Yesterday I started working on my next big project for Infrared5, a set of Flash CS3 UI components for Ribbit. IR5 has been in contact with Ribbit for a while, discussing this project, and this week we got the go ahead to start.
Basically, we’ll be building a set of Flash components that will show up in your Components Panel in Flash CS3 (for a Flash 9, AS3 project). You’ll be able to drag these to the stage, set parameters, hook them up to each other, and make a full featured Ribbit application with minimal coding. There are some pretty cool features planned, so it’s going to be fun. I’ll give more details on the components themselves as I get more into the actual development. I’m just getting up to date on the CS3 component architecture and the Ribbit API now. I’ve made plenty of AS3 components from scratch, but this is my first foray into the CS3 component classes. They are quite a bit different than the old V2 stuff I used to do, or even Flex components, but I’m not expecting a lot of trouble getting up to speed on it.
I believe the plan is to get at least a beta release out by April, so I guess I better get crackin’.
In other Ribbit news, Chuck Freedman from Ribbit, a former co-worker and good friend, is coming to Boston next week, where he will be speaking about Ribbit at the Boston Flash Platform User Group. If you are in the area, come join us next Wednesday.
Cool!
I have a request. I’ve tried a number of different component kits: flex, the “fl” components, aswing… none of them work if they’re used in a SWF that is loaded inside a security boundary inside another SWF. The reason for this is typically that they install a mouse listener on the stage after a pop-up is displayed, so that the pop-up will go away if someone clicks outside the pop-up. If you’re inside a security boundary you aren’t allowed to set up certain listeners on the stage.
The good news is that it’s relatively easy to fix. I’ve created patches flex and “fl” to make them work, I simply detect if we can’t access the stage and use the top-level component in the SWF as a psuedostage. If the real stage is available, it’s used. Of course, the problem is that the components will have little things wrong with them, like not closing a pop-up when you click outside of it, but it’s far better than not working at all.
I’d be happy to help with this and/or provide testing support.