Exporting

Over the weekend I shifted my focus on Spindle to the export functionality. Spindle can now officially import BMML files and export Flex 4 components (although not all components are supported yet). Need to finish cleaning up a few things first but I'm expecting to be able to release an early Alpha version of Spindle in a week or two.

Spindle update

So, Spindle has been making slow progress over the last few days. Haven't had a solid chunk of time to dedicate to Spindle alone, but I have managed to complete a little over 40% of the components featured in Balsamiq. Here's a screenshot of Spindle displaying Flex components imported from an exported Balsamiq project.

As you can see not all of the components are completed yet, but it is coming along. I am planning on including support for components like CoverFlow and PointyButton which are not part of the standard Flex library.

Spindle (coming soon)

Last semester I started looking at a few tools for creating prototypes and wireframes. Typically I like to use Flash to create prototypes because it's fast and it allows me to create prototypes of varying levels of fidelity. However, for the projects I was working on in school Flash wasn't the best solution. So, I decided to look for alternative solutions and (re)stumbled upon a few mockup tools that have captured my interest over the holiday break.

In particular I've been playing around with Balsamiq Mockups, an awesome AIR app for creating -you guessed it- mockups. I like Balsamiq because it is simple. In just a few minutes you can create a wireframe without writing a single line of code. The user community is also fairly active in contributing new templates and sharing ideas.

I only wish Balsamiq would add a few more export options. By default Balsamiq generates a BMML (Balsamiq's markup language) file. Optionally, you can export a project as a PNG image or as an XML file. Unfortunately, as of right now there are no options to export HTML files or Flex Projects directly from Balsamiq. There are ways of converting BMML files into HTML or Flex projects that involve third party software, but so far I haven't found a solution that I'm 100% excited about.

Napkee looks like the best solution so far. For those interested in checking it out there is a 15 day free trial. Napkee imports BMML files and converts them into HTML or Flex projects. It even lets you adjust the CSS of your project before exporting (so that you don't have to use the default Comic Sans used in Balsamiq). There's a lot to like about Napkee, but maybe it's the poor student in me- I'm not so keen on paying for an additional application to do something that the first should (or at least could) easily do.

So, with my free time during the holiday break I started working on my own BMML converting application called Spindle. Spindle imports BMML files and exports Flex 3 or Flex 4 projects. The project is still is in progress, but once I get it to a point where I feel comfortable releasing I'm planning on making it a free open source application. Look for an alpha version of Spindle to be available for download some time over the next two weeks.

More cool stuff

It's been a while since I've blogged. Recently I have come across a few more awesome sites.

ByteArray features some awesome components. In addition to WiiFlash (code that lets Flash work with a Wii remote) they've got some cool stuff like mouse recognition (recognized mouse movement and writes letters) and other remote control plugins.

I've also become really interested in the Lassie Adventure Studio put together by Greg MacWilliam. He also keeps a blog with interesting actionscript 3.0 tidbits. I'm actually working on putting together some jsfl commands that will help with the process of creating a media library for a Lassie project.

Also, for some good Undo/Redo code Rich Lyman has some code that is pretty clean.

Lassie Project

I found this awesome game editor/engine for actionscript 3. The project is called Lassie Adventure Studio. Check it out! It is pretty awesome. Basically you can use this program to make games like the old Maniac Mansion game. Fun stuff.

A new version is in process. I'm thinking about writing up a few JSFL commands that might speed up or at least enhance the process of creating a Media Library. Unfortunately the new engine has not been released yet but it is supposedly coming out pretty soon.