Random Fractals» Degrafa http://randomfractals.com/blog Sat, 27 Mar 2010 13:57:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 Some Degrafa Love http://randomfractals.com/blog/2010/03/04/some-degrafa-love/ http://randomfractals.com/blog/2010/03/04/some-degrafa-love/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:11:43 +0000 Taras http://tarasnovak.com/blog/?p=765 Here is a fun short piece I did last summer when Degrafa SuperShape came out:

Degrafa ShapeUp Music Viz

You can view all 100 lines of code that make those shapes pulse here.

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]]> http://randomfractals.com/blog/2010/03/04/some-degrafa-love/feed/ 0 From Day 1 of Flex SVG Explorer Dev and Research http://randomfractals.com/blog/2009/02/06/from-day-1-of-flex-svg-explorer-dev-and-research/ http://randomfractals.com/blog/2009/02/06/from-day-1-of-flex-svg-explorer-dev-and-research/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:24:47 +0000 Taras http://tarasnovak.com/blog/?p=710 I meant to post this yesterday, but ran out of time.

Flex SVG Explorer Preview

Here is a preview of Flex SVG Explorer I started the other day:

flexsvgexplorer01small

I’ve decided to start this personal Flex project to explore available SVG import/export options and related APIs in Flex.

The idea came to me after checking out some SVG designer tools like InkSpace, Amaya, and Sketsa and finding out that people still think SVG can’t be loaded into a Flex app and made interactive since the stock SWFLoader does not support SVG animation, scripting, or interactivity with the imported SVG image graphics.

Current and Planned Flex SVG Explorer Features

The current version doesn’t not have much to offer yet, but that depends on what you expect to see from one day of work.

I’ve layed out the main canvas with a zoom slider, added SVG text display, and created a toolbox section with SVG document tree and tabs for future property display and editing options. All in one day of work. There is no SVG file upload or url box yet, but you can preview sample graphics by selecting them from the combo box in the Toolbox.

Eventually, I’d like to fill the Toolbox with some SVG document display options, like referenced images, links, SVG element usage statistics, styles and attributes editor grids, but you should see the general direction there already. I am also planning to add SVG markup code highlighting.

Currently, I am working on getting shape selections done. Once that is in a lot of editing and painting options will be available to create new SVG graphics or edit existing ones.

Flex SVG Explorer UI Theme

I picked the Undefined Flex UI Theme from scalenine.com theme gallery, although it’s just a temporary theme before I find time to create a unique look and feel and Flex SVG logo.

Sample SVG Graphics

The sample SVG graphics are from openclipart.com.

SVG Loading API

Well, turns out you can load SVG files and make them interactive with SVG Viewer, and no, I am not talking about Adobe SVG Viewer IE plugin this time.

SVG Viewer API from com.zavoo.labs just got moved to Google code in December. This library is a jewel find that fills the existing gap of loading SVG graphics in Flex and interacting with the loaded graphics elements. Until the rumored SVG to Degrafa  Converter tool and hopefully some converter API comes out, I don’t think there is a better choice for loading SVG graphics in Flex, if you are looking to do more than just display a static image.

Jamming SVG with Flex?

Now, I’d love to sign up for a conference to do a session on “Jamming SVG with Flex” and present some of my experiments with Degrafa, SVG Viewer API, SVG-based painting in Flex, along with practical data visualization components using Blank SVG maps of the world and Away3D to push an envelope on SVG usage in Flex and truly scalable GeoWeb.

Anyone interested?

My preference would be FITC conference in Chicago, but I am open to other conference suggestions and locations, if they cover the travel and stay cost.

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]]> http://randomfractals.com/blog/2009/02/06/from-day-1-of-flex-svg-explorer-dev-and-research/feed/ 8 2008 Presidential Candidates Campaign Finances http://randomfractals.com/blog/2008/11/04/2008-presidential-candidates-campaign-finances/ http://randomfractals.com/blog/2008/11/04/2008-presidential-candidates-campaign-finances/#comments Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:44:49 +0000 Taras http://tarasnovak.com/blog/?p=234 Looks like I have discovered NY Times Campaign Finances API a few days too late. The votes are going in today and turns out this API was published three weeks ago.

I’ve been looking for a similar public data set to take Degrafa Map sample for a spin and stumbled on this one accidentally last night while reading the programmableweb.com post about NY Times releasing Movie Review API. Now that is going to be some fun data to mash.

Well, one day is hardly enough to color code the states based on the contributions, but I managed to put the REST service calls in place, create the domain model, add a map with the selectable state regions, and display grid data for now. It’s very rough at this point. I am not sure I got all the donation breakdowns calculated correctly.

Anyhow, below is a sample screenshot and a link to the alpha demo. Currently you can only view presidential candidate contribution totals and select a state to see the state breakdown by candidate. I might color code the states, dip into zip code searches, donor info display, and publish the code if anybody finds this useful.

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