Work proceeds on the new Geogad web site. Some days the frustration level is pretty high, but things should be getting a little easier. Why the optimism? Because the new Flash program is more or less under control.

Flash is a very powerful and very popular way to display images, animation, audio, and video across multiple browsers and platforms. But that power comes with a cost. I am not referring to the cost of the software program. I am talking about the hair you will rip out and the remaining ones that will go white as you battle the program to get it to do what you know it should.

The heart of Flash’s power for developers is Actionscript, a scripting language somewhat like Javascript that dynamically controls the Flash movies. The main problem with Actionscript is that it feels like a kludge. For example, the last few hours I have been trying to figure out why Geogad’s Flash volume slider was working yesterday but not today. It turns out the problem is that the volume slider appears above a movieClip that is on a mask layer that is used to mask the movie on the layer below. All of this is fine and dandy and exactly what Flash and its mask layers were designed to do. Judging by depth of the movie used as the mask and the position of its masked layer, it should not interfere with the volume slider. However, it prevents the mouse from clicking on the volume slider.
The solution was to switch the masked layer to a regular layer. Then I used Actionscript to dynamically set the movieClip as a mask for the movie below (see the setMask property for more info). Now I have my mask, but it is not incorrectly grabbing mouse clicks that belong to the volume slider in the layer above.

As I said, Flash is very powerful. You need that power when you find something that does not work the way that it should, so you have to create a workaround. Luckily there seem to be multiple ways to do most things in Flash. The only problem is the days lost trying to figure out what is not working the way that it should and then figuring out another way to do it.

Technorati tags: Flash, Actionscript, masked layers, incorrectly capturing clicks, dynamic masks

OK, now I don’t want to come off as very negative here.  But I have got to say that I am surprised at how slow the Adobe Flash site works.  It seems to take a very long time to pull info from the Actionscript online Dictionary.  I can only assume that they are using Flash to display this info and that may be why it takes so long. 

Thinking about my time with the Adobe site makes me compare it to Sun’s Java site.  Maybe it is because Java is a more structured language while Actionscript is a script, but I have a much easier time tracking down info on the Java site.  Of course, learning Java is much more difficult than Actionscript.  I have to admit that I find Actionscript’s fast and loose variable definition a bit hard to keep track of.  I like the strong typing in Java.  But I got up to speed on basic Actionscript in a few days.  Java takes longer than that to learn.

My greatest help for learning Flash and Actionscript is not from Adobe but from Flash gurus who have posted examples and tutorials on their sites.  Without these sites, I would be weeks away from completing my Flash projects.  A few that have proven helpful for me are

 http://www.kirupa.com/

http://www.cbtcafe.com

http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com

 Thanks for all the help.

Technorati tags: Flash, Actionscript, Java, Adobe, flash tutorials

Ah, the joy of learning a new computer program.  I am not sure what is more fun, knowing that the software package should be able to do something but not knowing where to find this function and/or keystrokes or wasting several hours trying to get the software package to do something that is does not seemed to be programmed to do.

Today was a day for both of these scenarios.  It makes me think of the best definition of computer programming that I ever heard.  The IEEE magazine definition for computer programming is “…a pastime akin to repeatedly banging your head against a wall, but not as enjoyable.”

I spent several hours trying to figure out how to mask areas of an movie in Flash.  I spent a good deal of time to program quasi-masks using graphics that are the same color as the background to cover the movie.  Over time, the quasi-masks shrink and fade out.  It turns out what I did manually can be done automatically with built-in timeline transitions functions.  I am not bummed out at finding this function after I came up with my own fix because I prefer my transitions.  But it would have been nice to know that they were there.

The real frustration was in my attempt to create real masks that faded away over time.  There may be ways to do this using just the timeline and using just Actionscript methods.  But I was not able to get the timeline methods to work.  According to the book, Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity, the key may be converting the masks to bitmaps using the Actionscript code:

mask_movieclip.cacheAsBitmap = true;

Still working on this.  More fun ahead.  Hold on tight!

Technorati tags: Flash, Flash masks, programming, learning new software, fades

Been working on adding more functionality to the Geogad web site. This increased functionality will include more Flash.  All of the information that I have been reading about adding Flash to web sites usually suggest that you don’t do it because it will make many people angry.  I have to wonder if that is still the case any longer.  If Flash is used in a way that makes it easier for people to see Geogad’s mobile tours, then I have to think that it will be considered a good addition by most.  The biggest issue is the required bandwidth and including comments about the content that search engines can understand.

The other issue that I am researching is how to add more transparent advertising systems.  I would like to see something a bit more like Google’s Adwords and less like the one-size-fits-all system that is currently in place.  Like traditional advertising in newspapers, magazines and most web sites, Geogad changes a set amount per month for each type of ad media.  The goal is to get something more like a cost per view or cost per download model.  The real difficulty with the model is not tracking the views or downloads.  It is finding a simple way to charge customers each month with a varying fee that is based on served ads.  The payment system that Geogad is currently using is Paypal.  While Paypal has a subscription service, the payment amount is fixed and agreed to before the customer is charged. 

Technorati tags: Geogad, Flash, Paypal, Google, Adwords, redesign web site

 Today at Macworld I spoke to RouteBuddy and Garmin about the idea of making a open source method to allow users to upload Geogad Mobile Tours and similar content to their GPS products and solutions.  Let’s hope that they are interested in a nice, simple open format as I discussed in my previous post.  It would make a killer app from their side and allow regular people (and Geogad, of course) to create and post their own tour content.  All in all, very Web 2.0. 

Today at Macworld, Steve Jobs finally put the rumors to rest.  Yes, Apple is introducing the much rumored iPhone.  Judging by today’s demo, it will be a hot device.  It is quite literally the merging of the iPod (music, video, and photo) with a phone with an Internet browser.  Just to review the basic features, it is a device with a single button that has a 3 1/2 inch touch sensitive hi-res screen.  It will only be available on Cingular (soon to be the rebranded AT&T, …it’s BACK) for $499 for a 4G model and $599 for a 8G model.  Both versions require a 2-year plan.  The iPhone will be available in the US in June, which will give everyone a chance to start saving their latte money to buy this new phone. 

From Geogad’s point of view, the new iPhone looks great.  Its large screen and iPod functionality will allow travelers to view and play their Geogad Mobile Tours as a selected playlist.  The iPhone will even allow the user to see the album art in each MP3 as if they were books in a bookshelf so the user can see what is coming up and what they have already listened to.  The Internet browser seems to be able to view regular web pages in vivid detail.  If so, then it may be possible to surf to the regular Geogad web pages without having to deal with the limited WAP-type pages.

On the downside, the Iphone was reported by CNET to not have 3G capabilities.  They create a multimedia phone with a low speed connection.  What are they thinking? Maybe they are planning to have the user handle high speed communications with WiFi.  Now we just need to roll out WiFi.

Another downside for Geogad is how to best support providing our content to mobile devices.  After all, the big mobile streaming standard were MP4 and Microsoft WMV and WMA.  The other major trend in mobile content is also one of the biggest.  Verizon and YouTube/Google are teaming up to offer limited YouTube downloadsvia Flashlite.  It seems that the future of mobile content standards are going to be determined by the big cell phone and content companies teaming up to offer their content flavor to their customers. 

Let’s just hope that they work among themselves to provide some interoperability.  It is still a messy, mobile world out there. 

Speaking of messy, how do you suppose that you keep the screen clean if you are always touching it.  Also, how do you protect the screen from scratches if you are always testing it.  iPod are great devices, but they are notorious for how easily they are damaged.  Will this be an issue with the iPhone?  After all, is there any standard portable electronic device that has to take as much punishment as a regular old cell phone?

Another downside is the pricing.  But given that Apple does not want to lower the margins on their iPods, they really could not have sold the iPhone at the standard pricing for smart phones in the $200-400 range.  After all, that is the price of the standard Video iPod now.  Since the iPhone is also a phone and Internet browser, it would have to be price at least $100 higher than the Video iPod while still below the important mental price point of $700.  After all, you are starting to get in the range of a good laptop computer at that point. 

iPhone, Real, Flash, Cingular, MacWorld, Garmin, RouteBuddy, open source, GPS, multimedia, Verizon, WiFi, Geogad