Alternate heading for this is how to install Flash SDK in Chrome though either way I was stumped this morning as I just wanted to get in to learning Flex 4.

• When developing Flex applications you need the SDK version of Flash for debugging which means uninstalling previous versions first. After digging around my Mac for a little while then hitting Google I was able to find out that this has to be achieved via a seperate, downloadable uninstaller (unlike all other apps I use).
• I followed the 6 steps from Adobe then I opened Google Chrome and checked About Adobe Flash Player page only to see that its still installed. At this point Adobe's advice is quite simply repeat these steps to uninstall Flash Player - honest, that's what it says.
  I did repeat the steps a couple of times for sanity sake then I remembered that Chrome integrated Flash recently so I fired up Firefox and found that indeed Flash was uninstalled!
• Back to Chrome and I went to about:plugins and Disabled "Shockwave Flash". Fired up About Adobe Flash Player and now its gone!
• Final step is installing Flash SDK and you're done

Dzone have got a PDF reference card available via there site. Create by Terry Ryan, the Adobe CF Evangelist it coveres:

• installing
• starting a new project
• connecting to servers
• views
• extensions
• .... it goes on

A handy PDF to have saved locally and free as well, go get it at http://refcardz.dzone.com/refcardz/getting-started-adobe

You can now buy ColdFusion Builder for £200.92 ($299) from Adobe. Also included with your purchase is a complimentary copy of Flash Builder 4 Standard making the low price a great purchase for any developer!

Adobe® ColdFusion® Builder™ software is a highly customizable, Eclipse™ based IDE that enables developers to build ColdFusion applications faster than ever before. It also allows them to save time by managing the entire ColdFusion development cycle from concept to production with one easy-to-use tool

If you are running CF Builder in standalone mode on the Mac and you are having issues there is a bug submitted by Seb Duggan at http://cfbugs.adobe.com/bugreport/flexbugui/cfbugtracker/main.html#bugId=80249

Bug description:

Running standalone CF Builder on OS X 10.6.1.After a short time, the whole system slows down, especially when switching between applications (I have 10GB RAM).Activity Monitor shows that the WindowServer process is fluctuating wildly, often right up to 100% CPU.Quitting CF Builder stops the process misbehaving, and computer performance returns to normal.

After installing CFBuilder beta 2 in standalone mode I noticed that after a period of time the WindowServer service was eating up my CPU.

After a quick mention on twitter I found out @sebduggan was also having the same issue.

For anyone else getting this @sebduggan has posted a bug to the Adobe ColdFusion Bug Tracker (ID: 80249)

For the record I have gotten around the issue by installing CFBuilder as a Pluggin to a fresh copy of Eclipse

Its a good day to be a CF Developer!

ColdFusion 9 has made it out of the labs in to the wild, while CFBuilder has made it to beta 2. Get 'em while they're hot!

After admitting I had a little Adobe Max jealousy @ryanstewart DM'd me to let me know you can catch the keynote online. All you have to do is register at http://max.adobe.com/online/keynotes/

Actually, after a little digging around Ryan even posted about this yesterday.

I sometimes forget how useful/powerful RegEx can be. Take the following bit of CFIF logic

[sourcecode language="plain"] <cfset username = trim(form.uname) /> <cfif len(username) LT 4> <cfset errorMsg = "Your username is too short" /> <cfelseif NOT reFindNoCase("[\w]", username, 1, "false")> <cfset errorMsg = "Your username is too short" /> </cfif> [/sourcecode]

A quick regex guide: the "\w" reference stands for "word character", which translates to [A-Za-z0-9_] n.b.the underscore as well

You can actually add on to the regex and at the same time cut down a lot of the logic by doing the following:

[sourcecode language="plain" gutter="true" toolbar="true" wraplines="true"] <cfif NOT refindnocase("[\w]{4,}", username, 1, "false")> <cfset errorMsg = "Usernames must be 4 characters in length and contain [A-Za-z 0-9 _" /> </cfif> [/sourcecode]

The key is "{4,}". Using the curly braces to specify a specific amount of repetition of "word characters" and is equivilant to "len(username) LT 4"

Please update your bookmarks and feeds for my site.

I now have a Mango Blog at:

http://www.andyjarrett.com/blog

Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/andyjarrett

I've just posted a comment over on Simon Whatley's blog which made me think some people still might not know that ColdFusion is free for education and this includes all qualified students, faculty and staff of eligible education institutions.

You can find out more at freeriatools.adobe.com/coldfusion/ though you will have to prove you eligibility with some form of ID.

Also don't forget that Adobe offer Flex Builder under the same conditions as well.

It looks likes this one slipped by me, but Adobe Labs have released Dreamweaver beta, Fireworks beta, and Soundbooth beta.

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MacNN has a good article on the iPhone being too expensive for UK market which I couldn't agree with more.

When Apple brought the iPhone to the UK it seems they didn't do any research on our mobile/cell phone market. They took the model they used in the USA and moved it over here. For anyone not familiar with our model its simple.

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It's funny how this all happen at once.

On a recent trip I managed to snap the photo below. Its a UK mag called Mac World on the cover disc of this month is ColdFusion 8.

The reason I'm making a blog entry out this is that when I came home and caught up on my feeds I came across a post from Sean Corfield (along with others) in regards promoting CF outside of the community which reminded me of my photo.

It seems that CF is getting there again and I figured was worth of a kudos mention

Next week, everyday, Andrew Shorten is offering to UK and Ireland residents a chance to win a pass to this years Adobe Max Europe. Plus if you are lucky enough to win on the Friday you could also bag yourself economy return flights and accommodation all paid for.

So as of Monday don't forget to check out Andrew Shorten's site

Update: This appears to be on a different port for others. As Jax pointed out you can go: Eclipse, select Help -> Help contents to get there as well :o)

I was just going into some help files of Aptana when I came across the local address for the Eclipse Help system at: http://127.0.0.1:58041/help/index.jsp

In there was a wealth of information I just didn't know was on my hard drive ... though I suppose it depends on what plug-in's you've got installed but for me I had:

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If you haven't seen already, Damon Cooper has posted one of the first 'teaser' blog posts for CF8. But before it is released you should check out the Public Beta!! It looks like CF 8 is picking up some momentum now, what with Ben Forta's tour, there are even quite a few tracks at Scotch. So, when is the final release?

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/coldfusion8

Under the Mozilla Public License(MPL) Adobe are planning on releasing Flex to the Open Source community.

This includes not only the source to the ActionScript components from the Flex SDK, which have been available in source code form with the SDK since Flex 2 was released, but also includes the Java source code for the ActionScript and MXML compilers, the ActionScript debugger and the core ActionScript libraries from the SDK. The Flex SDK includes all of the components needed to create Flex applications that run in any browser - on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux and on now on the desktop using "Apollo".

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Ted Patrick has announced on his blog that "One Solid Flex Release 2.0.1" is now live and ready for download.

What does the .1 release bring. In short:

• Faster Compiler
• Module Support
• Apollo Support
• Runtime CSS
• and my favourite, Mac support!

Check out Teds post for a better description.

What makes this nicer is that I won a copy of the licence at the CFDevCon and have been waiting for the Mac version to come out. So I think its time to collect on that too!

Flex here I come!

Well if you haven't got yourself a ticket yet to the CFDevCon one day event, do it! It's going to be the first of many to come hopefully, and we need to give it support so all the best events dont just happen state side - mainly cause I get jealous :o)

I started my journey this morning at 5:45am and no i'm not mad and sleeping in a tent outside to be first in line (hmnmmm note to self....) I'm going up into my office today which is about another 30min drive of the conference hall which means I wont have to get up so early to make the drive tomorrow.

So come on who's going?? I know a few but there's gotta be more of you hiding out there!

WooHoo, I don't know if he was the first, but Sean has just mentioned that Flex 2 beta for Mac is out!.

Though as David mentioned in his comments, ". Some day, we (Mac users) won't have to wait 6 additional months for apps.". Fingers crossed, knock on wood and all that, that this isn't the same for Fireworks.