域卡的卜 Vicker’s Blog

Google Sitemaps (Beta)

Vicker | October 27, 2005 | 12:03 pm

I guess everyone already trying Andy’s CityU Web Hacker event. Usually what we can do will be simply using meta tag or submitting to those web engines. However, can we be even more active to direct the search engine to crawl our site?Google Sitemaps (Beta) is a brand new technology from Google which allows web administrators to guide Google how to crawl our web!The logic is very simple and worth to try! First you must own a Google account (e.g. gmail), login to the system. And then submit your web’s sitemap using XML format. The format of the XML file is detaily described here.After submitting the sitemap, a simple verification is still needed before it really works. Finally after a few days, you can check the statistics it provided to see how and when google crawl your site!I am still testing this technology too, so anyone who works please share :p

PURE ACTIONSCRIPT vs FLEX vs LASZLO

Vicker | October 25, 2005 | 12:25 am

Is been a while since my last blog. It is because other assignments hooking me quite a while slowing down my FYP progress. I will chase back this week ^^Last week Andy have given me some wiki references on AFLAX. Having some research on different kinds of technologies and development methodology, the following is my little comparison on them.PURE ACTIONSCRIPT- ECMAScript-based programming language- control Macromedia Flash movies and applicationAdvantage:- flexible and can perform all of the functions in Flash- able to have more rigid linkage between the objects inside the movie and the objects’ class- only Flash player (free) is enough to use the compiled SWF fileDisadvantage:- not easy to learn- the tier concept is not clear, where Flash is both the control and presentation tiersMACROMEDIA FLEX- application server which can compiles Flex mark up language (MXML) and Actionscript to binary SWF file- built in functions and interfaces, e.g. dragNdrop, charting, animation effectsAdvantage:- easy to learn because user dont need to learn Actionscript and also the drawings inside Flash- clearly defined presentation tier for Flash- having standard user interface which increases usabilityDisadvantage:- it costs much (US15000 per CPU quoted from Wikipedia)- not flexible enough, cannot use the full power of FlashLASZLO- presentation server which conpiles LZX to binary SWF files- built in functions and interfaces like Macromedia FlexAdvantage:- the same as Macromedia Flex with an addition that it is freeDisadvantage:- again cannot use the full power of Flash- installation of the server is necessary which it is not always possible for those who pay for web hostingCONCLUSIONIn order to make the product more portable, i.e. can allow any user who have a web space can use it. Pure Actionscript is the best choice. Furthermore, some more powerful Flash functions can be used, e.g. the new Bitmap class in Flash 8 which allows the export of every pixel inside the movie.

Making Searchable Flash Content

Vicker | October 19, 2005 | 9:31 am

I have seen quite a number of classmates taking about how bad Flash is when considering about usability and accessibility. Take for an example Flash give too much freedom to the designers resulting that Flash always give a non standard interface.Another main problem that mentioned is that Flash either can’t be identified by the search engines and searched effectively.Having a short research on this, I have summarize a number of methods to make Flash more searchable.1. Preparing both Flash and HTML version of the webThis method is the best among all the methods, but the most time consuming one.It can achieve two purpose. First, allowing the contents of your web (in HTML version) being indexed by the search engines. Second, provide alternative browsing method without Flash for the visitors.2. Using a HTML file to embed the Flash, then applying META tagThe easiest method to apply which is still very effective. By means of the META tag, search engines can easily locate and categorize what the Flash content is about.3. Separate the content and interfaceInside the Flash movie, all the contents are not directly written inside. An external data source is used, e.g. using database to store the data and some server side script to forward the data to Flash. The advantage is that additional to being searchable, it is also portable. Because Flash is just an interface, the data is portable to other platforms, let say building RSS feeds.4. Personal submission to the search enginesNo need to explain too detail here. This must be a guaranteed method.Actually the search engines are improving too. Say for an example Google already have their own mechanism to search Flash contents. Further, Macromedia have provided the Flash Search Engine SDK for users to build their own search engine.No matter what, as a Flash developer, we should bear in mind that fancy is not everthing.ReferencesShari Thurow, Optimizing Flash for Search Engines James Ellis, Accessible Flash Parts Developing User-Friendly Flash Content Flash and Search Engines

THE SECOND COMPONENT - COLOR SELECTOR

Vicker | October 14, 2005 | 1:03 am

The requirement specification is still on the way, hopefully can release a draft version within this week. It is quite difficult to write down all the requirements so as the application flow.Besides the requirement specification, another new Flash class is in psuedo code stage now. This is another important class / component in my FYP application, the color selector. It is used very widely for the user to choose their favorites when building their web.A problem is found when designing which is quite interesting.When I want to change a movieclip’s color inside Flash, I have to say something like setRGB (hex_value). In Flash this hex value have to be written in the form of 0xFFCC66. What if I want to use a loop to generate a set of this color??A normal solution provided by Macromedia Flash Helpvar r:Number = new Number(250);var g:Number = new Number(128);var b:Number = new Number(114);var rgb:String = “0x”+ r.toString(16)+g.toString(16)+b.toString(16);An intelligent solution provided by O’Reilly ActionScript Cookbookred = 100;green = 100;blue = 100;rgb = (red << 16) | (green << | (blue);Where << is a bitshift left operator =.=||Or course… I am a normal person too… However I will learn (copy XD) the intelligent method~

Check Your Links~~!!

Vicker | October 12, 2005 | 12:38 pm

Browsing around the web and found some old statistics from Search Engine Showdown. It is a short report about the dead links found in the famous search engines. You can have a look at here. Although the report is a few years ago already, it is still quite shocking. On average there is around 5% of dead links!Dead links are really disgusting sometimes. For example, when you want to find a certain information on the web. After finding a few hours, you hardly got a link. However, it is dead… I am sure it is a disaster.The presence of dead links have quite a number of reasons behind. e.g. the closure of a certain web, the typing errors, illegal link copying, etc. Are there any method to avoid them? The following are some tips.1. Use more relative links. The meaning of relative links are links that referring to the current path instead of the root. e.g. For absolute link, we will have something like “http://www.cityu.edu.hk/image/logo.gif”. For relative, we will simply say “image/logo.gif”, assuming that your document is one level upper than the image folder.The advantage of relative link is that, even your web is transferred to a different domain, it still works. This is very useful for authors who usually edit the files locally and upload to server after editing.2. Try not to link to other web’s file, copy them.We will not know or notice when the other web move the file away or rename it. So if we have web space, try to copy it down and link to the local copies.3. Using some link validator.W3C Link Checker Dead-Links.comThis will make the checking of dead links easier and faster.Hope we will not see this in the future

NEW TECHNOLOGIES KEEP ON COMING…

Vicker | October 9, 2005 | 3:53 am

In September, a new shock came to me - Macromedia Flash 8.I have used Flash 8 Trial version for quite a while. The feeling is that there are much enhancement in graphic section. Let say one of it is the Bitmap class. This Bitmap class is capable to export the current Flash’s content pixel by pixel to other application~~!!This morning I have read the Macromedia Edge Newsletter which announces another two great products - Macromedia Flex 2 and ActionScript 3.0.Oh my god… Should I try them in my FYP when they release?? Arrr~~~!! Such a hard decision…

COMPLETION of MY FIRST OO FLASH APP

Vicker | | 3:37 am

HURRAH~~~!!!!!I finally finish my first object oriented Flash application - Fly’s Bookmark 1.0It is a very very simple Flash application which draws data from a XML and generate the correponding links.The objective of this small application is for me to practice OOP in Flash. As I have said… I am a newbie in this…The main point here is the class design using MovieClip class extension. It is hard to understand at first but ultimately powerful when equiped. The following are some articles that are worth to read about this ultimate technique.Flash MX2004 Actionscript 2.0 class Tutorial. [Online]. Steve’s Tutes. Available: http://www.video-animation.com/flash_15.shtmlSimple design patterns in Macromedia Flash MX 2004. [Online]. Peter Parente. Available: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~parente/tech/tr03.shtmlThe next step is to define my FYP’s requirement specification asap. As I have used too much time in this little application.Will I further develope Fly’s Bookmark?? Maybe :p

WELCOME and PAST PROGRESS

Vicker | October 7, 2005 | 1:30 am

Welcome to my Final Year Project Blog.The establishment of here is to acheive the following:1. Allow my FYP supervisor (Dr. Andy CHUN) to know my latest progress, give comments and guidelines.2. Allow my classmates to know what I am currently working on and share ideas.—————————————————————Progress in SeptemberIn September, I have done a very brief research on my topic, that is the Flash based personal content management system. (I am thinking if it is good to change the title to FlashBlog which is shorter :p) I found that there are only one to two companies in this world developed or developing this kind of product. Further their product is not so rigid and user friendly. So I guess I will base on their product to work on mine.I have written the project plan draft which stated my FYP objectives, planned research areas and most importantly my schedule. (You can view them through the links on the right)—————————————————————How about now?Now, I am trying to find the best framework to work on my FYP. I have written Flash and Actionscripts for around 6 - 7 years already. However I never tried any special model or framework. What I did before is simply using a bunch of functions…Starting from last week, I tried to build my very first Flash Class using Object-oriented approach. (Yup… my first time to do so… my OO knowledge is bad, so this time I asked my classmate Tim SHIU to give me a short tutorial on this XD thanks~)My testing application is like this:- A simple bookmark application- Feed data using XML- Contains three classes mainly (Bookmark, BookmarkCategory and BookmarkLink)Written for around 4 days and finished already. However the class design is still not perfect. The problem is as follows:- BookmarkCategory class contains a movieclip which act as an interface to display- The movieclip itself has an onpress event handler- However the event handler cant use back the BookmarkCategory class functions… -,-Yesterday I finally got the solution from various experts in the actionscript.org forum. The method is to make the BookmarkCategory itself an extended MovieClip class, and then override the onpress function…. =.=|||I will modify my class tomorrow and hope that the class will be perfect :pAfter that I think I will start my requirement specification and application flow design. Hope I can catch up my schedule

Blog Talk 1 - Color

Vicker | October 5, 2005 | 11:43 am

Within the area of web usability, one of the important part sure will be color matching.First lets see an example here.Hayden Video WeddingsIf you really need some wedding service, I am sure you will not trust this one… Because if you dont look at the details, you will never know this is a wedding service… Even you want to see the text is very difficult. So sometimes color matching is even more important than the web content.Lets see another example.Beyond the Bones (Bad Example)Actually this is a web done by an author who want to show the bad example only. Again, it is hard to see the text and it is too bright to look at it.This one is the original document.Beyond the Bones (Original)You can see the great difference between the pages. So color matching is really important which will you affect you whether you will stay or simply browse away.So how can you learn the secrets of the color combinations? Here I suggest some of the great tools.The first one is Color Schemer Studio. It is a small application which you can create some color schemes from a single color that is chosen by you. And after you create the schemes, you can even use their tester to preview the resulting web.If you dont want to pay for it, you can still have alternatives. Actually the company that produce Color Schemer Studio have made an online version - Color Schemer Online v2. Although the functions are not as powerful as the Studio one, it is very useful too.Another one is a free tool - Web Color Theory. In here, you can do some drag and drop to test different color combinations. You can even test it in a web template similar as the Color Schemer Studio.So next time when you design a web, try to use these tools to help you design the best color combos.

Google Sitemaps (Beta)

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