First, the goods:

DryByDesign_FZip (ZIP)

DryByDesign_FZip (Air Install file)
[cert: dbd, pw: dbd]

The Problem:

Delivering documents and files to users of your Adobe Air project is difficult when any one of the files could fail and all of the files are critical for operation. Wouldn’t it be great if we could download a single zip file and extract it?

The Solution:

Turns out thanks to FZip you can. The same SWF trick is used here as was introduced in the Adobe Air + AlivePDF demo.

First, the goods:

DryByDesign_AlivePDF_Demo (zip)

DryByDesign_AlivePDF_Demo (air package)
[cert: dbd, pw: dbd]

The problem:

PDF creation is limited [read: not natively supported] in Adobe Air. In the past I’ve detailed PDF Cross Scripting, as well as using jsPDF for PDF creation with pure javascript.

However, AlivePDF offers a very robust toolbox for PDF creation and manipulation. Until now all the tutorials, coverage, and indications have been that this is a Flex tool. [notice: Until now!]   

The solution:

The process goes something like this:

1. Pull the library.swf file out of the AlivePDF.swc file.
2. Add the SWF file to your application.
3. Create an alias file for any of the functions listed in the documentation you may need/want.
4. Enjoy!

The files above offer a working example using a Aptana Studio project.

Edit: For those interested I also have an AlivePDF Example.

First, the goods:

DrybyDesign_jsPDF_Demo (Zip)

DRYByDesign_jsPDF_Demo(Air Package)
[cert: dbd, pw: dbd]

The problem:

The one thing we want need is the ability to print natively. I prefer some sort of native  PDF generation but I’m not picky. AlivePDF seems to fill this niche *if* you use Flex. So what about us HTML/Javascript devotees?

The solution (so far):

jsPDF is lightweight and easy to use. It looks like it’ll fit the bill for basic (text) PDF needs. Tables and images may be too much to ask for too soon. The demo I made takes the suggested  application and twists it a little. Instead of piping the content to the brower using a data_uri, it saves the content to the local file system.

So there you have it, local PDF generation in Adobe Air using nothing but HTML/CSS and Javascript.

No worries though, with a decent set of documentation and diagrams I can build anything and I can fix anything.

The problem:

No one ever leaves documentation. Much less the virtual treasure chest that is a stack of UML diagrams.

The solution:

I lend a hand quite frequently in #sql on Freenode and one of the problems I run into is that people start programming the application/database too soon.

I’d like to suggest that everyone take a look at UML digrams and insist (if only to themselves) that a nice, neat documentation set is available to consult before the coding begins. For your reading please I have a short list on my wiki of diagrams. (That’s right, Dry By Design has a wiki!)

Enjoy -> http://wiki.drybydesign.com/index.php?title=Data_Modeling

The Problem:

For awhile I was chasing my tail out of pride. Coding every layout from scratch like a proud sculptor. This is problematic for two reasons.

• You only help/hurt yourself.
• You don’t give anything back to the industry.

Solution:

Find a few blogs, resources, and forums you like. Then start contributing to them as much as they’ve contributed to the industry.My suggestions?

-> Use a layout and give feedback.
-> Take 15 minutes to respond to a question in a forum.
-> Hop into IRC watch/read until you can contribute something meaningful.
-> If you figure something out and can’t find it out there, blog about it.

Links:

Two sites I use to jump start my web sites are:

CSS Layouts http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/fixed-width-css-layouts/
Open Source Web Design -> http://www.oswd.org/

The problem:

I couldn’t find a decent CRUD example to show it off.

The solution:

I made one.

The Files:

CRUD Demo - Air Package

CRUD Demo- Source Files

So, it makes sense that the very first thing I need to do when I come back to Air development is something I can’t find decent documentation for.

The problem:

There are quite a few things that Adobe Air wont let you do and wont tell you why. At first I was satisfied with testing javascript snippets in a browser to see if it was the code itself or Air which was the problem.

However, this is neither elegant nor opitmal for pre-production testing.

The solution:

After looking through lots of seemingly complicated code to get the Security Sandbox to work I  ended up with a pretty streamlined example that I feel works well for code testing.

The files:

Adobe Air Package

Source Zip

The problem:

Getting this seemingly simple process to work is full of headaches. The examples to go off of are few and extremely far between.

The solution:

I’ve extended the original demo to include a method to post data from the PDF back to the HTML document.

The files:

Source files

Adobe Air Package

Rant:

I hope this starts to open doors in document processing. In my third demo I hope to do a ActiveJs and PDF mashup where youu save a form to a sqLite DB.

The problem:

Spam is the ban of any website. Planning what level of blog moderation should be implemented at launch is tricky. Some of the more popular and promoted options for Silvertripe are tiered [read: pay] services managed by a third-party.

The solution:

Like so many things, Silverstripe does this already! It just isn’t enabled by default.

Add the following two lines to your mysite/_config.php file and breath a sigh of relief.

MathSpamProtection::setEnabled();
PageComment::enableModeration();

Please join the discussion and seek help in the Silverstripe forums. The thread I found and now follow is here: http://www.silverstripe.org/archive/show/223021#post223021

Rant:

If you find this page via Google then I hope I saved you 20 seconds of forum searching.

If you’re like me then you follow a checklist and procedure for a new site launch. Maybe I’ll do a Quick-Start guide for Silverstripe when the time comes.

The only cross-scripting solution I could find is this. However it uses flex and it’s simply not very informative.

The solution:

The code posted below isn’t meant to be a guide. Simply showing that code used isn’t elaborate or complicated. Your best bet is to download the example and pick it apart.

The files:

Demo AIR Package.

Demo SOURCE Files.

notes:

1. This project was created with Aptana.
2. You’ll need Acrobat Reader 9.1 or 8.1.3 due to this Acrobat bug.

The Adobe Air function:

function init(postData) 

{ 

pdfObject = document.getElementById("PDFObj"); 

try { 

pdfObject.postMessage(["testMsg", postData]); 

} 

catch (e) 

{ 

alert( "Error: \n name = " + e.name + "\n message = " + e.message ); 

} 

}

The document level javascript code:

this.disclosed = true;

var testName = "";

if(this.hostContainer){

  try{

    this.hostContainer.messageHandler={

myDoc:this,

onDisclose:function(){return true;},

onMessage:function(stringArray){

var cmd=stringArray[0];

try{

if(cmd=="testMsg"){

var name = this.myDoc.getField("test");

name.value = stringArray[1];

}

}catch(e){

this.hostContainer.postMessage(

["error thrown in onMessage:",e.message]);

}

},

onError:function(e){

this.hostContainer.postMessage(["onError: ",e.message]);

}

    }

  }catch(e){

    this.hostContainer.postMessage(["Error thrown in setup:",e.message]);

  }

}else{

    app.alert("unable to set up hostContainer: this.hostContainer="

        +this.hostContainer+" this.external="+this.external);

}