What is Mate?

Mate is a light, powerful MXML-based Flex framework with an MVC architectural pattern that eases the developers work by giving them maximum flexibility. The framework is entirely tag-based and its focus is on event handling, data binding and asynchronous processing.

This Flex framework has a built-in event-driven (based on the idea of a Map Event) thus allowing you to define who is handling those events, whether data needs to be retrieved from the server, or other events need to be triggered. This feature makes it very unobtrusive and easy to learn.

Mate allows you to keep using Flex event model, it does not invent its own like most other frameworks. You can dispatch an event from anywhere in the view hierarchy and have it bubble up to the framework automatically. Other powerful feature is that it implements a form of Dependency Injection which allows you to connect your models to your views without either one knowing about the other one. That makes it easy and fast to create, maintain, and debug applications. “An Injector will insert the appropriate property into all instances of a particular component, without having to pass it through the component’s parental hierarchy.”

The specific code can be encapsulated in a handful of objects. Also the application code has no dependencies on the framework, it is highly decoupled, reusable and testable. When using this framework we won’t work with Singleton pattern anymore because it has a caching solution that detects which objects have been instantiated and handles the flow of data between them.

Mate read as “Mah-teh” was created by Nahuel Foronda and Laura Arguello from AsFusion. Mate had 17 new releases in the last year and hundreds of commits to its repository. I would say that this framework is gaining some quality reputation among Flex developers.

Endline

Since its release there were many tingles about the pros and cons about Mate and it is often compared with other Flex frameworks such as Cairngorm or PureMVC. From what I’ve heard there are some feasible advantages when using Mate in your development. The important novelty that this project brings unlike the others is that it has The Event Map (gives a clear vision about the control flow through the application) and the Class Caching(no more use of the Singleton pattern). You can use this framework both in small or large projects and you can relax because it will give all the flexibility you need and won’t restrain your imagination when creating a project.

But for further examples of projects developed with Mate visit the site at mate.asfusion.com. I forgot to mention that this framework has a well written documentation, tutorials and an active community on the forum. Even so you are used with other frameworks I’ll simply say it’s worth giving a shot. You may found out it is more suitable to your tasks.

ABOUT THE CONF

The FITC Mobile Conference is a two-day event, September 13 – 14, that’s going to take part in Toronto, Canada this year at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The agenda consists of presentations, demonstrations, and panel discussions; an important note is that is one of the only events in the world covering all aspects of mobile content.

As the official site describes it, the conference will bring together leaders in mobile design and development, developers and programmers of mobile content, and all those who are curious to know all about the mobile development world. This event will cover along with the technical side of development, marketing, funding, and other business aspects of mobile development. The sessions will cover a variety of topics from iPhone applications, to Adobe’s Flash Lite development, to Googles Android, as well as Blackberry, Palm, SMS text messaging, QR codes, Mobile video, and other relevant ones. FITC Mobile aims to cover all these issues in an intelligent and informed manner.

The list of confirmed speakers is comprised by:

• James Eberhardt (Technical Director and Content Developer)
• Brandy Gilchrist (Executive, Investor, Mobile Evangelist)
• Deborah Hall (Mobile Marketing Strategist)
• Scott Janousek (Flash Mobile Design & Development Expert)
• Thomas Joos (Mobile Consultant, Flash Life Specialist)
• Tony MacDonell (Thought Leader, Rich Internet Application Design & Development)
• Collin Moock (ActionScript Expert and Author)
• Dom Sagolla (iPhone App Developer)

Another thing you should know about is that this conference has an optional pre-conference workshop on Saturday, September 12. The entire event is part of Mobile Innovation Week, scheduled for September 13 – 16, 2009 in Toronto.

TICKETS

The Mobile Development Conference is open to beginner, intermediate and advanced programmers and developers of mobile content. Ticket prices range from C$93.45 for a Student Conference Pass to C$418.95, a Regular Conference + Workshop Day. To purchase the tickets and find out more information click HERE.

The official sponsors are Motorola, Adobe, BlackBerry, Microsoft Mobile, the City of Toronto, Forum Nokia, Samsung, and EchoMobile.

CONCLUSION

Shawn Pucknell, the Executive Producer of FITC Mobile, asserts that: “Mobile is here to stay. It’s become a part of all of our lives. And as the need for content and applications grows, so does the need for talented and experienced developers to create that content and experience“.

Being one of the only events in the world covering all aspects of mobile content, there are anticipated 300-400 attendees from around the world. This conference is a great opportunity for both current and future developers of mobile content to learn from the leaders in the field and to share their knowledge with other developers. And if you need further information check the FITC site.

A recently Beta released product, created by Romuald Quantin – an Actionscript developer, is the Soma Framework. Being at its beginning is very probable that many of you didn’t have the chance to hear or work with it. So I’ll try to highlight the important information you need to know about it, structured in two parts.

Soma, the MVC Framework

Soma is an open source MVC Framework written in AS3 and it is specially developed for Actionscript and Flash website. Its goal is to ease the work by handling the common development that’s required in building a flash site: deep-linking, loading, backgrounds, page management, content management, assets, contextual menu, transitions and so on.

It’s a light framework that doesn’t require MVC knowledge for you to use it. An important fact for developers is that it has been built upon the core of another MVC framework: Cairngorm. The author explains: I’ve made this choice because I want Soma to be “easy-accessed” and even if Cairngorm is originally a Flex framework, I believe its syntax, event-based system and “design philosophy” are closer to what a Flash user would expect.

But Soma is not only a MVC Framework .It is XML-based and uses a reference to a XML site definition almost all the time. The structure, content, assets and assets behaviors are stored in this XML site definition. It also automates tasks and it is generated. But this is for the second part of the description.

SomaUI, the source code generator

SomaUI is an AIR-Java tool and its main purpose is to generate source code, the base of a Flash site in AS3, created with Soma ready to be used for further development, for Flash Player 9 or 10 and for Flash or Flex SDK developer. SomaUI has very useful features that ease you when starting a site:

• building an XML file required in order to make Soma working
• exporting deploy files (html, css, etc)
• exporting source (actinscript, Flash file, XML, etc)
• compile with the Flex SDK

This software gives you a large-hand when you create a project, choose specific settings such as name, package, flash player version, and so on. You can write the xml definition of your site or load a template and finally, export it.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, because I recently heard about this framework I didn’t get to use it, I can say that, from what I’ve seen in the video tutorial on the home page and red about this product, Soma Framework is a real easer for you work, time-saver and I like the fact that has a specific set: Actionscript and Flash development. When you want to create a Flash site you know there is a Framework especially created to help you in your development.

For further more information about this product, its resources, software requirements, docs and the latest version released visit the Soma homepage. And as an example of a Flash site built with this framework there is Soma Protest site where you can find out more stuff about Soma.

Because of the outstanding response (within 2 weeks they had already sold-out all the tickets), they’ve decided to do a two day conference this year with more speakers, sessions and added seating capacity (500 to be more specific). So here are the news, details and contact information about this event.

The Actionscript Conference | Flash Camp Singapore is taking place on the 14th and 15th September 2009 at the NTUC Auditorium. This will gather all the renowned Flash and Flex experts around the world, for 2 full days of demonstration and highlights on the latest technologies in Actionscript. TAC aims to bring topics on Actionscript 3.0, Flash development, Enterprise Flex 3 and 4, AIR, Integrating of Flash and other Platforms, and building Rich Internet Application to its audience.

Here are some topics that will be covered (not limited to):

• Flash Catalyst
• Programming Actionscript 3.0
• Adobe AIR
• Flex 3 and Flex 4 Framework
• Development Tips and Tricks
• Rich Internet Applications (RIA)
• Integration of Flash, Flex with server-side technologies

Check out TAC site for detailed speakers list and sessions information. There will be more sessions coming, so it’s in your interest to keep up with the updated information.

The registration for seats is now open so you better hit the official registration page . First 100 tickets cost $99 SGD. And there is more: one in every 10 tickets bought will win a FDT – Pure Edition through a lucky drawl. That’s 50 licenses that would be given away free. FDT is a powerful ActionScript tool and it has gathered good testimonies from ActionScript VIPs.

The target audience of The ActionScript Conference is software developers, web developers, students, Flash/Flex developers, business-owners and so on. If the shoes fit for you this conference is a definitely MUST GO! It’s a 2-day experience that will empower you’re development and improve your knowledge.