prog: (Volity)
prog ([personal profile] prog) wrote2007-06-12 12:11 am
Entry tags:

Testbench and Flash!

OK, I lied: one more obsessive Tic Tac Toe Testbench example. This one's totally worth it, though: an example of a Volity UI written in Flash and JavaScript.

Yessiree. It looks and works much the same as the pure HTML example because it's a port. Code-wise, the only real difference is that there's a SWF file in the mix, and when the JavaScript decides that it's time to update the visuals somehow, instead of twiddling with DOM or CSS, it fires a command into the SWF via an ActionScript ExternalInterface callback. It's not doing anything that isn't standard Flash/JS technique.

This is some truly exciting stuff, and a huge validation for me. I wanted to prove to myself that this actually works! That it does says very good things about the prospects for other embedded-applet-style Volity UIs, too.

Everything's all in up Subversion for your examination, and here is the source zipfile. Now I will carry on and start making the real client.

(And if the Flash looks like butt, it's because it's the very first Flash thing I ever made. Everything I know about Flash programming I learned in the last two days. Props to Chafic & Joey, and a nod to [livejournal.com profile] misuba for first mentioning Flex to me a while ago.)
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[identity profile] radiotelescope.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Let me be the first to say that this *totally rocks*.

[identity profile] misuba.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Sweet business!

[identity profile] misuba.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah: were there any changes to Testbench itself in this release?

[identity profile] prog.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Not really, unless you count the addition of the volity.as ActionScript library (which is really just a bunch of syntactic-sugar convenience methods) The dependency on the SWFObject JS lib is really just to make the Flash demo work cross-browser without pain.

That directory is getting really cluttered. When I start work on the real client I'll reorganize in order to best reflect library-sharing. (This will probably involve my moving aside your earlier Iquity work for the nonce, too.)

[identity profile] misuba.livejournal.com 2007-06-12 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Just chuck it out. No need to be shy about that.

Also, for the sound layer: http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/