Melbourne Flex 3/AIR Pre-release event

Added 18/01/08 : Demand for this event has out stripped expectations and the number of registered attendees has exceeded the venues capacity. If you registered prior to this addition then you should receive an invitation confirming you've registration and providing venue details.

Last week I posted regarding the possibility of Danny Dura coming to Melbourne for a Flex 3/AIR Pre-release event. Well it's confirmed now. This will be a great opportunity for the uninitiated to discover what Flex has to offer and for Flex developers to see first hand the many new features of Flex 3. Attendees will go in the draw for a copy of CS3 Web Premium and Flex Builder 3 Professional.

If you'd like to find out more about Danny Dura then take a look at http://www.danieldura.com/.

Event date and details removed; these will be provided in an invitation email.

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Flex Design Pattern : MVC

As mentioned in a previous post I'll be doing a presentation on the Model View Controller Design Pattern as it relates to Adobe Flex tomorrow evening. For those who are interested you can download the presentation from Adobe Share.

Victorian Adobe User Group : September Meeting

The September meeting of the Victorian Adobe User Group will be taking place Thursday week (20th September, 2007) starting at 6 PM. This month Steve Piscopo from Nectarine will be talking about animation principles and how they apply to Flash. In addition to that I'll be talking about the Model View Controller Design Pattern and how it applies to Flex. Below is the full description for my presentation.

The venue has a limited window of easy access so make sure you check out the access details (note : site still branded as MUV) before coming.

Flex was created for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIA's). When you develop an RIA's you quickly come to appreciate the need for a consistent and efficient framework. Therefore it's not surprising that Flex developers turned to Design Patterns. The success of the Cairngorm framework quickly turned Model View Controller (MVC) into the most popular pattern for Flex development.

This presentation will start with an overview of Design Patterns before delving into the MVC pattern. Finally, we'll look at what frameworks are available for Flex MVC development and touch on alternative patterns for Flex development.

Victorian Adobe User Group : August Meeting

The August meeting of the Victorian Adobe User Group will be taking place this coming Thursday (16th August, 2007) starting at 6 PM. This month Chris Burgess will be taking a look at web security in relation to Web 2.0, AJAX, RIA development. I doubt we can ever spend enough time learning more about web security. So I'm very much looking forward to Chris's talk.

We'll also be taking a look at the second part of the Actionscript 3 video tutorial from Cartoon Smart.

If you're in the state, available and interested it will be great to see you there. The venue has a limited window of easy access so make sure you check out the access details (note : site still branded as MUV) before coming.

Victorian Adobe User Group : July Meeting

The next meeting of the Victorian Adobe User Group will take place this coming Thursday from 6 PM.

For the main presentation Brian Chau from Adobe will be talking about Adobe Fireworks CS3/Flex integration and the new Fireworks Photo Gallery feature. Brian is always a lively and informative presenter. Fireworks has always been an undervalued application and these new features extend it's value to a whole new group of users.

We'll also be looking at part one of a video tutorial called Actionscript 3 Basics from Cartoon Smart. Cartoon Smart is a great resource for learning about Flash (actionscript and animation) and Web Design. They have very kindly provided a couple of their video tutorials for use by the user group. With the introduction of Actionscript 3 into Flash CS3 this is a very timely presentation. I've always felt that one of the biggest hurdles to moving to Flex development isn't Flex itself but rather the change to AS3.

If you're in the state, available and interested it will be great to see you there. The venue has a limited window of easy access so make sure you check out the access details (note : site still branded as MUV) before coming.

Support Your Local Adobe User Group

Leif Wells has just posted defending Adobe User Groups. It is written in response to a flame he read on digg. But I wanted to highlight this :

'The user group in your area has been created and organized by people like me who truly love what people like you do with Adobe's products. By not participating in you local user group, for any reason, you miss out on spending time with people from your own community who could use your support. You also miss out on spending time with people from whom you could draw support and inspiration.'

I have an obvious interest as a member of the Victorian Adobe User Group (site branded : MUV). But I am a member because I agree with Leif's sentiments. If you do too then why not find out about your nearest user group. For Victorians we meet on the 3rd Thursday of every month and you can get email reminders by becoming a member.

Gears, Pipes and Mashups

I'll be doing a presentation this Thursday evening at the Victorian MUV. The presentation will be an overview of the Mashup landscape combined with emerging trends as evident in Google Gears and Yahoo Pipes. We were talking about this a bit at Thursday's talk at the Gordon TAFE. I was pretty surprised that many of the people there were unfamiliar with these developments. Which is good news for my talk as it means you may find it all very new and exciting.

Jody Fenn will also be talking about UI Prototyping with Acrobat. This is a technique we've been using more and more as the applications we develop grow in complexity. But it's a great way to develop, test and get feedback on relatively straightforward websites. I can strongly recommend Jody's talk to anyone involved in interface design or development.

• Download Presentation
  

Getting Started with Flex

I will be doing a presentation at Victorian Adobe Users Group this Thursday. It will be an introduction to the Flex basics ; layout, components, styles, actionscript basics. Ideal for anyone who has wanted to find out more about Flex but hasn't had the time. So if you or someone you know is looking for an in on Flex and will be in Melbourne this week then it would be great to see you. The venue has a limited window of easy access so make sure you check out the access details before coming.

Resources:

• Useful links : http://bluedot.us/users/geekglue/tag/flex/basic
• Getting Started with Flex presentation notes (pdf)
  

MUV : my first meeting

Finally, attended my first meeting of Macromedia Users Victoria (MUV). I've been planning to go for the last few years. But for a while I was always working on the meeting night. Then they went quiet for a while as they sorted out the change from Macromedia to Adobe (still using Macromedia in the groups branding; not sure what they have planned there). They had their first meeting back last month but I once again had a clash. Anyway I finally got there.

The first half of the evening was spent looking at and discussing the CS3 release. It is a huge release program with many new options for users whatever their level. Therefore any opportunity to discuss the options and their relative merits is much appreciated.

In the second half of the evening Chris Burgess presented the what, why and how of Apollo. I've been keen to get any and all available info on Apollo. Hence a lot of what Chris presented was news. But it was still invaluable to get his views on where Apollo is right now and where it will be heading.

The only disappointing part of the evening was the numbers. It is only their second night back so they are still finding their feet. I guess I'm the last person to comment having taken so long to get to a meeting. But there are a lot more Adobe users than we saw on Thursday night. It would be great to see more developers at future meetings. To state the obvious the more who come the more worthwhile it is for everyone who attends. To get more information you need to register so if you are in Victoria get to it.