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Slow Down
It's been beaten into the heads of developers for years; faster is better. Why should developers be judged by how quickly they solve problems and not how well they solve problems? This presentation will analyze the problems with working to fast and why you and your team should slow down.
Welcome Session Materials
Slow Down Presentation
Danny Patterson, Flex Consultant, Patterson Consulting
Danny runs a consulting company in Minneapolis called Patterson Consulting that specializes in Flash and Flex development. He's an Adobe Community Expert, Flex Developer Champion and has published over 40 articles on RIA technologies. He recently wrote the book Advanced ActionScript 3.0 with Design Patterns and He's one of the authors of Flash 8 ActionScript: Training from the Source; both published by Adobe Press. Danny is the manager of the Minnesota Flex/Flash Programmers User Group called MN.swf and is one of the organizers of this event.
Development Tips & Techniques
Jason will cover techniques he's used over the years and how you can apply them in the Flash/Flex/Air environment.
Tips & Techniques Presentation
Jason Grey, Internet Broadcasting
As an application architect and interactive creative developer, Jason Grey has over 15 years experience in the business of web & interactive development, in addition to over 20 years of experience in programming and coding, which he has been doing since he was eight years old. Jason has a varied and considerable background that includes work on “back-end” projects such as database optimization, data modeling, warehousing and reporting; to "front-end" GUI programming for the web, desktop and mobile. Currently Jason is Director of Interactive Architecture at Internet Broadcasting located in Saint Paul, MN. Since starting this position in January of 2007, he has lent his expertise to many projects including high school sports, advanced video players, next generation weather experiences, and grid computing applications.
AS3 Game Architecture
Architecting games with AS3 and sound OO practices to achieve fun, scalable and maintainable code.
Game Architecture Session Materials
Brad Bollinger, Senior Developer, Ham in the Fridge
Brad has been working in the advertising and interactive industries for over thirteen years. His career started in the mid-nineties in a large agency where he quickly grew from a Production Artist to Senior Interactive Developer. His experience includes extensive web page creation, enterprise level ColdFusion application development and in the more recent years, large flash applications many of which have been online games. He has been lucky enough to work some great clients like Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Target and Hormel Foods. His career has also allowed him to become a proficient programmer using Actionscript, HTML, Javascript, ColdFusion, XML and CSS.
Introduction to Flex
New to Flex? Then this hands-on session is for you. Learn how to build your first Flex-based application. No prior Flex knowledge is required. We'll use containers and controls to create the application interface and connect the application to XML data. Attendees will be required to bring a laptop computer with Flex Builder 3 installed. Space is limited.
Welcome Session Materials
Flex 101 Session Materials
Dustin Tauer, Director Web Enablement, Easel Training
Dustin Tauer has been an Adobe Certified Instructor for over four years with Easel Training. Dustin received a Information Systems & Technology degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He currently specializes in Flash/Flex technologies and has over 7 years of experience.
Using Flex Builder 3
Flex developers can give thanks that Adobe has supplied a commercial grade tool-set for developing Flex applications. The FlexBuilder IDE is a powerful tool built on top of the Eclipse development platform. Eclipse is an open platform allowing developers add/remove capabilities as they see fit, using plug-ins developed by the Eclipse community. The work environment is also highly customizable to accommodate custom user interactions and workflows. In this session, Scott will demonstrate how to get started developing your own applications in Flex Builder, as well as features that can be used to boost productivity. Topics will include setting up and customizing your workspace(s), some commonly used shortcuts, as well as new features exclusive to Flex Builder 3. Prior experience with Flex is not required, but familiarity with Flash and/or Actionscript will be helpful.
Flex Builder Session Materials
Scott Langeberg, Software Designer/Developer
Starting out as an innocent commercial artist who made his way into web design by sheer will, Scott was seduced by the allure of moving items on a screen. Shockwave Flash gave him the first taste of a programmer's freedom, and he has sought the elusive high ever since. Realizing that programming was way too hard to learn in an artist's free time, Scott made the best of the 9/11 plot, getting laid off, securing himself unemployment wages, and the opportunity to return to school for his degree in Computer Science. Along the way, he has worked on a variety of projects, including desktop and web applications, server-side procedures and services, and of course interactive GUI's.
Rapid, Repeatable testing with fastNG
fastNG is a Flex/AS3 port of the popular java framework testNG. In this session, we will discuss the pros and cons of unit testing in general, learn how to use fastNG to solve common problems in unit testing, and get a glimpse of the future features planned for fastNG.
Jonathan Doklovic, Sr. Systems Architect, Internet Broadcasting
Jonathan Doklovic, a Sr. Systems Architect for Internet Broadcasting and CEO of Systems Bliss Inc., has been developing code since he was 10 and has been in the internet industry for the past 16 years as a developer, architect, team-leader, and all around "go to guy". Jonathan has experitse in many areas including Java, Flash/Flex, Build Systems, and Process Automation, just to name a few, and has employed these skills at such companies as Chemical Abstracts Service, Victoria's Secret and Target.
Introducing Adobe AIR
This workshop will explain everything you need to get started building Adobe AIR applications. Learn how to interact with the file system, application windows, drag and drop from the desktop, persist data in SQLite and more. Participants can follow along as we walkthrough creating a simple application.
AIR Intro Session Materials
Nathan Hunsaker, Technical Creative Director, OLSON
Nathan Hunsaker is a Minneapolis technologist who creates compelling rich internet applications for some of the most respected brands in the world. His work has garnered industry attention having been recognized with a "Best of Show 2006" award from the AdFed and featured in several publications including Understanding Hypermedia Volume 2.0 and The Web Design WOW! Book. Nathan currently resides at OLSON as Technical Creative Director and serves on the advisory board for the Minnesota Flash/Flex Programmer Group.
Flash Smooth Moves
Since the advent of AS3 many tools are at our disposal as Flash programmers. Flash Smooth Moves will show you some of the most under used techniques to make your programs run more efficiently and OO. With a focus on Flash games, Flash Smooth Moves will be sure to teach you a few things about those cool moves all the kids are doing.
Smooth Moves Session Materials
Nate Pacyga, Contract Flash Game Developer with Electrotank
Nate Pacyga is a Flash / Flex programmer with a sole purpose to make the best high performance Flash games. He shows such passion with his ridiculous game collection and late night programming sessions. With eight years in technology he brings his varied experience, passion for programming and list of small and large clients to a given project. He has served as the FlashMN leader in years past and now serves on the advisory board for MN.swf.
Getting Started with Papervision3D 2.0
This session will cover the basics of getting started with the latest version of the Papervision3D rendering engine. I'll be covering everything from setting up a basic scene and using simple primitive objects and materials, to more advanced topics such as using 3D models, working with the new light and shade materials, and teaming this engine up with the WOW 3D physics engine.
Papervision3D Session Materials
Thomas Saunders, Interactive Developer, PUNY Entertainment
Thomas is a Actionscript 3.0, Papervison3D, Drupal, and general open source enthusiast. He is interested in bringing a more 3 dimensional experience to the web, and in trying to figure out how to do this without destroying a user's processor (however fun that may be!).
N-Tier Development with AMFPHP
In this session you will learn the basics of setting up an AMFPHP PHP environment. We will then walk through a CRUD (create, read, update, delete) example in both Flash CS3 and Flex. You should leave this session with confidence in starting to use AMFPHP in building your business logic and data tiers for future Flash Player based applications. Throughout the session we will describe some of the tips and tricks for optimizing AMFPHP with information on class mapping, Authentication, ArrayCollection's, and AMFEXT, which will keep the attention of even the most veteran RIA developer.
AMFPHP Session Materials
Wade Arnold, CEO, T8DESIGN
Wade Arnold is the CEO of T8DESIGN a rich media and application firm located in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Arnold is responsible for strategic planning, product development, and creating an exciting and rewarding corporate environment. Arnold has been selected to be a speaker at several national software development and security conferences. Arnold has an active dialog with Adobe and actively participates in prerelease beta development of Flash, Flex, and Air. Arnold is passionately involved in open source flash/flex development and aligns T8DESIGN behind these initiatives. Arnold is the lead developer of AMFPHP and open source implementation of Flash Remoting. Arnold has a degree in Computer Science emphasizing intelligent systems and an MBA from the University of Iowa. T8DESIGN works with hundreds of community banks and medium to enterprise customers including Nike, McDonalds, John Deere, AT&T, Lindsay Corporation, Best Buy, and the Department of Defense.