May 27, 2004
ASP Date/Time Extension
Fresh out of Paul Davis' bit farms, the ASP Date and Time extension for Dreamweaver, mirroring his previous PHP Date and Time extension. Good stuff, and the price is even better... free!
Posted by sfegette at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2004
Director MX 2004 Online Seminars
Two free online seminars will be made available for Director MX 2004- one on DVD features in particular, and another on using Director MX 2004 alongside Flash MX 2004 and integrating the two environments. Definitely a must-see if you're interested in either topic (they will be repeated next month for those who can't make this week)- you can get more details and sign up here.
(note- the times are listed in US Eastern and US Pacific times, so international folks- you'll definitely want to confirm local times in your area.)
Posted by sfegette at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2004
Three FAQs from
One of the best parts of Community Week (in my opinion) was that I got to hear a lot of questions from our customers, and fortunately the new Developer Center update partially helps me make good on at least three questions I heard regularly this week:
Q) Where can I get more information/tutorials on layouts and positioning using CSS?
A) First, check out Jojo's new article on exactly that subject at the MM Developer Center. Secondly, dive deep into Project Seven's Tutorials- Al and Gerry have been trailblazing CSS for years now and have a lot of great info for you to soak up on their site. If you're still wondering how and why CSS can help you develop effective site designs, check out the CSS Zen Garden, and note how a little CSS can go a long, long way in making clean, reusable, easily updated site designs.
Q) Any suggestions or hints for updating my legacy ColdFusion apps to ColdFusion MX?
A) Check out Jedi Master Ray Camden's tips on exactly that subject, here on the Macromedia Developer Center.
Q) How can I connect Flash to a back-end PHP application server?
A) I'd normally recommend Flash Remoting as the easiest way to do this, but that does require ColdFusion MX as your app server. For using stock Flash MX 2004 Pro to exchange data with a PHP/mySQL database using XML, check out Sajid Saiyed's Developer Center tutorial. I'd also recommend looking into either amfphp, or PHPObject as two open source remoting solutions on top of PHP/mySQL. Sephiroth's site is a goldmine of information on this subject as well- make sure to bookmark it!
Hope the above links/references are of interest- enjoy!
Posted by sfegette at 01:05 PM | Comments (9)
- Recap
First, major props to all the folks who packed into the Macrochats this week- it wouldn't have been nearly as fun a Community Week without such overwhelming support from our communities! I only regret I couldn't talk personally with all the people who sent us kind notes and feedback- but we're definitely noting all the suggestions for future events.
On that note- what did you like/dislike about Community Week? Any suggestions for how we could improve next time? Did the Breeze Live format work well for you? Feel free to leave your comments here and I'll be sure to pass them on to the rest of the team.
Posted by sfegette at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2004
New ColdFusion Macrochat
Hot off the presses, a last-minute Macrochat has been added to the lineup for tomorrow- and it should be a good one:
12:00pm PST/3:00 pm EST tomorrow (5/19)
Ben Forta, Tim Buntel and Dave Gruber talk CF Shop.
Bring your ColdFusion questions to this Macrochat:
http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/r36158305/
Posted by sfegette at 09:23 PM | Comments (1)
WWUG Preso
Just got out of the second Worldwide User Group meeting, and it was a really good one. Leading off was Jeff Whatcott, giving an overview of Macromedia's roadmap for the coming year. Next up was a sneak peek of the next version of ColdFusion (code named 'Blackstone') by CF product manager Tim Buntel. Rounding out the afternoon were presos by Lawson Hancock on the next version of Contribute, and Bill Schulze featuring the next version of Central. Definitely a good time had by all!
Tomorrow will be a jam-packed day of presos- starting with Greg Rewis showcasing CSS design in Dreamweaver (a must-see if you're remotely interested in CSS), Lawson Hancock with a preso on publishing using Contribute, a great session on video in Director by Tom Higgins, and of course- a breakdown on customizing and extending Dreamweaver by Team Macromedia powerhouse Danilo Celic.
Check the Community Site for specifics, make sure to sign up early!
Posted by sfegette at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)
Worldwide User Group Meeting
Just a reminder if you haven't already heard from other sources- the second of three Worldwide User Group meetings is at 4pm PST today. Today's sessions will be a special opportunity to get a peek into the Macromedia R&D labs, and some of the treats in store that may (or may not) show up in future product releases. You can get more details here at the MacroChat schedule, although you'll need to be at your local Macromedia User Group to see the presentation- they will not be shown online to the general public as with the other MacroChats! Hope to see you there, of course...
Posted by sfegette at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2004
- Day Two
A big thanks to everyone who dropped into the Dreamweaver Design preso Dominic Sagolla and I hosted yesterday evening (along with Mimi Rosenheim MC'ing)! What a great group of people and questions- it was a blast thru and thru. You can find a link to the session recording on the Community Blog if you missed it yesterday. FYI- I'm the guy on the left, Dominic is up-front and close on the right.
Today we've got some sessions on Flex, RoboDemo and Dreamweaver- make sure to check out today's session details on the Community blog as well as the Community Week website and register early!
Posted by sfegette at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2004
Designing With Dreamweaver
Checked out the Community Week Macrochats at the macromedia.com site yet today? If not, why not? They're going on all week, and cover a wide range of good topics. For example, in about an hour.5 you'll have a chance to squeeze in and ask some questions of the Dreamweaver team regarding design in DWMX 2004. I'll be there helping to MC the session, so look forward to seeing you there!
You can find the entire Macrochat schedule here.
Posted by sfegette at 03:20 PM | Comments (4)
Pulp Fiction Released
Not the Tarentino flick, but a fresh tidbit for the Mac crowd- a new RSS/Atom feedreader called Pulp Fiction. If you're a 'blogspace-commander' and want to check out the latest- bang the link and give it a go. I really like it's consistent Apple interface and Applescript-ability, and will probably be switching off NetNewsWire shortly, gven how cool PF has been so far.
Posted by sfegette at 03:17 PM | Comments (2)
May 14, 2004
In case you hadn't noticed
In case you hadn't noticed yet, next week is 'Community Week' at Macromedia. What's Community Week? It's how we're showing our appreciation for our rich online communities, a subject near and dear to my heart as a community manager here at Macromedia. All next week we'll be hosting free 'Macrochats' with product experts (both from inside Macromedia as well as third-party presenters), not to mention a Worldwide User Group meeting (broadcast to your local user group- check the link for availability in your area) that will offer sneak peeks into upcoming Macromedia technologies and developments. I'll be in quite a few of the Macrochats (and helping host the 4pm PST Dreamweaver team session), so I hope to virtually see you there!
Posted by sfegette at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2004
Opera 7.5 Released
For the browser compatibility crowd- Opera 7.5 was just released, and for the first time offers feature parity between the Windows and Mac OS X platforms. Other features of Opera 7.5 include RSS and NNTP newsreaders, an IRC client, email client with spam filtering, a contact manager, and a revised UI. Pretty solid upgrade so far, IMHO (although I'm personally not ready to leave my preferred IE Win/Safari Mac combination behind...).
Posted by sfegette at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)
Active Content - redux
In the "eyebrow-raised" category, Eolas has prompted a new reexamination of their suit against Microsoft over their claim to the patent on 'embedded media' in web browsers. Although right now there's no signs of Microsoft making changes to Internet Explorer in the near future, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on this as it (continues to) develop...
Posted by sfegette at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2004
Persistent Page Indicators
Most web sites use some form of visual indicator (breadcrumbs, 'down' state for buttons, highlighted text, etc.) to show the page or site area the user is currently upon. However, when trying to manage these indicators in large sites driven by Dreamweaver templates, the situation deteriorates quickly. You would need to put the 'indicators' in an editable region of the page so that it could be hand-tweaked for every site area- but this makes these 'static' site elements subject to end-user editing and the inevitable errors that ensue.
Fortunately, Stephanie Sullivan has written up a slick way of managing this all via CSS, without the need to make your indicators editable. You can read through Stephanie's tutorial here, over at the Nemesis project web site.
Posted by sfegette at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
Serializer Class
Hot off Sephiroth's bit-presses- a rather cool Serializer class that lets you serialize/deserialize complex data to and from PHP remotely. Also up in complimentary fashion, a tutorial on custom-binding a PHP object to a Flash DataGrid using the Serializer class. Nice!
Posted by sfegette at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
G5s and Mariah Carey
What do these two performers have in common? At least in regards to the dual 1.8GhZ model G5 Macintosh, that would be a Mariah-esque high-pitched whine while at work. Reportedly DWMX 2004 is affected by this issue- you can read Apple's comments and suggestions at MacWorld UK website- current prognosis is that the noise is power supply-related, and suggestions from Apple are to either replace the power supply (check your warranty!) or adjust the Energy Saver prefs to reduce the noise. Interesting- I'll be keeping an eye on this....
Posted by sfegette at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2004
Got CSS-P?
If not, then you'll want to check out Al Sparber and Project Seven's "Quick Draw MacFly" tutorial- a quick romp through creating your first CSS-P-driven site. If you've been lightly-tiptoeing around Dreamweaver MX 2004's great new CSS features, this is an ideal place to start getting your feet fully submerged!
Posted by sfegette at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)
Hello, World.
Greetings from the ether(net)!
It's admittedly a bit daunting to be in the presence of such master-Macrobloggers as Mike, Christian and JD, but I'm glad to be on board helping to blog what I'm seeing and hearing across the Macromedia communities. My deep sense of curiosity well outweighs my need for self-imposed boundaries- so expect to see a lot of topics showing up in this 'blog, although I'll try to keep them related to Macromedia's products and communities as best I can. ;-)
Who am I? I've been with Macromedia since 2000 (for the most part), and started out as the first 'community manager' for Dreamweaver before Matt Brown took the reins in mid-2001 and I went on to work for Jeremy Allaire on the MM web team. I'm now back in the community manager slot, after taking a little 'round-trip' thru the company.
Before my years at Macromedia, I was a studio musician (primarily bass, guitar and vocals) and directed web/online development at MetaCreations, a (now defunct) Santa Barbara-based graphics software company that was best known for Bryce, Kai's Power Tools and Painter before they were sold to Corel in 2000. I spent from 1994-2000 building intranet and extranet sites there, using everything from Perl to ASP to ColdFusion to JSP. After Meta folded in December of 1999, I had a few good conversations with the DW team regarding the new extensibility API in DW 3, and... well, that moved me up to Macromedia in San Francisco. My prior experience is admittedly mostly with Dreamweaver, Flash and the other Studio products, but I've been spending a lot of time with Flex and Breeze lately - great products, both.
So- hello, Macroworld!
Please bookmark this page- I'm really just getting started...
Posted by sfegette at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)