Thursday, November 15th, 2007

CMX Weekly Newsletter

• News
• Fun and Freebies
• Recent CMX Content
• Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats

Check the News!

Let's Start Off With Another Shameless Plug For... Us!

While Community MX is known for their in-depth tutorials concerning everything Adobe, some folks forget that we've built quite a few extensions that help make your workflow more efficient. We've recently started submitting them to the Adobe Exchange, and we've seen quite a bit of activity so far - about 1,674 downloads from the Exchange since late October. While we've put a lot of our extensions up at the Exchange, you can find all of our extensions at CommunityMX.com.

Is Vista Really All That Bad?

Some of us here at Community MX have been using Vista since it was released and have had no issues with it. As a matter of fact, some of us actually... dare we say it... like it. Yeah, it takes up more room than XP. And it takes way more memory than it's predecessors. But if you ask most people who upgraded whether or not they thought the upgrade was worthwhile, we'd guess that the response would be in Vista's favor. But the "internet press" has not been kind to Vista. For example, John Dvorak from PC Magazine has been ringing the Vista death knoll for some time now. Of course Apple's most recent Mac/PC commercials have followed suit by pointing out that some users have "downgraded" to XP from Vista. Jason Burns took issue with Dvorak's message and posted his rebuttal at PhiloKing.com. If you're thinking of upgrading, get plenty of memory, get used to the idea of Vista being a bit "over-protective" and you'll be fine. Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President of Windows Product Management, shared his sentiments with ZDNet.

Well, That Was a Fun Exercise In Futility

Microsoft will be rolling out a beta service pack for Vista and XP soon, and guess what? Remember all the hubbub over the "Click to Activate" nonsense that Microsoft implemented in Internet Explorer 7? It's going to be a thing of the past. According to Pete LePage, senior product manager for Internet Explorer, "Once Internet Explorer is updated, all pages that currently require 'click to activate' will no longer require the control to be activated, they'll just work." It will be refreshing to have that annoying nag we currently experience when viewing Flash files on the net be a thing of the past. Full story at ComputerWorld.com.

When Your Title Is "Botmaster" It Might Be Time To Consider a Career Move

When you buy a computer, whether you're an expert or a novice, you don't want to have to worry about people hacking into it. Well, this week there is one less person you have to worry about out there. John Schiefer, an information security consultant by day, was a hacker by night. He has plead guilty to installing spyware on user's computers that allowed him to intercept data from the user to sites like PayPal and other websites that would allow him to obtain private information that he could sell or use for his own purposes. His guilty plea resulted in a sixty year prison sentence, not to mention a $1.75 million fine. One down, many more to go. Read more about it at News.com.

This Is What It Sounds Like When Prince Sues, Or Now It's Time To Litigate Like It's 1999

The Pirate Bay has unabashedly operated as a torrent provider for several years now, and have balked at any type of authority that has tried to stop them from providing copyrighted materials to the general public. They've gone as far as suing anyone who sought litigation against them. But now they're going to have to deal with Prince, aka "The Artist", aka whatever funky symbol he was using for his name for a while. Prince is suing Pirate Bay for distributing his songs over their network. Although the Pirate Bay has been pursued by government agencies and still continue to thrive, this News.com article says that Prince is taking a new approach by also suing the folks who advertise at the Pirate Bay site. If advertisers pull out, Pirate Bay may have no income, which would make their organization quite an expensive hobby. We'll see where this goes, but perhaps a hard purple rain is gonna fall...

Great Quotes:

"The fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a greater danger to the privacy of the individual." — Earl Warren (1891-1974)

What's Your Vector, Victor?

VectorMagic is an online tool that is designed to smooth out the pixelization that can occur within your graphics. Developed by Stanford programmers, VectorMagic is designed to work with line art rather than photos. Without viewing their online "how to" video, I uploaded a gif that I had enlarged enough to create a good amount of pixel artifacts. The result was that the pixelization was completely gone. While I wasn't totally satisfied with the results, the revised image was clean. After trying a few different settings, I ended up with a much improved image. We found VectorMagic via a link from LifeHacker.com. Below the link, you'll find comments from other users who have tried VectorMagic. The consensus is very positive, even compared to other tools that attempt to do the same thing.

If You Build It, They Will Come. Especially If It's Really Cheap!

Wal-Mart is selling a Linux-based desktop computer for $199. It's not difficult to find and purchase a Linux system, but until now, you wouldn't find one at Wal-Mart. This is a great sign that Linux is finally entering the mainstream. Read the reviews from users of the computer at WalMart.com and you'll see why this could be a big deal. There are no negative reviews - at least after reading twenty or thirty reviews, I didn't see anything but heavy praise. Consumers seeking an inexpensive PC to surf the web and send emails will not be able to resist the price. And as the old commercial said "And they'll two friends, and so on, and so on..."

Yeah, You're Good. But You Could Be Better.

There's always something you can do to improve your designing skills. Some are obvious, and others are not so obvious. GoSquared.com offers up fifty tips to help you become a better designer. Some of the tips are not specific to designers and could be applied to many professions. For instance, "Simplify" and "Do things right the first time" are always good tips for anyone, not just designers.

Blist In Or Blist Out?

You'd think between Access, SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle, there wouldn't be much more room for a new database kid on the block. Blist is betting that they can make a difference in how users work with a database. Their approach is novel, anyway. They're going to target their database at Excel users who tend to use Excel as a database. Blist is based on the idea that users need a database that does what you would expect a database to do but more imporantly, is simpler to use than a typical database. Blist doesn't rely on SQL programming or anything similar. It doesn't perform a traditional query. Instead, the user works with "lenses", which allows you to view your data in whatever way you'd like. Sort of like a query, but without having to code an actual query. You can sign up to be on the beta at Blist.com. Read more about Blist's plans for world domination at TechCrunch.com.

Computer or Paint Brush? It's a Draw.

Are aspiring artists going the way of the Dodo? Probably not, according to this article at CNN.com. Where young artists were happy using pen and paper to achieve works of art in the past, a lot of them are much happier to throw their imaginations into programs like Maya or 3D Studio Max. But people like John Woodbridge, director of the School of Computer Arts-New Media in San Francisco, believe that in order to be proficient in graphic design, it's extremely important to be able to express yourself on canvas, even if you're just using a pencil and paper. A lot of good information on this at CNN.com.

Fun and Freebies

They Should Have Called It 48

What if the television show "24" had been made in 1994? Find out at CollegeHumor.com.

Thanks, iPhone!

Have you seen the new iPhone commercials where users thank the iPhone for making their jobs easier? Saturday Night Live did a funny takeoff on these ads. Watch it at Gizmodo.com.

How To Care For Your Nerd

If you have recently acquired a nerd and found out that taking care of it is not as easy as you thought it would be, fear not. RandsInResponse.com has just published their Nerd Handbook.

Weekly Content Listing

HTML Reports in Dreamweaver - Part 2

Paul Davis

Dreamweaver includes a set of reports to check the HTML of a group of pages in a site. The reports include Combinable Nested Font Tags, Accessibility, Missing Alt Text, Redundant Nested Tags, Removable Empty Tags and Untitled Documents. In this part of the series, creating and reading the Accessibility report is covered.

The HTML Reports in Dreamweaver Series:
HTML Reports in Dreamweaver - Part 1
HTML Reports in Dreamweaver - Part 2

The Secret Art of Cookies: Part 2

Rob Williams

Preserving data for an end user can be one of the more challenging tasks when you first start to learn a server-side programming language like PHP. Sessions are a good starting point that allow you to carry information about users across multiple pages of your site, but alone they can fall short of expectations as they are always only limited to the length of a current browsing "session".

In the first part of this series we looked at what cookies were, how easy they were to use, and some of the general pitfalls that developers need to be aware of when utilizing them. Today we're going to focus on setting the record straight on cookie security and the realities of using cookies in your own web applications.

The Secret Art of Cookies Series:
The Secret Art of Cookies: Part 1
The Secret Art of Cookies: Part 2

Inside the Big Picture

Knut Kubenz

There are times when your photography might look a little ho-hum, or what you thought you had captured was great, turns out to be something a bit less than great. So it was with the image below, which I photographed in a nearby park of two cyclists. The image while technically good, just didn't have the speed I sensed from the bikes and the composition on the whole was a bit symmetric and static looking. So I'm going to turn to Photoshop for some help. I'm going to make the main focus of the cyclists turn into a picture within a picture by using a Shape Vector Mask and Clipping Groups. Then I'll apply a Motion Blur to the Background to give it a sense of speed. The picture within the picture will also have a Stroke around it, along with a Drop Shadow generated from the Layer Styles Menu of the Layers Palette. Let's begin.

Flex 101: Part 13 - Declaring Events in AS3

Joseph Balderson

Learning Flex 2 can be can seem overwhelming at first glance, considering all the elements that go into the making of a Flex application, from the development IDE, the source files, the runtime and the APIs, not to mention the abundance of documentation, examples and blog entries to choose from, not all of which are intended for novices. Just to name a few. This series aims to take some of the mystery and confusion out of learning Flex 2, providing both a beginner's overview of building applications in Flex, as well as some in-depth examination of the basics for intermediate Flex developers.

In this article, we will continue our examination of the Flex 2 event system by declaring events in ActionScript instead of using the MXML tag event handlers. By the end of this article you'll build an example for controlling the event subscription for a series of buttons. Bonus: an advanced example is provided which makes use of the Repeater component.


Assigning ActionScript-declared events at runtime in Flex 2.

The Flex 101 Series:
Flex 101: Part 1 - Introducing Adobe Flex 2
Flex 101: Part 2 - What's New In Flash Player 9
Flex 101: Part 3 - Using Flex Builder 2
Flex 101: Part 4 - Building in Design Mode
Flex 101: Part 5 - Using MXML
Flex 101: Part 6 - Components and Databinding
Flex 101: Part 7 - Events
Flex 101: Part 8 - AS3 in MXML
Flex 101: Part 9 - Custom MXML Components
Flex 101: Part 10 - Databinding Custom Components
Flex 101: Part 11 - The Event Class
Flex 101: Part 12 - Using the Flex 2 Debugger
Flex 101: Part 13 - Declaring Events in AS3
Flex 101: Part 14 - Using the Event Subclasses Coming Soon

Finding onDragOver: An AS2 to AS3 Migration Case Study

David Stiller

For many designer/developers, ActionScript 3.0 is still very much new territory. You may have dipped into the latest language a bit — you may have even purchased a book or two on the subject — but unless you're required to use it every day, AS3 may very well present you with baffling new workflow changes, seemingly at every turn. This can especially be true when you undertake the endeavor to migrate an existing AS2-based project.

AS3's new event handling structure certainly threw me for a loop at first. It didn't take long before I realized that certain things seemed to be missing, such as the onReleaseOutside event of AS2's MovieClip and Button classes (Derrick Ypenburg discusses a workaround for this in his article "That Annoying stopDrag() Quirk in AS3.0"). In addition to that, it was recently brought to my attention that two other events, again shared by movie clips and buttons, had gone the way of the dodo: onDragOver and onDragOut.

Here's a brief case study on how I re-discovered the underlying basis for those events within their new trappings in ActionScript 3.0. By sharing the journey with me, I hope you find encouragement in your own friendly grapples with AS3.

Using CSS to Create a Scrolling Content Area

Jim Babbage

Sometimes, CSS makes things so easy you have to smile. Such was the case when several of my students posed the question, "How can I make a long page of content fit in a short area on my web page?"

In a few quick steps, I demonstrated how to set up a generic div to act as a scrollable content area. They were surprised (and relieved) the process was so quick and easy. The following video shows the steps I took to create such a scrollable area within a web site mock up.

Approximate download size: 9.8MB

Adding Video to an InDesign Document

Kim Dudley

Adding video to an Indesign document may sound a bit strange considering InDesign is known as a print application. But upon closer inspection you will find that this application can do more then just create documents for print. InDesign also includes many tools for documents destined for other end uses. These days promotional and informational materials are often distributed in many different forms including print and electronically. When it comes to electronic distribution, PDFs (Portable Document Format) are one of the most convenient and flexible options. Many applications have the ability to create PDFs, Adobe InDesign is one such application. However, InDesign is not only capable of creating PDFs, it actually has tools that will enhance PDFs by adding interactive features such as bookmarks, hyperlinks, buttons and media files.

In a previous tutorial, Adding Buttons to an InDesign Document, I focused on InDesign's Button tool. Buttons added to an InDesign document can be set to perform actions when the document is exported as a PDF.

In this tutorial we will look at adding a video clip to an InDesign document. The media clip will not be available in InDesign but it can be played when the document is exported as a PDF. We will:

• Add a movie to existing artwork
• Set the movie options
• Set the movie's poster
• Export the document as a PDF

Approximate download size: 4.2MB

Honolulu - Developing a CSS Starter Page: Part Three

Sheri German

In this last part of the Developing a CSS Starter Page series, you will add the navigation scheme and polish the text styles for Honolulu. You'll order the CSS rules to make them easier to edit and read. Finally, you'll add special Internet Explorer only styles and put them into a separate style sheet that you'll reference from within Conditional Comments.

This tutorial includes a starter folder with everything that you coded into Honolulu in part two of this series. You'll also find a completed Honolulu project that you can use for troubleshooting problems in your own work.

The Honolulu - Developing a CSS Starter Page Series:
Honolulu - Developing a CSS Starter Page: Part 1
Honolulu - Developing a CSS Starter Page: Part 2
Honolulu - Developing a CSS Starter Page: Part 3

Exploring Regular Expressions in ActionScript 3.0

David Stiller

I have a geek confession to make. I love regular expressions (aka regex, regexp, and other abbreviations). In a nutshell, regular expressions comprise a mechanism for searching and replacing text. I'm not just talking about finding the word "cat" inside the longer word "catastrophe," though regex can certainly do that. I'm talking about complex searches like spotting all the US ZIP codes in a particular paragraph. Think of the possibilities! ZIP codes can be any combination of five digits, with or without the ZIP+4 (a hyphen followed by another four digits). Or looking for accidentally doubled words — "The dog jumped over the the fence," regardless which two words those might be — or formatting North American telephone numbers consistently, such as rendering 123.456.7890, 123-456-7890, or even (123)456.7890 as (123) 456-7890, no matter what the numbers are.

To me, solving these challenges is a bit like solving Sudoku puzzles. They're flat out fun! Many programming languages support regular expressions, often in their own slightly varied flavors, and ActionScript 3.0 finally brings this technology natively into Flash. Let's take an introductory look at how to make use of it.

A Lightning Effect as Quick as Lightning in Photoshop

Knut Kubenz

There's probably more than one way to create a lightning effect in Photoshop and I've seen more than enough other methods of creating the effect with other authors. The technique I'll demonstrate today is quick, simple and does not require any auxiliary images to work with. In fact you're going to create this effect entirely from the controls in Photoshop.

The result of this tutorial will give you a method of producing a dramatic looking lightning bolt which can be used on its own in a layout or design. In a future tutorial we'll be looking at how to incorporate this effect in existing images which will make your files even more dramatic.

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of CMX Associate Stephanie Sullivan

Using Snippets to Speed up CSS Development

One of the easiest ways to speed up your CSS development in Dreamweaver is through the use of your own custom snippets. They also get you around a little short-coming in Dreamweaver whereby you can only create a new CSS rule using the CSS dialog. Sometimes I simply want to add a property/value pair using the Properties pane of the CSS Styles panel.

Due to the numerous coding jobs I do for other web development companies, I've created my snippets in a couple different manners. I divided them into folders -- XHTML snippets and CSS snippets. For the XHTML, I created a two-column and three-column version. They're simply empty divs with the basic structure of the page using my naming conventions. For the CSS, I have one set with empty rules which allows me to access them from the Properties panel. The other set has basic properties and styling so that I can modify them to create a custom page.

I also created starter snippets for both horizontal and vertical menus, float/clear classes, form styling, special footers used by some clients, etc. And of course, I have the CMX CSS hacks snippets installed to use when necessary. Snippets can be your very best friend.

Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!