Dec
03
2009
The previous demo of the new “vista” theme featured mainly the uiWindow component.
Here is another demo featuring various UI components, including the checkbox, radiobutton, tabview, sliders and steppers (this is the same demo included in the library distribution but with the “vista” theme applied):
Continue Reading »
Dec
02
2009
A new bonus theme, emulating the look of Windows Vista OS, has been added to the Aspire UI components library. Below is a live demo (click on the three buttons to bring up windows):
Continue Reading »
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.
Continue Reading »
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.
Continue Reading »
Nov
17
2009
This is a small SWF featuring the new uiToggleFrame component from Aspire UI Standard Edition (the component was added to the library in the recent Version 1.3 Update):
Continue Reading »
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.
Continue Reading »
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.
Continue Reading »
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).
Continue Reading »
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.
Continue Reading »
Nov
09
2009
The “background” property defined by the com.ghostwire.ui.core.uiComponent class determines the style of the background for a component instance – color, opacity, border color, border width, gradient fills, and corner radius.
By default, no background will be drawn. The following is an example on how to draw a simple background:
Continue Reading »