Artefact Animator provides an easy to use framework for procedural time-based animations in Silverlight and WPF. Download the latest version from http://artefactanimator.codeplex.com/.

Inspired by the Flash community and forged out of frustration, Artefact Animator brings to WPF and Silverlight what Tweener has done for Flash. If you’ve ever tried to get into animation in C# you’ll soon realize there are way too many steps to get you where you need to be. The consequences are that developers don’t love to animate UI and designers are limited by what they can animate when working with dynamic content.

via http://www.artefactgroup.com/blog/2010/04/artefact-animator-live-and-open-source-for-silverlight-and-wpf/

This issue came up a while ago, but after getting deeper into C# I’ve now been able to track down the answer.

The problem involved loading a dynamic flash file into C# on the fly while still being able to load a default in its absence. You could of course use an XML file but then you would just have to edit it each time you used a different path – lame.

So this solution allows for you to drag a file/files onto an application’s icon, and retrieve a list of those dropped items. If it can’t find your file extension in the argument’s array it’ll return the path to your default file.

public String getSWFPath ( )
{
    String[] arguments = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
    if (arguments.Length > 0)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < arguments.Length; i++)
        {
            String arg = arguments[i];
            if ( arg.IndexOf(".swf") >= 0 ) return arg;
        }
    }

    // DEFAULT PATH
    return Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar + “default.swf”;
}

The best part about this is just how easy it is to get that list.

String[] arguments = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();

One thing to keep in mind ( at least for me ) was that the first array element is a reference to the application being launched. If you drop multiple files I couldn’t tell if they were in any specific order, so I chose to loop through the array instead of picking a consistent element index.

In two years it’ll cost me at least $2500! but it’s still way better than my last phone.

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Flash to WordPress Guide and Code

“Ever Since I launched my Flash website with a WordPress backend, I have received numerous emails and comments asking me how I did it. Today I will make available some of the PHP code I wrote to extract Data from WordPress in an XML format. I have also created a diagram and explanation on how my website works to hopefully assist anyone else who wants to try the same thing. I should point out that I haven’t made available an end to end solution, you will still need to do a lot of work, but I hope that I have provided a good starting point. The PHP Script makes an SQL query to a MYSQL database holding the WordPress Data. The PHP Script then formats the data into XML. This then can be loaded by your Flash Website. There are functions to retrieve Posts and create Menus.” - via tvwonline.net

I’ve been seeing a trend lately with Flash going full screen. Not only is it going to the edge of the browser, it is taking over the screen regardless of browser. This has been made possible since the arrival of Flash Player 9.

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“This handy little class (download here) will allow you to change the registration point of a MovieClip on the fly (instead of having to modify the symbol in the library and repostion all of the contents).” - via Darron Schall

“Well, if you think you’re going to be able to use speech recognition to code anytime soon, this video will set you straight.”

http://robrohan.com/2007/02/14/speech-recognition-coding/

Trigonometry is an easily overlooked topic until you want to create interactive interface solutions relying on spacial relationships. In theory, the concept of trigonometry doesn’t require much to grasp yet still requires enough specialized and simple formulas which are better served as reference material.

So like any interaction developer, I’ll need a trig toolbox, and this will be it.

Note: This is currently a work in progress

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“This function is used internally during the initializion stage for the predefined actionscript objects. It is used to hide an objects children from the for..in loop construct. The for..in loop construct iterates over all children of an object, this means it exposes both methods and properties of an object. It is also used to protect the predefined actionscript objects children from being over-written by another action with the same name and to protect the predefined actionscript objects from being deleted. The usefulness of this function can also be harnessed by the developer and that is when this function gets interesting… ” - via FlashGuru Consulting » ASSetPropFlags

Embedding Flash

“There seems to be a lot of confusion about the code needed to properly embed Flash objects within a website: it’s the most frequently asked question at this site’s forum. The rise of profiling sites like Myspace (who filter lots of codes) and the recent Eolas patent enforcement have thrown even more confusion into the mix. In this article, I’ll try to clearly align the best options for Flash embedment. I’ll also mention the most common pitfalls, and their workarounds.” - via jeroenwijering.com

My method-of-choice to embed has to be SWFObject. It’s able to not only take care of what it needs to, but also integrates with several other techniques including SWFAddress. Another thing I like about it is the ability to work well within Wordpress. At first I had to fall back on some embed techniques and plugins, but after reading this post about using multiline comments, I am up and running with SWFObject again.