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March 01, 2006
Free, Open-source ActionScript 3.0 Libraries
We just released a set of free, open-source ActionScript 3.0 libraries to help get people going with the Flex Builder 2 beta. The libraries include the following projects:
- corelib. Several basic utilities for MD5 hashing, JSON serialization, advanced string and date parsing, etc.
- FlexUnit. A unit testing framework for Flex and ActionScript 3.0 applications based on JUnit.
- Flickr. A wrapper for the entire Flickr API.
- Mappr. A wrapper for the entire Mappr API.
- XML Syndication. Libraries for easily parsing all versions of RSS and Atom.
- Odeo. A wrapper for the entire Odeo API.
- YouTube. A wrapper for the entire YouTube API.
All the libraries are well documented and come with unit tests. You can download the source and/or just the SWCs, and do anything you want with them (the license is very liberal). All I ask personally is that you build something cool and send me the link.
We built a pretty nice mash-up called "Flow" using five of the seven libraries last week. Kevin Lynch showed it during the Flashforward keynote, and we should be releasing it (along with the code) within the next week or so.
Posted by cantrell at March 1, 2006 10:48 AM | References
Comments
Sweet! I did worry that Adobe might stiffle this kind of thing - glad to see it hasn't :-)
From first glance, these look really handy - looking forward to 'Flow'
Cheers
Posted by: mike b at March 1, 2006 11:12 AM
Sweet! I don't suppose you know how long before a mac version of Flex 2 beta will be released? I'm eager to get started with Flex.
Also, pass it on again that we need a free version of ColdFusion. Hosting for CF is killer if you want to work on your own apps outside of work. Maybe a free version would make it more accessible to those of us who want to use it but can't afford. Especially when PHP hosting is so stinking cheap.
Glad to see more opensource from Adobe! Keep the good times rollin'.
Posted by: Josh at March 1, 2006 01:58 PM
Free coldfusion? It a great idea...but it has to work for Adobe too.
How about this, instead of releasing standard as free, which I do not think would be a good idea for Adobe, how about re-naming standard as ColdFusion Pro (lowering the price to $900), keeping enterprise as is and creating a free version called "standard" or "basic" which did not support cfchart, cfreport (cfr's) or even cfc's.
This would allow Adobe to compete with PHP for market/developer share without significantly hurting revenues. Once more people were exposed to the power and simplicity of ColdFusion, $900 is not much of an expense for the "Pro" edition.
Additionally, once coldfusion is the platform of choice for small, growing businesses, when those businesses increase in size and revenue, converting to an enterprise license will be a "no-brainer".
Posted by: Mark Fuqua at March 1, 2006 04:33 PM
Hey, Christian...
I've got a sample RSS consumer on my blog based on the syndication library. How fantastic. Once I got the remoting bits working and realized I had an RSS 1.0 feed (not RSS 2, which is what I'd been trying), and I had only to call feed.parse(event.result.toString()) and BOOM there it was. I know that's the general idea, but it was still way too cool just to see it work so easily.
You've saved many of us many hours of work.
Thanks. Info about the sample is on my blog, as is a downloadable zip file with the sample in it.
Thanks,
J
Posted by: Jared Rypka-Hauer at March 2, 2006 11:41 AM