Importing Cinema4D model into Papervision3D 2.0
I would like to show you have you can use a custom polygon shape, made with Cinema 4D R11, using the build-in Collada export functionality in Papervision 3D 2.0 Great White.
Actionscript 3 Datastructures
This morning I came across a interesting AS3 implementation of the common known data structures. The download comes with a few interesting classes that can be very helpful on Actionscript projects:
- A wrapper Class to store FlashVars to be used in a flash file (acts as a singleton).
- A Class to easy manage GET variables from a URL.
- A ResultSet Class for using data that is gathered with (for example) Flash Remoting.
- Remoting and Javascript Tracker Classes for easy tracking of user actions inside a flash application.
- A few Classes that make it easy to handle Flash Remoting calls.
- And some other classes to perform calculations on color values and manipulating Date and String objects.
Flash CS3 Datagrid with AMFPHP
Wade Arnold wrote an interesting article about connecting flash to a MySql database with the help of AMFPHP, flash remoting.
Displaying the huge amount of information stored in a MySql database using the DataGrid class that comes with Flash CS3. To fill a data grid in flash through Flash Remoting, Wade points out that you need to write your own data provider class to convert a AS3 Array Collection for the data grid. Strange enough this data provider isn't part of Adobe Flash.
Here are some interesting sites to look on when you want to try AMFPHP and AS3 for yourself:
Let Flash use WordPress content
Last week I set up a fresh WordPress system for a client to function as a Content Managament System. This week I am trying to load content that is managed and stored by WordPress in to a Flash front-end.
Using Wordpress as a CMS works like a charm
This week i worked on a site development project for one of our clients. Basically the idea was to pimp their current site by implementing a Content Management system (CMS) on the back end.
Because I was very familiar with the WordPress system I knew it would be the perfect solution for this case. The WordPress Administration environment is so basic and straight forward that it becomes ideal to use it as a CMS tool for clients who don't have that much (online) knowledge.
Before I began I started drawing a hierarchal structure of the available content. So I could get a clear view on how to reuse the available WordPress functionalities. Here is what i found out:
- There are a few (approx. 10) static pages, obviously I will use the WordPress Pages to create and manage these static pages.
- There is one static page that needs to display a list of services the company offers. Every service comes with one or more sample projects.
- Every service the company offers will be managed through the WordPress Categories function. Where one category represents one service.
- The WordPress posts functionality will be used to create projects within each service (read: category).
- Then there is a list of partners and a list of press releases (short articles). I will use the Links functionality of WordPress to manage these two lists.
After copying all the content from the old site in to WordPress (new site) I had to look at the current design and reuse it within my (yet to build) custom created WordPress Theme.
Getting a user account at wordpress codex and searching a lot with google helped me with finding all the available template tags, functions and parameters to get the output I wanted, all within the powerful WordPress engine.
These articles on the web helped me during my development:
- So you want to create wordpress themes huh Describes basic knowledge on how to set up a custom made theme. How you let WP know that a certain .php file is a template etc.
- Wordpress Codex Main Page Use the function reference to see what tools you have available for outputting WP content in your WP template.
Plugins I used
- Admin Management Extended Plugin Gives you a little more control in the WordPress admin environment, like ajax style dragging and dropping Pages to create a new order.
- WP Extra Template Tags Gives you a few more simple php functions to play with in your templates.
And my number 1 tip is when you develop your custom templates and building a whole team. Make sure you use css, xhtml and javascript correctly. Test your whole site regularly against the XHTML validator and CSS validator from W3C. Because I develop on a Mac in Safari, making sure everything I do is conform the W3C standards I wont get very much surprised when I open the page on a Windows computer in IE.