I’ve noticed recently that some popup blockers will see even the target=”_blank” links as a popup. So that got me thinking about a good way to open a popup from Flash and detect if it was actually opened.

Rather than participate in the battle against popup blockers I come from the stance that popup blockers are a good thing and we shouldn’t try to find ways around them. Therefore, I think the best option is something the just warns the user if a link has been blocked. This is actually very simple with ExternalInterface. more…

I just published a free article at Community MX today on the new JavaScript integration feature in Flash 8. It’s called External Interface and is a replacement to fscommand. The possibilities for External Interface far extend beyond simple JavaScript communication. This feature could prove to be the foundation for the next generation of projector tools like Zinc.

Google just released its XSLT and XPath JavaScript code under the title AJAXSLT. The code is supposed to be a full implementation of XSLT, and therefore XPath. Thank you Google!

I’ve published a free article on Using the Macromedia Flash/JavaScript Integration Kit. It reviews the Integration Kit recently released by Macromedia. My compliments to Christian Cantrell and Mike Chambers of Macromedia for creating this great method for simplifing Flash/JavaScript communication.

Paul Newman wrote an interesting article titled >Talking to Flash with JavaScript. It is published over at Community MX.

I have a new article that was recently published at Community MX titled Use XML to Populate Dependant Select Lists.

“Nearly everyone has seen the classic Dependant Select Lists. It’s a great user interface technique where you have two or more select form elements and the selection of one list changes the contents of the next list. This is commonly done with City and State selection interfaces. This tutorial will demonstrate how to build Dependant Select Lists and populate the lists using an XML data file.”

I heard a rumor the other day that ECMA was currently working on E4X 2.0 that will include Schema support and be an integral part of the ECMAScript 4 proposal.  If anyone has any details on this, please let me know.

I’ve fallen a bit behind in updating my site with new articles. The following is a list of the new articles I’ve written at Community MX:

• Communicating with the Server without Reloading the Page
• ColdFusion MX 7: Form Validation
• Using Java and ColdFusion to Read the Metadata in JPEG Files
• ColdFusion Form Validation
• Using XML to UI With JSAPI in Flash

You can also see an updated list on my Published Works page.

I just published a new article at Community MX earlier this week.  The article covers the new E4X specification published by ECMA International.  E4X stands for ECMAScript for XML.  ECMAScript is the language ActionScript is based on; therefore the likelyhood of this new XML funtionality making its way into future versions of Flash is very good.

I have two new tutorials/articles over at Community MX. The first is on how to create a filter for the Macromedia V2 List Component. The tutorial also covers how to do this same thing in JavaScript. This will give you an idea of how the two languages compare.

Creating a Filter For the List Component

The second article was just released today. It covers a technique for integrating the browser’s history into your Flash movie’s navigation. Using this technique will allow you to log navigation events in the browser’s history, therefore allowing the back and forward buttons to control your Flash navigation.

Enabling the Back Button in Flash