I discussed the use of the gpUrlLoader Class in a previous post (see: AS3: A URLLoader Class). This class, part of my gpAS3Library, will load image, swf, text, xml, html, stylesheet, json, and sound files.
In this post, I will discuss how to use the gpUrlLoader class to load multiple images into a Flash movie. I used this technique when I created the gpFlashGallery (A free Flash/XML photo gallery).
In a previous post, I discussed the web 2.0 domain name generator and the web 2.0. color harmonizer that I created on web20.digitalvilliage.com. On the galleries.digitalvilliage.com subdomain, I created the gpFlashGallery, a free XML-based Flash Photo Gallery.
The gpFlashGallery is highly configurable via an XML file. Every aspect of the gpFlashGallery can be configured using this XML file (page color, thumb container dimensions and color, transition type, etc). The image information (location and optional title) is also stored in an XML file.
More information about the gpFlashGallery can be found on http://galleries.digitalvilliage.com. The files can be downloaded from GitHub.
BTW, the reason I named the subdomain galleries rather than gpflashgallery is because I plan to add to add other photo galleries there in the future. I created both a Dojo and JQuery photo gallery almost a year ago for projects that I was working on. Once I get change to document the plugins/widgets, I will place them on the galleries subdomain.
Let me know what you think.
In a previous post, I discussed the web 20. domain name generator that I created on web20.digitalvilliage.com. The other tool that I created for this subdomain was a web 2.0 color harmonizer.
The web 2.0 color harmonizer tool allows you to select colors from 4 different color palettes:
The color harmonies displayed include color schemes from a color wheel: Complementary, Split-Complementary, Analogous, Triad, and Tetrad (or quadrads). A 5% Saturation gradient, a 5% Luminance Gradient, and a 5% combined Saturation/Luminance gradient will also be displayed for the selected color.
I created a CakePHP Component to calculate the color harmonies and created a JQuery Plugin to display the results. Let me know what you think.
I purchased the domain name digitalvilliage.com quite a few years ago. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it when I first purchased the name (but I knew that it was a great domain name). Although I still haven’t decided what the focus of the site should be, I decided, for now, to create a web 2.0 domain name generator on the site. I developed the site using CakePHP and jQuery. I created a JQuery plugin to provide the domain names ajaxally (a term that I added to wikipedia – and yes, I already purchased the domain name) .
The site divided into two subdomains (web20.digitalvilliage.com and galleries.digitalvilliage.com). I’ll discuss the galleries subdomain in a later post.
I’ve seen other web 2.0 domain name generators, but my site offers more than just web 2.0 domain name generation. The site contains two main buttons (web 2.0 and suggest)
Click the web 2.0 button and a domain name will be dynamically generated.
I you click the suggest button, a dialog box will be displayed with a name input field and a category dropdown. The categories are: automotive, art, books, business, clothing, computers/internet, entertainment, health/fitness, money/finance, music, politics, popular, romance, travel, and urban dictionary.
After entering a name and selecting a category, a list of domain names will be displayed. You can then click on the name and click the search button to find whether the name is available. If you click on a name from the ‘urban dictionary’ category, a popup will be displayed with the definition from urbandictionary.com. I’ve only added 40-50 names from urbandictionary.com – I plan to add more later.
After entering a name from the suggest or clicking the web 2.0 button, you can then search for the availability of the name.
If a domain name exists, the Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, Google, Yahoo, and Bing BackLinks counts will be displayed. You will also be provided a link to the whois database for that name as well a link to Alexa Stats.
If the domain name does not exist, you will be provided a link to a number of domain name registrars.
I worked on this site on-and-off for about 6 months (whenever I had the time). I think that it’s pretty cool. The site provides an Ajax web 2.0 domain search generator and an Ajax domain search tool. Let me know what you think.
I finally completed the redesign/development of my portfolio site (GreenScorpion.com).
This site was my first attempt at grunge design. I used Photoshop brushes that I downloaded from GetBrushes.com to design the site (and followed some tutorials that I found on SixRevisions.com and DesignHard.com).
I developed GreenScorpion.com using Flash/ActionScript 3 and Joomla (and a bit of JQuery).
For the portfolio display, I created a Flash Movie relied heavily upon the gpAS3Library and XML. I then used Joomla to create a component that incorporated the Flash movie. After the Joomla component was completed, I created a Joomla module based upon the component so that the Flash movie could be displayed in a specific area on a page (on the home page).
I need to add more to the site, but the portfolio part is done. I also need do something to create a more consistent color feel between operating systems. I created the design on my Mac, but I did most of the development on Ubuntu. The website is much darker on Ubuntu than on my Mac (I haven’t looked at it on Windows, but I’m sure that there will be a difference as well). But for now, I’m done.
When I converted the gpShapes class from AS2 to AS3, I wanted to be able to create shapes with web 2.0 type color schemes, but I did not want to hand code each color scheme in an XML file every time that I wanted to use one. So I created the gpColorSchemes class by duplicating a set of web 2.0 styles that I have in Photoshop. The gpColorSchemes contains 34 preset color schemes that can be used with any Flash/ActionScript application. I named this post Part 2a because I created this class to be used with the gpShapes class (Part 2), but the gpColorSchemes class can be used separately from the gpShapes class.
The gpAS3Library is a set of Flash AS3 utilities that I use when creating my Flash applications.
In Part 0, I discussed the gpUrlLoader class – This class will load image, swf, text, xml, html, stylesheet, json, and sound files.
In Part 2 of the gpAS3Libary, I will discuss the gpShapes class. This class is the basis for much of the UI that I create in my Flash applications.
When I created Flash applications with AS2 in the past, I loaded application information such as page color, button colors and sizes via an XML file. I used this XML configuration file throughout the application, but, because I hated manipulating XML with AS2, I always converted the XML into arrays as soon as it was loaded.
Now with AS3 and E4X, using ActionScript to manipulate XML has made flash application development much easier.
The gpAS3Library is, to some degree, an ActionScript framework (albeit, in the very early stages). I use most of these classes in every Flash application that I develop. When I decided to convert these classes from AS2 to AS3, I realized that I needed a global configuration class to store the XML data that I loaded from the server. And with E4X, I can now easily retrieve the information I need from the XML lists.
Although I named this post Part 1, I have already discussed one of the classes of the gpAS3Libary in a previous post (see: A UrlLoader Class). In this post, I will discuss the gpConfig class.
