Has Wikipedia been Hijacked?

I have become concerned over the last few years of the growing tendency for Wikipedia to censor or delete information that they alone determine is irrelevant. I have always been a fan of Wikipedia in general, but I feel that someone needs to stand up and state clearly that the Emperor has no clothes. Wikipedia is a volunteer driven organization with many good editors. However there appears to be vast discrepancies regarding content. Lately, there have been incidents where editors seem to be acting like dictators. I feel compelled to write becaues of the latest series of incidents that has been brought to my attention, all detailed below with references. I encourage you to read these and contribute to this conversation.

On the Ontolog Forum, I recently conversed with and traded email with a scientist by the name of Jon Awbrey. I decided to look up his name on Google to see what other articles he might have available on the subjects of Computational Intelligence and Ontology/Semantics. I found this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jon_Awbrey

For those of you who do not know Jon, he is a respected member of Ontology circles and has been very active in several groups. He has a long history of useful contributions in a remarkably contentious domain of knowledge. Jon has made numerous contributions to Wikipedia including a lot of information about Charles Peirce. I read Wikipedia's Ban Policy which is well worded and written with seemingly good intent. Wikipedia also seems to be fairly transparent (albeit somewhat cryptic) in their rationale for the ban and publishes the conversations. What I really don't understand is how the politics work.

Sadly, this is not the only incident. Last year my friend Sim Simeonov built an entry for "Social Commerce" which was a challenge because an Internet Explorer crash lost his information (who saw that coming?). Sim's thoughts on Social Commerce are fantastic and worthy of reading by anyone attempting to understand Web 2.0. Sadly, the Wikipedia page was deleted. Sim writes:

"Update: Well, despite the fact that to my knowledge at least 5-6 people contributed to the page and the content was starting to look pretty good, we weren’t able to defeat the Wikipedia bots–they auto-deleted the page, probably due to lack of references. Hard to have references to a new concept… It didn’t help that during that period I had to do a lot of travel and so had limited time to contribute. How about this–put some content in comments to this post and then I’ll try again early next year."

It appears that bots were not the only ones to delete his page. Mailer Diablo, a known Wikipedia editor, apparently deleted the Wikipedia Social Commerce page as described here:

14:52, 13 December 2006 Mailer diablo (Talk | contribs) deleted "Social commerce" (Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Social commerce)

It is interesting to note that the German page for Social Commerce still exists.

I don't know who Mailer Diablo is but other users have had issues with him including a non-profit organization trying to keep the Wikipedia entry for "Camp Mendocino". Mailer Diablo deleted the page and wouldn't even give the courtesy of replying to the email asking for clarification. The contributor also offered to change the article to meet guidelines. The conversation is public here:

*********************REQUEST***********************

Please undelete "Camp Mendocino"

Hi!

I didn't get an answer to this, so I will try again.

You can also find this in your archives:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Mailer_diablo/Archive_%CE%B7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Chiefcoolbreeze

Hello,
If possible, I would like to see the article "Camp Mendocino" undeleted.

Excerpt from deletion notice:

22:22, 15 January 2007 Mailer diablo (Talk | contribs) deleted "Camp Mendocino"
(Proposed deletion expiring after 5 days, 9/1/2007)

I'm not sure why it was deleted. Camp Mendocino belongs to a non profit organization, is very traditional, and has existed since the 1930s. If the article requires changes, please let me know.

Thank you in advance.

User:Chiefcoolbreeze

*********************END RQUEST******************

Another good friend of mine, Dick Hardt, had to struggle to save his Wikipedia page. One of the concerns was around "notability" however as user Lori P writes to Wikipedia:

"Not sure why "notability" would be a concern. Dick passes your "google test", with over 160,000 references to him.)".

I too have had run-ins with Wikipedia. Matt MacKenzie and I have derived an Architectural Patterns metamodel from the gang of fours work and updated it to speak to business users as well as to add more details for developers. It comes up #1 in Google for the search term "Architectural Patterns Metamodel" as evidence of its popular use. When listed on the Patterns page (one simple line noting it's existence so people needing a template could download and use it), it was quickly deleted by someone from Wikipedia. I complained and suggested they at least read it. The editor who deleted the line item had no clue as to the contents or usefulness of the template to those who architect, design and develop software.

Conclusions?

In all fairness, it is obviously a hard job to try and keep Wikipedia as a source of fact despite the fact there are valid, opposing opinions. Surely someone who doesn't know Dick or care might think he is not worthy but anyone using Perl considers him an icon. Those who live at Camp Mendocino might have trouble reconciling the fact Wikipedia does not think they exist with their reality. This unfortunately happens at the expense of knowledge for the rest of us.

Wikipedia editors do need to be *very* careful. I am very concerned over the apparent trend to censor information based on the decision of a few individuals. I favor a wider approach and a community that can keep itself in check. I am concerned that the people making these decisions do not have the necessary level of intellect to make the judgment calls on the items they are editing too. Who will contradict Sim's theories on Social Commerce?

We all need to be a bit more vigilant and run to the aid of those who need our help to maintain their Wikipedia pages.

Thoughts? Anyone else think Wikipedia is being hijacked?

Semaphore Publicly Solved

The Adobe Semaphore riddle, subject of many previous posts and community speculation, has been solved by a non-Adobe person as reported today here. Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas back to this blog previously and read the hints and clues.

Vancouver RIA/Flex Camp

The Vancouver RIA Camp is filling up. We have now added a code camp to the schedule. Here is a video of a similar event in San Francisco (above). The schedule is below.

Last day to pre-register for MAX 2007

Anyone interested in going should note that tomorrow is the last day for early bird registration for MAX 2007. You can still register for the discounted price of $1095. Prices increase to $1295 Friday night at midnight PT.

Disclaimer:
I'm not trying to sell you anything, just save you money if you are going.

Adobe MAX 2008

Adobe MAX 2007 has not yet happened but it will on Sept 30-Oct 3. So why a blog post about Adobe MAX 2008? Simple - I am interested in your opinions on what we should be thinking about now for this event. Here are some questions for MAX 2008:

1. What should we add that is not present for Adobe MAX 2007?

2. Which speakers/sessions would you like to see more of at MAX 2008? (Choices = technical, marketing, demos, roadmaps, other....)

3. What venue would you like to see MAX at in North America (Examples - San Francisco, Whistler, New York)?

4. What types of parties, extracurricular activities would you like to see more of? (For example - a side ski trip if in Whistler)?

Please also ping me by email dnickull at adobe dot com to let me know of any other ideas you have for MAX 2008.

Adobe MAX 2007 gets Ryan Stewart

Ryan Stewart has just become another one of our evangelist team members to speak at MAX 2007 in Chicago. Ryan will be tackling a cool subject of manipulating PDF within Adobe AIR (formerly Apollo) applications. The abstract is:

Leveraging PDF within Adobe AIR Applications
Skill: Intermediate

Adobe AIR is a cross-OS runtime that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML,PDF, JavaScript, Ajax, etc.) to build rich Internet applications that can be deployed to the desktop. This session will examine how Adobe AIR applications can utilize PDF content alongside HTML and Flash. We will explore how PDF content can be interacted with using Adobe AIR functionality, integration, and scripting.

At Adobe MAX 2007, there are so many cool additions now that it is hard to track all of them. Be sure to catch the latest breaking news by subscribing to the MAX list. See you there!

Silverlight on Mac OS X? It truly sucks!

Today I had my second experience with Microsoft's Silverlight on a Macintosh. The first experience resulted in a hung app which is okay given it was billed as early alpha. This time I decided to be a bit more picky as this version of Silverlight is billed as a Release Candidate. For the record, this is a MacBook Pro (latest edition) with 2.4 GHz processors (Intel Core 2 Duo) with 4 GB of RAM. I was looking at some old email and found some spam inviting me to a MS doo here in Vancouver. It invited me to go to a certain URL.

"Look forward to seeing you there – to RVSP, simply reply to this email or visit the Event page at the Experience Expression homepage"

Upon reaching the URL, I was asked to enter and given a choice of a Silverlight site or non-Silverlight. I wanted to really see Silverlight in action so I chose the Silverlight option. When I tried to reach the site, the first warning I got was this:



I figured that the "OK" button was safe to hit but upon hitting it, the alert disappeared along with all the content behind the page. I guess I was supposed to remember it from just looking or something??? The page now looked like this:



Even reloading the page did not return me to a place where I could get the URL. Luckily, I had made a copy of the screen because I was going to document a different problem I had experienced on another Mac in my house. I hit the URL and was redirected to a page at http://www.microsoft.com/SILVERLIGHT/default_ns.aspx After a few guesses I found the page to download their Release Candidate 1 (RC).

The install went well and reported success:



When I went back to the page to view the invitation to the event, I was redirected to the page saying I needed to install Microsoft Silverlight -- despite the fact I had just installed it.



Okay. Starting to get annoyed. Now I want to point out that I work for Adobe, largely viewed as the company owning the biggest rival to Silverlight (called Flash). Some people have wrongly compared Adobe AIR to Silverlight (Silverlight is akin to Flash but does not really have anywhere near the advanced capabilities of AIR). Despite my employment, I like to think I can be pragmatic and appreciate good software. After all, I do use Entourage, Word, and PowerPoint regularly. My counterparts at Microsoft also use PDF, Acrobat, and Photoshop. Anyways, read on and try the links yourself if you want to make your own judgment.

I clicked on the "Get Silverlight" button to try again and was directed to another page with a really bad graphic (presumably Silverlight-based). If this is an example of Silverlight's graphics, I am sticking with Flash and Flex.



Cautiously, I reloaded the page and this time it recognized that I had installed Silverlight. There was even a link to get back to previous page.



Now this seems reasonable yet a bit weird. If you can recognize the Silverlight player is installed, why send the user running around? I clicked on "Return to the previous page" only to find a page that tells me I need to install Silverlight to view it. Further attempts to view the content result in getting redirected to this page:




Okay - time to give up. I am trying hard to be balanced about this and to not push a "pick Adobe Flash vs. Microsoft Silverlight" battle, but the inescapable conclusion is that my experience was suboptimal. I hope someone from Microsoft reads this and can maybe offer some help as to what happened and a way to work around it.

After two attempts, the score is Silverlight 2, Me 0. I actually do really want to see it. Does that mean I have to go back to (cough) Win-D'ohs?

Anyone else have luck with the URLs?

Web 2.0 - time for social networks to grow up, open up

Slashdot is having yet another raving discussion/permathread about social networking's lack of openness. This is a topic I have strong feelings about. The rise of microformats has made this type of thing possible but perhaps it is time for a more formal standards process to build interfaces between places such as Facebook, MySpace, Mix2r, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.

What advantages would such a standard have?

First, it would allow any new social network startup to get enough information to seed their idea based on opt-in choices being made by those who own their data.

Second, an API would allow people who use the networks to quickly change their profile across multiple networks, instead of having to manually change things as is done today. An example of this is MySpace and Mix2r. When you put out a new mix of music, you have to manually upload it to both sites. If there was a standardized API for updating audio that could syndicate out to all control points, it would ease the maintenance of social networks.

Third, it would help with the synchronized web pattern. If a site is out of sync, it would be able to detect the error and notify the data owner to ask if they want it updated to reflect changes on other sites.

These are just a few examples of the architectural advantages of being open. Yes - owners of walled gardens do not often want to build gates, but they really need to get over themselves and start looking at what the community wants.

OOXML Marketeers notch another "win"

As reported by Andy Updegrove "Massachusetts announced today that Ecma 376, the name given to the Microsoft Office Open XML formats following their adoption by Ecma, would be acceptable for use by the Executive Agencies of the Commonwealth." To be frank, this surprises me as Massachusetts appeared to be vehemently anti-Microsoft two years ago.

This news has been picked up on Slashdot where the discussion is raging over the Massachusetts open standards initiative failing.

What really surprises me is that this announcement comes despite uncertainty over the status of Ecma 376 within ISO/IEC JTC1. While OOXML has been approved as an Ecma standard, the push to fast-track it through ISO has bumped into negative reactions. South Africa voted against it 13-4 with Spain rejecting it by a narrower margin. There have been predictions that the fast-track status of OOXML will fail as P-members from various countries voice concern over it legitimacy.

My take? I have reservations. First, in the scope of mutable office formats for documents, there already is an open standard -- namely Open Document Format, a standard developed by OASIS. Why do we need another one? Second, there are major concerns with respect to patents in OOXML and Microsoft's apparent failure to guarantee not to sue. The failure to promise not to sue is not necessarily a show stopper by itself as it might be prudent for a company to reserve such a right in case a competitor tries to mutate the format. However, given Microsoft's past activity, this has a few people nervous.

I would love to see someone else implement OOXML and share their experiences to see if there are problems with it. To me, this will be the true litmus test.

Electric Dirt Bike

As a former dirt bike rider, I was highly skeptical of Zero Motorcycles' claim of high performance, light weight, and fun. Nevertheless, the technology of a lithium-ion battery powered electric dirt bike seems to be sufficiently advanced, especially when compared to how far the gas powered motorbikes had evolved in a similar place in their maturity cycle.

Anyways, don't just trust me - take a look for yourself:

New Phorm Phor Phishing?

I have been getting telephone calls purporting to be from eBay. The calls are automated (female voice) and generally go like this:

Robotic voice: "Your PIN number is 1181. Your PIN number is 1181.Your PIN number is 1181. You've now completed the telephone portion of this process. Please return to eBay to continue. You may need to sign in again if you've signed out. Goodbye."

The calls come from a variety of different numbers but always from the 847 exchange. I have recorded a variety of sources including (847) 709 0211 and (847) 709 0211. Despite several calls to eBay to warn them, they don't seem to be interested in this. At first they denied the problem exists but have since realized it is happening.

So what is this form of phishing? I suspect someone has tapped into a phone line somewhere and has direct dialing capabilities and the ability to mask the true number of origin. I haven't figured out how they potentially compromise the victim's username and password unless they count on people hitting auto call-back then hit them with a "to validate who you are I have to ask you some questions...".


Anyone else get one of these? Anyone else perplexed by why eBay is not interested in getting the exact time, date, and return number of the call so they can trace where it comes from?

File this one under general weirdness...

Vancouver Flex, AIR and RIA training date set!

The Vancouver RIA training day is now set at August 30, 2007. You can register for it here:
www.massivetechshow.com/adobe/.

This day will be all about RIA development and feature training in Flex, Adobe AIR (formerly Apollo), AJAX and other technologies. Nitobi's Andre Charland has agreed to be one of the presenters as well as Ryan Stewart from Seattle. Ross Ladell will also be there and hopefully do some Flash stuff.

Register now - space is *very* limited.

If you can't make it to this one, also consider MAX 2007 as the place to be for 2007.

AIR Custom Chrome 2: Apple-shaped Application

In a recent AIR tutorial I showed how to make a window with custom chrome. A reader wrote a comment asking, "What about odd shaped windows? For example, an apple shape…" This question was among other requests for multiple windows and resizing with custom chrome. Today I'll tackle the apple-shaped window. Here is a screenshot of the completed application:




The first thing you need is an image of an apple that has a transparent background. I recommend *.gif format. You can use Adobe Fireworks to set the transparency. After you use the magic wand tool to remove the background, click "Save as" then open up options and you can set the transparent colors. Alternatively, you can just use this image.


We can re-use the code from the Custom Chrome AIR Tutorial, but we will have to change a few lines to get this to work.

1. Set up a new project and give it a name as described in the first steps of the Custom Chrome example. Then, in Flex Builder, right-click (PC) or ctrl-Click (Mac) on the name of the project and select "New -> Folder". Name the folder "images" and copy the transparent apple.gif file (referenced above) to that folder. If you do this outside of Flex Builder, you will have to tell Flex Builder to "refresh" the folders under the project. To do this, right-click (PC) or ctrl-Click (Mac) on the name of the project and go down the list to click "refresh". Flex Builder now sees the file.

2. Since we are making a transparent window the shape of an apple, the root pane must not have any visible rectangular components.

To get rid of the rectangular title window, remove these lines of code (basically everything in between the opening and closing <mx:titlewindow> and </mx:titlewindow> elements):

<mx:TitleWindow  id="mainPanel" backgroundColor="#0326FD" layout="absolute" cornerRadius="15" alpha="1.0" 
 color="#FFFEFE" width="465" height="160" backgroundAlpha="0.7" borderColor="#1FBDF7" themeColor="#2FE7FD" 
 x="0" showCloseButton="true" close="closeEvent(event)">

 <mx:Label text="Look mom - no chrome!" width="400" textAlign="center" fontFamily="Verdana" fontSize="15" fontWeight="bold" x="22.5" y="10"/>
 <mx:Label x="62.5" y="92" text="(c) Duane Nickull - samples at technoracle.blogspot.com"/>
</mx:TitleWindow>

 

Replace them with this code for the apple-shaped window (cut-and-paste this if you're lazy like me or simply grab the full code from the end):

<mx:Image id="mainPanel"   x="42" y="10" width="363" height="343" 
 source="images/apple.gif" scaleContent="true" autoLoad="true"/>
<mx:Button x="176" click="close()" y="305" label="Close" width="60" height="21"/>

 

If you named your directory something other than "images" you should change the code above to reflect this.

3. Now we need to add in the function "close()" that is called when the button is clicked. The function is only a few lines of code. Put this inside the existing <mx:script> element:

public function close():void {
   stage.window.close();
}

 

That’s basically it. The complete code is below. Of course, you could use other methods to close the window. I just put the ugly button in the middle of the apple for convenience since I only had 15 minutes to write this.

Complete code (please feel free to cut-and-paste, use for your own purposes):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute"
 xmlns:utils="utils.*" creationComplete="init()" height="424" width="465" >

    <mx:Style>
        Application 
        {
            /*make app window transparent*/
            background-color:""; 
            background-image:""; 
            padding: 0px;
            margin-top: 0;
   margin-right: 0;
   margin-bottom: 0;
   margin-left: 0;
        }    
    </mx:Style>
 
  <mx:Script>
   <![CDATA[
            import flash.display.Bitmap;
            import mx.events.CloseEvent;
   
    public function init():void {

         // Move the app when the panel is dragged
    mainPanel.addEventListener( MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, startMove );
    
    }
   public function startMove(event:MouseEvent):void {
       stage.window.startMove();
    }
        
    public function close():void {
       stage.window.close();
    }
   ]]>

  </mx:Script>
  

  <mx:Image id="mainPanel"   x="42" y="10" width="363" height="343" 
   source="images/apple.gif" scaleContent="true" autoLoad="true"/>
  <mx:Button x="176" click="close()" y="305" label="Close" width="60" height="21"/>


</mx:Application>

Vancouver Flash/Flex/AIR event!!

From Ross Ladell:

Thurday July 19th the Vancouver Flash User Group is hosting an evening
with Paul Ortchanian. We're flying Paul up from San Francisco to give
a 2 hour presentation on getting the most out of the powerful
BitmapData class. Paul will also be taking us through a number of the
flash experiments on his site, www.reflektions.com .

This event is FREE, but you will need to create an account on the
Flash User Group's meetup website: You can get more information on the
event here: http://flash.meetup.com/110/calendar/5982036/ .

The VFUG website is www.flashinvan.com.

Wicked stuff. Vancouver is really starting to take off. Our August 30 RIA training is still in discussion but we are doing everything we can to put a full day together.

What is up with Air Canada anyways?

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about some genius at Air Canada who decided the company really needed to start charging $2.00 for a blanket. This in itself is completely asinine but nothing compared to their IT system. Matt MacKenzie just had an experience that shows the fragile state of their IT organization. This is a good read and reveals just how bad the state of things is.

What is the issue? I really though that once they got rid of car salesman/CEO Robert Milton and got a really good CEO like Monty Brewer in charge things would change.

Here is another treat from the fine folks at Air Canada. When you become "Elite" you get this special card with "Air Canada Elite Priority Contacts" on the back. The number on the top left for Toll Free North American is 1-800-401-7201. These are purported to be "special" numbers only for elites. If you call in, it asks you to enter your mileage number, then redirects you based on your query to the inevitable conclusion - a recording that says "Please hang up and call the Air Canada Elite Priority Contact" number on the back of your card.

Now the staff at Air Canada are really nice people and for the large part they go over their heads to be nice, helpful, cheerful on flights. Some of the best service I have had has been on Air Canada but they have to fix their management. PLEASE!!!

Making Custom Chrome AIR Applications — A Tutorial

So you’ve probably tried playing around with Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and had an idea to make a custom chrome application. A custom chrome application is one that does not use the typical operating system-provided chrome or application control window. As a result, is does not have standard controls, for example, to close or move the application window. At first glance creating a custom chrome application seems easy but it turns out to be a bit harder than it looks.

This tutorial assumes you are somewhat familiar with Flex programming (MXML and ActionScript) and have already installed the Flex Builder 2.01 and AIR extensions. If you’ve not done this, please visit Adobe Labs.

There are two important files you will have to work with to make your application chromeless. The first is the core AIR application, the second is the *-app.xml application descriptor file. This file is usually in the same directory as your base application. Go through the steps of setting up a new AIR project by selecting “File -> New –> AIR Project” from the Flex Builder Menu. Give your project a name (I called mine AIR_CustomChrome) and click “Finish”. You should have a file directory in the Navigator pane of your project that looks similar to this:

1. After you have set up a new project, you should be able to see the default code as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute">
 <!--THIS IS WHERE TO ADD CODE-->
</mx:WindowedApplication>

 

2. In your *.MXML file, add the following lines of code to make the application. Insert them just below the “THIS IS WHERE TO ADD CODE” line:

<mx:TitleWindow  id="mainPanel" backgroundColor="#0326FD"  layout="absolute" cornerRadius="15" alpha="1.0" color="#FFFEFE" width="465" height="160" backgroundAlpha="0.7" borderColor="#1FBDF7" themeColor="#2FE7FD" x="0">

<mx:Label text="Look mom - no chrome!" width="400" textAlign="center" fontFamily="Verdana" fontSize="15" fontWeight="bold" x="22.5" y="10"/>
   
</mx:TitleWindow>

 

3. Test your application by running it. It should look like the image below. This application uses the system chrome, so on a Macintosh computer it will have the three little colored buttons on the top left and an application window to house the application.



4. Next, we are going to lose the system chrome. Open up the AIR_CustomChrome-app.xml file and locate the following line of code:

<rootContent systemChrome="standard" transparent="false" visible="true">[SWF reference is generated]</rootContent>

 

…and change it as follows (the parts highlighted in bold font) before saving and closing the file:

<rootContent systemChrome="none" transparent="true" visible="true">[SWF reference is generated]</rootContent>

 


This tells the runtime not to use system chrome and that the application has support for transparency.
You might think this would be enough but it is not.

If you run the application again, you will get an application that looks like the one below. Not only are you still stuck with chrome, but it is even uglier than before. We can fix this in the next steps.




5. The cause of this is the root element used by default by AIR. This element is the <mx:windowedapplication> tag. Change both the opening and closing tags to <mx:application> Your code should look something like this now:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" height="202" width="483">
<mx:TitleWindow  id="mainPanel" backgroundColor="#0326FD"  layout="absolute" cornerRadius="15" alpha="1.0" color="#FFFEFE" width="100%" height="100%" backgroundAlpha="0.7" borderColor="#1FBDF7" themeColor="#2FE7FD" x="0" >

<mx:Label text="Look mom - no chrome!" width="400" textAlign="center" fontFamily="Verdana" fontSize="15" fontWeight="bold" x="22.5" y="10"/>
</mx:TitleWindow> 
</mx:Application>

 

…and it will yield the application below when run.

This is somewhat problematic as we have almost rid ourselves of the standard native window but have not yet introduced functionality to replace the standard chrome for things like moving or closing the application. To close the application you will have to use native operating system methods (for example on a Mac, highlight the app then hit Command-Q)



6. Note that the top right and left corners still have a tiny bit of gray color around the edges. This is still the default application window showing itself. To get rid of this, we have to introduce some lines of CSS inside the tag. Add these lines of code to your application just below the root tag.

<mx:Style>
        Application 
        {
            /*make app window transparent*/
            background-color:""; 
            background-image:""; 
            padding: 0px;
            margin-top: 0;
   margin-right: 0;
   margin-bottom: 0;
   margin-left: 0;
        }    
</mx:Style>

 

This code sets the style for the Application component (now your root element) and will remove the gray. When you run the application again, it will be gone. Your application will also be semi-transparent as shown below.



7. We still have no way to move or close the application. In order to do this, we have to introduce some simple scripting elements. Start by adding a <mx:script> tag just below your <mx:style> tag and add the following lines of code:

<mx:Script>
 <![CDATA[
   import flash.display.Bitmap;
   
   public function init():void {

   // Move the app when the panel is dragged
   mainPanel.addEventListener( MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, startMove );
    
   }
   
   public function startMove(event:MouseEvent):void {
   stage.window.startMove();
   }        
  ]]>
</mx:Script>

 

…and add the following method call to the root element:

creationComplete="init()"

 


…to call the init() function when the application starts up. When you run the application now, you can move it on your screen by clicking on it and dragging it.


8. We will want to add the ability to close the application. Luckily, the TitleWindow element has a built in close button. Add the following attributes to the <mx:titledwindow> element:

showCloseButton="true" close="closeEvent(event)"

 

9. Now that we have added the Close button, we have to import the ability to detect the CloseEvent. Add the following line of code in the <mx:script> element to import this functionality:

import mx.events.CloseEvent;

 

…then add the following function to your code base.

  public function closeEvent(event:CloseEvent):void {
     stage.window.close();
 }

 

Your complete code should now look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute"
 xmlns:utils="utils.*" creationComplete="init()" height="160" width="465" >

    <mx:Style>
        Application 
        {
            /*make app window transparent*/
            background-color:""; 
            background-image:""; 
            padding: 0px;
            margin-top: 0;
   margin-right: 0;
   margin-bottom: 0;
   margin-left: 0;
        }    
    </mx:Style>
 
  <mx:Script>
   <![CDATA[
            import flash.display.Bitmap;
            import mx.events.CloseEvent;
   
    public function init():void {

         // Move the app when the panel is dragged
    mainPanel.addEventListener( MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, startMove );
    
    }
   public function startMove(event:MouseEvent):void {
       stage.window.startMove();
    }
        
    public function closeEvent(event:CloseEvent):void {
       stage.window.close();
    }
   ]]>

  </mx:Script>
  
 <mx:TitleWindow  id="mainPanel" backgroundColor="#0326FD"  layout="absolute" cornerRadius="15" alpha="1.0" 
  color="#FFFEFE" width="465" height="160" backgroundAlpha="0.7" borderColor="#1FBDF7" themeColor="#2FE7FD" 
  x="0" showCloseButton="true" close="closeEvent(event)">

   <mx:Label text="Look mom - no chrome!" width="400" textAlign="center" fontFamily="Verdana" fontSize="15" fontWeight="bold" x="22.5" y="10"/>
   <mx:Label x="62.5" y="92" text="(c) Duane Nickull - samples at technoracle.blogspot.com"/>
  </mx:TitleWindow>
</mx:Application>

 

Your application will now be chromeless and it actually can be closed by clicking on the Close button in the top right hand corner.

Drag and Drop AIR Example

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) offers developers some pretty cool features. Nevertheless, as we work towards version 1.0, there is still some catch up work being done to add in basic functionality for things like drag and drop, local file save, read, etc. One of the topics I wanted to write more about is the drag and drop functionality.

So what is drag and drop really? When you start to look at the architectural pattern, it is one of copying an original and showing a thumbnail of the original while in transit to being placed somewhere else in the environment. There are two types of drag – the copy drag and the move drag. In the copy drag, the original is left in place and the copy is placed in the target location. In the move drag, the original is removed. This requires a little more care as you have to be certain you do not destroy the original until you have confirmed the target is complete.

The first thing to do is to write a function that creates the bitmap of the item being dragged to produce a smooth effect while running. This function builds the object to drag and returns it:

public function
createTransferableData(image:Bitmap, sourceFile:File):TransferableData{

var transfer:TransferableData = new TransferableData();

transfer.addData(image,"Bitmap",false);
transfer.addData(image.bitmapData,"bitmap",false);
transfer.addData(new Array(sourceFile),"file list",false);

return transfer;
}

The TransferableData object has some unique properties in the new AIR package. This object will come in four basic formats. They are "text" (string data), "url" (URL string), "file list" (array of File objects) and "bitmap". The key method is addData(),which builds the new object. It is important to note that transferable data objects may have redundant information in multiple formats -- this increases the likelihood that recipient applications will understand the object.

The DragManager object handles most of the actual operations at runtime. The code is relatively simple to set up:

private function onMouseDown(event:MouseEvent):void{
var bitmap:Bitmap = Bitmap(event.target.content);
var bitmapFile:File = new File(event.target.content.loaderInfo.url);
var transferObject:TransferableData = createTransferableData(bitmap,bitmapFile);

DragManager.doDrag(this,transferObject,bitmap.bitmapData,new
Point(-mouseX),(-mouseY));
}

Several things are happening with this code. First, the original copy is left in place when the drag operation starts. If your intent is merely to copy the object to the target, that might be okay. When moving, there are ways to make the original appear to go away but it is trickier than it seems because you have to take precautions to make sure the target gets dropped before destroying the original.

Another issue with this code as written is that by default, the copied image will appear offset to the original and this can be slightly ugly. The placement of the copied image can be tweaked by adding some fine tuning of the points as follows:

DragManager.doDrag(this,transferObject,bitmap.bitmapData,new
Point((-mouseX+65),(-mouseY+90)));

Now when you start the drag, the drag object (in the code below anyways) appears right where the original was regardless of where the mouse is placed.

If you want the original to simply disappear, you can do it easily by adding the following line of code into the onMouseDown() class:

bitmap.visible=false;

However, this removes both the original and the copy if the user releases the mouse button before the drag is complete. A better way hide the original is to set the visible property to false on the specific object, but the code is not as portable since each time it is used the object will have to be explicitly named.

The best way to really do this is with the NativeDragComplete event from the DragManager. A drag gesture involves the following event sequence:

nativeDragStart: A drag-and-drop gesture is begun by calling the DragManager.doDrag() method within a mouseDown or mouseMoved event handler. The DisplayObject passed to the doDrag() method becomes the initiating object and will dispatch a nativeDragStart event. (If the drag and drop starts outside of an AIR application, the rest of the sequence of events is the same, but there is no initiating object.)

nativeDragEnter, nativeDragOver: When a drag gesture passes over a DisplayObject, that object will dispatch a nativeDragEnter event. While the drag gesture remains over the DisplayObject, it will continually dispatch nativeDragOver events. In response to either of these events, an object that serves as a potential drop target should check the properties of the event object to decide whether it can accept the drop. If the data format and allowed actions are appropriate, then the event handler for these events must call DragManager.acceptDrop(), passing in a reference to the target object. The user will then be able to drop the dragged item onto the target.

nativeDragExit: When a drag gesture passes out of a DisplayObject, the object dispatches a nativeDragExit event. If the object earlier called the DragManager.acceptDrop() method, that call is no longer valid and acceptDrop() must be called again if the gesture re-enters the DisplayObject.

nativeDragDrop: When a DisplayObject has called DragManager.acceptDrop() and the user releases the drag gesture over the object, that object dispatches a nativeDragDrop event. The handler for that event can access the data in the transferable property of the event object and should set the DragManager.dropAction property to signal which action should be taken by the initiating object.

nativeDragComplete: When the user releases the mouse at the end of a drag gesture, the initiating object dispatches a nativeDragComplete event (whether or not the drop itself was consummated). The handler for this event can check the dropAction property of the event object to determine what, if any, modification should be made to its internal data state, such as removing a dragged-out item from a list. If dropAction==DragActions.NONE, then the dragged item was not dropped on an eligible target.


Here is a screenshot of me dropping an image of the Leela Palace Hotel into this document, minus the mouse pointer:





The code to play around with this is below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import flash.desktop.DragManager;
import flash.desktop.TransferableData;
import flash.desktop.DragManager;
import flash.filesystem.File;
import flash.events.NativeDragEvent;

private function onMouseDown(event:MouseEvent):void{
var bitmap:Bitmap = Bitmap(event.target.content);
var bitmapFile:File = new
File(event.target.content.loaderInfo.url);
var transferObject:TransferableData =
createTransferableData(bitmap,bitmapFile);
DragManager.doDrag(this,transferObject,bitmap.bitmapData,new
Point((-mouseX+65),(-mouseY+90)));
bitmap.visible=false; //makes the original disappear
}

public function createTransferableData(image:Bitmap, sourceFile:File):TransferableData{

var transfer:TransferableData = new TransferableData();
transfer.addData(image,"Bitmap",false);
transfer.addData(image.bitmapData,"bitmap",false);
transfer.addData(new Array(sourceFile),"file list",false);
return transfer;
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:Panel x="10" y="10" width="310" height="361" layout="absolute" title="Panel 1">
<!--replace image with one from your own system-->
<mx:Image x="35" id="duaneImage" y="38" width="204" height="155"
mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
source="file:////Users/duane/Desktop/Picture 1.png"
mouseDownOutside="duaneImage.visible=(false)"/>
</mx:Panel>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

MAX 2007 Enterprise Tracks

We now have the final list of Enterprise & Collaboration tracks for Adobe MAX 2007 being held Sept 30-Oct 4 in Chicago, IL. The track focuses on topics like SOA and Web 2.0 Design Patterns for the enterprise and it has lots of PDF, LiveCycle, Flex, AIR and Acrobat Connect sessions. This is just a sample of the training and tracks offered at MAX 2007. There are four other tracks plus Boot Camps and more. If you are looking for LiveCycle or LiveCycle ES training, this is *the* place to be in 2007.

So what are you waiting for - sign up here now ;-)

Adding Dimension to Your Content with Acrobat 3D

Skill: Intermediate

Acrobat

This session covers the Acrobat 3D JavaScript API. Learn how to add script-based interactivity to 3D content inside PDF documents. We'll also explain how to create controls in the enclosing document for vertical solutions such as manufacturing. The session will provide scripting samples for developers as well as an overview of the new features available in the latest product release.

Monday, October 1 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm Grayson Lang, Rak Bhalla

Tuesday, October 2 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Grayson Lang, Rak Bhalla
------------

Adobe Hosted Services: Web APIs and Mashups

Skill: General Audience

Connect, LiveCycle

This session will provide an overview of Adobe's newly announced "connected documents" initiatives. Learn about these new and exciting methods for improving document collaboration using Adobe technologies.

Monday, October 1 11:30 am - 12:30 pm Patrick Rodriguez, Nigel Pegg

Tuesday, October 2 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm Patrick Rodriguez, Nigel Pegg
------------

Adobe's "Mars" Project: XML-friendly PDF

Skill: Intermediate

Acrobat

This session will explore the decisions behind the "Mars" project, the effort to design a pure XML file format for expressing PDF. The talk will delve into the structure of the logical data model and review the major components. The presenters will show examples and discuss future plans for "Mars".

Tuesday, October 2 9:15 am - 10:15 am Joel Geraci

Wednesday, October 3 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm Joel Geraci
------------

Boot Camp for LiveCycle

Skill: Advanced

LiveCycle, Flex

Write code together with the LiveCycle development team in this three-hour collaborative session. Boot Camp provides a mixture of short presentations, workshops, and free-form coding. Make sure to bring your laptop, your best questions, your most desired features, your coolest projects to share, and be ready to learn something new.

Wednesday, October 3 9:00 am - 12:30 pm Matt Butler, Christoph Rooms
------------

Case Study: Advanced Real-World PDF Examples

Skill: General Audience

Acrobat

This session will showcase some very technically advanced PDF documents created for real-world applications by the Adobe developer/integrator community. We'll focus on four core examples from various vertical industries to show the depth and breadth of use of PDF for information delivery. Each case will examine the "code behind" and relay other developer and business tactics used in the sample.

Monday, October 1 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Joel Geraci, Thom Parker

Tuesday, October 2 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Joel Geraci, Thom Parker
------------

Case Study: How Reuters is Changing Step with Adobe Products

Skill: General Audience

Connect

Charles Jennings, global head of learning at Reuters, will present how this global information company is transforming its learning practices with Adobe technology. He will also explore Reuters' work with 24/7 performance support tools and a range of new learning approaches. Reuters works in the fast-moving world of banks and brokerages, supplying indispensable news and data that keeps the financial markets running. Speed and accuracy are key to Reuters' success, in both its services and the way in which it develops and trains its employees.

Monday, October 1 11:30 am - 12:30 pm Charles Jennings

Tuesday, October 2 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Charles Jennings
------------

Case Study: Leading-Edge Use of PDF Documents in the Financial Industry

Skill: General Audience

LiveCycle

BusinessEdge, a business and technology consulting firm, will showcase how Adobe technology can help make the account enrollment process more engaging and more streamlined.

Monday, October 1 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Tuesday, October 2 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm
------------

Case Study: Transforming eGovernment with Software as a Service (SaaS)

Skill: General Audience

LiveCycle

This session will describe the design, development, and implementation of an eForms solution for a large consortium of local government agencies. The project included the development of 20-plus Adobe LiveCycle Form templates shared by all of the agencies. The resulting service is hosted and managed using a new Form Hosting product called FormCenter. FormCenter has been developed by Avoka Technologies for government and large organizations that need to implement customer-facing eForms solutions.

Monday, October 1 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm Philip Copeland

Wednesday, October 3 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm Philip Copeland
------------

Collaborative Hosted Services Roadmap

Skill: General Audience

Connect, LiveCycle

Come learn about Adobe's Collaborative Hosted Services. We'll provide a roadmap and introduction to new services being announced during MAX 2007.

Monday, October 1 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm Erik Larson

Wednesday, October 3 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm Erik Larson
------------

Documents 2.0: The Next Generation of Document Collaboration

Skill: Intermediate

Connect, LiveCycle

Documents are often the user's interface to any enterprise architecture, including SOA and web service infrastructures. Come learn more about using documents as front ends to your applications and solutions. See how the new web services-based family of servers from Adobe provides PDF file generation capability, document storage and sharing, and additional features to enhance your solutions and document roundtripping. This session will include an overview of these document services, the web services interface, and demonstrations of the capabilities of Adobe Integrated Runtime, Acrobat, and Flex (including LiveCycle Data Services).

Tuesday, October 2 9:15 am - 10:15 am Mark Grilli

Wednesday, October 3 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Mark Grilli
------------

Everything You Want to Know about LiveCycle Form Guides

Skill: Intermediate

LiveCycle

This presentation begins with a general overview of LiveCycle Forms ES and then dives into how to use it as part of a data capture solution. From there, the presentation takes an in-depth look at Form Guides, which enable the creation of wizard-style Flash interfaces using Flex to make form filling easier and more intuitive, and allow for data exchange with the PDF form view.

Monday, October 1 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm Anthony Rumsey

Wednesday, October 3 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm Anthony Rumsey
------------

Extending the Product Lifecycle Management Enterprise with Adobe

Skill: General Audience

LiveCycle

Learn how Adobe LiveCycle products can enhance and extend the PLM Enterprise. This session will identify key weaknesses that exist in PLM products and describe how Adobe LiveCycle products can be used to address them. We will present a case study, demonstrate key functionality, and provide valuable ROI information that can be used to maximize the value of a PLM investment.

Tuesday, October 2 9:15 am - 10:15 am Jason Enzweiler

Tuesday, October 2 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Jason Enzweiler
------------

Forms Gone Wild

Skill: Intermediate

LiveCycle

This session focuses on the user experience of forms and provides form designers with vital information on creating and deploying form solutions that facilitate a rich user experience. We'll share a top ten list of bad form design elements that apply to PDF, HTML, and Flex and Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) technologies.

Tuesday, October 2 9:15 am - 10:15 am Duane Nickull

Wednesday, October 3 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm Duane Nickull
------------

Hands On: Adobe Acrobat: I didn't know you could do that!

Skill: General Audience

Acrobat

Learn powerful techniques for using Adobe Acrobat 8, including scripting in Acrobat and programmatically controlling Acrobat and Reader. We'll cover working with a form, adding some JavaScript to manipulate a PDF document, embedding multimedia, setting up and participating in a PDF review cycle, and more. Get questions answered by a veteran PDF guru, and see tips and tricks used by expert PDF developers. Samples will be distributed.

Monday, October 1 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Lori DeFurio

Tuesday, October 2 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Lori DeFurio

Wednesday, October 3 1:45 pm - 3:15 pm Lori DeFurio

Wednesday, October 3 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm Lori DeFurio
------------

Hands On: Building a LiveCycle Center of Excellence

Skill: General Audience

LiveCycle

Learn how a Fortune 100 financial institution built a Center of Excellence around the Adobe LiveCycle product suite. Understand the business drivers that justified procuring Adobe's enterprise-strength software in an environment where multiple Business Process Management (BPM) tools existed. This methodology and lessons-learned session will demonstrate the necessary steps to create and implement a solution team that can increase delivery bandwidth by handling numerous endeavors simultaneously. Qualifying business opportunities, ensuring successful business solutions, implementing standards-based development, constructing a successful delivery team, managing system performance, and monitoring business metrics are all highlighted in this 90-minute session.

Tuesday, October 2 8:30 am - 10:00 am Justin Klei

Wednesday, October 3 1:45 pm - 3:15 pm Justin Klei
------------

Hands On: Building an Application Using LiveCycle ES

Skill: Intermediate

LiveCycle

This interactive session provides an overview of LiveCycle Enterprise Suite and then drills down into the primary components in the context of building an application. We'll also discuss the use case for LiveCycle ES in the industry and compare it to other platforms. NOTE: This is a deep-dive into LiveCycle ES where the participants can follow along on computers, but not where they are coding themselves.

Monday, October 1 11:30 am - 1:00 pm Sanga Viswanathan, Gary Gilchrist

Monday, October 1 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Sanga Viswanathan, Gary Gilchrist
------------

Hands On: Building Custom Applications with LiveCycle Workspace

Skill: Advanced

LiveCycle, Flex

LiveCycle Workspace provides an intuitive Flex based user experience for initiating and participating in LiveCycle based forms and processes. LiveCycle Workspace provides Flex components, CSS templates, and UI source code to allow customers to customize and extend Workspace. This presentation walks through Workspace components, the underlying SDK, and deployment topologies, including customization.

Tuesday, October 2 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm Mark Bartel

Tuesday, October 2 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Mark Bartel

Wednesday, October 3 1:45 pm - 3:15 pm Mark Bartel

Wednesday, October 3 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm Mark Bartel
------------

Hands On: Case Study: Insurance Agency Collaboration

Skill: General Audience

LiveCycle

Assurant will discuss how they have used Adobe technology to collaborate more effectively with their independent agent channels.

Monday, October 1 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Monday, October 1 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
------------

Hands On: Designing Dynamic Forms with LiveCycle Designer 8

Skill: Intermediate

Acrobat, LiveCycle

Learn how to design forms that people will love. This session examines the elements of good form design with hands-on examples in LiveCycle Designer 8. The session explores important concepts in graphic design and interaction design and shows how these concepts relate to successful form design. Too often, the people filling out forms are frustrated and confused by poorly designed forms. This session will improve your knowledge of design and your thinking about good form design. This session is led by J.P. Terry and there is more information on the SmartDoc website (www.smartdoctech.com).

Monday, October 1 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm J.P. Terry

Monday, October 1 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm J.P. Terry

Wednesday, October 3 11:00 am - 12:30 pm J.P. Terry
------------

Hands On: Designing PDF Forms and Flex-based Form Guides

Skill: Intermediate

LiveCycle

Get up-close and personal with Flex and XFA in this hands-on training session. You will learn how these two powerful technologies can be used together to offer your customers the best online and offline form-filling experiences. We will cover basic form design, scripting and data binding techniques while creating a dynamic PDF form which we will then easily re-purpose to a rich Flash-based wizard, deployable from LiveCycle Forms ES, using the Guide Builder tool.

Monday, October 1 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Stefan Cameron

Tuesday, October 2 8:30 am - 10:00 am Stefan Cameron

Tuesday, October 2 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Stefan Cameron

Wednesday, October 3 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm Stefan Cameron
------------

Hands On: LiveCycle ES Business Process Management and Design

Skill: Intermediate

LiveCycle

In this session, we'll explain the process management functionality in Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite. Topics will include components, control flow, data types and mappings, exception handling, events, parallel flows, security, subprocesses, transactions, versioning, short- vs. long-lived processing, and reporting.

Monday, October 1 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Matt Butler

Tuesday, October 2 8:30 am - 10:00 am Matt Butler, Bob Bailey
------------

Hands On: Rapid Training: Building a Curriculum in 60 Minutes or Less

Skill: General Audience

Connect

Learn to build a curriculum in an hour or less from start to delivery using Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional (formerly Macromedia Breeze). We'll cover authoring content, managing enrollment, and tracking participation.

Monday, October 1 11:30 am - 1:00 pm Randah McKinnie

Monday, October 1 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Randah McKinnie

Tuesday, October 2 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm Randah McKinnie

Wednesday, October 3 1:45 pm - 3:15 pm Randah McKinnie
------------

Leveraging PDF within Adobe AIR Applications

Skill: Intermediate

Adobe Integrated Runtime, Acrobat

Adobe AIR is a cross-OS runtime that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML,PDF, JavaScript, Ajax, etc.) to build rich Internet applications that can be deployed to the desktop. This session will examine how Adobe AIR applications can utilize PDF content alongside HTML and Flash. We will explore how PDF content can be interacted with using Adobe AIR functionality, integration, and scripting.

Monday, October 1 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Rick Borstein

Tuesday, October 2 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Rick Borstein
------------

LiveCycle Digital Security and Certification

Skill: Beginner

LiveCycle, Acrobat

This session will focus on the persistent rights management and document security technologies in the LiveCycle Enterprise Suite. The components explored will include LiveCycle Digital Signatures ES, LiveCycle Rights Management (formerly Policy Server), and LiveCycle User Manager. The thrust of the talk will focus on LiveCycle ES as a service oriented platform for delivering key interactions with remote clients but will also showcase core capabilities and delve quickly into SDK's and API's for developers.

Monday, October 1 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm Duane Nickull

Wednesday, October 3 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm Duane Nickull
------------

LiveCycle ES: Building Applications

Skill: General Audience

LiveCycle

In this one-day intensive course, you'll learn how to develop, streamline, integrate, and protect composite applications across geographical and organization boundaries with Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite. By enabling service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM), LiveCycle ES allows both business and IT professionals to visually assemble end-to-end processes that unify systems, people, business rules, and web services quickly and flexibly. The basics of SOA solutions and using rich Internet applications are introduced, followed by an in-depth walkthrough of designing, deploying, and monitoring processes. We'll cover the use of form guides and Flex, development of web services to build the composite application, and the use of business rules in processes.

Sunday, September 3 09:00 am - 5:00 pm Bob Bailey
------------

LiveCycle Rights Management ES: Its Purpose, Scope, and Integration with Various Technologies and Formats

Skill: General Audience

Connect

In this session, we'll provide an overview of Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES and how it is used to protect content. Afterward, the session will focus on some common integration tasks, including integration with enterprise content management (ECM) software, product lifecycle management (PLM) software, authentication environments (such as ActiveDirectory and LDAP), and multiple file formats. Topics will include Rights Management Customer Configuration and architecture, integration strategy, integration points, and open-source products.

Monday, October 1 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm Shashi Rai

Wednesday, October 3 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Shashi Rai
------------

Pimp My PDF

Skill: Intermediate

Acrobat

Learn about developer interfaces, JavaScript, custom stamps, multimedia, and unconventional uses of form fields in Acrobat 8 to bring your documents to life and/or build Acrobat into your mission-critical application

Tuesday, October 2 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm Thom Parker

Wednesday, October 3 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Thom Parker
------------

Realizing SOA Enterprise Architecture with LiveCycle ES

Skill: Advanced

LiveCycle

This session will walk through LiveCycle Enterprise Suite, a first-class implementation of the OASIS Reference model for SOA. We'll illustrate the overall architecture and major component groupings, including the core service container and service invocation layer. From there, the session will discuss the various architectural methods in which LiveCycle could be integrated into both front-end and back-end office systems, covering the "out-of-the-box" mechanisms available from LiveCycle ES for integration using e-mail, SQL, messaging, and web services. Also covered are more advanced use cases through component development, scripting, connectors, and leveraging existing middleware.

Monday, October 1 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm Charlton Barreto, Michael Moore

Tuesday, October 2 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Charlton Barreto, Michael Moore
------------

SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe

Skill: General Audience

LiveCycle

Learn how a leading edge enterprise streamlined their processes by automating forms workflows with SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe, a key component in the SAP NetWeaver SOA platform. SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe allow the elimination of paper forms processes and enable users (regular and ad-hoc) interact with SAP back-end software in a document-centric workflow. Based on PDF document technology, they allow users enter and manipulate SAP data online or offline and on any platform through the ubiquitously deployed, free Adobe Reader.agent channels, improving agent productivity and loyalty.

Wednesday, October 3 9:30 am - 10:30 am

Wednesday, October 3 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
------------

The Future of PDF and Standards

Skill: General Audience

Acrobat

In this session, we'll cover the details of Adobe's January 2007 announcement that it will submit PDF to the ISO as a public open standard. We'll also discuss the strategy of having multiple subsets of PDF also be ISO standards (PDF/A is ISO 19005-1 and PDF/X is ISO 15930-1). We'll also introduce Mars, an experimental, XML-friendly serialization of PDF introduced by Adobe, and discuss it within the context of the standards initiatives.

Monday, October 1 11:30 am - 12:30 pm Jim King

Tuesday, October 2 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Jim King

------------

Adobe on AIR tour 2007 Vancouver. Ted’s Porsche upgrade / Nitobi rocks da house!

Friggin Awesome! Sharks with Friggin laser beams!! A jam session in a sauna?

The 2007 Adobe on AIR Bus Tour is now on its third city stop (Portland). This tour will keep the bus driving all summer long so check it out when they come to your town. This is one show you don’t want to miss. It reminded me of my old rock and roll days touring in a metal band. Of course there are some differences.

First – the guys on the bus play Guitar Hero rather than real instruments. Kind of cool given the instant gratification but as an accomplished musician (you can download my latest music for free here), I couldn’t bring myself to try it. Besides, you need long hair to really be a guitar hero right? I seemed to have thought so back in the 1980s (yes - that is me on the left):



Second – they don’t have to lug Ampeg 8x10 cabinets, Marshall Stacks, and drum kits up three flights of stairs. Trust me – this is a good thing.

They also have bloggers and other new media rather than traditional paparazzi. The media shape of the world has changed forever. This is also a good thing.

Last night the bus stopped in Vancouver, my home town. The venue was pretty surreal. We were in a greenhouse on the third floor of a downtown bar. I am not sure what rocket scientist built this without air conditioning, but last night was very hot. Finnish sauna makers should have been there to take notes.

The crowd was awesome! Vancouver developers and architects came out in droves and stayed for the entire five hours. Even the girls at the bar got into the act. Here is one wearing a Nitobi sticker.



Before the event, fellow Porsche owner and Adobe Evangelist Ted Patrick took me up on my offer to let him drive my Porsche 911 Twin Turbo with all the Ruf accessories. As you can see by this photo, Ted now wants to upgrade his Boxster. Ahh – there is no substitute! Non-Porsche owners will not understand this.



Anyways, the crowd on hand were awesome! Here is a shot from halfway back when a ton of people still could not get in the room. Standing room only. Mike Chambers, Kevin Hoyt, and Mike Downey all gave top-notch presentations which the developer crowd loved. Being on last, I was worried that there was going to be no way this crowd would stay here five hours but they did.



Then Andre Charland got up and blew everyone away. Nitobi's two demos and code samples include a Mac style dock with magnified apps built in AIR and a SalesForce.com offline AIR application with synch capabilities. The scary thing is both of these were written in so few lines of code. Andre is a genius and has the ability to consistently come up with clever little apps with his cohorts James, Alexei and Dave.

I am actually very surprised that Nitobi still exists as a stand alone company. I personally think they are the #1 acquisition target in the tech sector today. Profitable, on the leading edge, four evangelists and probably the coolest corporate culture in the industry ('Dre claims he got in 60+ days in Whistler last season ;-). DISCLAIMER: I am on the Advisory Board of Nitobi and have a financial interest. In the interest of transparency, I am following Redmonk's lead on my blog and disclosing any conflicts of interest to help readers come to their own conclusions.

Andre then proceeded to have several beers and make funny faces in front of cameras while showing off his new iPhone.



He was immediately joined by others:



Eventually even Ross Ladell (Blast Radius) and Adobe's own Suzanne got into the fray:



I'll leave it to your imagination what happened after a few more drinks in the hot greenhouse.

Anyways, I went on last trying in vain to measure up to the others and managed to squeak out a 20 minute summary on Adobe's technology platform architecture, showing its relevance to Web 2.0, SOA etc. As promised, the slides are available here. I only presented the first 15 or so due to time, but I will be recording a session with these later in the month for public consumption.

Wanted - lawyer in China to sue spammer ZXData

I guess with every success comes a dark side. Spammers from China have targeted my blog. The latest is a large series of spam attacks comes from a company called ZXData. The Whois reveals ZXData is:

Domain Name: ZXDATA.COM
Registrar: XIN NET TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Whois Server: whois.paycenter.com.cn
Referral URL: http://www.xinnet.com
Name Server: NS2.XINNET.CN
Name Server: NS2.XINNETDNS.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 18-jun-2007
Creation Date: 13-apr-2006
Expiration Date: 13-apr-2008

The key contact is:

cuijie
yichuan shanghai
shanghai Beijing 200040
CN
tel: 56528808
fax: 56528808
8112318888@sohu.com

I am willing to send a lawyer money who can do something about this. These morons are causing me so many headaches. I have even contemplated turning comment moderation on but given I am not able to get to comments fast enough, this would stiffle the interactions with this blog.

ZXData are obviously not smart nor are they particularly creative. Spamming me with links to falun gong and pornography do not impress me and will not entice me to do business with them.

I would ask that everyone who reads this and is pissed off take the time to email the person (click here to start - 8112318888@sohu.com) to tell them what they really think.

Lawyers in China - please send me proposals outlining how you can go after this spammer. They have caused me a great loss in productivity and I wish to recover it.

iPhone support for Adobe Flash

At least one person seems very sure that the Apple iPhone will support Adobe Flash. As reported by Macworld in the UK, "Apple will introduce built-in support for Adobe Flash on the iPhone in the next couple of months".

I personally cannot confirm or deny this is true (thanks for all the emails BTW). We'll just have to wait and see.

Adobe MAX 2007

LiveCycle Developers:

During Max 2007, we will be having a full on Boot Camp dedicated to LiveCycle with some Flex/AIR! This will be a great opportunity to get questions answered and learn more about what is possible in terms of the new LiveCycle ES platform. This is in addition to all the other Enterprise and Collaboration track sessios at MAX 2007 in Chicago Sept 30-Oct 4.

http://www.adobemax2007.com/na/sessions/ (you can filter the Enterprise and Collaboration track)
***************************************************************************
Description:
Boot Camp for LiveCycle
Skill: Advanced
LiveCycle, Flex

Write code together with the LiveCycle development team in this three-hour collaborative session. Boot Camp provides a mixture of short presentations, workshops, and free-form coding. Make sure to bring your laptop, your best questions, your most desired features, your coolest projects to share, and be ready to learn something new.
**************************************************************************

As co-owners of the track, Charlton and I would like to request input on the following:

1. If you have a specific question or topic you would like to share at the LiveCycle Bootcamp, please ping us with it. You do not need to prepare any slides, just come with your laptop, a USB key, and your code to share with others. Topics we are currently seeking are:
- JavaScript tricks and techniques for PDF documents
- writing and deploying SOAP-based Web Services in LiveCycle ES
- workbench tricks and techniques

But we are willing to entertain anything LiveCycle-related.

2. If you are unable to present, please indicate some specific topics you would like to see covered and we will seek community leaders to come in and showcase their skills.

Remember - this is *your* event. As LiveCycle developers, this is the premiere place in 2007 to interact and mingle with the best of the best of the LiveCycle crowd. You can meet the team who built LiveCycle, talk to the architects, have a beer with the developers, and share input for the future of the product!

I hope to see you all at MAX!

Totally Free Stuff from Adobe! (Developer Resources Galore)

The latest from our guru Craig.

AIR:
Introducing Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) Beta (Mike Chambers, 6/11)
Enter the Adobe AIR Developer Derby (Adrian Ludwig, 6/11)
Six must-see Adobe AIR sample applications (Rob Christensen. 6/11)
Developers speak about Adobe AIR (video Parts 1 , 2 , and 3 , 5/21-6/4)

Flex:
What’s new in Flex 3 (Matt Chotin, 6/11)
What’s in store for Flex 3 Beta (video, Steven Heintz, 6/11)
Attend Flex events and happenings in your area (Mike Potter, 6/4)
Invoking .NET objects using the Flex RemoteObject API (Mark Piller, 5/14)

LiveCycle Data Services/Flex:
Flex Store sample (6/4)
Random Walk Component sample (6/4)
Automation API samples (6/4)

ActionScript
Revised ActionScript Developer Center (May 29)
AVM bytecode overview (PDF, 401K) (May 29)

Mobile
Developing Flash Lite for BREW applications for Verizon Wireless (Ryan Unger and Zak Dabbas, 6/4)
Seminar: Testing and porting Flash Lite content with Device Central (Paul Lamonby, 5/14)
Extending Flash Lite 2.1 features with Flyer (Felipe Andrade, 5/28)

LiveCycle
New resources, Quick Starts, and samples for LiveCycle ES (6/4)
Configuring SSL on IBM WebSphere 6.0x – Part 3: Enabling the client to trust the server's SSL certificate (Steve Forrest, 5/21)
Sample: Performing an LDAP query for role resolution (Valerie Snider-Lynch, 5/14)

ColdFusion
ColdFusion developer security guidelines (PDF, 564k)

CS3
Creating a custom rich text editor Flex 2 component with Fireworks CS3 (Darrell Heath, 5/21)
Contact management application in Dreamweaver – Part 3 (Razvan Cotlarciuc, 5/21)
Managing websites with multiple layouts in Dreamweaver (Adrian Senior, 5/14)
Examining the Puzzle Game sample application in Flash (Valerio Virgillito, 5/14)
Using the 3D Rotate command in Fireworks CS3 (Aaron Beall, 5/14)

Acrobat
Acrobat 8.1 SDK documentation now available (5/23)
New Acrobat 3D Developer Center (5/23)
Digital signatures in Acrobat (PDF, 452k) (5/21)
Tutorial: 3D/Forms interaction (PDF, 1.2M) (6/4)
Tutorial: Controlling animations (PDF 3.7M) (6/4)
Tutorial: Smooth camera rotations (PDF 1.4M) (6/4)

Reader
Deploying Adobe Reader (PDF, 266k) (5/21)

RoboHelp and Captivate
Adobe RoboHelp 6 co-stars with Adobe Captivate 2 (5/14)

The Evangelist Dialogs: Final Entry

So this has been quite the trip. If you've been following along, you'll understand why I am tired right now. Here are the final facts and statistics:

- Airplanes dumped me in 9 cities (Vancouver, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok (only en route), Bangalore, Singapore, Sydney, and San Francisco (only en route)...

- on four continents...

- in 8 countries...

- in 12 days.

- Approximately 20-30% of total time was spent in the air.

- I gave about 20-25 talks (various sizes).

- I probably spoke to 700-1000 people directly.

- And I had two stretches in which I was awake for up to 36 hours.


Anyone still want to be an evangelist?

Since Bangalore, I went to Sydney via Singapore (again). While en route I managed to photo this beautiful sunrise from our airplane.



The Sydney leg was very useful. A lot of people were really happy to get the Web 2.0 and SOA talk. The realization that Adobe has been responsible for providing great tools for the Internet since its inception really drives home the point that we are the one to make Web 2.0 happen. For the enterprise crowd, the realization that they want the patterns for Web 2.0 for the enterprise is something they are glad Adobe "gets".

Sydney was pretty cold and rainy so I was happy to leave and get back home. Now it is time to sleep and get back into my normal time stream.