So, as most of you know, I'm not an Apple fanboi or an iSheep. Heck, I just got my first iPod a few weeks ago, a Shuffle. I got it free, otherwise I would never have purchased it. Truth be told, it's actually a pretty sweet device and very well built. But not nice enough for me to fork out a couple hundred bucks for.

So, when I discovered Apple was releasing Safari to PC my response was pretty much "oh great, another browser on the PC". My first 3 months experience with Safari was less than pleasing, it would crash and never launched. However, recently Apple released an update and I've not had the problem since. Overall, its a good browser, fast, and doesn't require me to do any CSS tweaking to get things to display on my sites the way I want them. But I do hate that bushed aluminum look that's so prevelant with Apple's apps. I guess it's like one of the main reasons I am still using FF as my primary browser.

Anyway, I have recently started using Safari more and more. For what? Well, it is now my Flex application testing platform of choice. Why?

1. it doesnt interfere with my Firefox sessions
2. It doesnt cache as bad as IE
3. ServiceCapture works out of the box with Safari

So, if you are doing Flex development on a PC and are sick of your testing crashing your Firefox sessions, or hate the way IE constantly caches your SWF, give Safari a try.

One of the coolest features of Flex 3 is the RSL functionality. When you utilize this option it caches the framework to a swf file. If the user has already visited a site which has a Flex app that is built using the same framework version as you they do not need to download the framework as part of your movie. This means much faster load times and overall, much smaller swf files. It's pretty nifty.

Except there are some catches! A project we are working on is for data driven widgets throughout a website. These should be small in size, no more than 70-80k. We'd reached that goal for the UI functionality at 72k for the most complex swf. That is, until we added in the imports to pull data in from a simple web service. All we do is pull in some small XML packets and parse the data out, a pretty menial task. However, after we imported the soap Webservice (import mx.rpc.soap.WebService) we noticed out file sizes increased by 100k!

Now, one would think this would be cached with the RSLs, but apparently not. Mike Huntington pointed out in the comments that the LiveDocs contains information on the RSL for RPC. After I reviewed the documentation again I found out this is indeed true. Thanks Mike! So, after a bit more research on how to implement this, I came across the Adobe Wiki with instructions on exactly how this is done. I added the RPC RSLS, recompiled the app and was down to a manageable 77k. Nice!

That being said, you may want to monitor your export builds frequently through your development cycle to see what's increasing your SWF sizes and determine if there's a way around it. For backend systems this won't cause much of a ruckus, but if you have Flash apps (or, more appropriately, widgets) for public consumption a 200k swf could be cause for concern.

NorCalFlex will have a Flex 3 and AIR launch party on February 28th. If you live in the area be sure to come and check out our special presentations, possibly win some cool prizes, record your own 30OnAir video and have some good clean RIA Fun! Check out NorCalFlex.com for details

This is just a reminder that Ryan Stewart will be speaking with us in Sacramento on January 23rd. I've just received a large box of swag (including an iPod nano!), so there will be a lot of give-aways!

Event Link: http://www.norcalflex.com

See full details

I have been building Flex apps for well over a year now. One of the main struggles I come across is really how to do certain things with the interface. Sure, I have a stack of documentation (online of course) which defines the properties, events, tags, etc to me, but nothing that really tells me how to put it all together. Until now!

Adobe has released the draft of their Flex Interface Guide (FIG). So far, it looks like it's just what the doc ordered.  It also looks like Rob Adams is responsible for most of the content, which is great because Rob is part of the User Interface Group at Adobe.

I think of particular interested to me will be the sections which are not yet finished:

• Part 6: Guiding with motion (Coming soon!)
• Part 7: Making your application fast (Coming soon!)
• Part 8: Making your application safe (Coming soon!)

These are the areas where I am problably the weakest, so I definitely look forward to those. When I am done reading the guide I'll give a quick review.

Another great Adobe event, I'm sure! The camp will cover topics including Flex, AIR, AJAX and Flash. PayPal and Yahoo will also present. The event is in SF, CA on Nov 5, so sign up now!

http://www.eventsadobe.com/devcamp

So you want to learn Flex? Adobe has partnered with Total Training to give you 30 days of free Flex training. According to Adobe this offer is good until December 31, 2007. Get your Flex on! www.totaltraining.com/guest/adobe

Adobe is hosting a free ActionScript 3 tour. Colin Moock, author of Essential ActionScript 3, will be the instructor for the free training. The course is designed for beginner to intermediate ActionScript 3 developers. I wish I could go, but Ill be in Vegas when the tour comes to SF.

This tour will hit the following cities:

•  Oct. 27 - San Francisco, CA
•  Nov. 5 - Los Angeles, CA
•  Nov. 12 - New York City, NY

Dates for these cities will be added soon:

•  Chicago
•  Tokyo
•  Amsterdam
•  London
•  Munich
•  Bangalore
•  Sydney

You can find out more about the tour and register here www.adobeas3tour.com. Sign up now, seating is limited.

CSS Design view: allows you to visually design UI components in the css file. updates components real-time
new absolute position controls
allows new constraint options, to attach to other controls, float....
"Move into style" button allows you to move component styles into a CSS stylesheet with a click.
Creating projects: made easier with new project wizard
allows you import web services using WSDL URI. Makes getting Web services very easy. Nice demo showing getting Dilbert daily. auto-generated classes!
making modules easier to implement: "modules are 'first class citizens'."
Digital Signatures for AIR apps. Signatures are enforced. you cannot distribute an unsigned AIR.