Flash Player Penetration

Flash 9 has now reached ~99% of the computers as of Dec-2009. I don't need to bother about Flash 8 now.






Detailed figures are available on :

http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html

Sorting an ArrayCollection

public function sortCollection(arrayCollection : ArrayCollection) : void
{
    //Create the sort field
    var dataSortField:SortField = new SortField();

    //name of the field of the object on which you wish to sort the Collection
    dataSortField.name = "name";
    dataSortField.caseInsensitive = true;
    
    /*
    If you wish to perform numeric sort then set:
    dataSortField.numeric = true;
    */
   
    //create the sort object
    var dataSort:Sort = new Sort();
    dataSort.fields = [dataSortField];
 
    arrayCollection.sort = dataSort;
    //refresh the collection to sort
    arrayCollection.refresh();

}

compilation error in Variable declaration

If you see the following exception and unable to figure out what is the reason. Don't panic. Just relax and look for a syntax error among the variable declarations in the last set of files you edited after which this error started coming.
Flex3 compiler and Flex3 Builder is unable to figure out such syntax errors:
http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-15030

[mxmlc] Error: macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator$KeyValuePair

    [mxmlc] java.lang.ClassCastException: macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator$KeyValuePair
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.SetExpressionNode.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MemberExpressionNode.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.ListNode.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.ExpressionStatementNode.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.ClassDefinitionNode.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.StatementListNode.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.MetaDataEvaluator.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at macromedia.asc.parser.ProgramNode.evaluate(Unknown Source)
    [mxmlc]     at flex2.compiler.as3.Compiler.analyze3(Compiler.java:531)
    [mxmlc]     at flex2.compiler.mxml.InterfaceCompiler.analyze3(InterfaceCompiler.java:378)

Some examples where the above exception will be reported by mxmlc are :

public var myButton = String = null;
public var myButton : String = null; = null;

Location of Flash SharedObject (cookie)

Shared objects are stored in .sol files located in the Flash player directory of the user's profile:

* Windows Vista : C:\Users\{user-name}\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\
* Windows XP : "C:/Documents and Settings/{user-name}/Application Data/Macromedia/Flash Player"
* Linux : /home/{user-name}/.macromedia/Flash_Player/
* Mac : /Users/{user-name}/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/

Flex4 - Gumbo beta released

Overview:

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Gumbo


Download:

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4