A couple friends of mine recently unveiled a SWFAddress Module for Drupal
, the leading opensource PHP content management system. They run a blog called cascadingstyle where you can learn more about it. The cool thing about a CMS with SWFaddress is that you still get manageable content and can use a Flash presentation layer to allow for a cohesive branding  on your site. Its bookmarkable, degrades gracefully and uses AMF to pull content into you Flash files. It works with Flash or Flex and Drupal 5, though plans to port it to Drupal 6 are definitely in the works.

They recently presented it at a Drupal camp in Milwaukee and have anupcoming presentation at DrupalCon in Boston next week. Congrats to Steve and Brian and the hard work they have been putting in on it. This really is a major advance in opensource CMS.

It’s my first Flex Community Developer Champion event… If you are a student, Flash designer or maybe even a non-Adobe Flash Platform developer in Central Illinois, and interested in learning a bit about what Adobe Flex is and how it may be useful to you, come see my talk at Bradley University in Peoria next week. More details are available at the Bradley Multimedia Program site. I will have giveaways, provided by Suzanne Nguyen from Adobe.

From the Site:

Chad will be giving an overview of what Flex is, how it is commonly used. He will also show how to build a rich internet application in just under 10 minutes using the power of the Adobe Flex Framework. Flex 3 has just been released, as has its companion application, Adobe AIR, which allows Flash and Flex experiences to run on the dekstop as well as in the browser. Flex is open source, and the builder is free for students and teachers.

Not a surprise happening, but a welcome one nonetheless, Adobe has introduced Flex 3 and AIR 1.0. This coincides with the first day of the 360 Flex conference, but it also comes a bit earlier than I had expected… My Flex Builder 3 beta wasn’t set to expire for a few more days. For a bit more info and some great quotes and some quick stats on the state of Flash/Flex developers vs. the number of .Net developers check out this article at the NYTimes. 1 million Flash/Flex develoeprs can’t be wrong, right? I guess they could when compared with the 2.2 million .Net folks out there with VisualStudio in hand. Time will tell, but I have a hunch that there will be enough demand out there that the ecosystem can support both tracks.

Can’t wait to see what appears in the coming weeks now that AIR is official and now a final release.  We have dabbled with it at Iona (even releasing an app for a client), but as some of you may have experienced, it’s pretty hard to recommend to a client that they deploy a application on Beta software. Even if that beta comes from Adobe. It was just safer to deploy a EXE compiled with Zinc. We now can give that some serious thought and make a recommendation with a  bit more confidence that AIR is the best way to go. I know I like the idea of not needing to purchase an extra IDE for compiling and finishing the delivery of an app/RIA. The fact that AIR’s SDK is free and only requires a certificate if the client needs to have that extra level of security when deploying is great. Previously, when appropriate/necessary if we needed to hand over the source code for a Flash/Flex app that got compiled in Zinc, it was always a weird conversation…

Us: “Well, here is your source code, enjoy.”

Them: “What is this ‘.zinc’ file?”

Us: “Yeah, you need to use that to compile the .exe using Multidmedia Zinc, here’s the link.”

Them: “So you didn’t use Flash?”

Us: “Not for the final compile. We needed to extend Flash to have file I/O, a custom icon, window, right click functionality, etc. etc. etc.”

Them: “So we need to buy another app?”

Us: “Yeah, pretty much.”

Them: “Hmm, suppose we’ll have to run this by IT. Blech.”

That is, if it even got that far… A couple times the conversation just disintegrated into some sort of Abbott and Costello routine where the “Who’s on First?” was replced by some never ending cycle of technobabble and three letter acronyms. Whether it was Zinc, Jugglor, SwfStudio, Screenweaver or any other SWF to EXE tool, it was often a point of contention during the delivery phase a of a project. What one to use? What one does the client know? None, okay… which one would they be willing to accept, support, maintain, etc… Tough call.

Now, that call doesn’t really have to made. Clients know Adobe. Acceptance qualms are pretty much taken care of there. Of course the whole “IR” part of AIR is a little foreign, but if you can get the runtime installed on your client’s machines, or accepted via a badge install, etc., the path for corporate IT approval just got a little easier. This article, sent to me by a colleague at Bradley, outlines just how difficult that can be and how things need to change for brands to succeed and grow. Anything that eases that step may be worth for that fact alone.

How about you? Are you transferring any/all app development to AIR? Are you still planning on using other SWF to EXE tools?

If you are a Mac user and are looking for a fun sketch tool to work out some ideas or create quick compositions, go check out Nodebox. Its a python based tool that uses simple syntax to create some really great drawings. Similar to Processing, but perhaps a little simpler, Nodebox has a ton of great libraries as well (Quicktime, Web, iSight, etc.)… Check out this image I made with Nodebox… It combines Kuler and Flickr to make a nice piece. For these I chose a keyword query that pings both APIs and returns a recently entered Kuler color palette and a image from Flickr sorted by number of views. I have a set of them at Flickr, go check it out.

Two great conferences are going on this week, and though I won’t be attending either of them, I will indeed be watching the blogs, twittering and news coming out of both of them. FITC looks to have some great speakers lined up and hopefully some of them will make their programs available after the show. 360|Flex looks to be the launch place of Flex 3 and Air 1.0 according to Ted Patrick. A number of other developers are either demoing betas of new libraries, component sets or APIs, as well. A couple contests are set to be awarded at 360|Flex, too, so do your part and go vote! All in all a great week to be a Flash/Flex devigner.

As a sidenote, I hope to have a new gnerative composition mashup completed this week as well. It involves my favorite API, Kuler, of course, and a new one that I haven’t worked with yet. The subject matter involves colors and the emotions they elicit and vice versa. When released, the source code will be published with it, too.

Dekaf is listed there as an entry along with everyone else’s. Some great work up there. I really, really like the PostACard app. Very nice work indeed to everyone who submitted.

And of course thanks to the entire Degrafa team. Awesome work on an excellent framework!

I was inspired by a post on the Degrafa blog about generative compositions being made with Degrafa and saw they were running a “Degrafa Derby” contest… So, I decided to tie Degrafa to Kuler and produce a mashup similar to my CoolerKreator app. It’s called Dekaf. It’s lacking a couple features that CoolerKreator has, animation, filters etc… mainly cuz I’m totally new to Degrafa.

The source is a bit of a mess (available via right click in the app), i haven’t deleted a number of traces, etc… I have to admit, I had a heck of a time getting the “removeChild” type methods to work in Degrafa. I ended up using “pop()” on the items arrays instead. Oh well. I hope to add in filters and animation in the next few days/weeks as time allows.

Much thanks to Erno on the DeGrafa Gogle Group and of course to Mark Tovey, my coworker who gave me a bit of help with the ciricle removal code troubleshooting.

Enjoy!

I received correspondence from some folks at Adobe… I suppose that the name my little app had been using wasn’t really something that they had approved. So, in the interest of being courteous and such… I have a new name for everyone’s favorite Kuler powered generative art composition tool. CoolerKreator.

The site does use a 301 redirect to help prevent 404 errors, but for future reference, update your bookmarks.

So, I played guitar through middle-high-school and into college. I pretty much lost interest after I got out of school… started work, etc. Well, after spending the last couple months honing my fake chops on GHIII, I decided to take the plunge and clean up the old guitar I had sitting in a closet. I restrung it and cleaned it up yesterday, and today I went out and picked up a little tweed Fender Mini-Twin amp, which was a lot of fun for about 30 minutes, until the input jack started exhibiting a short. I suppose I’ll return it for another one. Anyway… I did plug the guitar into Garageband and played with that a bit. I have to say, I was much impressed with the amp emulators and effects available in such a simple program. Sounded like a ful stack coming out of my Macbook Pro. Too much fun.

I was a little disappointed in the amp I got, but maybe it was just a fluke. Anyway… I suppose I need a non-computer or video game related hobby, so maybe this is a good thing to get back into. I must dig up my old tab books now.

Via GearLive. This is what I’m talking about. I have been wanting Flash on my iPhone since it was released. I’d even take FlashLite at this point. I have so many Flash powered sites I need to check, visit etc, not being able to use my phone is a pain. I’d like to view Vimeo and proper Youtube content as well as use my Mediadinosaur site among others.

Here’s to hoping when the SDK comes out, Flash player comes with it.