Moved Diomedes IRC to Github

My Adobe AIR IRC client has a new repository home. Git is awesome as is github. Also added some bug fixes associated with ipv6 and action highlights. Going to add bnc and SSL support soon!

HOWTO: Get CSS opacity to work in Adobe AIR AJAX applications

background-color: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.7);

The rgba property allows red, green, and blue—along with the fourth parameter for setting opacity, alpha—to be specified without the child elements inheriting it. In this case, the background would have been red with a 70% opacity. That’s one line of code and no images. Not a problem in AIR.

via articles.sitepoint.com

The documentation for Adobe AIR 1.5 say the CSS “opacity” property is not supported, but you can use rgba()! So nice.

Posted via web from Apphacker’s learning curve

HOWTO: Use Adobe’s Squiggly Spell Checker in Adobe AIR AJAX applications

Squiggly is Adobe’s Spell Checking software for Flex and Flash applications, and it just so happens that you can use the spell check engine in AJAX Adobe AIR applications. That is if anyone out there except for me is using AJAX to make AIR Applications. Sometimes I wonder, you know.

Anyway, you obviously can’t use the Flex UI controls in your HTML and JavaScript AJAX applications, but you can use the spell check engine.

These are the general set up steps:

1. Download the Squiggly package.
2. Rename the SpellCheckEngine.swc to use the .zip extension and unzip it.
3. Recover the library.swf from the package and put it in your application (maybe rename it too).
4. Add a script tag for the library.swf resource obtained from the SpellCheckEngine as outlined in these instructions.
5. From the Squiggly packaged find the ‘usa.zwl’ dictionary file in the Dictionary directory and place that in your application source code.

Now you should be able to use the library:

        var sp = new window.runtime.com.adobe.linguistics.spelling.SpellChecker( );
        var dict = new window.runtime.com.adobe.linguistics.spelling.SpellingDictionary( );
        var myUrl = new air.URLRequest( 'usa.zwl' );
        // the constant is air.Event.COMPLETE if you have AIRAliases.js included
        dict.addEventListener(runtime.flash.events.Event.COMPLETE, function( event ) {
          var addSuccessful = sp.addDictionary( dict );
          // log this return value to test it
          console.log("Added dict: " + addSuccessful);
          console.log("isLoaded on complete" + dict.loaded);

          console.log(  sp.checkWord( "test" ) ); //Prints  'true'
          console.log(  sp.checkWord( "testzd" ) ); //Prints 'false'
        });

        dict.load( myUrl );
        sp.addDictionary( dict );

Check out the example code included in the Squiggly package for how to get suggestions. If you want a nice UI for rich text editing think about using a div with contentEditable set to true.

Thanks goes to the Adobe Forum for Squiggly for being so responsive and helpful. If you have any questions that’s the place to go, although not many people are using it with JavaScript.

Made Diomedes IRC Link Log Awesome

The link log for Diomedes IRC resolves URL shortners, fetches page titles and header information. Now you’ll never have to worry about clicking a scary link again! Rick rolls are a thing of the past. :)

Bah, looks like Softpedia sent me a boilerplate email

I just got another email by Softpedia. It had the exact same text for my irc client as the last one except now they’re adding me to the Windows section. Funny thing is this time whoever looked at my app clearly didn’t know that the Mac version of their site had added me already and went ahead and produced more screenshots. The screenshots produced for the Windows section are all pretty terrible and they just went ahead and copy and pasted my help section. Had he known about the earlier addition, he could have used the better description and screenshots added for the Mac portion of the site.

In other related news, “I use this” has added the client too.

Also since my Macbook is still in the shop, I can’t get any work done on it. :(

Softpedia has added Diomedes IRC!

Softpedia has added my Adobe AIR app, Diomedes IRC client to their website! I didn’t even apply. Wonder how they found out about it. Maybe found it on the Adobe AIR marketplace? In any case, it’s pretty interesting. First of all, they added to the Mac section even though since it was built on Adobe AIR it is cross platform and works on Windows and Linux too. They took several screenshots, and seem to know their way around IRC.  Unlike Upload.com/Download.com they do not host the file, they link to my file on my site. They also have cleared the software of being spyware free, which is great.

I get to use this fancy badge:

And maybe this one too:

Here is the text of the email I received:

Congratulations,

Diomedes IRC, one of your products, has been added to Softpedia’s database
of software programs for Mac OS. It is featured with a description text,
screenshots, download links and technical details on this page:
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/Diomedes-IRC.shtml

The description text was created by our editors, using sources such as
text from your product’s homepage, information from its help system, the
PAD file (if available) and the editor’s own opinions on the program
itself.

“Diomedes IRC” has been tested in the Softpedia labs using several
industry-leading security solutions and found to be completely clean of
adware/spyware components. We are impressed with the quality of your
product and encourage you to keep these high standards in the future.

To assure our visitors that Diomedes IRC is clean, we have granted it with
the “100% FREE” Softpedia award. To let your users know about this
certification, you may display this award on your website, on software
boxes or inside your product.

More information about your product’s certification and the award is
available on this page:
http://mac.softpedia.com/progClean/Diomedes-IRC-Clean-59246.html

Feel free to link to us using the URLs above. If you choose to link to the
clean award page for your product, you may use the award graphic or a text
link: “100% FREE award granted by Softpedia”.

If you feel that having your product listed on Softpedia is not a benefit
for you or simply need something changed or updated, please contact us via
email at webmaster@softpedia.com and we will work with you to fix any
problem you may have found with the product’s listing.

—
Sincerely,
The Softpedia Team

Diomedes IRC is now Open Source

I have made my Adobe AIR IRC client Diomedes IRC open source, utilizing the MIT license. :)

Check out the project page for more info.

Got Diomedes IRC approved for the Adobe AIR Market place!

This is kind of fun. I got my Diomedes Adobe AIR IRC client made with JavaScript listed on the official Adobe AIR Market Place. It’s been up all day and only two downloads though, one from someone I know. :(

It is kind of fun making stuff and putting it up. Would be nicer if someone actually used it. :o

Next I’m going to work on a game, possibly using canvas. Looks like that will be a lot of work since drawing on a canvas is really low level drawing basic shapes and lines. Animation consists of clearing and redrawing the canvas. Yeah.

Diomedes IRC Client with Adobe AIR and AJAX

I haven’t blogged about it yet, but I’ve been working on an IRC client in Adobe AIR using Javascript, AJAX and HTML/CSS.

I’m going to make a more recent download available soon at apphackers.com The version that’s available now on that site is very old and buggy. I don’t recommend using it!

Here are a couple of screen shots of latest progress: