1. Already using the mx.events.EventDispatcher class in your FlashLite application
2. Planning on or maybe already are, using my com.bittube.core.BatteryBroadcaster class in your FlashLite application. (incidentally if you are I am honored, and would also like to know )

You can download the NetworkBroadcaster classes from the link below.

Download the NetworkBroadcaster.zip

It is also posted in the Downloads area if you loose this post.

In those posts I discussed the problem of detecting screen rotation detection on the Nokia N95. I could not get the FlashLite player to register a change in Stage size when switching from portrait to landscape viewing modes. I have since added a little JavaScript function that I thought might be able to detect this change in lieu of the FlashPlayer not working.

Unfortunately all methods I have attempted so far to register a change in orientation have failed. The browser does not seem to support the onResize event which I assumed would provide the answer. This limitation appears similar to information I have found from iPhone web developers that have encountered similar issues.

SmugBlog Makes Reference to it on there site. There is also a couple of links to a Framework that provides a work around of sorts using an interval.

joehewitt, the developer responsible for the facebook I belive, has published the iUI as a google code project.

In addition to the resize problem it seems that the FlashLite 2 player within the browser does not offer support for the FlashVars parameter of the Embed and Object tags, it also does not appear to support appending variables on the SWF path name. These limitations would not allow values to be passed into the SWF file at run time.

A final test I performed was to export my test movie not as FlashLite content, but rather as Flash Player 6 and Flash Player 7 content with ActionScript 2 support. The thinking behind this was that this would offer me some lowest common denominator for publishing mobile flash content on a broad range of devices. Sony's PSP of course uses the Flash Player 6 as its platform while Nintendo's Wii uses the Flash Player 7. Both versions of the file ran within the FlashLite 2 Player. Although no the IDE did complain about using FlashLite specific FSCommand2 functions. In addition there was some issues with the image loader in the Flash Player 6 version of the swf when loaded by the FlashLite 2 player, the image was rotated through -90 degrees for some reason.

The issue I have with the patent is its broad and sweeping coverage of very common interface and application GUI design systems. As an example reading one portion of the "Summary of The Invention".

When editing a component, the user may modify a number of features associated with a component including, but not limited to, the volume of an acoustic component, the link between a menu entry and an associated component, the font, font size, color, or effect of a text field, or the layout, size, transparency, rotation, color, position, or level of any graphical rich-media component. The user may modify these components by means of a slider bar or a textual input field. In addition, the user may modify the volume of a sound component by means of up and down volume buttons. The user may undo modifications made to a component's parameters. The user may also modify the position of a graphical rich-media component by a graphical input field, by clicking and dragging said component, or by text fields. When the user modifies the position of a graphical rich-media component by means of clicking and dragging said component, said component may align itself to a grid point or a guide line. The user may also modify the style and the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a component linked to a menu entry.

Unless I am mistaken the recently posted link to Netvibes would actually infringe on this part of the patent. In that the user can select 'panes' or 'graphical rich-media components' of the netvibes application and alter there position within the application by clicking and dragging them to a new position.

In this example, because there is no specific technology linked to the patent claim, any RIA in any technology, Flash, Ajax, Appolo, XUL Runner, HaXe, Sparkle, add any other future technology here..... These systems would all be in break of the patent claim.

And this is just ONE of the EIGHTY THREE different claims in this patent.

Very worrying I think any developer would agree. Everyone involved in Internet application development, in my opinion, should take a serious look at this patent. Think about ANY work they have done or seen in past. The work they are doing today. Then consider the possible implications of future networked development. If you know of anything that has been posted, exhibited or shown publicly that can bring this patent down, it is in every ones interest to make it known to strengthen the Magix reexamination.

And remember we are not just talking about flash applications or work here. If you remember or are aware of ANY online application, in any technology, be it DHTML, Director, Java or anything else. If it used any, all or even one of these systems to allow user interation then it may well be enough to show that Mr Neil Balthaser did not invent these systems, and certainly has not right to lay claim to doing so as he has in his patent application.

As you will have seen Mike Jones (FlashGen.com) and I are meeting to take notes, share war stories and generally reminisce the 'Good OldSkool Days'. To find out what files we still have, and even which URLs are still live (Flash 3 (alpha) circa 1997/8 btw JD produced by Spooky & the Bandit - you may remember them :p)

Keep your eyes peal for more news as events unfold....

• A single SWF file cannot combine ActionScript 1.0 or 2.0 code with ActionScript 3.0 code.
• ActionScript 3.0 code can load a SWF file written in ActionScript 1.0 or 2.0, but it cannot access the SWF file's variables and functions.
• SWF files written in ActionScript 1.0 or 2.0 cannot load SWF files written in ActionScript 3.0. This means that SWF files authored in Flash 8 or Flex Builder 1.5 or earlier versions cannot load ActionScript 3.0 SWF files.

  The only exception to this rule is that an ActionScript 2.0 SWF file can replace itself with an ActionScript 3.0 SWF file, as long as the ActionScript 2.0 SWF file hasn't previously loaded anything into any of its levels. An ActionScript 2.0 SWF file can do this through a call to loadMovieNum(), passing a value of 0 to the level parameter.

• In general, SWF files written in ActionScript 1.0 or 2.0 must be migrated if they are to work together with SWF files written in ActionScript 3.0. For example, say you created a media player using ActionScript 2.0. The media player loads various content that was also created using ActionScript 2.0. You cannot create new content in ActionScript 3.0 and load it in the media player. You must migrate the video player to ActionScript 3.0.

  If, however, you create a media player in ActionScript 3.0, that media player can perform simple loads of your ActionScript 2.0 content.

The full information can be found here:

Programming ActionScript 3.0 > Overview of ActionScript Programming > Introduction to ActionScript 3.0 > Compatibility with previous versions

I am sure everyone is aware of the XML Object in flash and the ability to load and manage structured XML data in a flash movie. One of the challenges is how to access all that lovely data in a quick and easy method.

On numerous occasions on site I have seen an almost infinite number of XML parsers that will take in an XML document or Object and through recursive functions or the like rip the various XML nodeValues and attributes into native flash Objects, Arrays and Variables.

These would then be used through out the movie as any other data set. There is of course nothing wrong with this system, and at times in the past I too have gone about development in this manner, apart from the fact that it is ultimately a waste of time.

In flash we are provided with the ability to access the data held in an XML Document and or Object natively, Everyone will likely be aware of the Node.firstChild.nodeValue access notation. This allows us to preserve the structure of an XML Document while still having access to the data it holds. The downside of course is that the Syntax can become long and unwieldy if you are processing a complex XML structure.

A second option for dealing with XML in Flash has been provided as of Flash MX 2004 Professional edition. With the DataBinding components in Flash MX 2004 Pro was provided the mx.xpath package of classes. Adobe have also included this package in Flash 8. In addition the classes within the xpath package are compatible with Flash 6 MX so they operate well on the PSP Flash player as well.

The XPath implementation provided is not a complete XPath Implementation. But it does provide a susinct method for accessing XML Nodes by name, and or attribute values in a simple syntax.

Below is a simple snippet to highlight use of the XPathApi in Flash.

[as]
/* example XML Structure used in this snippet.
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>



< ![CDATA[work]]>


< ![CDATA[cv]]>


< ![CDATA[contact]]>



*/
//import the xpath api class
import mx.xpath.XPathAPI;
// create a new XML Object that will load the XML Data
var myXMLDocument:XML = new XML();
myXMLDocument.ignoreWhite = true;
// create an onLoad Event Handler for the XML Object
myXMLDocument.onLoad = function(bln_success:Boolean)
{
if(bln_success)
{
//the string xpath value
var xPath_str:String = "bittubesite/navbar/navitem"
// the selectNodeList method of XPathAPI returns an array of XML Node Objects
var navLabels_arr:Array = XPathAPI.selectNodeList(_projectInfo.firstChild, xPath_str);

// trace the values stored in the array generated by selectNodeList
trace("navLabels_arr" + navLabels_arr);
/* outputs
===================
work
cv
contact
*/
}
else
{
trace("XML Load Error!!");
}
}
// load the xml document
myXMLDocument.load("myXMLURL");
[/as]

Unfortunately there is a lack of official documentation to the mx.xpath package in the flash documentation, which is a little frustrating.

There is a more complete implementation of the W3C XPath specification that has been produced by xfactorstudio. This is available in both ActionScript 1 and ActionScript 2 versions.

There are a number of other articles that have been written that offer more detail of the capabilities of provided by the built in mx.xpath package I have linked to them at the end of this post along with some other xpath resources for those that want to find out more.

xpathStudio -- Alternative and more complete XPath implementation
mx.xpath.XPathAPI vs xpathStudio
using XPathAPI by by peach pit
using XPathAPI by last actionscript hero
using XPathAPI by Jen deHaan
W3C XPath Specification