Adobe "Pacifica"
New features for Flash player
Categories: Flash PlayerAdobe reveals the next generation of Flash player features at MAX 2007 and a new project code named "Pacifica" which are in development now. Pacifica is a project that allows peer-to-peer communication within the Flash player using VoIP protocol, and capability to integrate with a PSTN network. Listen to episode 26 of the Flex Show to hear Tony Hillerson & Dan Florio discuss these and other new features.
26 October 2007Flex Video Conference
The Camera class with Flash Media Server
Categories: Flash Media Server Flex
In my quest for a video email application, I was interested in experimenting with the Flash Camera and Microphone classes, and so with a little help from Renaun Erickson, I devised a little video conference app where you and 9 of your friends can have a video chit-chat conference complete with audio using the Flash Media Server as the central connecting point. The Camera class in Flex is so easy to use, it's not even funny...Once you have the NetStream setup, it's just a matter of calling Camera.getCamera() constuctor and attaching the camera to the NetStream. The same holds true for the Microphone class, and you can even set NetStream's attachAudio method to mute individual streams on the fly. I have posted a sample app with source code here. I also modified Renaun's original example and replaced the Panel with the SuperPanel so now each user can move individual conference attendees around within the browser. I'd like to see Doug McCune implement this with a version of TileUI, so you can start throwing people around the screen mid-conference. 
Abobe unveils Thermo
and other experiments
Categories: Flex
If you know Flex, then you’ve heard of Ely Greenfield. He is the charting master, and a member of the Flex engineering team. Recently for MAX 2007 in Barcelona, Ely gave a “Flex Roadmap” presentation, see it here, and talked about several new experiments Adobe is considering for the Flex product. The first thing is the Flex designer application code-named “Thermo”. This app is aimed at designers and will give you a visual approach to creating Flex apps much more than design view does now. Think of it as Fireworks in Flex…You as the designer just draw out the layout, and Thermo will generate all the MXML code for you. In addition to Thermo, Ely goes on to talk about some of the experiments they are doing with the Flex framework, and re-thinking the way components are made and interact with each other. Ely talks about for example taking a step back and saying even though we already have these 7000 lines of code that make up the base List component (with all its layout, scrollbars, and button states) what really IS the core function of a List? Its core function is to show an Array of data, all the other stuff like layout, scrollbars, etc is just extra crap that has nothing to with the core function of a list, so this should be handled some where else through the use of visual extensions, and CSS states. This way, there is sort of an MVC kind of architecture going on within the components themselves. Leaving the developer to extend multiple facets of each component in ways that are difficult to do now. It’s kind if hard to explain here, but if you watch the videos it will become clear. As well as that, another thing Ely reveals is a new MXML Graphics engine for Flex, where we can now draw primitive shapes right in MXML. Keep in mind though that all of the examples Ely give come with the disclaimer (that he makes several times) that everything you see may or may not ever make into a release, the roadmap looks promising and very exciting if Adobe does go this route. I say, let’s just skip 3.0 and go straight to 4.
Drag & Drop Flex MyTube
Streaming video with Flash Media Server
Categories: Flash Media Server Flex
Recently I was shown a video email application that would send email recipients a link to a video email message. The idea was cool, but raised concerns for my healthcare practice due to the new privacy laws (HIPPA) and the app being hosted on third party servers. So I figured I would try to build a similar app using Flex and hosting it internally...This way there would be no privacy issues. Before going full bore on a video email app, I thought I might get my feet wet building a simple streaming video library using Flash Media Server to see how it performed. The video files I have on hand are about 30 minutes in length, shot in HDV, and edited in Sony Vegas. This produces, when fully rendered as NTSC (720x480), about a 2GB MPEG file. So, step one was to get some working FLV files that I could test. I needed to batch upload to FMS (Flash Media Server) and transcode the MPEG's (or any other file for that matter) to the FLV format on the fly. I found a command line tool called FFMPEG that does this with great speed, and also captures a still frame from the file that you can use as the thumbnail preview. Sweet...this tool is a must! More on FFMPEG in a later post. I also needed to create a standard SQL database table to hold additional info about each of the videos, like description, title, duration etc. (FLV's can be injected with Metadata for some of these fields, but its limited), and I created a CFC that will query the database and return all recordsets to the Flex app upon initialize. Okay, boring part finished, now onto the Flex front-end and FMS. So my thoughts were to have a single interface, where users could browse the preview thumbnails, and watch a video at the same time. I went with draggable previews that drop onto the main player, and the video starts playing. Easy and intuitive, and you can just page through the rest of the recordset while the video play, while tooltips on the previews provide the user with a video description and duration. Flash Media Server, to my surprise, is such a breeze as well. Just install FMS, create your app directory structure, upload the FLV's into the "streams/_definst_" folder, and feed your Flex app the source paths of the FLV's using the rtmp protocol. It all just works, and the videos stream in!
I have posted an early example of the app HERE which includes source code. (Right-click for the source code) Flash Media Server is for sure the way to go if you want true streaming, video copy protection, and an easy way to deliver lengthy presentations. Way to go Adobe for making it so easy for us! 01 October 2007
Adobe releases Flex Beta 2 today
Categories: FlexJust announced on labs.adobe.com today that Flex Builder 3 Beta 2 is available, as well as several skinning add-ons for other CS3 design platforms. Awesome news!