30 July 2007

Flash 9 (only) XML Class Gotcha

Written by Richard Leggett ( )
Published on July 30th, 2007 @ 05:09:26 am, using 265 words, 2099 views

Categories: Flash, Flex, AIR/Apollo

Possible gotcha with the XML class, but I'd like to get this confirmed if anyone has a second to try this out.

It seems that the XML class is converting " to its literal ASCII representation (i.e. the quote mark ") when converting a String into a new XML object. I'm sending this data over XML-RPC and I cannot have quotes being sent as plain-text, they need to be XML/HTML encoded.

Here's a quick test that shows it:

var str:String = "<string>Here is some text, with an image...
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/
logo.gif&quot; /&gt;</string>";

var xml:XML = new XML( str );
trace( xml );

At this point I'd be sending the xml object over the wire with HTTPService. The problem is that trace()/Charles/Fiddler etc is showing that the " is being converted to a real quote (literal) and that can cause a problem with the server which wants encoded copy, and being XMLRPC, I cannot use CDATA in this case. This is not the same behaviour as appears in Flash 8, it also appears that it differs when compiling with the Flex SDK and the Flash CS3 IDE in terms of whether it also turns the < and > entities to their literal representations.

Does anyone know a workaround for this? Can it be expected behaviour? I think I'll have to be sending things as a string internally to avoid the problem for now but it would be good to hear other opinions.

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14 July 2007

Flash Lite Digital Personal Assistant for Jonnie Walker

Written by Richard Leggett ( )
Published on July 14th, 2007 @ 06:21:43 am, using 128 words, 409 views

Categories: Flash Lite, Mobile

Here's a fantastic execution of an idea for mobile, using Flash Lite. For those up and coming Asian businessmen without a PA of their own, BreakDesign (makers of Dawn of the Fly) have created a digital PA that has a calendar, finds bars, taxis and other information.

I'm a big fan of giving a consumer something useful and then branding it. As opposed to giving a consumer something that does something associated with the brand (brand self-love I think they call it). In this case they hit the old golden "sweet spot" and did both. Some brands lend themselves to this naturally, such as Nike with Nike+, sometimes its harder to create something of real value.

Check out the video walkthrough of the application. (available for download soon)

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