Mike Chambers

One of the new ActionScript APIs include in Flash Player 10 are the addition of z based proprties (joining the existing x and y). The DisplayObject.z and DisplayObject.rotationZ properties allow you to manipulate your display object on the z axis (relative to the 3D parent container).

Below is a simple example that shows how changing the rotationX, rotationY and rotationZ properties affect a DisplayObject instance.
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Im a little late on this, but the Flex and Flex Builder teams just released updates to the Flex SDK and Flex Builder 3, which among other things, adds support for Adobe AIR 1.1.

There are also a ton of bug fixes for the Flex SDK and Flex Builder, as well as preliminary support for working with Flash Player 10 content in Flex Builder (although it is not clear where to download the debug player from. Im looking into this).
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The FlexUnit ActionScript 3 unit testing library has moved to the Adobe Open Source website. Alistair Mcleod has all of the details on his blog, including screen shots and new info on some of the updates included in the new release (which includes a much improved test runner).

You can find all of the new FlexUnit home here.

One of the new features in Flash Player 10 are new ActionScript FileReference APIs that allow Flash content to directly read and write data to the user’s system.

Prior to Flash Player 10, in order to read or write a file to the user’s system, Flash content would first have to bounce it off of a server, and then load it back to the users system before it could be accessed. This was not only a hassle to program, but added additional application latency and resource usage.

The new functionality is achieved through the addition of two new APIs on the FileReference class:
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There are quite a few security changes in the upcoming Flash Player 10, some of which may require changes to content or policy files to ensure that content continues to work.

Below are a couple of articles that discuss some of the security changes in Flash Player 10:
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One of the new ActionScript features included in the Flash Player 10 Public Beta is the inclusion of a Vector class. Essentially, the Vector class is a typed Array, and in addition to ensuring your collection is type safe, can also provide (sometimes significant) performance improvements over using an Array.

Using the Vector class is pretty simple, and very similar to using an Array. In fact, the Vector class contains all of the same methods as the Array class. The main difference is how you instantiate it.

For example, here is how you instantiate an Array:
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I have been having a lot of fun hanging out in the Flash Platform Chat room I set up last week. However, it can be a little bit of a hassle to connect to the room depending on which Jabber / XMPP client you are using. I am working on an AIR app for the chat that will make it super simple, but until then you will have to use your own client.

I use Adium on Mac OS X to connect and it works really well, except that it can be a bit of a hassle to connect to the room every time. The latest beta allows you to bookmark the room to make it easier to connect (Contact > Add Group Chat Bookmark), but at least for me works inconsistently.

So, I put together a simple AppleScript that you can save that will open the chat room in Adium.
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I posted some code the other day that showed how to use the XIFF AS3 Library to connect to an XMPP server and join a group chat room.

Below is an slightly modified example that shows how to login anonymously, and connect to a room.
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I have set up a permanent test group chat room on the Flash Platform community chat server. This can be used if you need to test your chat client, or if you are building an XMPP / Jabber client and need a remote room to test on.
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The title pretty much sums it up. Is anyone using ActionScript 2 as the root content of an AIR application? or know or any AIR apps built with ActionScript 2 at the root content?

Note that Im not talking about AIR applications that are built in ActionScript 3 that contain AS2, but rather AIR applications that has its main root content as AS2 content.

Also, if you are using AS2 content in an AS3 or HTML based AIR application, what are you using it for.