CoCoMo is now Adobe Flash Collaboration Service

February 13th, 2009

Adobe recently annouced name switch from CoCoMo to Adobe Flash Collaboration Service.

I am already writing some articles about this platform, so hopefully I get some tutorials here soon.

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ZendAMF DataServices with SQL XML Assembler

February 11th, 2009

My good friend and colleague Piotr Walczyszyn from Platform Evangelism Team just put together the features of ZendAMF (formerly AMFPHP) and DataServices SQL XML Assembler, which you can know from LiveCycle DS. 

According to me, this is really great feature, which I was dreaming about many years and finally it’s ready for PHP developers.

Your service method definition will look this way (from Piotr’s blog):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<service>
 
	<destination id="ZendAmfDs">
		<properties>
 
			<defaults>
				<columnNameCamelSeparator>_</columnNameCamelSeparator>
				<modelsPath>models</modelsPath>
			</defaults>
 
			<select id="findFooById">
				<asClass>Foo</asClass>
				<modelClass>Foo</modelClass>
				<where>ID = 1</where>
			</select>
 
			<select id="findAllFoos">
				<asClass>Foo</asClass>
				<modelClass>Foo</modelClass>
				<order>NAME</order>
			</select>
 
			<insert id="insertFoo">
				<asClass>Foo</asClass>
				<modelClass>Foo</modelClass>
			</insert>
 
		</properties>
	</destination>
 
</service>

There is much more. Check it out and try it at Piotr’s blog:

http://www.riaspace.net/2009/02/zendamfds-first-release/

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Blog redesigned!

February 8th, 2009

It’s up! Got my baby!  

Many thanks to Smolpol and Kuba Pláteník of ByteGang studio for graphics (btw: Smolpol is an absolute SecondLife ruler with his brand Hanzo Blades). Also thanks to Robin Raszka from YellowMedia for coding and finally making this happen!!

My pleasure to have such guys to hand!

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iDnes.cz switching from Windows Media to Flash Media Servers - Exposed!

February 6th, 2009

Last couple of months I’ve been concentrating next to all the other things on iDnes.cz (in fact the biggest news company in Czech Republic). According to market trends, they’ve decided to go forward in video streaming on all of their sites (as they’ve stated in the interview) and asked me if I can help them to bring the most outstanding Flash Video Player to achieve their goals.

My vision was to build Video Player based on Flex, which is actually something really not common, while Flex generates big SWF files, it’s not lightweight and it needs Flash Player 9 … on the other side - it’s enterprise solution - team cooperation (SVN), Flex Builder programming, layout support and you can also easily skin it and lot of other pluses.

After all of discussions about pros and cons, the company decided to use Flex, Flash Media Servers (video codec: H.264) and I’ve realized that this is going to be stunning!

Flex => Flash Player 9 => H.264 + AS 3.0 => cool!

And now I am going to tell you why this project is really important for the developers in Czech Republic:
(FYI: since iDnes.cz is big, all comes big)

• rapid growth of Flash Player 9.0.115 penetration (AS 3.0 + H.264 video support)
  (So now every developer in CZ can count on this and you guys tell your customers that AS 2.0 is not the right way)
• Flex is fat, so I’ve used Runtime Shared Library (RSL) [version 3.2.0.3794 - get it here]
  (I propose you to use same as this one will probably get nearly 100% penetration very very soon here and you can now tell your customers that the size is not the problem of Flex apps in our region if you correctly explain RSL pros to them - so GO AHEAD! and use the same version as me. This is actually the version we’ve decided to use across all projects of FlashPlatform.cz User Group for upcoming period and this library also supports P2P and lot of great stuff)
   

 

Flex Video Player Screenshot

 

My advice for convincing your clients to use Flex is simple:

• As Czech Republic is small, we can control our activities among us in user group (for instance: http://group.flashplatform.cz)
• To use one Flex SDK using RSL for certain period of time (now version 3.2.0.3794 will get sufficient penetration)
• => even small widgets and video players or plug-ins can be written in Flex though

Also many thanks to Robin Raszka (YellowMedia) for helping me out with styling and robust skinning of the player using CSS.

Good Luck folks and looking forward to see new tiny Flex apps coming up.

Interview and start-up article of iDnes.cz Video Player (Czech only): 
http://zpravy.idnes.cz/portal-idnes-cz-prechazi-na-modernejsi-prehravac-videi-p1u-/media.asp?c=A090204_191759_media_pei

Tags: flash, Flash Media Server, Flex, H.264, Player, RSL, Widget
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