Category: Ryan’s Internet Technology, and Web Design Blog

Let’s say you are building an application and want to be able to dynamically instantiate new objects in AS 3.0 (Flash CS3)?

Read on for the answer . . .

The syntax for doing this has drastically changed from AS 2.0, however there is still one gotcha that remains the same.

In my case, I’m not only dynamically instantiating class names, but also their reference names.

Here’s how I figured out how to do it:

// Import the getDefinitionByName util → Continue reading “Dynamically Instantiating New Objects in ActionScript 3.0”

When you are designing a website one of the first things that you have to decide is the screen resolution that your audience will be using.  There are still plenty of people out there using 1024×768 or, in some cases, smaller resolutions.

800×600 monitors: 760×410
1024×768 monitors: 960×575

→ Continue reading “Web Design Safe Areas for Common Screen Resolutions”

Here’s a free online resource for Subversion.→ Continue reading “Online Subversion Book”

First I downloaded and installed a windows binary of subversion, so that I would have the svn client executables.

I went the extra step and set up ssh keys between the widows client and the server so that I could svn without having to enter a password each time.  To so so:

• Download plink.exe, pageant.exe, and puttygen.exe from the Putty website.
• Run puttygen.exe to generate a private and public key.
• After the key has been generated, click on

I’m working on a video component in AS 3.0 that takes the location of a dynamically generated xml file and passes it to a SWF via FlashVars.

3.0 deals with FlashVars and query string variables much differently than 2.0.

Here’s an article that’ll get you going in the right direction.→ Continue reading “Using FlashVars with ActionScript 3.0”

http://aralbalkan.com/926→ Continue reading “Quick Overview of Flash CS3 V3 Components”

Here’s a quick how to for creating dynamic scrolling text boxes in flash.  (This also works with Flash 8, Flash MX, and Flash MX 2004.)
Let’s say that you would like to have a text box in your flash movie and that you will be loading arbitrary amounts of text data into it.  You can set it up so that no matter how much text you add to the text instance you will have the scroll bar controls dynamically update → Continue reading “Creating Dynamic Scrolling Text Boxes with Flash CS3”

Here’s a quick how-to on getting Firefox to start new mail messages with Thunderbird and getting Thunderbird to open links in Firefox under Linux.

For Thunderbird:
All you need to do is edit the prefs.js file in your .mozilla-thunderbird/blahblah.defaults/ (or similarly named) directory.  Add the following (specifying your path to Firefox):
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox" );
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https", "/usr/bin/firefox" );

For Firefox:
Edit the prefs.js file in your .mozilla/firefox/blahblah.defaults/ directory.  Add the following:
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto","/usr/bin/thunderbird");

→ Continue reading “Integrating Thunderbird and Firefox Under Linux”

Flash MX and MX 2004 include the v2 Flash component architecture and enable you to develop your own custom components.

Here’s an excellent article that goes through, step-by-step, on how to write your own class files, component movie clips and export to .swc.

Creating Components with Flash MX 2004

by Joey Lott (www.person13.com)

Don’t let the idea of writing a custom component intimidate
you. Although components may appear very complex, they are really just fancy
movie clips. You → Continue reading “An Excellent Tutorial on How to Create Custom Components with Action Script 2.0”

I’m migrating my workstation to CentOS 5.  I’ve decided it’s time to retire my old Mozilla suite install and upgrade to the latest of Firefox and Thunderbird.

If you are using an IMAP account, Thunderbird has an annoying bug whereby it hangs when attempting to copy a sent message to the Sent, or Drafts folder on the server.

Click on the Read More link for the fix . . . 
After quite a bit of searching and trial and error → Continue reading “Thunderbird not able to save to Sent or Drafts folder with an IMAP account”