Top Ten Flex Tools and Resources

Top Ten Flex Tools and Resources

When developing Flex and/or AIR applications there are a handful of tools that really make the difference between a good project and a great project. They are all very valuable and provide stability and clarity for the RIA development process; or at least they have for me. From Unit Testing to SVN utilities to frameworks and libraries I’ve found the following ten items to be very useful and helpful. I’d even go so far as to say these are critical for quality Flex RIA development; but as Les says: “It’s just a matter of opinion.” 

Cairngorm
Cairngorm is the lightweight micro-architecture for Rich Internet Applications built in Flex or AIR. A collaboration of recognized design patterns, Cairngorm exemplifies and encourages best-practices for RIA development advocated by Adobe Consulting, encourages best-practice leverage of the underlying Flex framework, while making it easier for medium to large teams of software engineers deliver medium to large scale, mission-critical Rich Internet Applications.
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/cairngorm/Cairngorm
Download: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/opensource/cairngorm/cairngorm2_2_1-bin.zip

Flex Unit
FlexUnit is a unit testing framework for Flex and ActionScript 3.0 applications and libraries. It mimics the functionality of JUnit, a Java unit testing framework, and comes with a graphical test runner.
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexunit/FlexUnit
Download: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/opensource/flexunit/flexunit0_9.zip

Subclipse
Subclipse is an Eclipse Team Provider plug-in providing support for Subversion within the Eclipse IDE. The software is released under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0 open source license.
http://subclipse.tigris.org/
Eclipse update site URL: http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.6.x

Eclipse
Eclipse is a multi-language software development platform comprising an IDE and a plug-in system to extend it. It is written primarily in Java and is used to develop applications in this language and, by means of the various plug-ins, in other languages as well - C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP and more.
http://www.eclipse.org
Download: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

ASDoc
ASDoc is a command-line tool that you can use to create API language reference documentation as HTML pages from the classes in your Adobe® Flex® application. The Adobe Flex team uses the ASDoc tool to generate the Adobe Flex Language Reference.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=asdoc_1.html

Flex Ant Tasks
The Adobe® Flex® Ant tasks provide a convenient way to build your Flex projects using an industry-standard build management tool. If you are already using Ant projects to build Flex applications, you can use the Flex Ant tasks to replace your exec or java commands that invoke the mxmlc and compc compilers. If you are not yet using Ant to build your Flex applications, you can take advantage of these custom tasks to quickly and easily set up complex build processes for your Flex applications.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=anttasks_1.html
Installation: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=anttasks_2.html#224215

Degrafa
Degrafa is a declarative graphics framework open source licensed under MIT.
http://www.degrafa.org
Download: http://www.degrafa.org/code/

as3corelib
The corelib project is an ActionScript 3 Library that contains a number of classes and utilities for working with ActionScript 3. These include classes for MD5 and SHA 1 hashing, Image encoders, and JSON serialization as well as general String, Number and Date APIs.
http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/
Download: http://as3corelib.googlecode.com/files/as3corelib-.92.1.zip

Flex SDK coding conventions and best practices
Coding standards for writing open-source Flex framework components in ActionScript 3. Adhering to these standards makes the source code look consistent, well-organized, and professional.
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Coding+Conventions

Flex Language Reference
The Flex 3.3 Language Reference provides syntax and usage information for every element in the ActionScript™ language. It documents all elements in Adobe® Flash® Player and Adobe® AIR™ that are officially supported by Adobe.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/

Flash CS5 on the iPhone, Apps

Flash CS5 on the iPhone, Apps

At the MAX conference yesterday, Adobe announced that designers and developers will be able to use Adobe Flash Professional CS5 to create rich, interactive applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
This is NOT Flash Player running on the iPhone. There is no new information about Flash Player on the iPhone. This announcement means that Flash designers and developers can use Flash Professional CS5 and ActionScript 3 to build native applications that can be distributed and downloaded via the Apple App Store.
This new feature was demonstrated in a sneak peak of Flash Professional CS5. The new features of Flash Professional CS5 also include a new text engine for creative freedom and control with text, XML based FLAs to boost team collaboration on projects, prebuilt code snippets for rapidly adding interactivity, as well as integrations with Adobe Flash Builder to improve ActionScript editing. A beta of Flash Professional CS5 will be available later this year via Adobe Labs.
Adobe announces ability to publish ActionScript 3 projects to run as native iPhone apps. More info at http://www.adobe.com/go/iphone
Adobe Flash Pro CS5 beta coming, supporting native iPhone apps. Sign up and more info at http://www.adobe.com/go/flashprobeta
You can learn more about this announcement in the FAQ below as well as in the following places • Adobe News Room (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/) •
Information about apps for iPhone on Adobe Labs (http://www.adobe.com/go/iphone) • Information about Flash Professional CS5 on Adobe Labs (http://www.adobe.com/go/flashprobeta)
More about Flash Professional CS5
What did Adobe announce at MAX regarding Flash Professional?
Adobe previewed an early version of the next major version of Flash, Adobe Flash Professional CS5. Adobe also announced that a public beta of Flash Professional CS5 will be available for download from Adobe Labs later this year. That beta will include support for the ability to compile ActionScript 3® projects in Adobe Flash Professional to run as applications for iPhone. Interested designers and developers can go to Adobe Labs to sign up and to be notified when the beta is available.
What are the new features of Flash Professional CS5?
There are many new and exciting features in Flash Professional CS5. These include
• New text capabilities via the Text Layout Framework (TLF). Get unprecedented control and creativity with text in Flash projects. Advanced styling and layout, including right to left text, columns, threaded text blocks let you work with text in Flash like never before.
• XML based FLA files let you manage and modify project assets using source control systems, and enable teams to easily collaborate on files.
• Code Snippets panel provides pre-built code that can be injected into projects for greater interactivity and also reduces the ActionScript 3 learning curve. The panel includes code for timeline navigation (ie: click to go to the next scene) actions (ie: drag and drop), animation (ie: move with keyboard arrows), audio and video, event handlers (ie: mouse events) and loading and unloading of assets.
• Flash Builder integration. Use Flash Builder to write ActionScript code within Flash projects.
• Improved ActionScript editor, including custom class code-hinting and completion
When will the Flash Professional CS5 beta be available for download?
The beta will be available for download from Adobe Labs before the end of 2009. How much will Flash Professional CS5 or Creative Suite cost? We are not announcing any pricing at this time. Where can customers go to be notified when the beta is available? You can sign up to be notified: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmfor/index.cfm?name=fpcs5_notify
More information about applications for iPhone
Q: When will Adobe Flash Platform tooling support building applications for iPhone?
A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 including support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year. Sign up to be notified when the beta is available.: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=fpcs5_notify
Q: How does the Flash Platform tooling update help developers?
The tooling update allows developers to use Flash technologies to develop content for iPhone and iPod touch, devices that were previously closed to them. Developers can write new code or reuse existing web content to build applications for iPhone. Because the source code and assets are reusable across the Flash Platform runtimes,—Adobe AIR and Flash Player—it also gives developers a way to more easily target other mobile and desktop environments.
Q: How is this different from Adobe Flash Player 10 coming to iPhone? Will iPhone users be able to view web content built with Flash technology in the iPhone browser?
The new support for iPhone applications in the Flash Platform tooling will not allow iPhone users to browse web content built with Flash technology on iPhone, but it may allow developers to repackage existing web content as applications for iPhone if they choose to do so. Flash Player uses a just-in-time compiler and virtual machine within a browser plug-in to play back content on websites. Those technologies are not allowed on the iPhone at this time, so a Flash Player for iPhone is not being made available today. Flash Professional CS5 will enable developers to build applications for iPhone that are installed as native applications. Users will be able to access the apps after downloading them from Apple’s App Store and installing them on iPhone or iPod touch.
Q: Can applications for iPhone built with Flash Platform tooling be delivered through Apple’s App Store?
Yes. Developers can deliver applications built with Flash Platform tooling just like any other iPhone application. This will require the developer to be a member of the iPhone Developer Program and follow the program guidelines.
Q: Do developers need to participate in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program in order to develop or deploy applications for iPhone using the Flash Platform tools?
Yes. A developer certificate from Apple is required in order to test and deploy applications to iPhone. Apple provides information on its developer programs at http://developer.apple.com/iphone/.
Q: Are applications for iPhone built with Flash Platform tools interpreted at runtime?
No. iPhone applications built with Flash Platform tools are compiled into standard, native iPhone executables, just like any other iPhone application.
Q: Can applications load SWF files or other code at runtime, such as a module from a website?
No. iPhone applications built with Flash Platform tools are compiled into standard, native iPhone executable packages and there is no runtime interpreter that could be used to run ActionScript bytecode within the application.
Q: Which version of the iPhone SDK/operating system is supported by the applications?
Applications can be built targeting iPhone OS 3.0 and later.
Q: Will applications built with Flash Platform tools work on iPod touch? iPhone 1.0? iPhone 3G? iPhone 3GS?
Applications should work on all iPhone and iPod touch devices. However, as the hardware specifications of the devices are widely divergent, content performance may vary between devices and device generations.

5 new Flex and AIR books for Fall and Winter 2008

Here are five great Flex 3.0 and AIR books that are worth checking out in the next several months. Programming Flex 2 is an outstanding book and the updated Programming Flex 3 is sure to please. Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0 by Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh is a must read and these AIR books also look really awesome. I’m putting these books on my radar for those cold winter (stay-at-home) nights approaching…

Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex

Authors: Chafic Kazoun, Joey Lott

Available: September 24, 2008

Publisher: Adobe Dev Library

Description:

If you want to try your hand at developing rich Internet applications with Adobe’s Flex 3, and already have experience with frameworks such as .NET or Java, this is the ideal book to get you started. Programming Flex 3 gives you a solid understanding of Flex 3’s core concepts, and valuable insight into how, why, and when to use specific Flex features. Numerous examples and sample code demonstrate ways to build complete, functional applications for the Web, using the free Flex SDK, and RIAs for the desktop, using Adobe AIR. This book is an excellent companion to Adobe’s Flex 3 reference documentation.

More info.

Adobe AIR: A Guide for Developers

Authors: Mark Blair, Andrew Muller, Andrew Spaulding

Available: February 1, 2009

Publisher: Adobe Dev Library

Description:

The only authoritative resource on Adobe AIR’s first full release, with content created, reviewed, and critiqued by Adobe’s AIR team. Lots of resources exist for Adobe AIR and more are on the way, but most try to cover too much information for a technology that’s changing rapidly. What most developers need right now is a definitive introduction to Adobe AIR: How it works and how to develop for it. Written and approved by Adobe experts who know the real story behind AIR, the information in this book comes straight from the source.

More Info.

Professional Adobe Flex 3

Authors: Joseph Balderson, Peter Ent, Jun Heider, Todd Prekaski, Tom Sugden, Andrew Trice, David Hassoun, Joe Berkovitz

Available: February 24, 2009

Publisher: Wrox

Description:

With Professional Adobe Flex 3, put your prior experience with Flash, Actionscript and XML-based language to good use and learn how to use the Flex 3 platform to create rich Internet and Apollo applications. Understand the potential of the Flex 3 platform through practical examples and hands-on advice on topics like developing applications in MXML, creating custom flex components, charting, targeting Apollo runtime, and data interconnectivity. In addition, this book addresses the ways that you can contribute to the development of Flex 3, which is open source.

More info.

Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0

Authors: Juan Sanchez, Andy McIntosh

Available: November 17, 2008

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Description:

Don’t settle for Flex’s boring, standard user interface: set your Flex applications apart with the breakthrough skinning and programming techniques found in Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0. Leading Flex developers Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh show how to build Flex and AIR applications that are stunningly beautiful — and amazingly usable. You’ll learn how to apply state-of-the-art branding and visual design techniques that add value to all your Flex applications, no  matter what they do or who you’re building them for.

More info.

Adobe AIR Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Rich Internet Application Developers

Authors: David Tucker, Marco Casario, Koen De Weggheleire, Rich Tretola

Available: November 20, 2008

Publisher: Adobe Dev Library

Description:

The hands-on recipes in this cookbook help you solve a variety of tasks and scenarios often encountered when using Adobe AIR to build Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. Thoroughly vetted by Adobe’s AIR development team, Adobe AIR Cookbook addresses fundamentals, best practices, and topics that experienced web developers and application designers have inquired about most. This collection also includes solutions for using this runtime environment to build truly innovative applications.

More info;

Reducing CPU usage in Adobe AIR

Let's be honest. AIR gets a bad rap for being a bloated runtime, using up a lot of precious memory and CPU. Although a lot of AIR applications seem to fall into this trap, it doesn't have to be this way. There are a number of techniques you can use to develop a lightweight application that rivals native programs in terms of performance.

One simple and easy way to drastically reduce CPU usage is through framerate throttling. In this article, I will explain what framerate throttling is and how best to implement it in your application.

Note: To make the most of this article, you should have general knowledge of ActionScript and AIR application development.

WHAT IS FRAMERATE THROTTLING?

Framerate throttling is the technique of controlling an application's framerate to increase performance when in use and reduce resource usage when idle. As of ActionScript 3, developers have an extremely useful property in their possession—Stage.frameRate. This gem lets you change the framerate on the fly. In previous versions of ActionScript, we were stuck with what we set it to in the IDE. Thankfully, times have changed and there's no longer an excuse for processor-heavy applications lingering in the background.

HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT FRAMERATE THROTTLING?

Since framerate throttling is essentially a matter of setting the Stage.frameRate property to a lower or higher value, it's up to the developer to decide how involved or advanced it will be. It also depends on the application itself—some allow for more integration than others.

Note: The performance results in the following examples are done on a Macbook Pro 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Since CPU usage is in terms of percent, results will vary from computer to computer.

Novice

The rawest form of throttling is by using the NativeApplication Event.ACTIVATE andEvent.DEACTIVATE events—increase the framerate when active, decrease it when inactive. With a single blank window, this results in 1.8% CPU usage when active and .4% when inactive. You can actually set the framerate to .01 on deactivate for .2% usage, but in testing I discovered the window chrome never loses focus.

package {
   import flash.desktop.NativeApplication;
   import flash.display.Sprite;
   import flash.events.Event;
 
   public class Application extends Sprite {
      public function Application () {
         __init ();
      }
      
      private function __init ():void {
         NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
           (Event.ACTIVATE, __activate__);
         NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
           (Event.DEACTIVATE, __deactivate__);
      }
      
      private function __activate__
         ($event:Event):void {
         stage.frameRate = 50;
      }
      private function __deactivate__ ($event:Event):void {
         stage.frameRate = 1;
      }
   }
}

Intermediate

Certain applications allow more advanced framerate throttling—for example, an application that still needs a level of interaction, even when in the background. Let's say your application has scrollable content to reference and since AIR allows mouse wheel scrolling while in a different application, you need a higher framerate at that time.

In this example, if the application is in the background, but the mouse wheel is scrolling, theMouseEvent.MOUSE_WHEEL handler increases the framerate and sets up anEvent.ENTER_FRAME event that will reduce the framerate half a second after scrolling. In cases like these, it's best to have a buffer in place, so you won't change the framerate with every scroll, but also because there's no event for when the mouse wheel is idle.

package {
   import flash.desktop.NativeApplication;
   import flash.display.Sprite;
   import flash.events.Event;
   import flash.events.MouseEvent;
   import flash.utils.getTimer;
 
   public class Application extends Sprite {
      public static const ACTIVE:int = 50;
      public static const INACTIVE:int = 1;
 
      public var active:Boolean;
      public var scrolling:Boolean;
      public var buffer:int;
      
      public function Application () {
         __init ();
      }
      
      private function __init ():void {
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
        (Event.ACTIVATE, __activate__);
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
        (Event.DEACTIVATE, __deactivate__);
        stage.addEventListener 
        (MouseEvent.MOUSE_WHEEL, __mouseWheel__);
      }
      
      private function __activate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = true;
         stage.frameRate = ACTIVE;
      }
      private function __deactivate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = false;
         stage.frameRate = INACTIVE;
      }
      private function __mouseWheel__ ($event:MouseEvent):void {
         if (!active) {
           if (!scrolling) {
              stage.addEventListener 
                (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __enterframe__);
           }
           stage.frameRate = ACTIVE;
           scrolling = true;
           buffer = getTimer () + 500;
         }
      }
      private function __enterframe__
         ($event:Event):void {
         if (buffer < getTimer ()) {
           stage.frameRate = INACTIVE;
           scrolling = false;
           stage.removeEventListener
            (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __enterframe__);
         }
      }
   }
}

Expert

If performance optimization is what you live for, you can impress your friends with some intricate framerate throttling. (Note: This won't impress girlfriends.)

In my applications, I like to have transitions from one state to the next for both a smoother environment and a better feel. Because of this, I like to use a high framerate (50). Unfortunately, the higher the framerate, the higher the CPU usage. Therefore, I set the framerate to 50 only when a tween is active. When one isn't, I reduce the framerate to 24. On top of that, there are instances when a loader is animating while the application is in the background. A loader doesn't need 50 fps, so I'll set the framerate to 5 when the application is visible in the background and 1 when not visible.

Note: For this example, I'm using an animate() method to call at the beginning of each tween. Ideally, you would want to build the framerate throttler into your tweening engine, so you wouldn't need to call animate() manually.

package {
   import flash.desktop.NativeApplication;
   import flash.display.Sprite;
   import flash.events.Event;
   import flash.utils.getTimer;
 
   public class Application extends Sprite {
      public static const ANIMATING:int = 50;
      public static const ACTIVE:int = 24;
      public static const INACTIVE_VISIBLE:int = 5;
      public static const INACTIVE_INVISIBLE:int = 1;
      
      public var active:Boolean;
      public var animating:Boolean;
      public var buffer:int;
      
      public function Application () {
         __init ();
      }
      
      private function __init ():void {
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
        (Event.ACTIVATE, __activate__);
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener 
        (Event.DEACTIVATE, __deactivate__);
      }
      
      public function activate ():void {
         if (!animating) {
           stage.frameRate = ACTIVE;
         }
      }
      public function deactivate ():void {
         if (!animating) {
           stage.frameRate = (stage.nativeWindow.visible) ? 
              INACTIVE_VISIBLE : INACTIVE_INVISIBLE;
         }
      }
      public function animate ($duration:int = 1000):void {
         stage.frameRate = 50;
         buffer = getTimer () + $duration;
         animating = true;
         
         if (!animating) {
           stage.addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __checkBuffer__);
         }
      }
      
      private function __activate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = true;
         activate ();
      }
      private function __deactivate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = false;
         deactivate ();
      }
      private function __checkBuffer__ ($event:Event):void {
         if (buffer < getTimer ()) {
           stage.removeEventListener
           (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __checkBuffer__);
           animating = false;
           if (active) {
             activate ();
           } else {
             deactivate ();
           }
         }
      }
   }
}

Framerate throttling is a small chapter in the optimization of your AIR application's performance. It's a basic way to get your foot in the door and in the mindset of keeping resource usage low. This mentality and practice can easily lead to more responsive applications that enhance the user's experience while leaving a light footprint. Let's face it—no one likes bloatware.

Hot Flex and ActionScript 3.0 APIs, tips and tools for Autumn 2008

43 Hot Flex and ActionScript 3.0 APIs, tips and tools for Autumn 2008

Autumn is here again and it’s time to review some of the happenings from the summer. Here are 43 hand selected Flex and ActionScript 3.0 libraries, APIs, tips, and tricks.  There have been several new APIs launched, Cairngorm was open sourced, a Flex 3 update was released and Grant Skinner created a new tweening engine. There have been new Flex application development frameworks released. There was a Flex code generator update and there have also been some design pattern updates released. You don’t want to miss out on this link round up!

Introducing Flex SDK 3.1 and Flex Builder 3.0.1
Flex SDK 3.1 is what the team considers a milestone build, a certification of all of that work and a roll-up into a build that is recommended for all users
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/sdk3_fb301.html

Cairngorm Moved to Adobe Open Source
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/amcleod/archives/2008/08/cairngorm_moved.html

Flex Architecture Basics - Models & Data Transfer Objects
Demonstrates a relatively easy way of setting up a small Flex application using a model and a data transfer object
http://nwebb.co.uk/blog/?p=228

Tutorial: ActionScript 3 Dragging Methods
This tutorial is all about dragging an object around the stage.
http://flashmymind.com/Tutorials/Actionscript/Advanced/actionscript-dragging.php

Flex Paginate Component
A little paginator component
http://www.darklump.co.uk/blog/?p=112

ModuleManager and IModuleInfo - loading Flex Modules dynamically
http://lowpitch.com/blog/2008/08/17/modulemanager-and-imoduleinfo-loading-flex-modules-dynamically/

Getting started with Degrafa
Simple code example by Mike Huntington
http://www.mikehuntington.com/?p=22

Advanced CSS with Degrafa
Another great code example by Mike Huntington
http://www.mikehuntington.com/?p=31

Alcon 3
Rewritten for Adobe AIR. This is a little debuger/logger, I used to use this back in the AS2 days and really enjoyed it. I still need to check this out but I’m sure it’s really cool.
http://blog.hexagonstar.com/alcon/

Remove css type selector warnings in Flex Builder
Quick little tip to remove css type selector warnings from the Flex Builder problems panel
http://www.nutrixinteractive.com/blog/?p=135

VBox, HBox with gradient background
http://www.igorcosta.org/?p=160

Flex designer/developer workflow video tutorials
A series of short tutorials that cover using Fireworks CS3 and Flex Builder 3 to create a visual theme for Flex applications.
http://www.ashorten.com/2008/08/11/flex-designerdeveloper-workflow-video-tutorials/

Six reasons to use ActionScript 3.0 - Lee Brimelow
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/six_reasons_as3.html

Custom flex skins
Creating web-applications with flex 3 is great. there are a ton of pre-made components, and an open-ended architecture to allow you to create your own.
http://the.fontvir.us/b10g/?id=111

Writing components in Flex, part 1
http://labs.flexperiments.nl/writing-components-in-flex-part-1/

Writing components in Flex, part 2
http://labs.flexperiments.nl/writing-components-in-flex-part-2/

Flash Enabled Blog Actionscript 3 API roundup
http://flashenabledblog.com/2008/08/26/as3-actionscript-3-classes/

Create bitmap data object from a display object
http://www.flexer.info/2008/08/20/how-to-make-a-bitmapdata-from-a-displayobjectuicomponent/

FCG 1.0 (Flex code generator)
Goes final and open source
http://www.dehats.com/drupal/?q=node/45

New ActionScript 3 Singleton Method
Daniel Love’s version using static initializers
http://www.daniellove.net/blog/?p=81

CSKDebugger
AIR debuger for Mac
http://ultra-web.co.uk/?p=178

Fill Colors
Fill Colors is the embodiment of the separation between style and layout in Flex and a demonstration of what’s possible in terms of skinning a Flex application
http://www.fillcolors.com/

gTween
Animation tweening library by Grant Skinner
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2008/08/gtween_a_new_tw.html

Functional Testing Framework for AIR AJAX apps based on Selenium
http://corlan.org/2008/08/15/functional-testing-framework-for-air-ajax-apps-based-on-selenium

Yahoo! Music API
The Yahoo! Music API gives developers access to the Yahoo! Music catalog of artists, albums, tracks, videos, ratings and more. It provides numerous ways to browse the catalog: through charts, search, similarities, genres, artists, and user recommendations and ratings.
http://developer.yahoo.com/music/

ActionScript 3 Flexible Layout Class
The NpFlexLayout Class is designed to simplify aligning DisplayObjects to stage dimensions and responding to changes in stage dimensions at run time by a user or between different users.
http://www.blog.noponies.com/archives/109

mediacorelib - media core library for ActionScript 3.0
The MediaCoreLib is an Actionscript 3.0 library toolset for playing audio or video files effortlessly. MediaCoreLib allows you to manage a playlist and seemlessly crossfade tracks.
http://code.google.com/p/mediacorelib/

Servebox ActionScript Foundry
An ActionScript 3 / Java framework designed for Flex 2 applications development. Its design is based on several design patterns,
http://www.servebox.com/foundry/doku.php?id=

Flest Framework
Flest is an ActionScript3 / Flex application framework for building enterprise level RIAs. It uses such design pattern as Controller, Factory, Command, etc. High efficiency, simplicity and practicality were set as its mandatory design features.
http://code.google.com/p/flest/

Guasax Flex/AIR MVC - The MVC Flex/AIR Framework
Guasax is an ease of use programming framework to provide ordered and scalable Flex applications. Life cycle of guasax framework is based in the MVC pattern to take on our program actions
http://www.guasax.com/guasax/web/en/index.php

Flex Mojos - HelloWorldTutorial
Tutorial for building a simple Hello World Flex application with flex-mojos
http://code.google.com/p/flex-mojos/wiki/HelloWorldTutorial

Scott Evans - public discussion of new FlexBuilder 4 IDE features
Scott Evans, a lead engineer on the FlexBulder team, has started a new blog - Getting and Setting  that will be for public discussion of new FlexBuilder 4 IDE features.
http://gettingandsetting.com/

dpHibernate - Hibernate lazy loading with Adobe BlazeDS
dpHibernate is a custom Flex Library and a custom BlazeDS Hibernate adapter that work together to give you support for lazy loading of hibernate objects from inside your flex applications.
http://blog.mikenimer.com/index.cfm/2008/5/21/dpHibernate–Hibernate-lazy-loading-with-Adobe-BlazeDS
http://code.google.com/p/dphibernate

Alternativa3D — browser 3D-engine based on Adobe Flash
Create 3D-scenes in Flash: objects, mechanisms, buildings visualization. Import geometry from 3D-formats, upload textures (including animated). Three-dimentional projects and games, basic physics simulation (friction, collision).
http://alternativaplatform.com/en/alternativa3d/

KwikUML - build UML models of ActionScript and PHP classes
A tool to quickly build UML models of ActionScript and PHP classes and interfaces, as well as, SQL Entity Relationship Designs (ERDs). Built on Adobe’s AIR runtime, this desktop application allows you to not only build those models but export PNGs of the models for use in specification documentation and generate stub code from the models to use as a starting point once it’s time to actually begin development.
http://labs.otuome.com/kwikuml

KitchenSync
KitchenSync is an ActionScript 3.0 library for sequencing animations and other time-based actions.
http://code.google.com/p/kitchensynclib/

as3xls - read and write Excel files in Flex
Supports reading text, numbers, formulas, and dates from Excel version 2.x-2003 and writing text, numbers, and dates. Formulas also update to reflect changes in cells they reference.
http://code.google.com/p/as3xls/

ASDebugger - A run-time debugger for AS3 Projects
The ASDebugger allows you to trace variables. It has support for strings, integers, arrays, dates, arraycollections, objects and everything in between.
http://labs.flexperiments.nl/asdebugger/

as3corelib update
This is an ActionScript 3 library that contains a lot of useful APIs for working with AS3.
http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/

swix framework - Flex development framework
Swiz is a framework for Adobe Flex that aims to bring complete simplicity to RIA development. Swiz provides Inversion of Control, event handing, and simple life cycle for asynchronous remote methods. In contrast to other major frameworks for Flex, Swiz imposes no JEE patterns on your code, no repetitive folder layouts, and no boilerplate code on your development. Swiz represents best practices learned from the top RIA developers at some of the best consulting firms in the industry, enabling Swiz to be simple, lightweight, and extremely productive.
http://code.google.com/p/swizframework/

Gaia - open-source front-end Flash Framework for AS3 and AS2
Gaia is an open-source front-end Flash Framework for AS3 and AS2 designed to dramatically reduce development time.
http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/

Penne Framework - lightweight framework for developing in Flex and Air
version 1.0 of The Penne Framework, a simplified Flex and Air framework, as a second option to the popular Cairngorm Framework.
http://www.flexpasta.com/index.php/2008/04/19/introducing-the-penne-framework-for-flex-3/

An ActionScript Compiler Written In ActionScript
“It’s enough to warm the cockles of one’s heart. ActionScript nerds around the globe can celebrate their graduation to “real programmer” status (whatever that means).”
http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2008/08/27/an-actionscript-compiler-written-in-actionscript/