1. Labs content
   • Labs home page http://labs.adobe.com/
   • Flash Platform page http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flash/
   • Flex framework page http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/
   • Flash Builder page http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashbuilder4/
   • Flash Catalyst page http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcatalyst/
   • FB download page http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs_flashbuilder4
   • FC download page http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs_flashcatalyst
   • Beta Videos http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flash/videos/
2. Devnet articles
   • Tim’s What’s new in FB http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex4builder_whatsnew.html
   • Matt’s What’s new in the SDK http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex4sdk_whatsnew.html
   • Flex DevCenter main page http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/
3. Press release http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200906/060109NewFlashPlatformTools.html

var htmlString:String = string.split("\n").join("<br />");

I have found this in an ActionScript 3 example at one time and I remembered this as it is a nice construct. However there is another, more common way to write this:

var htmlString:String = string.replace(/\n/g, "<br />");

So I start questioning myself, which one is faster?

After running some tests the results are: split and join ~ 1100ms, replace ~ 800ms. The test was run on a generated string of 16 mil. characters. So, unless you are planning to do this operation on a large data set the difference is not that big and it does not matter which one you will use. For 100k characters both score around 15ms.

BTW, I have used Flex 4

(updated on 04.15.2009)

   1:  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

   2:  <s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 

   3:      xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" pageTitle="Flex Regular Expressions" 

   4:      xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo" height="400" 

   5:      viewSourceURL="srcview/index.html" creationComplete="init()">

   6:      

   7:      <s:layout>

   8:          <s:BasicLayout/>

   9:      </s:layout>

  10:      

  11:      <fx:Script>

  12:          <![CDATA[

  13:          import mx.skins.spark.ButtonSkin;

  14:          private var error:String;

  15:      

  16:          protected function test_btn_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void

  17:          {

  18:              var restr:String = regexpInput.text;

  19:              var input:String = textInput.text;

  20:              var igstr:String = modifInput.text;

  21:              

  22:              this.error = null;

  23:              

  24:              if(restr != null && restr != '' && input != null && input != '') {

  25:                  var myPattern:RegExp = new RegExp(restr, igstr);

  26:   

  27:                  var result:Object = myPattern.exec(input);

  28:                  

  29:                  var a:String = '';

  30:                  var b:String = '<br />';

  31:                  var index:int = 0;

  32:   

  33:                  while (result != null) {

  34:                      // copy string from last match

  35:                      a += '<span>' + encode(input.substring(index, result.index)) + '</span>';

  36:                      index = result.index;

  37:                      

  38:                      // copy the matching parts

  39:                      a += '<span color="#339933">' + encode(result[0]) + '</span>'

  40:                      index += result[0].length;                

  41:   

  42:                      // create the trace string

  43:                      b += '<br /> ' + result.index + '\t'; 

  44:                      for(var i:int = 0; i<result.length; i++) {

  45:                          b += result[i] + ',';

  46:                      }

  47:                      

  48:                      if(igstr.indexOf('g') == -1) {

  49:                          a+= input.substr(index);

  50:                          break;

  51:                      }

  52:                      result = myPattern.exec(input);

  53:                  }

  54:                              

  55:                  a += '';

  56:                  resultText.content = a + b;

  57:              }

  58:          }

  59:                      

  60:          protected function encode(string:String):String {

  61:              var htmlString:String = string.replace(/\n/g, "<br />");

  62:   

  63:              return htmlString;

  64:          }

  65:          ]]>

  66:      </fx:Script>

  67:   

  68:      <s:Panel id="contentPane" width="100%" height="100%" left="0" 

  69:          title="Flex Regular Expressions" >

  70:          

  71:          <s:TextArea left="10" right="10" height="150" top="10" 

  72:              text="She sells seashells by the seashore" id="textInput" />

  73:          <s:TextInput text="(\w*)sh(\w*)" id="regexpInput" left="10" top="168" right="175"/>

  74:          <s:TextInput id="modifInput" text="ig" right="85" top="168" width="78"/>

  75:          <s:Button label="test" id="test_btn" right="10" top="168" 

  76:              click="test_btn_clickHandler(event)"/>

  77:          <s:TextArea id="resultText" left="10" right="10" top="198" bottom="10"/>

  78:      </s:Panel>

  79:      

  80:  </s:Application>

http://www.stratulat.com/Regular_Expressions_Flex.html

Snackr is a RSS ticker that pulls random items from your feeds and scrolls them across your desktop. Thank you NJ.

So if you are a student of a professor just go to FlexRegistration.com claim your copy.

Adobe released Flex 3, the free open source framework for building rich internet applications. It’s time now to build real cross platform web applications that work the same no matter in which browser the application was opened or which operating system the user has.

Flex 3 is open source and is free. The new site opensource.adobe.com is hosting the source code and the community resources for Flex SDK and BlazeDS. And talking about BlazeDS.. for whom is familiar with LCDS, this is the free version of server based Java remoting and web messaging technology. It enables (among other things) server push to Flex and AIR clients.

The Adobe® AIR™ runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating system.What is great about this framework is the ability to develop desktop applications using Flex, Flash and Ajax. So if you are a skillful Ajax developer and you have a powerful web application that you think will benefit from running on desktop, you are definitely interested in AIR.

You can found out more here:
http://www.craiovaforum.ro/scripting-client-side/adobe-flex-user-group-pentru-romania-164146.html. (article in Romanian)

We had a lot of swag for this event and the whole team switched to an old factory process: the production line.

First one to present was Matt Chotin, Product Manager for Flex. The room was full and the people interested in his presentation. He talked about Flex, AIR and also Thermo. Some of the audience knew about Thermo as videos from MAX 2007 where it was first presented were posted on youtube.

He was followed by Andrei Dragomir, our Ajax and Flex specialist that presented an overview of Flex. His session was long and intensive as there are so many things you can say about Flex.

However there were also breaks . During those brakes, we ate pizza, drink beer and most importantly socialize. All the people got to know others that share the same interest and we were also very busy (and that’s a good thing) answering different questions about Flex, AIR and about Adobe user groups, as many of them were interested in joining or creating one.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, we broadcast FlexCamp live using Adobe Acrobat Connect and also recorded all the event and everything is available on myadobe.ro site.

Dragos Georgita took his turn and presented AIR along with a lot of cool samples.

After some small technical difficulties (his computer closed just before his session), Mihai Corlan held the first hands-on session about how you can create a cool Flicker gallery.

The second hands-on was about web services and Flex and Cristi Ivascu presented the new wizard available in Flex Builder 3 that inspects a WSDL file and generates the ActionScript client that knows how to use that service. One of the main advantages is the creation of all the complex types used by that service so the developer can have access to a strong type framework in using it (code completion and everything).

Mihai Pricope’s hands-on was about data synchronization in Flex and even if it was a late hour he managed to get all the audience excited about the subject through his unique presentation style. He proposed a poll application and all the audience was able to vote and see the results changing in real time on the screen behind him.

In the end the whole Flex team stepped in front of the audience and we were bombarded with a lot of questions and hopefully we managed to answer satisfactory for most of them.

Overall we think this event was a success and we are already planning for another one at the beginning of 2008. That one maybe will be bigger and we’ll try to involve more the Flex community giving them the chance to present their work and ideas.