This utility converts a Flash MX Reference XML file to a set of HTML help files with the same information. It creates a single HTML file for each reference entry, an “all-in-one” html file for searching, a table of contents with a DHTML tree, and a frameset.
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Since the new version of Internet Explorer was announced, I’ve been curious to know why an alert box nullifies the patent issues. It turns out that since the patent only covers automatic loading of plugins, the fact that IE pops up a message box and requires user interaction makes the loading of plugins no longer automatic and thus the patent no longer applies.
Thanks to Macromedia for providing this explanation. They have a lot of great content on their Active Content Development Center.
Microsoft posted a few work-arounds on their developer network to deal with the Eolas patent covering plugins. The three work-arounds include embedding the plugin content directly in the HTML page as base64 encoded data, tagging content as non-external, thereby disabling external communication, and using external script to instantiate the content. Of these, only the last is backwards and cross-browser compatible.
The changes we’ll all need to make to our sites are quite straightforward…
A webforum user brought up a need to parse the text from an XML document for specific elements and display it in a list. This is something that’s readily accomplished with XPath and XSLT. Here’s a UDF that performs the extraction using an XPath search.
Everyone has their own favorite method for choosing conference sessions. Macromedia provides separate listings by Track and by Level for MAX. I personally prefer to choose sessions first by speaker.
Since the Macromedia site doesn’t include a Sessions by Speaker list, I enlisted a little help from my track manager and compiled a list for you.