Comparing versions in FDT
During some research on FDT tips, I found out from here that FDT saves local histories of your files. And using these, you can compare versions. To get to this, Right Click on the file > Compare With > Local History.
I haven't tried it yet, but you can apparently also restore deleted files here as well.
fl.* package in FDT
While doing some coding using components recently, I noticed FDT was having trouble finding the fl.controls.comboBox, which didn't make a lot of sense to me. I was unable to data type my variables, and had no access to the component methods. I ended up just data typing it as *, which is something I hate to do.
After a bit of research, I found out that FDT cannot distribute the fl.* package, as it falls under some other licensing agreement (or something along those lines).
Luckily, I found a few people who have set up the fl.* package as a swc, so it can be set up as a linked library in FDT, which makes life a lot easier. Some of the swc files dont include certain components, but this one at apdevblog.com seems to be working for me so far:
http://apdevblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/fl_package.swc
FITC Toronto 2009 Videos are up
Unlike 2008, where it just seemed to be people only promoting themselves, the FITC conference this year turned out to be more about teaching then showing off. I was disappointed I couldn't attend more sessions.
Time to peruse the one's I couldn't see. Videos of the sessions have been posted!
AS2 Video NetConnection stays paused from within a Class
I hate these little gotchyas...
Haven't done AS2 in a while, and have been trying to get a Video object streaming an FLV. The following code worked from the timeline:
var connection_nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
connection_nc.connect(null);
_stream_ns = new NetStream(connection_nc);
_owner.videoContainer.attachVideo(_stream_ns);
stream_ns.play("temp.flv");
But when put into a class, the video stayed paused.
Turns out if I move the _stream_ns.play("temp.flv"); line to it's own function within the class, and call it separately, it works fine. Having it in the same function I guess was just too fast for AS2.
So annoying. Let me know if anyone has found another reason/solution.Read more
FDT Preferences Backup
I'm a backup freak. And it pleases me to announce that I finally found where the FDT preferences and custom templates are stored so I can back them up in case of disaster.
The first time I set up FDT, I spent a few hours making custom templates, and setting things up the way I wanted - Only to have it all disappear a few days later for some unknown reason.
Then it happened again last night.
But I found a commonality. I had deleted the default Workspace folder which I thought was empty. Turns out there are a bunch of invisible files in there which I found with OnyX.
I pulled the folder back using Time Machine, and my templates magically restored.
Wish it was a bit more obvious to find.
FDT Tip
Just switched over to FDT from FlashDevelop because I was sick of using Windows on my Mac. So far I'm preferring FlashDevelop, but as I get around the little differences, FDT is slowly winning me over.
One thing that was annoying me was it wouldn't auto-fill my local variable names without typing "this." first. But a post I found Flash Mech gave a great tip to set up FDT's Code Assist to act more like I am used to in FlashDevelop.
Essentially, change your Auto activation triggers for AS in your Code Assist Preferences to:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_$.:
This covers you for:
_ : property names
. : after every dot notation
: : data typing
I have also added in $ because I like to name my method scoped variables starting with a dollar sign.
LocalConnection bug with Flash Player 10.0.32.18
So it turns out after cursing the Ad Server for an hour, I figured out that the cause of my LocalConnection issues was in fact the recently downloaded security release of the Flash Player. No idea why yet - possible new security requirement. But it does seem to be the source of the problem.
Just FYI in case any others out there were having the same issue.
Lucky Charms - Keep Me Mini gone live!
My final project with Fjord has finally gone live after a 3 month development cycle.
Seemed like a simple concept at first, but ended up taking some creative code with bitmap data objects in order to get things moving at a decent speed. One bitmap, continuously re-drawn, was used for displaying all the items in the cave, and the other (kept invisible) was used for hit testing when the cave slice got to a certain scale.