In my previous post, 30+ Must Try Open Source Actionscript 3 Libraries, I noted that the community involvement around the Flash Platform is awesome. There are open source AS3 projects everywhere! Below is another list of 30 libraries for your coding pleasure.

If you can think of any other good ones that I missed, please post them in the comments!

The evolution of the Flash Platform has been an incredible display of growth and adaptation of a product. The Flash Platform, as most of us know, is now more than just simply vector animation software, and it has been fun to watch the Flash community shape the web with their endless creativity combined with the improved power of Actionscript and the technology around the Flash Player.

Flash is no longer just a tool for creating banner ads, and website intros. Today, it's a Platform that allows designers and developers alike to turn loose their creative instincts. While there are valid arguments for using other technologies in some cases, today, Flash is still the most versatile technology available for creating Rich Internet Applications.

From time to time, I run across articles that STILL talk about how bad Flash is for the web, and folks who STILL fault Adobe and the Flash Player for websites that have bad implementations, and SEO experts who STILL freak out when they see Flash on a website. It blows me away. Really.

Flash, as a technology, has come a long way in the last decade, and while it doesn't make sense in every situation, Flash is just a "given" in other situations. Below I've listed the cases or categories where Flash just makes sense on the web. I've also included a few examples of pretty good implementations (I would be willing to bet that these developers were glad they had the Flash player available in their bag of tricks). If I've forgotten any, feel free to call me out in the comments.

The real beauty of the Flash Platform is the level of community involvement. There are open source projects floating around all over the place, and folks are sharing code and ideas like never before. Take advantage of these gems, and give back when you have an opportunity!

Here are a few well written Actionscript 3 libraries. If you're looking for inspiration, crack open a few of these libraries and dig around!

UPDATE:

If you like this list, you should also check out 30 MORE Awesome Open Source AS3 Libraries.

I just wanted to share a few of the best free Flex skins that I have found. If you want to give your app some style, and you don't have the time to design a Flex skin yourself, you'll likely find something here that can spice up your app.

If you're interested in learning more about how to create new Flex skins or learn how to apply skins you have created, check out How to Create a Flex Skin and How to Apply a Flex Skin.

Enjoy!

Adobe is sponsoring another developer competition. This is another opportunity to win some serious cash. The competition is challenging three groups of developers:

1. Those currently working with Flash Lite
2. Flash developers interested in developing applications for mobile devices
3. Mobile application developers interested in using Flash Lite

When the contest was first posted, there were some limitations in the terms and conditions stating that individuals could not enter the contest. I'm stoked that this restriction has been lifted, so even if you're solo, you can enter and win.

The deadline for entries is May 31st. If you're a Flash developer and you've been interested in getting into mobile development, now is a great time to give it a shot! Good luck!

I noticed an issue a couple of days ago that prevented Firefox (Mac and Windows) from rendering a page of a site that I'm working on. I’m using CodeIgniter version 1.7.0. Initially, it appeared that any time I used the safe_mailto command from the CodeIgniter URL Helper class, Firefox wouldn't render the page.

Ok, after scratching my head for a while, I discovered that apparently there is some sort of conflict between the obfuscated mailto link and another script that is running on the page. I also have a script that executes client side when the page loads that will round the corners of a given div. When the mailto link is inside a div that is being “rounded”, it causes Firefox to hang. Bummer.

Moral of the story: if you need a safe_mailto link, design your page so that everything has right angle corners.

A library I use quite frequently in AS3 is as3corelib. This library was written by a few guys from Adobe and it provides an assortment of very useful AS3 classes. I recommend checking it out if you aren't already using it. If you've been under a rock, it has classes for encoding JPGs and PNGs. It has Array, Date, Dictionary, Int, Number, String, and XML utility classes. It has libraries for encoding and decoding JSON strings. Anyway, you get the point. I use the library often.

I did notice something the other day that I've been meaning to test. I finally got around to it this morning...