05 Feb 2009
Yesterday, I was in Cafe Coffee Day with my brother and a friend from work. Two girls walked to us, with a camera in hand and id-cards hanging in their necks--suggesting they are journalists for iNext daily news-paper by Jagran.
They asked, if we (three of us) are professionals and would want to be photographed for an article on professionals. Initially, I was very reluctant because I hardly knew them and can’t trust if they are really journalists. Anyway, my brother said, it’s alright and they are from iNext by Jagran (he went on Jagran’s image in India).
Anyway, today we noticed our photographs in iNext in a music-section. Where we are shown praising some music from some movie, honestly I never heard that song and about that movie.
In any case, this is totally wrong reporting/journalism and irresponsible act, where they are not only presenting false information but also lying to people. How irresponsible journalists can be and on top of that, how can a news-paper hire such lame people?
Since morning, I have been asked several times, it’s irritating and I am upset. I have just written an email to editor of the iNext, let’s see what he has to say.
27 Jan 2009
Pablo “aSH” PARRADO of ActionScriptHero has been doing fantastic job of interviewing Flash Platform developers. It’s great to see and read those interviews.
I was fortunate to get a chance to express my views and I thank Pablo for that.
I must say, it’s really inspiring experience to read what all developers say.
Check out interviews at actionscripthero.org.
Technorati tags: actionscripthero, flash, platform, developer, interview, Pablo+PARRADO
17 Jan 2009
Flex 3 in Action, I think, is the only book, which covers Adobe Flex, in-depth. I have been reading various draft versions over the time, totally love it and I can bet you are going to love this book too.
The content of book shows, authors’ (Tariq Ahmed, Jon Hirschi and Faisal Abid) years of experience as developers. Authors have put tremendous amount of effort to make things easier to understand. Authors in all sense have brought a lot of wisdom to the book.
Book starts with basic concepts of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and various paradigms, that’s great thing, it would really help to all kind of developers (beginners, intermediate, experts from any programming background).
Each chapter has a lot of details - background, examples, use-cases and of course best-practices. Book has detailed chapters on components, tools, testing, debugging, deployment, etc.
It’s a book you would not only want to read cover to cover but also keep it on your desk as reference material for your day to day development needs. I highly recommend anyone, interested in Adobe Flex, to read this book, whenever it’s available.
I have been meaning to write this post for last some months, just couldn’t manage the time. As you can already figure out from this post, it’s just an overview. I wish, I could write more details about the book now. Perhaps, a follow up post might have more.
Technorati tags: Flex3+in+action, book, FIA, flex, manning
06 Jan 2009
--- layout: post status: publish published: true title: Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115.0 onwards allows setting Authorization HTTP header author: display_name: Abdul Qabiz login: admin email: [email protected] url: http://www.abdulqabiz.com author_login: admin author_email: [email protected] author_url: http://www.abdulqabiz.com wordpress_id: 422 wordpress_url: http://www.abdulqabiz.com/wordpress/?p=422 date: ‘2009-01-06 15:50:00 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-01-06 10:20:00 +0530’ categories: - Actionscript tags: - Adobe - flash - flashplayer - http - authorization - header - as3httpclient comments: - id: 2017 author: Platfuse author_email: [email protected] author_url: http://www.platfuse.com date: ‘2009-01-27 13:35:49 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-01-27 08:05:49 +0530’ content: “For Flash Player 9.0.115+ when sending HTTP headers â\x80\x9Ccrossdomainâ\x80\x9D as you know a crossdomain.xml with allow-http-request-headers-from set appropriately.\n
If the crossdomain.xml file is protected by Basic Authentication, you keep getting the Basic Authorization popup. Expose crossdomain.xml and make it unsecured. Example a folder ‘above’ the secured folder - i.e. http://anyDomain.com/secured/myservices
\nand your crossdomain should be at http://anyDomain.com/crossdomain.xml, which would load the crossdomain from the root of the ‘service’ web server)
\n
About SENDING basic authentication
\n------------------------------------
\n
\nimport mx.utils.Base64Decoder;
\nimport mx.utils.Base64Encoder;
\nimport mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
\nimport mx.controls.Alert;
\nimport flash.system.;
\n
\nimport flash.events.;
\nimport flash.net.URLLoader;
\nimport flash.net.URLRequest;
\nimport flash.net.URLRequestHeader;
\nimport flash.net.URLRequestMethod;
\nimport flash.net.URLVariables;
\n
/* pass authorization header with urlRequest */
\npublic function doURLRequest():void {
\nvar loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
\nconfigureListeners(loader);
\n// the username and password for authentication
\nvar creds:String=\“admin:password\”;
\n
\nvar request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(\“http://anyDomain.com/secure/blank.html\”);
\nrequest.data = new URLVariables(\“name=Plat+Fuse\”);
\nrequest.method = URLRequestMethod.GET;
\n
\nvar header:URLRequestHeader;
\n
\nvar encoder:Base64Encoder = new Base64Encoder();
\nencoder.encode(creds);
\nvar encodedCreds:String=encoder.toString();
\n
header = new URLRequestHeader(\“Authorization\”, \“Basic \” + encodedCreds);
\nrequest.requestHeaders.push(header);
\nheader = new URLRequestHeader(\“Content-Type\”, \“application/x-www-form-urlencoded\”);
\nrequest.requestHeaders.push(header);
\ntry {
\nloader.load(request);
\n} catch (error:Error) {
\ntrace(\“Unable to load requested document.\”);
\n}
\n}
\n
private function configureListeners(dispatcher:IEventDispatcher):void {
\ndispatcher.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);
\ndispatcher.addEventListener(Event.OPEN, openHandler);
\ndispatcher.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, progressHandler);
\ndispatcher.addEventListener(SecurityErrorEvent.SECURITY_ERROR, securityErrorHandler);
\ndispatcher.addEventListener(HTTPStatusEvent.HTTP_STATUS, httpStatusHandler);
\ndispatcher.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, ioErrorHandler);
\n}
\n
private function completeHandler(event:Event):void {
\nvar loader:URLLoader = URLLoader(event.target);
\nAlert.show(\“completeHandler: \” + loader.data);
\n}
\n
private function openHandler(event:Event):void {
\ntrace(\“openHandler: \” + event.toString());
\n}
\n
private function progressHandler(event:ProgressEvent):void {
\ntrace(\“progressHandler loaded:\” + event.bytesLoaded + \” total: \” + event.bytesTotal);
\n}
\n
private function securityErrorHandler(event:SecurityErrorEvent):void {
\nAlert.show(\“securityErrorHandler: \” + event.toString());
\n}
\n
private function httpStatusHandler(event:HTTPStatusEvent):void {
\ntrace(\“httpStatusHandler: \” + event.toString());
\n}
\n
private function ioErrorHandler(event:IOErrorEvent):void {
\nAlert.show(\“ioErrorHandler: \” + event.toString());
\n}
\n//
\n]]>
\n
\n
\n
\n/*
\nThe key is you need to\n
set request.data or the headers will not get sent:
\n# request.data = new URLVariables(â\x80\x9Dname=Plat+Fuseâ\x80\x9D);
\n
Make the request a POST, not a GET
\n# request.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;\
\n*/
\n” - id: 2018 author: Abdul Qabiz author_email: [email protected] author_url: http://abdulqabiz.com/blog/ date: ‘2009-03-07 02:01:53 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-03-06 20:31:53 +0530’ content: | \@Platfuse Thanks for update, just curious is it solution or a problem here? Never mind, I am not top on Flash world these days. Thanks -abdul - id: 2019 author: Christian Boese author_email: [email protected] author_url: ‘’ date: ‘2009-03-17 19:22:34 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-03-17 13:52:34 +0530’ content: ‘Do I understand it right: There still ist no way to send an HTTP-Basic Authorization Header with a GET Request? I tried a lot of things and still (even with the new player) couldn’‘t get it to work withthe standard URLRequest. With HTTPURLRequest (thanks again for the code!) it works (given a good crossdomain-file served on port 843). ‘ - id: 2020 author: Abdul Qabiz author_email: [email protected] author_url: http://abdulqabiz.com/blog/ date: ‘2009-03-17 19:28:24 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-03-17 13:58:24 +0530’ content: | \@Christian AFAIK, yeah there is no way to send HTTP AUTH headers over GET request. Great to hear, code still works. Thanks for using it. You can check out the latest at: http://code.google.com/p/as3httpclient Thanks -abdul - id: 2021 author: Danny author_email: [email protected] author_url: ‘’ date: ‘2009-03-25 07:55:14 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-03-25 02:25:14 +0530’ content: | I’ve been struggling with this issue. Objective is to interact with the google calendar api which requires a name/password login, then getting a key from the response and using it as the auth token in the Authorization header of subsequent requests. As you say, the flash players from 9.0.115 and beyond now allow the setting of the authorization header however, the GET requests can’t have the auth header so it has to be a POST with request data. If it doesn’t have request data, then it gets converted from a POST to a GET and say bye to the auth header. Adding request data, however, messes up the use of the Google Calendar API as far as I can tell, which expects zero content. I’ve pinged Matt Chotin and he responded that the browsers implementing the flash plugin take some responsibility for the problems so its not something Adobe can readily fix. Still, does that mean Flex can’t interface with all the great network api’s out there? Your socket approach holds promise to get around the problem, but it would be a big project to take on to do it right and my vote would be on Adobe taking it on unless they can pressure the browswer guys. I guess it would be a “brute force” approach to getting http auth instead of using higher level apis of the browswer products. So as it is, I can use AIR just fine, which uses hooks to windows (in my case) to send the http auth, but no hope on the horizon for flex apps. I’ll give your socket code a try to achieve this, but not sure the long term potential or maintainability. thanks for your work, Danny - id: 2022 author: Abdul Qabiz author_email: [email protected] author_url: http://abdulqabiz.com/blog/ date: ‘2009-03-25 08:44:22 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-03-25 03:14:22 +0530’ content: | \@Danny You are right, doing HTTP Auth over HTTP/GET is not possible with Flash Player as of now. I just figured out, some folks found my class useful. http://www.scoop.uk.com/index.php/general/scoop-beta-033/2008/12/ You might want to ask them, how they used it. If they modified the code, would they want to share it with you? Thanks -abdul - id: 2023 author: Danny author_email: [email protected] author_url: ‘’ date: ‘2009-03-31 19:34:05 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-03-31 14:04:05 +0530’ content: | Hi Abdul, I’ve been trying out your socket based httpclient. It works well but for the application I’m working on, it faces a problem with google responding with a 302 not found/redirect before the cookie/sessionkey is available. In this case a normal http client redirects “under the covers” but I’ve found your client doesn’t automagically handle redirects. I’ve also seen the defect list where it is highlighted. Before I write a 302 handler, could you tell me if you’ve addressed or are planning to address this feature? I imagine there are numerous other low level conditions that need handling, and the wish list could be long, although my application is limited to interfacing with some google apis and possibly amazon s3 apis. Are there other “abnormal” response codes that folks have flagged with your client? I saw your input to the blog input to Scoop (users of your framework). I don’t think they should have a problem with original auth using https. In my app, I do first login with https using the normal flex/air httpservice, then use your client for subsequent calls which require setting the auth header returned from the original httpservice based login. I’m not sure exactly the app their using but I think using your framework in concert with the flex one can get around many problems. thanks again, Danny - id: 2024 author: Billigflüge author_email: [email protected] author_url: http://www.charterticket.de date: ‘2009-04-17 13:57:31 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-04-17 08:27:31 +0530’ content: | Hello, thank you for this great work. It helped me solving some authorization problems I had with my site. - id: 2025 author: april author_email: [email protected] author_url: ‘’ date: ‘2009-05-12 07:41:48 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2009-05-12 02:11:48 +0530’ content: | Can I use the same method connect to https server? why I always get IO error? Thanks! April - id: 7364 author: mcpd tests author_email: [email protected] author_url: http://www.mcpdtests.com/ date: ‘2010-03-10 17:49:00 +0530’ date_gmt: ‘2010-03-10 12:19:00 +0530’ content: hello julia here..Ensure that you have the latest version of Flash Player installed by clicking here to check the version. The current version of Flash Player 9 for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems is 9.0.115.0. The current version of Flash Player 9 for Solaris operating systems is 9.0.47.0. ---
There were some issues with some earlier version of players, where it was not possible to set Authorization http-header for HTTP/GET requests. I tried to hack a way to do it using Socket or custom http-client in actionscript.
I just happened to read one of the technotes at Adobe’s site, which says Authorization header is allowed for Flash Player 9.0.115.0 onwards. If you are trying to send request to another domain (different from the one hosting the SWF), a crossdomain-policy file is required.
26 Dec 2008
After a long time, I checked out Live Documents’ website and found they have released an Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) application called “Live Presentation”.
I couldn’t resist to check it out and hence started looking at it. I am impressed, it has neat user-interface though there is a room of improvement. Overall, Live Presentations is nicely done.
Technorati tags: live+presentations, air, office+suite, offline
23 Dec 2008
I have been playing with a lot of mobile widget-platforms. Some of these are Yahoo! Mobile Widget (Yahoo! Go) and S60 WRT.
Both of these are good, but I like S60 WRT when it comes to building widgets for S60 (Symbian) platform. If I have to build widgets for different mobile devices (running on different platforms), Yahoo! Mobile Widget (Blueprint) is good option.
I have to learn new things, which is good, but I was wondering - why can’t I use my existing skills (ActionScript + JS/HTML/CSS) to build things for mobile devices without learning new workflow and technology?
When are we going to see Adobe Integrated Runtime for mobile devices - Mobile AIR? Life would be lot easier, I could transform a lot of my ideas easily into applications?
Hope it happens soon, really soon.
Technorati tags: mobile, widget, platform, yahoo go, s60, wrt, adobe
12 Dec 2008
I am not an expert when it comes to economics and finance, trying to learn things with each passing day. I have been watching and reading news, listening to people who are good at the subject.
After having known the slowdown/recession details, I spent good amount of time thinking, reading the causes and effects. Not sure, if I should have gone into all those details.
I realize, more I read worse it gets, I get concerned, upset and distracted after reading layoffs, dead(dying)-startups and future.
Ignorance is bliss, I guess that fits here, unaware of these details I was far more focused on what I do.
I am going to stop focusing on this whole slowdown/recession thing and just focus on how I can do things better than ever? How can I help my customers by providing better solution to their problems?
I am going to focus on building a team which is technically great, innovative, focused and very motivated.
Future means how well we do today i.e. foundations for tomorrow. If we do things better today, tomorrow is going to be alright. By just reading and spending time discussing, I am not going to achieve much - I would rather spend that time improving processes, practices and culture in my office.
BTW! Our company is doing well and we have good amount of work, perhaps it’s because not many from our team know about what’s going on, hence they are focused.
I am optimistic.
Technorati tags: recession, slowdown, economics, optimism, finance
21 Nov 2008
Adobe has made available a 64-bit Adobe Flash Player 10 (pre-release) on labs.adobe.com. I believe, it would work on GNU/Linux and Solaris.
Would it work on FreeBSD also? If yes, then a lot of my FreeBSD friends (in Yahoo and elsewhere) would be happy :-)
21 Nov 2008
In one of my projects, I was trying to use Flex Compiler Module for Apache. I was doing development on my Mac OSX and everything worked fine. As soon as, I uploaded application on server (CentOS 4.5, x86_64), it didn’t work.
After some debugging, I figured out Flex Compiler Module binaries are compiled as 32bit would not work on 64bit version of Apache. I could have used some third-party wrappers or rebuild it again for 64bit, unfortunately Adobe has not provided source-code for these modules.
There was another problem, it seems this apache-module has dependency on glibc, the required version of glibc is not available for RedHat/CentOS 4.5. Now that’s weird, even if I had source code, not sure I could build against 64bit of CentOS? Not even sure about CentOS 4.5 x86?
BTW! glibc seems to be an important library and one can not just go ahead and update for one requirement, it might actually break many other applications. Hence, I didn’t upgrade glibc on CentOS 4.5 to the required version.
So as an alternative, I used Flex Compiler API by writing some wrappers in Java and then invoke API using PHP. But it seems there is weird licensing i.e. I need to have license of Adobe LCDs in order to use Flex Compiler API?
I have fallen back on pure PHP implementation, I need to figure out about custom logging.
21 Nov 2008
Flex Learning Paths, a new initiative by Adobe Developer Connection.
What is Flex Learning Paths? As it’s name suggests, it’s basically a way to point someone, new to Flex, to a relevant/right direct direction (design, development, architecture or management related).
I guess, it’s one of the best moves in the history of Adobe/Macromedia Developer Network. It would really take away a lot of confusion and information overloading and cluttered user-interface.
The best thing, there is section for managers, wow that’s time saver - now developers can just point their managers to that link :-)
Nicely categorized information can really save a lot of time and makes us very focused. I bet, you are going to like it too.
Flex Learning Paths
Flex Learning Paths Application (Beta)
I wish, Flex Learning Path can pick up information from some community driven wiki. Information on Flexcoders FAQ and CFlex are is great. I am sure, community can contribute a lot, of course wiki would require some moderation but again community leaders can be given that responsibility too.
That way, information on Adobe Flex Learning Path would be more useful and managers/decision-makers would take it more seriously when they see how other companies (community showcase) are using the technology and saying (company/start-up blog posts).
Technorati Tags: flex, learning, path, adobe, devnet
