Flex Cairngorm:filtering data with the comparator class..

I have always been fascinated by large amount of data and filtering this data. Put all data in a big box and use filters to shape, structure and visualize that data. When browsing through the Cairgcorm shop example I found the comparator-class which filters produkts based on price or/and categorie.

I took this class and implemented it with a (simple) extension in my Flickr/Flex playground app (FlickrFolio) .

view application
view source

It consist roughly of 2 parts:

1. registering the items which you want to filter
2. registering the filters which you want to use.

Most important Classes:

// used to acces the comparator class
nl.nyls.flickrFolio.model.ModelLocator;

// the comparator class and the interface
nl.nyls.flickrFolio.util.Comparator.as;
nl.nyls.flickrFolio.util.Comparable.as;

// VIEW :: the product to filter..
nl.nyls.flickrFolio.view.thumbnail.mxml

// the filter-view
nl.nyls.flickrFolio.view.filtertPhotos.mxml

// the command which executes the filtering
nl.nyls.flickrFolio.command.FilterPhotosCommand;

1. registering the items which you want to filter

My FlickrFolio request the most recent photos and fills an ItemList. The itemlist displays the thumbnails with a custom ItemRenderer called Thumbnail.mxml.

So FLickr returns for every photo a valueobject (called Photo) which is binded to the Thumbnail.mxml. In every Thumbnail the actual thumbnail-image is loaded. WHen the image is loaded, the thumbnail registers it's data (id, title) and image to the comparator- class.

(ATT: better to cast the flickr Photo value-object to my PhotoVO value-object but could not get that to work, YET)

You register the data so you can filter on properties of that data. The data (or ValueObject) needs to implement the comparable interface, this interface has only one method, (get identifier) which the comparator class needs to get a unique identifier.

Registering the image (or sprite) let's you perform actions (showing/ hiding/ moving etc). on that image after a filter action.

2. registering the filters which you want to use.

OK, so now it's time to do some filtering, the filterView has now one simple filter. A textinput which you can use to filter on the title of a photo. The original Cairngorm shop example used a slider to filter between max - min prices and filter on different categories.

WHen you type in a letter the filterPhotoEvent gets fired which gets caught bij the FilterPhotoCommand this is where the real stuff happens. Here you first register what type of filter you want to use so:

addFilterTextProperty( filterOn, value )
here we want to filter on a String property named filterOn (=title) which has a value of (-value)

other filter properties are:
addFilterRangeProperty ( filterProperty : String, min : Number, max : Number) here you can filter on a range, so for example 'property-name:price' between min:1 and max :5

addFilterSelectionProperty( filterProperty : String, selections : Array )
here you filter on multible selections, you have selected in the group 'category' the selections ['large',' small'] . This can be used if you use checkboxes to filter on.

model.photoComparator.filter();
Here you do the filter action, it loops to the registered items and tags filtered or not..

model.photoComparator.applyAlphaEffect();
perform an action on all the items which are tagged filtered .. So show the filtered and hide the not filtered.

------------------

It is really easy to extend the filters and I like to explore filtering on color or shapes :> Anyone has some experience in that field??

How about some Flex remoting (AMF 3) - Flex, ARP, Cairgcorm

The boys at WebOrb have been very busy working away on getting Remoting for flex in .NET very solid. Today they release the Release candidate 1, Which means its almost 100?So now its probably time to download the RC1 and have a play. I love open API's like webservices and rpc calls for open [...]
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create new modules from any data source for placement in the popular start page

Mashup creation tool Dapper announced today that its users can now easily create new modules from any data source for placement in the popular start page Netvibes. Dapper is a company that’s either glorifying screen scraping or leading the charge towards data portability, depending on your perspective. I like it a lot. Working with Dapper to enable fast user creation of new modules is a nice competitive advantage for Netvibes. Our previous coverage of Netvibes is here and of Dapper here.

http://www.dappit.com/

Amsterdam actueel nieuws
http://www.dappit.com/RunDapp?dappName=Amsterdamactueelnieuws&v=1

FLASH :: Adobe Open Sources ActionScript Media Gallery Code

The ActionScript code that is used by Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Elements to create beautiful slideshows is now completely open source. You can download the ActionScript source code from the Adobe Media Gallery website. There are also sample galleries, a getting started guide, documentation, mailing lists, forums and instructions on how to contribute to the project. This work continues Adobe extensive involvement in open source technologies. I can't remember a company changing so quickly so fast. A few months ago we had very little in the way of open source software, today we're working hard on things like Tamarin, part
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna/controller.cfm?handler=PostHandler&action=click&postId=138472&nextPage=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Eadobe%2Ecom%2Fmikepotter%2F2006%2F11%2Fadobe%5Fopen%5Fsour%2Ehtml

Actionscript 3 - FZip

“You can stuff all the files inside just one zip file, stick it on the server and load that into your application, then unpack it on the fly and access the files inside.” FZip Via http://www.flashguru.co.uk/actionscript-3-fzip

http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna/controller.cfm?handler=PostHandler&action=click&postId=137431&nextPage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebeedigital%2Enet%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D741

FLASH:: SEO for SWFAddress

I would like to introduce you to the most interesting feature of the upcoming SWFAddress 1.0. It enables generation of real links that expose the appropriate content to search engines. The magic happens with some interesting URL rewriting and some trivial serverside code. Here is an example how it works for a website located at http://www.domain.com that contains a portfolio section: SWFAddress uses http://www.domain.com/#/portfolio/. The URL that can get indexed is http://www.domain.com/portfolio/ and therefore it should exist as a link in the HTML code of the page. When someone visits the indexed address the rewriting functionality makes a redirect to

http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna/controller.cfm?handler=PostHandler&action=click&postId=137404&nextPage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Easual%2Ecom%2Fblog%2Fswfaddress%2F%3Fpermalink%3Dseo%2Dfor%2Dswfaddress%2Ehtml

FLEX:: How to load FlashPaper Documents in Flex 2

If you've ever tried to load a FlashPaper document in Flex 2, then you know it's not as straightforward as it was with Flex 1.5.
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna/controller.cfm?handler=PostHandler&action=click&postId=136281&nextPage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edarronschall%2Ecom%2Fweblog%2Farchives%2F000249%2Ecfm

Media in beeld

Media in beeldABN Amro's rapport 'Media in Beeld' (.pdf) is enige tijd geleden uitgekomen. Media in Beeld' is geschreven voor iedereen, die geïnteresseerd is in een beknopte weergave van hoe de mediawereld in Nederland er momenteel voor staat, zo valt er op de ABN AMRO site te lezen.
Uit het onderzoek, komen volgens de bank drie duidelijke trends naar voren:
Media any time, any place, any where. De consument bepaalt waar en wanneer hij consumeert. De consument wordt steeds actiever door toenemende interactieve toepassingen op televisie en internet, bijvoorbeeld zelf gemaakt videomateriaal dat op internet worden geplaatst. Grenzen tussen media en sectoren vervagen: media groeien qua functionaliteit naar elkaar toe.Persoonlijk vind ik deze informatie achterhaalt, ik dacht er namelijk al zo'n 1,5 jaar geleden zo over... 'Ben ik dan te vroeg of ABN te laat' vraag ik me dan af. Maar goed, het is wel een ideaal bekopte weergave over hoe de mediawereld er vandaag de dag eruit ziet. (En voor de Nederlanders; het is gratis!)
Via:

http://crossmediaforum.web-log.nl/crossmediaforum/2006/11/media_in_beeld.html

The Long Tail, the Long Term and Your Blog

The Long Tail, the Long Term and Your Blog
A lot of people starting blogs today are looking for quick results. The definition of "results" really depends on what your motivation is. In this case, I am talking about using a blog as a business tool for marketing and public relations.
Sometimes, this occurs. For example, Neil Patel's Pronet Advertising Blog has fast become one of my favorite reads. It's new, but it's clear from the myriad of daily invaluable posts and his sustained presence on digg, Neil gets it. However, more often than not, if you're starting a business blog, just as with stocks, you're best off taking a Long Tail and a long term approach.
Blogs are built to capitalize on the power of the Long Tail. First, you need to focus your blog on the segment of the conversation you care passionately about - and stick to it. If your blog gets 100 regular readers a day and it's the "right" 100, then it's a success. The key is to add value to that dialogue. Find online gems that this audience is likely to miss and share your perspective. Write compelling op-eds and tutorials.
Second, and here's where the long-term approach factors in, be patient and blog for search. An executive for one of the biggest blog companies on the Web once told me that it takes a year for a blog to build substantial Google juice. Judging from what I've seen from the various projects I've worked on, he's right.
Blogging for search starts with a good statistics program, like Google Analytics. Start tracking where your traffic comes from. The Google Analytics blog has a great set of tips today just for bloggers. These include:
Finding out what posts readers liked the most by looking at daily visitsComparing new vs. returning visitors Finding out how people exit your blogMonitoring how long readers spend looking at your content http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/11/the_long_tail_t.html

corporate bloggen >>

Externe communicatie
- Directie of management om te communiceren met klanten
- Voor medewerkers om te communiceren met klanten
- Versterken imago/ corporate identity
- Transparante organisatie
- Consumenten op de hoogte houden van nieuwe produkten of diensten

Interne communicatie
- als kennismanagement tool binnen het intranet
- Dialoog tussen verschillende hiërarchische lagen: betrokkenheid
- Delen van Relevante informatie

Conclusie
- met een blog kun je op moderne, effectieve en efficiënte wijze intern en/of extern communiceren
- een blog biedt de mogelijkheid om de doelgerichte dialoog aan te gaan met doelgroepen
- Is een middel voor het opbouwen en versterken van de corporate identity
- Een blog kan ook ingezet worden voor intern kennismanagement


http://indirareynaert.web-log.nl/indirareynaert/2006/11/corporate_blogg.html

Reclamebureaus boos over wildplakkend freelance collectief

Hacken is ook al een manier om publiciteit te krijgen. De een gebruikt het als een goedkoop trucje om wat rumour around the brand te creeren. Door te doen alsof de eigen thuispagina is gekaapt. Niet erg origineel, wel effectief (gemeten in aantal reacties). De ander gaat een stap verder en kaapt brutaal de thuispagina van een stuk of wat grote reclamejongens. Reacties verzekerd. Het freelancecollectief van Freelancecopy.nl deed dit met de sites van Ara Direct, Saatchi

Mashery API Management Service is Open For Business

API management service Mashery has come out of stealth mode tonight and is now offering documentation, community management, access control and more for companies wishing to offer public or private APIs. This is an exciting launch.

Mashery is aimed at companies that already recognize the importance of APIs and developer community but want to save money and time by paying some one else to set up the support infrastructure and do it right. It has a different feel to it than StrikeIron, visiting the two company’s sites will make some differences quickly apparent.

Thankfully, Mashery emphasizes throughout their site that users own all of their own data and can easily export it at any time. That data is stored and processed with Amazon’s S3 storage and EC2 elastic compute cloud. Thus scaling up quickly and affordably will always be an option for Mashery. This is a striking example of the kind of company commoditized storage and processing in the cloud make possible.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/11/06/mashery-api-management-service-is-open-for-business/

retail > branding >Zo ziet de Postbank Winkel in Nijmegen eruit

Op dit moment opent Postbank zijn eerste ‘brand store’ in Nijmegen. “Je kunt in- en uitlopen als in een kledingwinkel,” zegt directielid Bart Schlatmann vandaag in Adformatie. Hier een eerste inkijkje in dit nieuwe retailconcept dat in weinig doet denken aan een bank:
http://blog.adformatie.nl/index.php/entries/zo-ziet-de-postbank-winkel-in-nijmegen-eruit/

scrybe - offers simple solutions for age old problems

is a groundbreaking online organizer that caters to today´s lifestyle in a cohesive and intuitive way.

• offline
• online
• saving online data directly-
• agenda/ organizing-
• print

http://iscrybe.com/main/index.php

Running your sites like you'd run a pub

What would you think your townsmen would consider the best pubs in your town? What do you base that on? I bet you thought of a pub immediately when you read that question, and that you don't know the answer to the second question that fast.

Now you should really get to know what makes a pub popular. It matters because what makes things popular doesn’t really different between the online and the offline world. It’s all about creating a buzz, making people talk about you (or link to you, the online equivalent) and making them feel something is happening that they shouldn’t miss.

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/10/free-beer-inside.html