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.

This is a follow up to my previous post, For Designers: How to Create a Flex Skin.

Ok, so you just received an email from a designer, since they are scared of Subversion, with an attachment of a fresh new glossy Flex skin (just kidding, we must be nice to our designers....otherwise, they will draw degrading cartoons of us). Below are 3 short tutorials on how to apply the skin, from start to finish.

Setting up Flex Builder:

Importing Skins into Flex Builder:

Testing and Customizing Skins:

I've noticed that many designers are completely scared of Flex. I understand. Flex is scary. However, Adobe is making Rich Internet App design very approachable for UI designers now. So, if you're a designer, it's time to stop complaining and jump on the Flex bandwagon. It's easy. Really.

Below are a few tutorial videos on how to create a skin for a Flex application in Fireworks from start to finish. You can also create skins in Photoshop using a very similar technique.

If you're a developer, don't bother with the mind-numbing nonsense below, see my other post: For Developers: How to Apply a Flex Skin

Setting up Fireworks CS3:

Editing Skin Templates in Fireworks:

Exporting Skins From Fireworks:

For those that don't know, your Window's "hosts" file can be used to map a domain name to an IP address to trick your browser into thinking routing requests for a particular domain to a different server.

This file is not typically needed in development, but if you ever need to map a domain to the IP address of a another server (i.e. a development server or QA server), then knowing how to edit this file may come in handy.

In Windows XP, this file is located here:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

There are plenty of resources out there on how to edit this file, so I won't elaborate on that, but I wanted to point out a trick that is handy if you are editing this file on a regular basis.

Since the hosts file doesn't have a file extension, by default, you have to choose which program you would like to use to open it, when you double click on it. You can fix this annoying behavior by following these steps:

1. Create a shortcut to the hosts file on your desktop.
2. Right Click on the shortcut and choose properties.
3. Before continuing, you may wish to change the ugly icon by clicking the "Change Icon" button.
4. Next, edit the field called "Target" to say this:

   C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe 'c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts'

5. Then click ok to save.

That's it, now double click the icon and it will open your hosts file in notepad.