I recently published a series of tutorials around the topic of “moving stuff” across Adobe Air applications (via copy&paste and drag&drop). Here is the complete list of all the tutorials.

• Native Drag and Drop in Adobe Air
  The first tutorial, to get started with drag and drop.
• Drag and Drop of Text in Adobe Air
  An overview of how to drag and drop textual content in Adobe Air.
• Drag and Drop of Images In Adobe Air
  A tutorial on drag and drop from OS to Adobe air and across Air apps.
• Copy and Paste Images in Adobe Air
  The first tutorial on copy and paste, focused on images.
• Copy and Paste a complex object in Adobe Air
  Description of how to move a custom object across Adobe Air applications.
• Copy and Paste Sets of Complex Objects in Adobe Air
  A tutorial about how to copy and paste arrays of custom objects.

I am planning to release more series about Adobe Air/Flex. Any topic your prefer? Leave a comment below or contact me.

This is a followup post to the previous one, where we have seen how to copy and paste a complex object across two Adobe Air applications. We will see how to copy and paste more than one object from an Adobe Air application to another. First of all we have to enable multiple selection in our Datagrid, that’s easy.

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<mx:DataGrid id="grid" 
	dataProvider="{collection}"
	allowMultipleSelection="true" >

We then modify the function that copies data to the clipboard. Instead of a single element we want the list of the selected items in the datagrid (line 3).

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private function copyToClipboard():void {
 
	var selection:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection(grid.selectedItems);
	Clipboard.generalClipboard.clear();
	Clipboard.generalClipboard.setData("myCustomFormat", selection);
	feedback.text = "Data copied to the clipboard";
 
}

The rest of the code remains the same of the previous tutorial. The destination application needs a bit more of tweaking to handle an array of items. We have to store data in an ArrayCollection (line 2,5). At this point we could set up a renderer and a repeater to populate the form, but let’s have some fun with actionscript (lines 8-31).

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private const HEIGHT:int = 20;
private var myItems:ArrayCollection;
 
private function pasteFromClipboard():void {
	myItems = Clipboard.generalClipboard.getData("myCustomFormat") 
		as ArrayCollection;
 
	for each (var i in myItems) {
 
		var nameLabel:FormItem = new FormItem();
		nameLabel.label = "Name:";
		var nameText:TextArea = new TextArea();
		nameText.height = HEIGHT;
		nameText.text = i.name;
 
		var emailLabel:FormItem = new FormItem();
		emailLabel.label = "Email";
		var emailText:TextArea = new TextArea();
		emailText.height = HEIGHT;
		emailText.text = i.email;
 
		nameLabel.addChild(nameText);
		emailLabel.addChild(emailText);
 
		pastedItems.addChild(nameLabel);
		pastedItems.addChild(emailLabel);
 
		var hr:HRule = new HRule();
		hr.width = 40;
		pastedItems.addChild(hr);
	}
}

Here is an example of the final result.

Source code is available.

In Adobe Air you can store data in the object to enable cross application data transfer. We have already had a look at how to copy and paste images. In this tutorial we will see how to copy complex objects. By complex objects we mean a type of object which is not the usual String, but something a bit more complicated, like an instance of Person.

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public class Person extends Object {
 
	public var name:String;
	public var email:String;
 
	public function Person(name:String, email:String) {
		super();
		this.name = name;
		this.email = email;
	}
 
}

We will create two Adobe Air apps: the first is the source from which we copy data, the second is the destination where we paste data in the clipboard. Let’s start with the source application. We create some instance of Person to populate an ArrayCollection which we feed into a DataGrid.

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<mx:WindowedApplication 
	xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
	layout="vertical" 
	creationComplete="init()">
 
	<mx:Script>
		<![CDATA[
 
		import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
 
		[Bindable] 
                private var collection:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection()
 
		private function init():void {
			collection.addItem(new Person("John", "john@john.com"));
			collection.addItem(new Person("Mary", "mary@mary.com"));
		}
 
		]]>
	</mx:Script>
 
	<mx:DataGrid id="grid" 
		dataProvider="{collection}">
 
	</mx:DataGrid>
 
</mx:WindowedApplication>

We will add a button to trigger the copy action of the selected item. Then we need a way to detect the selected item in the grid and store it into the clipboard. We do this in the copyToClipboard function.

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private function copyToClipboard():void {
 
	var selection:Person = grid.selectedItem as Person;
	Clipboard.generalClipboard.clear();
	Clipboard.generalClipboard.setData("myCustomFormat", selection);
	feedback.text = "Data copied to the clipboard";
 
}

Here we should remember to be consistent with the key, myCustomFormat, that we adopt to store data in the clipboard (line 5). We’ll use the same key when we want to retrieve data in the Destination application. Below is the complete code of the Source application.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication 
	xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
	layout="vertical" 
	creationComplete="init()">
 
	<mx:Script>
	<![CDATA[
	import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
 
	[Bindable] 
	private var collection:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection()
 
	private function init():void {
		collection.addItem(new Person("John", "john@john.com"));
		collection.addItem(new Person("Mary", "mary@mary.com"));
	}
 
	private function copyToClipboard():void {
		var selection:Person = grid.selectedItem as Person;
		Clipboard.generalClipboard.clear();
		Clipboard.generalClipboard.setData("myCustomFormat", selection);
		feedback.text = "Data copied to the clipboard";
	}
	]]>
	</mx:Script>
 
	<mx:DataGrid id="grid" 
		dataProvider="{collection}">
 
	</mx:DataGrid>
 
	<mx:Button label="Copy to Clipboad" 
		enabled="{grid.selectedItem != null}" 
		click="copyToClipboard()"/>
 
	<mx:Text id="feedback" />
 
</mx:WindowedApplication>

Now let’s move to the Destination application, which we will have just a form and a button to paste data.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication 
	xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
	layout="vertical">
 
	<mx:Script>
	<![CDATA[
 
	[Bindable] 
	private var myObj:Object;
 
	private function pasteFromClipboard():void {
		myObj = Clipboard.generalClipboard.getData("myCustomFormat");
	}
	]]>
	</mx:Script>
	<mx:Form>
		<mx:FormItem label="Name:">
			<mx:TextArea text="{myObj.name}" height="20"/>
		</mx:FormItem>
		<mx:FormItem label="Email:">
			<mx:TextArea text="{myObj.email}" height="20"/>
		</mx:FormItem>
	</mx:Form>
 
	<mx:Button label="Paste" click="pasteFromClipboard()"/>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

As said above, to retrieve data in the clipboard we have to use the same key, myCustomFormat. The binding does the rest, populating our form. Here is a video of the result.

Source code is available.

After learning drag and drop we will dig into copy and paste. We have already seen how to use the clipboard class to temporary store data during the drag action. Now we will use the same class to copy and paste an image within an Adobe Air application. We will start with the following layout.

This corresponds to the following mxml code.

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<mx:WindowedApplication 
	xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
	backgroundColor="#222222" color="#f5f5f5" 
	layout="vertical">
 
	<!-- Feedback -->
	<mx:Text id="feedback" height="20"/>
 
	<!-- Image to copy -->
	<mx:Image id="im" source="logo.png"/>
 
	<!-- Commands -->
	<mx:HBox>
	    <mx:Button label="copy" 
	 	click="copyToClipboard()"/>
	    <mx:Button label="paste" 
		click="pasteFromClipboard()"/>	
	    <mx:Button label="clear" 
		click="Clipboard.generalClipboard.clearData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT)"/>
	</mx:HBox>
 
	<mx:VBox id="copies" width="{im.width}"/>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

Let’s have a look at the copy mechanism. We want to be sure that, before copying, the clipboard has no bitmap (line 3). Then we create a BitmapData object to store the content of the image (lines 4-5) and we put it in the clipboard (line 6). We gently provide some feedback (line 7).

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private function copyToClipboard():void {
 
    Clipboard.generalClipboard.clearData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT);
    var data:BitmapData = new BitmapData(im.width, im.height);
    data.draw(im); // this copies the content in the clipboard
    Clipboard.generalClipboard.setData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT, data);
    feedback.text = "Data have been copied";
 
}

The paste mechanism is pretty similar to the one illustrated in previous tutorials. We read data from the clipboard (line 3), create a new Image class to store the Bitmap and then add it to the duplicates area (lines 4-7).

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private function pasteFromClipboard():void {
 
    var b:Bitmap = new Bitmap(Clipboard.generalClipboard.getData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT) as BitmapData);
    var i:Image = new Image();
    i.height = b.height;
    i.addChild(b);
    copies.addChild(i);
 
}

This is the intended result.

Source code is available.
Next time we will see how to copy and paste a complex object.

In this tutorial we will see how to show images dragged from the file system into an Adobe Air application. As we have seen in other tutorials to intercept when something is dragged and dropped on an Adobe Air application we need to specify two handlers: nativeDragEnter and nativeDragDrop. To accept the drag&drop the content of the clipboard has to be a list of files (line 12). When there is a drop we store the content in an array (line 18). For each element of the array we check the extension (png in our case) and we create an image object, which we add to a tile list (lines 20-26).

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<mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
    layout="vertical" 
    nativeDragEnter="dragEnterHandler(event)" 
    nativeDragDrop="dropHandler(event)">
 
    <mx:Script>
	<![CDATA[
 
        import mx.controls.Image;
 
	private function dragEnterHandler(e:NativeDragEvent):void {
	    if (e.clipboard.hasFormat(ClipboardFormats.FILE_LIST_FORMAT)) {
		NativeDragManager.acceptDragDrop(this);
	    }
	}
 
	private function dropHandler(e:NativeDragEvent):void {
	    var files:Array = e.clipboard.getData(ClipboardFormats.FILE_LIST_FORMAT) as Array;
 
	    for each (var f:Object in files) {
	  	if (f.extension == "png") {
		    var image:Image = new Image();
		    image.source = "file:///" + f.nativePath
		    droppedImages.addChild(image);
		}
	    }
	}
	]]>
    </mx:Script>
 
    <mx:Tile id="droppedImages" />
</mx:WindowedApplication>

The result should look something like this video.

Source code is available.

In a previous tutorial we have seen how to drag and drop images from a native application (Fireworks) to Adobe Air and between two air apps. In this post I will show how to drag and drop text from a document (pdf, html, txt) into a text area of an Adobe Air application.
Our application has to specify two handlers: nativeDragEnter and nativeDragDrop (lines 3-4). In the first we will check whether the content in the clipboard is textual (lines 11-12), in the second we will dump the content in a Text component (line 17).

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<mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
    layout="vertical" 
    nativeDragEnter="dragEnterHandler(event)" 
    nativeDragDrop="dropHandler(event)">
 
    <mx:Script>
	<![CDATA[
 
	private function dragEnterHandler(e:NativeDragEvent):void {
	    // check whether content is textual
	    if (e.clipboard.hasFormat(ClipboardFormats.TEXT_FORMAT)) {
	 	NativeDragManager.acceptDragDrop(this);
	    }
	}
 
	private function dropHandler(e:NativeDragEvent):void {
	    droppedText.text = e.clipboard.getData(ClipboardFormats.TEXT_FORMAT) as String;
	}
 
	]]>
    </mx:Script>
 
    <mx:Text id="droppedText" width="100%"/>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

Let’s check whether it works!

Happy drag&dropping :)
Source code is available.
In the next tutorial we will see how to drag and drop images from the file system.
Stay tuned.

In this tutorial we will learn the basics of native drag and drop in Adobe Air. Specifically we will see two examples:

• drag an image from a native application (Fireworks) and drop it onto an air application
• drag an image from an air application and drop it onto another air application

We will start by implementing the target application, which accepts the drop action. To enable this there are two behaviors to specify: what to do when something is dragged over the app and what to do when there is a drop action. These correspond to two events: nativeDragEnter and nativeDragDrop, both belonging to the WindowedApplication class. So we will start with this code.

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<mx:WindowedApplication 
        xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
        layout="absolute" 
	nativeDragEnter="dragEnterHandler(event)" 
	nativeDragDrop="dropHandler(event)">
 
</mx:WindowedApplication>

Once associated the handlers we need to define them.

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<mx:Script>
	<![CDATA[
 
	private function dragEnterHandler(e:NativeDragEvent):void {
		if (e.clipboard.hasFormat(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT)) {
			NativeDragManager.acceptDragDrop(this);
		}
	}
 
	private function dropHandler(e:NativeDragEvent):void {
		var data:BitmapData = e.clipboard.getData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT) as BitmapData;
		var myBit:Bitmap = new Bitmap(data);
		stage.addChild(myBit);
	}
 
      ]]>
</mx:Script>

In the nativeDragEnter event we have to check whether the dragged item is of type bitmap, if yes we can accept the drag (lines 29-30). During the drag a copy of the item is stored in the system’s clipboard. To replicate it in the target application we have to read it (line 35), clone it (line 36) and then add it to the display tree (line 37). This is all we need to do in the target application. At this point we can already test the application. Let’s run it, open an image in Fireworks and drag&drop it. See the video below.

Now let’s move to the other case: we start dragging an image from another air application. Here we have to mimic the behavior of Fireworks above: copy in the system clipboard the image when there is a startDrag action. Let’s start by adding an image to the application.

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<mx:WindowedApplication 
	xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
	layout="absolute">
 
	<mx:Image id="image" 
		source="logo.png" 
		mouseDown="startDragDrop(event)"/> 
</mx:WindowedApplication>

As you can see we attached a function to the mouseDown event. Now let’s define this function.

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<mx:Script>
	<![CDATA[
 
	private function startDragDrop(e:MouseEvent):void {
 
		var data:BitmapData = new BitmapData(image.width, image.height);
		data.draw(image);
 
		// create my clipboard object to be passed to dragmanager
		var cb:Clipboard = new Clipboard();
		cb.setData(ClipboardFormats.BITMAP_FORMAT, data);
 
		// data here is a 'representative' of the dragged object during dragging.
		NativeDragManager.doDrag(this, cb, data); 
 
	}
	]]>
</mx:Script>

We create a copy of the image (lines 25-26). We use this in two cases: to put it in a clipboard object (line 30) and to provide feedback during the dragging (line 33). Now we can run both applications and check if everything is correct.

Simple uh? Please drop a comment if you have any followup question.
Source code is available.

When you upgrade to a new version of Wordpress sometimes the procedure “forgets” to clean up the stuff downloaded to perform the update. Sometimes, this depends on various factors (wordpress version, hosting, etc.), the upgrade is successful but a message appears on your dashboard: “An automated WordPress update has failed to complete”, though a bit more below it says you are using the updated version of wordpress. I usually solve this situation by:

• deleting the upgrade folder into ./wp-content
• deleting the .maintenance file into the wordpress root.

The second step might be a bit tricky for non-expert. You need an ftp client which allows visualizing hidden files (those beginning with a dot). Then you can select it and delete it.

If you solve this issue in a different way I’m glad to hear your opinion in the comments below.

This reflections started when a local group I subscribed on Facebook changed its name. A while ago, the administrator started a group about my region and its residents. When I subscribed I thought: “It is a pretty common practice, somebody feels the need to create a group about a shared interest”. I thought it was a good idea and so did many. I still think it is a good idea but not when the following happens. The administrator of the group is also an organizer of local parties. Recently he changed the name of the group, from the generic name of the region to the name of a party! You might think: “He is dishonest, a profiteer!”. I think so, but my reflections got immediately over, to the platform on the backstage.
Why did Facebook designers allowed the possibility to rename a group? By designers here I mean Interaction Designer, people who thought and reflected on the dynamics implemented in the platform (e.g. you can see the pictures of your friends, friends can post on your wall, etc.) This features, consciously or not, are the reflections of design choices, and any designer who as worked on social products had been in front of junctions like: should we allow this or not? why?
I am wondering, why on earth Facebook designers allowed group renaming? Have you ever been in a real world group? I did. Have you ever participated to a group that changed its name? I did. Before renaming, the new name (and goals of the group) have been discussed by the WHOLE group. Here I am not trying to defend the party organizer, he did his part, but I am ascribing some responsibility to the designers. If a platform enables such a behavior it is not well designed, and in front of such episodes people might loose trust in the platform itself. The possibility of renaming a group enables everybody with some charisma to collect “friends” and cheat on them. My boss is happy because I joined the charity group, and the day after I am fired because the group name changed to “Satan apostles”.
I am not blaming the WHOLE Facebook, for it allowed me to get some job and to get in touch with old friends I’d have never met otherwise, but I am just reflecting on a single (apparently) little feature which enables a sort of anti-social behavior.
Let me close with a thought from a development view point: how many meanings depend on the change of a string? :)

A few days ago, as many developers, I got the following message from Apple.

I think it is a good step towards developers. A small one, but towards. The feed, publicly available, includes tips about submission and general news. For example, iTunes connect will be down from Dec 23rd to 28th. An encouraging news is that “92% of applications are being approved within 14 days”. Although this is far from the dream of many developers I think it proves positive attitude in cultivating the relationship with the creators of iPhone applications.

In the meantime, acceptance policies are sweetening.