George Fox
Editor, Developer Center
Craig Goodman
Managing Editor, Developer Center
Amy Wong
Editor, Developer Center
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Where to Start: What's New in the MX 2004 Developer Centers
The release of the Macromedia MX 2004 family represents big changes to your favorite products. The Macromedia Developer Center team asked some of the most experienced developers in the MX community to help you make the transition to the new versions of Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Studio, and ColdFusion.
Because there's so much that's new, you might feel overwhelmed. Don't be.
As always, your first stop should be to read the product documentation. To learn more about how you can make the most of the new MX 2004 features in the real world, bookmark the Macromedia Developer Center. We work with the premier Macromedia developers to explain, explore, and examine what's new—from a developer's point of view. If you want more in-depth study about Macromedia products, you might want to try Macromedia authorized training or books from Macromedia Press.
Here is an overview of some of the tutorials and articles that can help you learn what we've improved in MX 2004.
Macromedia Flash MX 2004
There are now two versions of Flash: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and
Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004. The professional version features
several
developer-related features, such as data components and extended
video support. To understand
how they differ, see our side-by-side comparison. Here are some
new tutorials, sample applications, and articles from the Flash Developer
Center that
explore the new features.
Video
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Video
by Forest Key
Download
PDF (910K)
This white paper is your handbook to Macromedia Flash Video (FLV).
Learn how to use video within Flash and export video as FLV from third-party
applications. Forest also provides some great background information
on video standards
for beginners.
Building a Streaming Video Presentation with Macromedia Flash MX Professional
2004 Media Components
by Andrew Guldman
Use the new Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 streaming media components
to create a Flash slide presentation that plays an FLV video that synchronizes
with text and graphics. Get a guided tour of using these components from
Andrew, the man who developed them.
Data and Flash
Data Binding in Macromedia Flash Professional 2004
by Aral Balkan
Bind and share data between components as you build two simple mini-apps
in this step-by-step tutorial. Aral propels you from the old Firefly
world into the new world of built-in data components through two examples
that
combine Label, DateChooser, DataHolder, and NumericStepper components
to build simple data-driven interface elements.
Components
Building and Testing Components in Macromedia Flash MX 2004
by Allen Ellison and Nigel Pegg
Learn how to build and test components in the new Macromedia Flash
MX 2004 authoring environment. You can still build components the
old-fashioned way, of course, but Allen and Nigel explain the new
way, covering the new data components, compiled clips (SWCs), classes—and
that's just the beginning.
Exploring Version 2 of the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Component Architecture
by Waleed Anbar
Find out what makes the new components tick. Waleed explains how Version
2 of the component architecture and ActionScript 2 work together to create
a more object-oriented development environment.
Building the FooterNav Component
by Andreas Heim
By creating a component that embeds a Flash footer navigation into
your website, you get a taste of building components using the new
v2 architecture. Andreas steps you through the new component architecture,
providing code samples from his own FooterNav component.
Mobile
New Features for Mobile and Devices Developers in Macromedia Flash
MX Professional 2004
by Bill Perry
Whether you are a mobile developer or are interested in becoming
one, Flash MX 2004 helps bridge the gap between desktop and devices.
Bill discusses
new templates, prebuilt publishing settings, and incorporating sound
and text.
Coming Soon
In addition to these new articles, we have the following topics planned for future updates to the Flash Developer Center. Check back to see what's new.
My First Application with Macromedia Flash MX 2004
by Jen DeHaan
Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 for Visual Developers
by Ian Bogost
Dreamweaver MX 2004
Web designers are going to love the new version of Dreamweaver MX because of its improved table formatting and Cascading Style Sheets features. The days of hand-coding style sheets are over. To complement what's new in Dreamweaver MX 2004, we offer the following additions to the Dreamweaver Developer Center.
CSS
An Overview of CSS in Dreamweaver MX 2004
by Julie Hallstrom
Review all the cool CSS features in Dreamweaver MX 2004. Julie, our
technical support specialist, includes several exercises and
suggested workflows for using the new features.
Designing with CSS in Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
by Drew McLellan
Explore the exciting world of CSS positioning as Drew takes you through
designing a website's layout in Dreamweaver based solely on CSS. Say
good-bye to relying on cumbersome tables for your page layout structure.
Coming Soon
In addition to these great articles we've got a lot of new content lined up for the Dreamweaver Developer Center. Keep checking back to see what's new.
Discovering the Ready to Go CSS-P Layouts in Dreamweaver MX 2004
by Adrian Senior
Dreamweaver MX 2004: A Dreamweaver Engineer's Perspective
by Jack Herrington
Fireworks MX 2004
Fireworks developers have reason to celebrate. Besides a new version of Fireworks, we now provide the new Fireworks Developer Center, a home for all our Fireworks tutorials and articles. Accompanying the launch of this developer center, we commissioned several new articles to help you explore the new version of Fireworks.
Sample Files
Fireworks MX 2004 Styles Sample Files
by Richard Blenkinsopp
Answering the call for sample files, Richard created several new
Fireworks samples files that contain styles you can download
and install. He also reviews
what styles are and how to use them in your Fireworks projects.
Easy-to-Miss Features
Fireworks MX 2004: Top 10 Overlooked Features
by Matt Lerner
After culling feedback from tech support e-mails, feature requests,
and forums questions, our very own Fireworks product manager
came up with a list of the top overlooked features in Fireworks.
That's right: These are
requests for features that are already available. Whether
you're an old-timer or new to Fireworks, Matt shows you what you
may have
overlooked.
Coming Soon
How to Create Fireworks Styles
by Richard Blenkinsopp
Creating Site Layout in Fireworks and Editing the HTML in Dreamweaver
by Joey Durham
Studio MX 2004
As always, the Studio Developer Center aims to provide you with examples of using more than one product in the Macromedia arsenal to your advantage.
Site Management
Studio MX 2004 Site Management
by Mark Fletcher
Explore the improved site management features in Studio MX 2004.
Dreamweaver is no longer the sole Macromedia product sporting
built-in FTP capabilities.
In Macromedia Flash MX 2004 you can now define projects to
manage all of your FLA, SWF, and AS files and assets, as well as
upload them to your server
without a separate FTP client. Mark shows you how defining
a
site in Dreamweaver now allows you to FTP files directly in Fireworks
MX 2004.
Cross-Product Integration
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Flash MX 2004 Integration
by Mark Fletcher
Learn best practices and features to help you work seamlessly
between Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. Mark reviews
the new Flash elements
in Dreamweaver so you can insert and configure Flash components
in your web
pages without ever leaving Dreamweaver.
Coming Soon
Dreamweaver and Fireworks Integration
by Mark Fletcher
E-Commerce A to Z
by Lawrence Cramer
ColdFusion MX 6.1
While it's not part of the MX 2004 rollout, ColdFusion MX just had a major release. The ColdFusion team retooled and revamped ColdFusion MX dramatically for version 6.1. They simplified installation and migration, increased runtime performance, and updated and improved the most-loved and most-used features. Learn about these exciting changes in the following articles added to the ColdFusion MX Developer Center.
Making the Groundbreaking ColdFusion MX Simpler, More Reliable, and
a Whole Lot Faster
by Ben Forta
Learn about all the major improvements in ColdFusion MX 6.1. Ben guides
you through the changes that make this new version faster, more stable, and
more functional.
Performance Under the Covers in ColdFusion MX 6.1
by Jim Schley
The ColdFusion team listened to developers to determine which product
features to improve and how to benchmark those improvements. Jim details
how by simplifying the compilation process for code, eliminating bottlenecks
in the CFML code base, working with third-party components, and boosting
the mail server, the team improved overall runtime engine performance so
that all ColdFusion applications would benefit.
ColdFusion MX 6.1 Performance Brief
Download
PDF (362K)
ColdFusion MX 6.1 is capable of processing significantly more page
requests than any previous release of ColdFusion, as measured by reductions
in response time. See all the gory details in this white paper, which defines
performance enhancements in ColdFusion MX 6.1 and reveals relevant statistics
for Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Linux, and Solaris.
Making the Most of E-Mail with the cfmail Tag Enhancements in ColdFusion
MX 6.1
by John Cummings
The new mail server is more robust than ever—capable of sending 1 million
messages an hour! John explains the new failover capability for mail servers
and spooling options. With code samples, he shows you how start right away
with new mail tag features, such as creating multipart messages targeted
for specific users and implementing advanced charset settings for easier
localization.
Introducing Multiple Server Instances in ColdFusion MX Enterprise
6.1
by Tim Buntel
Didn't ColdFusion MX already offer this feature? It did, but in a more
limited capacity: You had to use the built-in JRun server with ColdFusion
MX. Not only does ColdFusion MX Enterprise 6.1 come equipped with its
own full-fledged J2EE server, JRun, but you can also use any J2EE application
server, such as IBM WebSphere, Sun ONE Middleware, or BEA WebLogic
Server.
Tim explains how your applications benefit by running each ColdFusion
application on its own separate ColdFusion server instance, thereby making
each application
even more reliable than before.
Coming Soon
COM and ColdFusion MX 6.1: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were
Afraid To Ask
by Sam Neff
New and Improved Character Set Handling for Global Apps with ColdFusion
MX 6.1
by Paul Hastings
More Than MX 2004
Although we have focused here on the new versions of Macromedia products that we recently released, we offer Development Centers for other products as well, including Central, Contribute, Director, Flash Communication Server, Flash Remoting, FreeHand, and JRun.
To stay up to date with articles and tutorials that we post on the Macromedia Developer Center, sign up to get our biweekly Developer Center Update newsletter.
You can also syndicate Developer Center content on your own website with our RSS and XML news feeds.
About the authors
George Fox is the Developer Center Publishing Process Manager for Macromedia where he acts as lead editor and manages the sample applications as well as the content in the Studio, Dreamweaver, Contribute, Fireworks, Director, FreeHand, ASP.NET, and PHP Developer Centers. He holds an MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Before traveling extensively in Asia, Alaska and the North Western US, George had careers in Training/Organizational Development and Business Process Analysis.Craig Goodman is the Managing Editor of the Developer Center. He also serves as the lead editor for the Macromedia Flash, Flash Communication Server, Flash Remoting, and Mobile and Devices Developer Centers, as well as working on the macromedia.com Support Centers. Craig joined Macromedia in 1995. Before the creation of the Macromedia Developer Center, he had various roles, including managing web support, supervising product technical support for Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver, and providing one-to-one technical support for Director and Extreme 3D. Craig also curates the video and film series at New Langton Arts in San Francisco, and is a member of the sit-down keyboard ensemble, the Helen Lundy Trio.
Amy Wong has been the Developer Center editor for server products (ColdFusion, JRun) since 2002. She has developed ColdFusion apps since version 1.5 and remembers when she first fell in love with the language. She love it so much that she came to Allaire in 1999 to work in the ColdFusion support forums, helping customers where she first sought help as a fledgling developer. From working in product support as a support engineer to TechNote editor, she is happy to still be heavily involved with ColdFusion content and the community. When she's not thinking about ColdFusion, Amy is usually calming the adrenaline junkie within, in her whitewater kayak, either upside-down or right-side up, on the rivers of New England and Canada.
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