Lets get started:

1. Open up Firefox & load your GMail

2. Paste the following code into your address bar:

javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(”mailto”,”https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s”,”GMail”)

If you use Google Apps for your own domain, then you need to use the following code and change “yoursite.com” to the name of your domain.

javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(”mailto”,”https://mail.google.com/a/example.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s”,”GMail”)

4. Click the Add Application button, which pops up at the top of the page.

5. Done! Now click a mailto: link and you will be pleasantly surprised!

When your designing a flash application that has forms…it is essential that you validate your emails one way or another. If you choose to do all your validation on the server-side and return the error value directly into flash…then thats one way to do it.

Personally, i would always put my form through a number of simple checks before sending the data to the server.
I generally use PHP to handle form data, so from now on i will refer to the server-side as PHP.

Here is a quick and easy way to validate an email:

Lets assume your using a ’submit’ button to submit your form data to PHP. The following code would be familiar:

buttonSubmit.buttonMode = true;
buttonSubmit.useHandCursor = true;
buttonSubmit.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, submitForm);
 
function submitForm(e:MouseEvent):void
{
 
}

Okay, so whats the code you need to actually validate the structure of an email? well its very simple…1 line of regular expression.

function isValidEmail(email:String):Boolean {
    var emailExpression:RegExp = /^[a-z][\w.-]+@\w[\w.-]+\.[\w.-]*[a-z][a-z]$/i;
    return emailExpression.test(email);
}

As you can see, this function takes an email address ’string’ and checks that the structure of the string is recognised as an email address. Whether or not the email address exists..is a server-side matter.

So how do you use it? it’s very easy, and here is the code:

buttonSubmit.buttonMode = true;
buttonSubmit.useHandCursor = true;
buttonSubmit.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, submitForm);
 
function submitForm(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    if( !isValidEmail(yourTextFieldName.text) )
    {
        //email address is not valid
    }
    else
    {
        //email address is valid
        //form submit code goes here
        //
        //
    }
}
 
function isValidEmail(email:String):Boolean {
    var emailExpression:RegExp = /^[a-z][\w.-]+@\w[\w.-]+\.[\w.-]*[a-z][a-z]$/i;
    return emailExpression.test(email);
}

And thats it…too easy. All you would need to add is a text box which display some sort of error message, telling the use the email is not valid.

I have included the source file which includes an error prompt. Enjoy!

AS3-Email-Validate.fla

Although this can be achieved using actionscript alone, YouTube has recently changed the way they serve .flv’s to other domains. The traditional way (get-video.php) doesn’t work through flash applications, so most of the tutorials out there are out of date and don’t work.

This tutorial is working, and saves a lot of hassle. Definitely check it out.

Visit Tutorial

Since my passion has always been with Flash, I’ve been trying to get-to-grips with some of the new (and not so new) technology. Papervision 3D is all over the web just now, and it was impossible for me to ignore it (and why would i want to do that?). Since working at Bluecube Interactive, a few projects have come up where Papervision would be perfect for. BT Experiment has been one of the biggest projects i’ve had, and i’ve learnt a great deal from it. I’ve learnt some good things about Papervision, and also a lot of not so good things. You definitely understand that Papervision is still in Beta stages once you start using it.

Lastly, the site is now using Wordpress. I’ve been putting it off, because i’ve always had reservations about using a CMS like Wordpress for a simple portfolio site. However, Wordpress is huge and it’s practically becoming an industry standard that you use Wordpress, or at least know how to set it up. It’s been another learning curve, but wordpress really is so easy. Now i just need to find out which plug-ins will actually help me out, and which ones will just slow me down. Whilst writing this, i’m already hoping that when i search for an automatic link creator for posts…something will come up, and i’m sure it will.

So! gone with the graphics! and here’s to simple design…