Keynote Speech - Mike Downey - “Flash and the Adobe Engagement Platform”

The laptop shoulder-bag festooned crowds filed into the dimly lit Brighton Dome Theatre.

By the time it settled down, it looked like maybe 200-300 people were in attendance.

Mike started by covering highlights from 2006:

• Flash Player 9 penetration is growing


• Flash Video is becoming web standard


• Mobile uptake growing

He then went on to talk about things to look forward to in 2007...

• Adobe Device Control
  
  
  
  • Authoring application for mobiles
  
  
  • Release 2007
  
  
  • Based on Flash 8 IDE but will run as a standalone
  
  
  • Hard core emulator
  
  
  • Every device that can host Flash will be available in the emulator
  
  
  • This will be updated dynamically as Adobe's database increases
  
  
  • You can save sets of devices so you can use a common testing rig
  
  
  • Testing individual devices
    
    
    
    • Memory taken up shown
    
    
    • Screen size
    
    
    • Helps optimise the application
    
    
    • Control backlight
    
    
    • Reflections, gamma, colour
    
    
    • Language, timezone, time
    
    
    • Battery level
    
    
    • Network type and speed
    
    
• Mark Anders came on to talk about Flex:
  
  
  
  • Flex itself is free - Flex SDK
  
  
  • Flex Developer costs the cash
  
  
  • Demos were impressive but we go more into that in later sessions
  
  
• Mike Chambers came on to talk about Apollo:
  
  
  
  • Not a general desktop application runtime - specifically designed for RIAs
  
  
  • No worries about platform as Apollo completely abstracts that away
  
  
  • Can work online/offline with syncing
  
  
  • Full HTML integration


• Flash 9 IDE!
  
  
  
  • Import PSDs and Illustrator files
    
    
    
    • Maintains layers
    
    
    • Import process allows you to assign folders, create movieclips and assign instance names
  
  
  • Bezier pen tool is now the same as in Illustrator
  
  
  • New set of components written from scratch in a new component structure.
    
    
    
    • Cuts the component size in half (at least)
    
    
    • Makes them easy to skin
  
  
  • Double-click on a component on the desktop and it goes into “component editing mode”
    
    
    
    • Displays all states as mcs
    
    
    • Go into each mc and edit
    
    
    • Live preview of your changes on the stage
    
    
• All assets for components an library


• Different style needed - just duplicate the assets and change the duplicate


• Can convert animations into AS3 (XML)
  
  
  
  • Put generated XML into a frame, movieclip or into Flex
  
  
  
  

General Disclaimer for Notes from Sessions

Please note, that my posts summarising sessions are based on my notes which were scribbled onto a notepad in near dark. I may state things here that are partially or completely incorrect. I only also have taken notes about things that have interested me, so vast swathes of the speakers's sessions could be missing. What is written is also my interpretation what the speaker has said - I make it clear when I'm actually quoting them verbatim.

So don't take it all as gospel. If you spot a mistake, please email me on nik.goile@cdsm.co.uk with the error or leave a comment and I'll fix it ASAP.

Bits and Bobs from Tuesday

• Joey Lott has broken the PC duck. He's the first speaker I've seen not using a Mac lappy.


• Re: my query yesterday about Flash Media Server - will this session do the trick “Creating Multiplayer Flash Games”. I won't find out as its at the same time as the Accessibility lecture.


• I think there's scope for an “eLearning/SCORM and how it relates to Flash” session in the future if this event happens again.


• Someone has got up and left from every single session I've been to except “Ajax: Flash Killer?”


• Green pen is useless in the Brighton Dome theatre as its so dark its like writing in invisible ink - use black!

Bits and Bobs from Monday

• Conference faux pas 1: leaving your phone on by mistake and being the only person in your sessions all day that manages to get a very obvious text message.


• Conference faux pas 2: sitting the end of the aisle in the Corn Exchange (which has the narrowest foot-room in the whole world) and then everyone being too polite to ask to push through. Result is an almost empty row right in the middle of the theatre. Doh!


• First proper swearing in a session by a speaker award goes to Aral Balkan.


• All the speakers in the 5 sessions I went to had Apple Mac Laptops.


• Microsoft bought everyone free beer for half an hour after the sessions finished. Talk about good PR!


• Why are there no sessions on Flash Media Server 2 at the conference??

And We're Off...

The first 2 sessions are over. First up was Mike Downey, a big-wig from Adobe, with the keynote speech. He gave an overview of what has happened around Flash this year before going into the new stuff which is coming out soon. And that new stuff looks very exciting - the Adobe Device Centre for developing Flash apps for portable devices, Flex 2 (which has been around for a few months but is now taking off), Apollo for taking Flash to the desktop and, of course, the Flash 9 IDE.

The Flash 9 IDE in particular looks very cool.

For the 2nd session I caught "Introductions to Flex 2.0 for Flash Developers" by Tink, a London based Flash and Flex developer/guru.

As it was an introductory session, I found the first half pretty basic as he had a lot of ground to cover. But when he got to the more complicated stuff in the 2nd half of the presentation, it was much more interesting.

Flex is starting to sort itself out for me in my head and I'm thinking of more and more ways we can use it at work. There's 2 more sessions at the conference about Flex components, so that should hopefully give me some more info and help settle the final pieces in my mental puzzle.

There does seem to be a few obstacles (though not insurmountable by any means of the imagination). These are that old AS2 components are basically useless in Flex - which means a lot of re-factoring of legacy code (and that's a lot of components) and that Flex apps require the Flash Player 9 - which has a current market penetration which isn't suitable for most of our clients. This is changing fast though so I doubt it'll be an issue in 3-6 months time. The first issue will sort itself out given time - once Flash 9 IDE is realised, we'll be developing everything in AS3 anyway.

I'll be typing up my notes later and posting them when they're done. Which means probably not many beers for me tonight!

Up later today: sessions on Apollo, Agile development and more Flex.

Registration Done

I wandered down to the Corn Exchange this afternoon between manic spells of sideways rain to get in for early registration for FOTB.

A bunch of friendly people greeted me, checked off my name on a list and handed me a bag full enough of free goodies to make even the most hardened and cynical web developer smile.

Its going to be like the scramble for Africa when I bring this stuff back to the office as everyone tries to claim something for not being able to go themselves.

First session kicks off at 9:30am tomorrow...

Welcome to Brighton

Houston, we've landed!

Whenever I visit Brighton, I'm always struck by how cool it is. Its a happening place and the people here know it without being uptight about it like in London. The bars are heaving and pounding out the latest tunes. Fashion is personal expression and you'll see everything from hippy chic to mod rocker to if-Pete-Doherty-was-a-toff all sitting in the same pub. Choosing to have a conference here is a great choice.

I popped down to the Brighton Dome this evening to have a recce. There's no obvious sign of FOTB 06 about to kick off. No signs on walls or anything.

The early registration kicks off tomorrow. I'm not really sure what its for but I'm guessing its to sign up for the sessions you want to see. The schedule has changed a little since the last post but the general wishlist is the same with only a few minor deviations.

I'll be posting my pics up here: My FOTB06 Flickr set. I'll hopefully update it each evening (if not in the pub between sessions as long as I can sneak some wifi for free off some unsuspecting business).

Apollo...

Andy and I stayed behind in work last week to listen to the Adobe web-seminar about their new desktop RTE, Apollo. It sounds really great and we'll hopefully get a good look at it at FOTB.

Our discussions have raised a few questions which will hopefully get answered during the week...

• Will Apollo be able to communicate with other applications running on a user's machine? (i.e. Outlook)


• How will non-administrative logons effect the installation process? (there's been documented Flash Player install quirks from this scenario)


• What sort of legacy versions of Windows will be supported? (I'm thinking Win98 here)

If you've got anymore questions about Apollo, post them in the comments and I'll do my best to track down the answers this week.

Either way, this new app will causing a few worries for people such as SWFKit and FlashJester who sell products to make Flash more consumable as a desktop application.

That's all until after registration tomorrow.

PS: I was thinking I was the only delegate going from Wales according to the FOTB06 Backnetwork delegate map. But my latest check shows some peeps from BBC Wales in Cardiff coming down too.