almostFlan

ExternalInterface: Error calling method on NPObject!

Frank Lam — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:38:48 +0000

Lemme start off by saying UGH.

Ok, so I’ve been trying to get swfobject to work with ExternalInterface. The swf and the html are located on the same domain (locally - not running on a server). Upon calling the js function that should have called my as function, it kept giving me the error “Error calling method on NPObject!”.

Anyway, there is a fair amount of documentation on google as to what problems you might be having if you get this error (summarized by this guy reasonably well) but my case didn’t fit any of those criteria.

My code looked like this (latching onto the creationComplete of the Application):

creationComplete="ExternalInterface.addCallback('alert',Alert.show)"

Apparently this is bad. It doesn’t like that I’m passing “Alert.show”.

It works if I do this:

creationComplete="ExternalInterface.addCallback('alert',stupidstupid)"

where I define “stupidstupid” in the script portion of the Application.

Anyway, the quick summary is, don’t use Alert.show (other similar calls probably don’t work as well…for reasons unclear to me at the moment).

In my context, there were no cross domain considerations since it was all local.

*shakes fist*

Powered by TAAZ

Frank Lam — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:29:02 +0000

Our Estee Lauder project just launched today.

http://www.esteelauder.com/letsplaymakeover/widget

Some other sites powered by TAAZ.
People en Español
InStyle Magazine
GALA Magazine
Sephora’s Christmas app (out of season now)

And of course,

TAAZ

Seattle

Frank Lam — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:57:35 +0000

I’m moving to Seattle.

Anyone need (or know anyone that needs) a code monkey up there?

I will code for money (WOW gold preferably, but USD will suffice) or food (and by food I mean beer).

The Internet is Stupid

Frank Lam — Sat, 30 May 2009 00:16:09 +0000

I think I got stupider reading the posts on NBA.com’s “Fan Voice”.

Goddamn people are stupid.

I will stop reading now.

Flex CSS Inheritance

Frank Lam — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:49:27 +0000

CSS has been implemented in Flex, but it has some major shortcomings. One of the main ones is that it does not allow a single component to use multiple styles. Another is that a CSS style cannot inherit (or cascade…imagine that!) from another style. I wrote some code that might help fix that a bit.

The stylesheet to be referenced for this post:

<mx:Style>

    .boldFont {

        fontWeight: bold;

    }

    .underlineFont {

        textDecoration: underline;

    }

    .blueFont {

        color: #0000ff;

    }

    .superSize {

        fontSize: 20;

    }

    .superBold {

        inherits:"boldFont superSize";

    }

mx:Style>

Note that the style “superBold” is meaningless in the context of Flex. The classes included in this post interpret the “inherits” field.

The normal way:

<mx:Label text="hello :(" styleName="blueFont"/>

Note the label may only take on one style at a time.

I’ve included two ways this can be circumvented. The difference being the syntax.

<mx:Label text="hello!" styleName="{bss('superBold underlineFont blueFont')}"/>

<mx:Label text="hello again!" styleName="{SBSS.styles.superBold}"/>

The results in context will look something like this.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical" viewSourceURL="srcview/index.html">

    <mx:Style>

        .boldFont {

            fontWeight: bold;

        }

        .underlineFont {

            textDecoration: underline;

        }

        .blueFont {

            color: #0000ff;

        }

        .superSize {

            fontSize: 20;

        }

        .superBold {

            inherits:"boldFont superSize";

        }

    mx:Style>

    <mx:HBox verticalAlign="middle">

        <mx:Label text="styleName = blueFont"/>

        <mx:Label text="hello :(" styleName="blueFont"/>

    mx:HBox>

    <mx:HBox verticalAlign="middle">

        <mx:Label text="styleName = superBold underlineFont blueFont"/>

        <mx:Label text="hello!" styleName="{bss('superBold underlineFont blueFont')}"/>

    mx:HBox>

    <mx:HBox verticalAlign="middle">

        <mx:Label text="styleName = superBold"/>

        <mx:Label text="hello again!" styleName="{SBSS.styles.superBold}"/>

    mx:HBox>

mx:Application>

which produces this swf.

The Flash plugin is required to view this object.

Note “View Source” from the context menu of that swf will point you to the wrong place. Apparently it’s a Flex bug that they don’t plan to fix.

You can view source here or download the example project here.

Ballpoint Pens and Juan Francisco Casas

Frank Lam — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:16:34 +0000

I just ran into this guy, he has some pretty cool stuff. His work is mostly just photopainting with ballpoint pens, but its pretty damn cool. I really like seeing people with good photopainting skills, especially in such an unconventional application.

Image source: haha
His website: http://www.juanfranciscocasas.com/
Some press coverage: dailymail

New WP version, broken view source

Frank Lam — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:55:28 +0000

Just upgraded to version 2.7.1 of WordPress. Apparently my previous plugin update broke some old posts.

Right-clicking one of my swfs and selected ‘View Source’ won’t work for the time being. I think I’ll try to make some changes on how I do that stuff in the near future.

At the moment, “View source” links to

http://almostflan.com/2008/09/05/using-a-custom-class-as-an-mxml-base-to-completely-style-a-titlewindow/flex/sandbox/srcview/index.html

and it should link to

http://almostflan.com/flex/sandbox/srcview/index.html

I’ll fix this later, but first my taxes…

Damnit

Frank Lam — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:40:06 +0000

I recently updated some plugins and it appears to have broken some of my stuff. Working on it.

Thanks to DDDan for pointing this out.

Clipping a SWF loaded in a SWF

Frank Lam — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:36:20 +0000

Recently I’ve run into the problem of controlling the size of an embedded swf movie in a Flex application. The size of the stage in Flash didn’t match the size of the SWFLoader-loaded component in Flex for some reason. I tried putting a Canvas around it and using the clipContent field, but that didn’t. After a few hours of pain, though, I did get a somewhat reasonable solution.

This post should also serve as a very light example of applying a mask.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml">

    <mx:Canvas mask="{myMask}">

        <mx:SWFLoader source="path/to/mySwf.swf"/>

        <mx:UIComponent id="myMask" 

            creationComplete="myMask.graphics.beginFill(0xff0000);myMask.graphics.drawRect(0,0,360,541);myMask.graphics.endFill()"/>

    mx:Canvas>

mx:Application>

Here, the size and location of the rectangle you draw in the myMask determines the visible area of the swf.

I haven’t yet cooked up an actual example showing what this actually does - maybe I’ll do so later…

On a different note, if anyone knows of a quick way (perhaps a wordpress plugin) to post an example coded in Flex Builder, let me know - it would be much appreciated! Right now, I’m bundling a release build and manually pushing it up each time with no regard to specific posts, then hard-linking…

Maybe I’ll write something to do it…knowing me it’ll never get done…

Oh Beans!

Frank Lam — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:40:52 +0000

Telling lies is a slippery business!