Andrew Shorten @ Adobe

At Adobe MAX this week, I presented a session entitled “Working with Flash Catalyst Projects in Flash Builder 4″ – the recording for this is now available for playback on Adobe TV and I’ve posted the slides below.

The presentation builds on the Exploring Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder workflows article that was published on the Adobe Developer Connection site, but also includes some example code which may help if you wish to explore the use of Flash Catalyst generated skins for custom Flex components that extend SkinnableComponent.

Today we released the beta 2 versions of both Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder on Adobe Labs – if you looked at either of these products at beta 1 but felt they were a bit early for regular usage then I’d encourage you try out these news builds.

With lots of bug fixes and performance improvements in both products, I’m now using these as my regular toolset for RIA design/development – Flash Catalyst in particular has added a significant number of new features over beta 1, including the ability to work with audio/video assets, as well as import and control Flash SWFs that were created in Flash Professional.

I’d like to highlight two updated developer centre articles that I’ve written and also point out a brand new one discussing workflows between Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder:

• Building a data-centric application using Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4 (updated for beta 2)
  Learn to create an employee directory application, starting from the Illustrator design, working in Flash Catalyst to create the user interface and moving into Flash Builder to connect to a PHP or ColdFusion back-end.
• Flash Catalyst Best Practices (updated for beta 2)
  A set of hints and tips for designers using Illustrator and Flash Catalyst that will help ensure that projects created in Flash Catalyst will be optimized for use by the development team you’re working with.
• Exploring Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder workflows
  Understand the different workflows that are possible between Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder and learn which is most appropriate for your team and the projects you’re working on.

If you have any comments/feedback on the articles then please do get in touch.

At Flash on the Beach in Brighton this week I spoke with a number of Flash designers and developers, asking what they wanted to see for the Flash Platform in the future – here is what they had to say (3 minute video):

I also asked everyone I spoke to about the importance of the Flash Community and events like Flash on the Beach – here’s what they said on that topic (4 minute video):

Thanks to everyone who went on camera to provide their opinion and thanks to John Davey for another excellent Flash on the Beach conference.

If you’ve got anything to add on these topics then please leave your thoughts in the comments!

At Flash on the Beach in Brighton this week I spoke with a number of Flash designers and developers, asking their thoughts on how Flash Catalyst might impact their workflow for producing rich Internet applications – here is what they had to say (3 minute video):

Following the news last week that Microsoft and UK-based retailer Tesco announced a commercial agreement (no details of the financial arrangements were published) it is interesting to see that one media company who previously adopted Microsoft Silverlight for its online TV catch-up service has completely replaced the Silverlight-based player for one built using Adobe Flash Player.

ITV, owner of the UK’s largest commercial television channel in terms of audience share and advertising revenue, had been using Silverlight since the launch of the service, but if the ITV forums and other reports are anything to go by, the use of Silverlight had certainly caused frustration for many visitors to the site trying to use ITV Player.

I have no inside knowledge as to what caused ITV to walk away from Microsoft’s technology and instead use Flash Player to stream programmes such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale and X Factor on the ITV Player; it seems though that a combination of the reported technical problems experienced by end-users and the relatively low distribution of the the runtime, which required most visitors to install Silverlight, proved to be too much of a barrier for end-user adoption, especially when compared with the successful use of Flash for BBC iPlayer, 4 on-demand and Five TV’s Demand 5 service.

Note: it looks as if ITV are still in the process of updating their site so expect some minor issues whilst they finish the process.