On November 7 at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, we announced that Adobe is contributing source code for the latest ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM2) to the Mozilla Foundation. AVM2, the new scripting language engine for ActionScript 3.0 introduced with Flash Player 9, was designed to deliver the performance and features to support the needs of rich Internet application developers. The new open source project, known as Tamarin, will be hosted at mozilla.org (www.mozil la.org/projects/tamarin/) and contributions will be managed by a governing body of developers from Adobe and Mozilla.

SWFAddress is a new open source project that provides deep linking and search engine indexing for Flash Websites and applications. In other words, it enables the Back, Forward, and Reload buttons of the browser and creates unique URLs that can be sent over e-mail or IM. Recently it reached version 1.0 and quickly gained the attention of top design agencies and interactive developers. SWFAddress started as a small experiment that aimed to enhance a typical Flash Website by presenting the portfolio of a fellow photographer. It adopted all the best practices available on the Internet and became one of the best solutions among the growing number of similar libraries.

Is XML overrated? This is a question not asked lightly. It is a heavy and bloated question, much like XML itself. XML has been around since 1997. It is document based and it is extremely verbose. It requires a higher payload across the network and cannot be natively used once it arrives. The XML payload must be consumed in some fashion. None of these activities attribute to the speed of an application.

You know the drill: a language is called object-oriented if it supports inheritance, encapsulation and polymorphism. And what do we do with interfaces?

Taconite is a framework that simplifies the creation of AJAX-enabled Web applications. It's a very lightweight framework that automates the tedious tasks related to AJAX development, such as the creation and management of the XMLHttpRequest object and the creation of dynamic content. Taconite can be used with all modern Web browsers (Firefox, Safari, IE, Opera, and Konqueror, to name a few) and can be used with any server-side technology, including Java EE, .NET, PHP, ColdFusion or any language that lets you return XHTML.

Adobe Flex and Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX (previously code-named ?Atlas?) were rated tops in security when rated by users of these popular languages, according to Evans Data Corporation's newly released 2007 Scripting Languages - Developers Choice Report. The research is based on developers ranking scripting languages that they use across thirteen distinct attributes.

In this AJAXWorld Conference & Expo session (March 19-21, in New York City), attendees will learn how Apollo will allow you to take your existing AJAX applications into the desktop. Install AJAX apps and give them online/offline capabilities, offline storage, chrome-less windows, and best of all, they work cross-platform - on Windows and Macs.

Visible Measures, the Rich Internet Application Analytics Company, officially launched the release of Visible Measures 2.0, with full support for AJAX application usage analytics. Visible Measures products provide solutions that capture and manage detailed application feature usage and associated error information for traditional, Web, and Rich Internet Applications (RIA).

In the July 2006 issue of CFDJ, I wrote about the Directory Watcher event gateway, and how easy it was to set up and how powerful a tool it could be for managing files and external interfaces. While this is true, there are some potential hazards waiting for the unsuspecting developer who jumps into DW waters without a life preserver.

Even though I write for SYS-CON, I've never publicly complimented them. But this time they really deserve a credit. SYS-CON will present the AJAXWorld 2007 Conference & Expo 2007 East in March. Usually, attendees have very limited access to speakers during conferences, and SYS-CON Events came out with a simple but smart idea - yesterday they have created an Ask The Faculty Forum, where anyone can post questions to the conference speakers and faculty. And you do not even have to attend the conference to participate in this forum. It's a very nice idea, or rather 'Idea 2.0' Speakers should visit the forum and answer the questions to promote their sessions, and software developers will have a chance to correspond with well known people in the industry. Yours truly will run Adobe Flex Hands-on Workshop during this event, so feel free to post relevant questions - it does not matter if you are planning to be there or not. I'm sure, other event organizers will start copycatting SYS-CON, which is a win-win situation for everyone.

VeriSign and Adobe Systems yesterday announced their intent to collaborate on integrating Adobe Flash technologies with VeriSign's peer-assisted content distribution technology. The first phase of the expected collaboration consists of VeriSign incorporating Adobe Flash Media Server 2 into its new globally-deployed Intelligent Content Delivery Network (CDN).

Just as 2006 was the year of streaming video and the birth of 'Internet TV,' 2007 is going to be the move beyond infancy toward the long-awaited and complete convergence of television and the Internet. Now that broadband is available to more than100 million households worldwide, every corporate Website and every media company will now provide video content, not to mention live and interactive video Webinars and on-demand Webcasts, in order to remain competitive.

During Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' keynote address yesterday at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), he announced a new solution that will bring together two of Microsoft's leading entertainment products: the Xbox 360 gaming console and the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform.

Understanding the complexity of AJAX at the browser level is critical to refining and debugging rich AJAX applications that leverage Web technologies such as JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and XMLHttpRequests. Adding a third-party AJAX runtime heightens the complexity and sufficient browser tooling becomes critical when attempting to build a rich Internet application around existing libraries. The Eclipse AJAX Toolkit Framework (ATF) provides both a multi-faceted set of browser tooling features as well as support for integrating and building on existing AJAX runtimes.

This is a part two of the prior blog where I described how to get data from JSP to Flex. This time we'll send data from a Flex application played by Flash Player to a Java Server Page. In the next version of our Flex-JSP application I'll show you how to post data from a Flex form to JSP. We'll place a simple form under the data grid above to enter the data about the new employee as in Figure below. Pressing the button Add Employee will submit the entered data to the JSP, which will attach them to existing employees and return back so the data grid will be repopulated to include the newly inserted employee.

One of the many hotly contested items about ColdFusion in recent times that some developers have been clamoring for are the addition of interfaces to ColdFusion Components as part of the standard CFML language. At one time I was definitely in this camp myself - interfaces would indeed be a good way to make sure that components follow a given contract.

At the end of each year, when SYS-CON informally polls its globe-girdling network of software developers, industry executives, commentators, investors, writers, and editors, our question is always the same: where's the industry going next year?

As the Web develops, the need for easy and efficient Web site and portal management increases. Developing an easy-to-use future-proof content management system (CMS) from scratch isn't easy. The basic functionalities can be assembled in a reasonable timeframe, meaning that you will be able to edit the structure and the content of the Web site.

Adobe staged its MAX 2006 developer and customer conference under the theme 'Beyond Boundaries' to showcase the company's emerging technologies and provide a glimpse of future innovations. Adrian Bridgwater attended to drink it all in.

All applications, simple or complex, online or desktop, are composed of many elements: screens, forms, menus, etc. In a Rich Internet Application, those elements can also include video, audio, or images. From the programmer's standpoint, it would be great to be able to reuse those parts so that they can be incorporated into different places of the application, or in different applications, using the same component.

It's not often that I wish I was in America,'' writes one (UK-based) developer, 'but this week sees the MAX 2006 show in Las Vegas.' He was not alone in wishing he'd been able to make it: around the Web world, bloggers both outside the US and inside have been discussing the many announcements made at this year's MAX and their implications for working developers and designers everywhere.

By the time you read this, another MAX will be in the history books. In fact, with a record attendance of around 3,500 developers and designers, this MAX in Vegas will also be in the record books.

Once you've learned the syntax of cfcs, one of the hardest things to do is to figure out exactly how and where to use them. The goal of this article is to run you through the most common (and useful) ways to use cfcs to make your applications easier to maintain.

Dreamweaver's native Log In User server behavior combined with the Restrict Access to Page server behavior can help you protect your pages from prying eyes. However, when it comes for more fine-grained control of content on pages viewable by users from multiple access levels, Dreamweaver doesn't have anything built in to offer any assistance to you.

The book 'RIA development with Adobe Flex and Java' is written. Check out the book site. Do you know why we are smiling? Because the writing is over! It took us longer than planned because we had to work for a living, and the time for writing this book was just stolen from our families and our sleep.

Did you know ActionScript 3.0 supports multiple inheritance? Here's how... Multiple inheritance is actually possible with AS3, despite popular belief that it's not supported. It's not really multiple inheritance in the true sense of the word going by the strict definition... but there's a way to get the job done in AS3 that behaves almost like the real thing.

Digital content is exploding; video on the Web is booming; Web 2.0 is hurtling toward us; and Adobe believes 'engagement' is the one word that best captures its strategy and encapsulates the competitive advantage that its fast-expanding product set gives to the developers and designers who use it.

Typically, Flex developers use Flex Builder IDE, but Adobe also offers free Flex SDK, and you should know how to build your applications without Flex Builder. Using a sample Flex project, this article shows how you can automate its build and creation of HTML wrappers for your swf files.

Adobe Systems introduced a beta version of Adobe Photoshop CS3 software, the next release of the world standard in digital imaging. Also introduced is a beta release of Adobe Spry framework for AJAX, a designer-focused solution for adding the interactive power of Ajax when developing rich, dynamic web-sites.

Check out my 2h 17mins AJAX presentation recording. I presented AJAX in various flavors to the Scottish CFUG last week and I promised to post the slides and files. You may check out the Adobe Connect Presentation, download the slides, and download the source code. Code includes examples for ajaxcfc, dojo, jquery, prototype, spry, and well as hand-coded XmlHttpRequest objects. AjaxCFC examples also include some using the Model-Glue and MachII frameworks, not included with this download.

One thing that constantly bugs me on projects is when I am asked to work on the user interface. I can do CSS, but it is, admittedly, not my strongest suit. I can do some graphics work, but not my strongest suit.

Flex framework contains a pretty impressive library of the off-the-shelf controls, which can fit the bill for many of the Rich Internet Applications needs. And yet, it is just the tip of the iceberg, because Flex enables you to create, combine and/or extend existing components with a simplicity and elegance hardly ever offered by other GUI development systems.

SYS-CON Events announced today that the first'iTVcon Internet TV Conference & Expo 2007' (www.itvcon.com) will takeplace in New York City. Calls for papers for the conference, sponsorshipand exhibit opportunities were made available today at the conferencewebsite. Delegate registration information can also be obtained at the conference website, www.itvcon.com.

'As people increasingly communicate and collaborate across the Internet, Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat Connect enable an effective workflow around documents,' said Kevin Lynch, Adobe's visionary SVP and chief software architect, as it was announced this morning that Adobe Reader 8 software is now available as a free download worldwide.

Unless your project is as simple as HelloWorld application, compilation and deployment of this application has to be automated. Creating a build script for any decent size application (i.e. hundreds of files in Flex and server-side Java) is a project on its own. Java programmers typically use one of the open source build tools such as Ant or Maven to formally describe and execute all steps required to build and deploy their projects.

Closures is one of the cornerstones of dynamic languages. Closures are unavoidable when you use asynchronous operations or need to process an event on the other object. Almost any non-trivial action in Flex communication with the server or getting an input from user is asynchronous. Using closure automatically gives you the reference to the class instance in which you have your function to the external object processing the event.

Video over the Internet and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) are the latest craze. With Flex 2 and Flash Media Server 2 (FMS), developers can easily create interactive media Web applications. In this article you'll create a basic video conference application that will give you the foundation to take you to the next step.

Hot Banana Software, a provider of Web content management software for marketing and a wholly owned subsidiary of J.L. Halsey, introduced a multilingual content management plug-in that automates the process of translating and publishing Web site content into multiple languages.

Do you know what's the main goal of any gas station owner? To get lots of trucking accounts. Business from small car drivers is worth pennies, and it gets on my nerves to hear them ask again and again, 'Five dollars of regular, please.' Trucks are different. They usually pump in a couple of hundreds of gallons at a time. For instance, here comes a flashy 18-wheeler with a sign 'Software Delivered.' These guys ship reusable open source components around the globe. As a former programmer, I was trying to play it smart by asking why they don't just let people download these components from the Internet? But the smiley truckers (many of whom used to be software developers too) just shrug and tell me that nothing beats personal delivery, plus the tips.

This command will build the swf file with the frame rate of fifty frames per second. Display list rendering and the ActionScript execution take turns, hence the frame rate can affect your application performance. Setting the frame rate to fifty does not mean that each frame will be displayed in exactly 20 milliseconds, as there is some OS/browser overhead. Besides, some browsers may impose restrictions on plugins to lower CPU utilization on the user?s machine.