Ensemble Tofino for Visual Studio - Enabling Flex for .NET

New release of Ensemble Tofino is now available at our company's website here. The latest release includes features such as:
- intellisense code completion for Action Script and MXML sources
- debugging flex applications
- object browser now has type references as active hyperlinks
- "show all files" for flex projects in the solution explorer
- comes in 2 variants, one with rebundled Flex SDK, and one without
- Options page added. Access the options page via Tools > Options > Projects > Flex Projects
- "Go to definition" in Flex sources and object browser
- and many more

For complete change log, please go here.

For support questions, please send them to tofinosupport@ensemble.com.

Tofino is available for free.

Happy coding and merry Christmas/Happy holidays!

Dave in snowy vancouver.

Just posted a session for MAX2008

Being the procrastinator that I am, I finally got around to posting a session for MAX 2008. The sesion will be about how to built a collaborative review solution using Adobe AIR and LiveCycle. The solution has 3 components: AIR client, LiveCycle backend services, and a repository for storing content and comments. During the session, I will talk about high level architecture, implementation details, and showcase bunch of demos. (starting from a multitude of assets, leveraging Adobe's shared review capabilities, and use LiveCycle as the orchestration engine.)

For others who wants to present, go to https://adobemax.dabbledb.com/page/callforsessions/NLXYueHm and suggest a session before the deadline tonight.

See you all in San Fran.

David

Enable SSL for LiveCycle Rights Management for cheap

LiveCycle Rights Management ES which protects PDF documents with revokable policies, requires an SSL certificate to ensure communication between PDF and the server is secured. In the past, we typically use a self signed certificates for development purposes, until the project is ready for production. Unfortunately, most trusted CA signed SSL certificates tends to be quite expensive.

I didn't know about this until recently, but inexpensive SSL certificates ($30 USD / year) can be used. P.s. I am not affiliated with GoDaddy. If you find other cheap and trusted CA, feel free to post in the comments.

I was a bit skeptical about whether the root certificate is trusted in the browser and in various OS's. Of the machines i tried, it seems to work fine. So below is a brief end to end instructions on how to enable your Rights Management ES instance (jboss) using a trusted CA signed certificate.

Step 1: Generate java keystore


Step 2: Generate certificate request


Step 3: purchase a Standard SSL certificate
Follow instructions provided by the CA, and paste certificate signing request when requested.

Step 4: importing the various certificates into your java keystore
After successfully purchasing a certificate, you will be sent a set of certificates. A root, a chain, an intermediate, and your site certificate. Follow the instructions below to import the certificates into your keystore.


Step 5: update server.xml

First copy the .keystore into a known location. I used JBOSS_HOME\server\all\conf. Then update the server.xml located at JBOSS_HOME\server\all\deploy\jbossweb-tomcat55.sar as below.

New COLLADA flex sample based on Away3D

Finally got around to posting a COLLADA viewer that we built based on modified version of Away 3D. The component was put together to support viewing 3D models based on the COLLADA standard within a Flex application.

Changes include:

• - Implement a flex component for the AWAY3d rendering engine.
• - Hover/Zoom navigation support using custom targeted hover camera (hold down shift OR ctrl on top of the model viewer).
• - Added simple material and lighting support to the COLLADA parser.
  
• - Added materials preloading support.

The reason behind building this component is that we wanted to support viewing and interacting with a 3D model for a flex application. We also wanted to ensure that existing 3d models can be reused. Some of our envisioned usage scenarios below:

• - interacting with a Air Plane or Car Model for a technician to document repairs and issues done (visual maintenance record).
  
• - review architecture and design decisions for a building amongst architects, and developers.
• - etc...
  

The viewing part was handled, but interacting will require a bit more work. The source code and samples have been posted. Feel free to upgrade / migrate to the latest AWAY 3D and/or merge the changes into Papervision 3d (PV3D).

To view a demo of the viewer in action here. The samples page on our website here, including a download for project source.

Cheers,

David