu Shunjie created an example of the touchscreen with paper box, piece of plastic and webcam.

I am trying to follow this technology and today, on InsideRIA, I found impressive video presentation about multitouch interface built on AIR. Check it out.

ImageShack Uploader

Sometimes I use ImageShack server to share my photos with friends or for posting images on forums. And one day, on ProgrammableWeb I found APIs for this service and decided to create AIR application for uploading images.

In the process of the development I found that Adobe's File or FileReference classes does not allow send files with custom content type and ImageShack backend do not accept Adobe's default content type. I investigated this issue and realized that currently it is impossible to send custom content type. So I decided to use as3httpclientlib library.
Using this library I could specify content type required for uploading (like image/jpeg, image/png) and send file using multipart POST request.
Each time, when image was successfully uploaded, I save links in the shared objects. So, user can manage all uploaded images (links to original images and thumbnails).
ImageShack upload method accepts parameters which allows resize images on backend side. But there I found another problem. This time it was problem on the backend. When I send parameters required for resizing, server does not respond. I decided to install ImageShack's firefox plugin and trace request to server. Unfortunately, server did not respond as well. So in the next version I am going to resize image using actionscript and send already resized image to the server.
Also, I have one issue in my todo list to implement, it is auto update for my air application.

If you are interested in such kind of application, you can download it here.

Post, The First.

Hi Everyone,

My name is Denis Volokh and I am Flex/Air developer at Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.
I've started this blog to share some of my ideas, experiments and codes.

Currently, I am working on the project codenamed "eShop", this project was rolled out this year, but we still have a lot of features to implement.
SingTel is the first company who is selling iPhone in Singapore. For the reservation and buying iPhone in SingtelShop we have developed standalone flex application, you can check it out here.

My friend Andrij and I am working on the project called "Idubee". It is online spreadsheet application built with Adobe Flex Framework.

Also, I am interested in Papervision3D framework, Java development (Merapi) and all what is related to the web.

A bit later I will present few examples of my works.

So, see you in next posts.