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.

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...

During the development of Flash Player 9 and 10, Adobe has made significant changes to their cross domain security. I've been doing some research on the changes Adobe has made over the last couple of days. This article describes the first major issue I've encountered with the new policy file requirements.

Policy files are used to allow SWFs on one domain (www.siteA.com), to access resources on another domain (www.siteB.com). They are the primary element of the permissions mechanism that the Flash Player uses to determine if a SWF file should have access to resources on a domain outside of the domain where the SWF is hosted. A policy file is a simple XML file that is typically placed at the root of a site (www.siteB.com/crossdomain.xml).

When the concept of Rich Internet Applications was formally introduced, it required developers to start thinking about the web a little differently. RIA's are capable of providing a much smoother user experience, but there are other design changes that we must consider as well....beyond the user interface.

One of the most obvious differences between traditional, page-based web applications and RIA's is that page-based apps generally require page refreshes, while Flex applications don't. This presents new challenges for web developers who have just started building Flex applications. Developers are now forced to change the way they think about the view state.

Cliff Hall hosted his "PureMVC Pirate Radio Conference Takeover" tonight, and I must say it was very cool to hear how the framework is being put to the test in production. Technical (Acrobat Connect) difficulties aside, it's obvious that PureMVC is the real deal.

Thanks guys, for taking the time to talk about how you're using PureMVC.

A very notable aside by Brendan Lee was his plug about the Ribbit $100,000 Killer App Challenge. If you're interested in developing an app on the Ribbit Open Telephony Platform, you definitely need to take note of this developer contest. Cash is good.