Dec 12 2009
The default behavior of the uiWindow container is to cast a drop shadow when it is active in the foreground, and not do so when it is inactive or when it is maximized to fill the stage. This behavior is determined by the component instance’s background property value.
Dec 04 2009
The uiImage class is used to display an image, the source of which can either be a MovieClip symbol in the library, or an external SWF/GIF/JPG/PNG file.
When using external bitmap images (GIF/JPG/PNG), the uiImage class will load from the external source only once and use cached data if the same source is requested subsequently again by the same or other uiImage instances. This is efficient because the same BitmapData is used across different uiImage instances that use the same image source. This is why image icons in Aspire UI scrollable lists do not suffer from the “flickering” symptom (which you will experience when using Flash/Flex components).
Dec 04 2009
This post is a supplement to “Saving XML As Binary”. I neglected to mention in that post that you can, if so desired, embed the binary XML within your SWF instead of loading it during run-time. That means you still get to keep the XML externally, not as part of your application code, so that the code and data can still be kept separate and maintained more easily.
However, it must be mentioned that embedding a text XML within SWF will get it compressed as part of the SWF compression anyway. Therefore, if compression is the only motivation, don’t convert the XML to binary and embed the binary version – it does not make sense. But if you wish to do some data encryption, then the additional work may be appropriate.
Dec 03 2009
Whenever an application needs to save bitmap images to local storage or post them to a server script, a common practice is to encode the image as JPEG or PNG before sending that binary data off as the respective mimeType. However, if the intention is simply to save the bitmap image, ie to serialize the BitmapData, then converting the image to JPEG/PNG would actually be unnecessary.
Nov 19 2009
The com.ghostwire.ui.data.uiModel class is used to represent a collection of items used as data source for various components in the Aspire UI library. Data-driven components such as the uiComboBox, uiListBox, uiMenu, uiMenuBar, and uiTabView are populated using uiModel objects.
A uiModel object can be populated using an array of data objects (duplicates will be ignored), an array of strings, or an XML object. When populating using XML, the XML can either be embedded with the rest of your application code, or loaded from an external XML file during run-time.
Nov 18 2009
Here is how you can draw an outline on text glyphs during run-time via ActionScript. This method works with embedded as well as non-embedded fonts.
Nov 16 2009
This is Part III of our discussion on ROT128 Encryption.
Part I: “Applying ROT128 Encryption On ByteArray”
Part II: “Applying ROT128 Encryption On Embedded/Module SWFs”
In “Saving XML As Binary”, we looked at how text XML can be stored in a ByteArray object so that it can be compressed and made non-human-readable. In this post, we look at how you can integrate ROT128 into the XML-to-ByteArray-to-XML routines. Binary XML is used only as an example; you can definitely apply the same concept to other binary data.
Nov 13 2009
This post is a supplement to “Applying ROT128 Encryption On ByteArray”.
Some time back, we posted a simple technique for hiding assets and AS3 code from prying eyes by embedding one SWF within another SWF. In this post, we revisit that topic and look at how ROT128 can be used to provide an additional layer of protection.
Nov 12 2009
In this post, we will look at a very simple algorithm for weak encryption. You should not use this method for real cryptographic security. However, because it is so simple to implement, the light-weight algorithm could easily escape prying eyes and avoid being the target for decryption in the first place.
I should also clarify that the term “ROT128″ does not actually exist. The original idea comes from ROT13, a variant of the Caesar Cipher (named after Julius Caesar of ancient Rome who used it to encrypt messages, but it is not clear who first invented or started using the cipher).
Nov 10 2009
The uiImage component is used to display non-interactive images.
The source property is a String value and determines the image source, which can be an external image file (property value specifies the file name) or an image embedded in the SWF (property value specifies the class name).
This means that the image source has to be expressed as a String value, which is not always possible. For example, a Bitmap could be dynamically generated during run-time and you may wish to (re)use its BitmapData as the source in uiImage instances.
As of Aspire UI Version 1.3, the uiImage class has a static registerBitmapData() method. You may use this method to register a BitmapData object in the image cache, giving it a unique id. Subsequently, you will be able to use the id as the image source for uiImage instances.
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