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 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!

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...

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.

Do you sometimes scratch your head and ask WTF (I said "frick" in my head. Really.) when projects suddenly fall apart? Suppose you're a project manager. Your team is steadily moving along on a project. There is no indication that anything is wrong, and your team says they're on target to hit their deadlines. Then, all of the sudden, things seem to be out of control with the application, and there seems to be no explanation as to why everything is screwy. Everyone begins to panic towards the end. Features that should have been completed a long time ago still aren't working, developers are sweating profusely, and throwing up in the corner periodically. If your development team seems to have a hard time estimating tasks or consistently misses deadlines, then this article is for you.

Organization, consistency, and having realistic expectations are key to predicting more accurate timelines and avoiding unexpected last minute failures.

Read on.