Adobe recently made available Flex PMD a tool that lets you keep track of your code bad practices and helps you  by auditing your source directory and displaying  common errors such as:

• Unused code (functions, variables, constants, etc.)
• Inefficient code (misuse of dynamic filters, heavy constructors, etc.)
• Over-complex code (nested loops, too many conditionals, etc.)
• Over-long code (classes, methods, etc.)
• Incorrect use of the Flex component lifecycle (commitProperties, etc).

A report is produced describing the violations of a given rule set. FlexPMD includes a rule set that is broad ranging and continually growing. It is also straightforward to create your own new rules.

Originally Flex PMD can be called from: Ant, The Command Line and Maven, but thanks to the FlashDevelop (FD3 from now on ) community a plugin has been made available that lets you use FlexPMD in the FD3 IDE and throws the result right in the Output and Results window of FD3.

Installation

1. Download flashdevelopPMD from http://www.kemelyon.com/flashdevelop/flashdevelopPMD.zip

2. Copy PMD.dll into the plugins folder of your FD Application Files.

3. Download flexPMD from Adobe Labs (http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/displa … /Downloads) and extract to your disk.

Set “PMD jar Location” in Tools -> Settings -> FlexPMD to your “flex-pmd-command-line-1.0.RC3.jar”

Usage

Press Ctrl-Shift-A to run FlexPMD in current Project. This version only checks code inside the “src” folder, so you don’t see warnings in your libraries.

To use your own ruleset, set “PMD Ruleset” in Tools -> Settings -> FlexPMD

Thanks again to the FlashDevelop community for spending time in making this useful plugins.

Last week I had a trip to Mexico D.F. ,  and was very disconected from the Flash Community and the Blogs, so in an attemp to catching up with the Flash World here’s a news roundup of some of the things that I missed on the last week, in case you miss them too here’s a list :

1.- Adobe Wave

Adobe Wave it’s a new tool built in AIR that just got released as a beta in Adobe Labs, this tool let’s you stay updated on your favorite sites and it’s right at your desktop to stay update with some of the sites already working with Adobe you just click on the Get alerts with Adobe wave badges on those sites and you’ll start receiving updates from that site.

It’s seems a great way to get updated on your social network without even opening your browser nor navigating to various sites to get those updates will try it ant tell you how it went.

Some of the feature partners of Adobe are:

MySpace
Digg
AOL
Atlantic
Lastminute.com
Venture Beat
Variety
LiveStation
1000 Mikes
Evite
Qik
UstreamTv
Revision3
TheFind.com

Download here  by clicking in the Adobe Wave  Badge and try it yourself

2.- Adobe AIR 1.5.2

Adobe just released an update to AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime ) to the version 1.5.2

You can download it here and read the release notes here.

This update includes  improved reliability, compatibility, and security. Listed below are various of this improvements:

• System requirements
• New features in AIR 1.5.2
• API changes
• Version information
• Fixed bugs
• Known issues
• Installing Adobe AIR
• Install AIR applications
• Tips and tricks
• Adobe AIR SDK

3.- Adobe Flash Platform Blog  launched.

The official Adobe Flash Platform blog launched last week  if you’re a Flash Platform developer this will be a very helpful resource  you can read it here or grab the RSS feed.

If you still prefer the E-Mail Flash News Newsletter you can subscribe here.

4.- Open Source Media Framework.

Open Source Media Framework (OSMF), currently in public prerelease, enables developers to easily assemble pluggable components to create high-quality, full-featured playback experiences. The open aspect of the framework enables collaborative development for web video monetization, with lower costs and faster turnaround.

Open Source Media Framework complements and solidifies Akamai’s Open Video Player initiative,” said Tim Napoleon, chief strategist, of digital media at Akamai. “OSMF leverages code from Akamai’s Open Video Player and Adobe’s expertise and resources to assist media companies and publishers in redefining the benchmarks for online video experiences that are powered by standards based workflows.

• OSMF is the open source part of the Strobe project that enables easy-to-build media players optimized for the Adobe Flash Platform
• The flexible OSMF architecture enables developers to easily create unique playback experiences that can leverage plug-ins for advertising, reporting metrics and content delivery along with standard video player features such as playback controls, video navigation, buffering and Dynamic Streaming. OSMF provides standard functionality along with plug-ins from third parties so content providers have the flexibility to adapt monetization strategies to specific content and the needs of their audiences.
• OSMF includes an API for partners to build plug-ins for value-add services. OSMF will enable more innovation around media experiences on the Web by allowing partners to easily experiment with new services for content providers, which spans content delivery, presentation and monetization.
• OSMF source code and pluggable software components are available immediately under the Mozilla Public License and available at www.OpenSourceMediaFramework.com.

4.- Open Source Text Layout Framework

The Text Layout Framework is an extensible ActionScript library, built on the new text engine in Adobe® Flash® Player 10 and Adobe AIR 1.5, which delivers advanced, easy-to-integrate typographic and text layout features for rich, sophisticated and innovative typography on the web. The framework is designed to be used with Adobe Flex® or Adobe Flash Professional and is included in Flex 4, code named “Gumbo”. Developers can use or extend existing components, or use the framework to create their own text components.

See the feature tour and the online rich text editor demo on Adobe Labs.

5.- Adobe Flash Player 10.0.32.18 Update

This Update contains fixes for critical vulnerabilities identified in Security Bulletin APSB09-10 Flash Player update available to address security vulnerabilities. The update replaces the Debug and Release versions of Flash Player 10 browser plugins and standalone players that are included in the initial release of Flash CS4 Professional (player version 10.0.2.54). All users are encouraged to apply this update. These new players are version 10.0.32.18.

The Flash Player 10 updates are included in the ZIP file below. For instructions on how to update Flash CS4 Professional, please go to this technote.

Gumbo is the code name of the next version of Adobe Flex and new information about it has been made available on the Gumbo Page of the Flex Open Source site.

Some of the highlights on the next version of Flex include the following:

Themes of the Release

Design in mind
A framework for continuous and easier collaboration between designer and developer.
Developer Productivity
Improve compiler perfomance and add productivity enhancements.
Framework evolution.
Take advantage of the new Flash Player capabilities and add features required by common use-cases.

Ely Greenfield gives us a demo on designer and developer workflow.

And Matt Chotin provides a recorded preso outlining the plans for the next version of the Flex SDK (Gumbo).

Some of the things that Matt says on his preso are quite promising a new namespace added (MXML 2009) to the MXML language to support more toolability and make it easier to describe experience-oriented features such as states and transitions.
A new format that promotes the features available in the Flash Player and is usable by tools to describe various graphic assets, including skins (FXG) this format is already in use by the Fireworks CS4 Beta.
Component and skinning architecture for easy tool participation.
Improved existing experience-oriented features such as states, effects, and layout.
A final release it’s aimed to the second half of 2009.
Bidirectional layouts (mirroring) and text support.
New Video component.

And he also mentions that a new initiative is forming to build a ground-up lightweight/scalable framework for developing at other devices such as mobile phones but it’s a long term aimed to be released at the first half of 2010.

Here’s the link to Mike’s preso

Here’s a link to Gumbo’s White Paper: An Introduction to the Gumbo Component Architecture

Keep an eye on Gumbo’s Downloads page on Adobe’s Open Source site for releases of Gumbos Milestones.