Re: [Flashcoders] multi language support and font embed/styling best practices?
On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 9:33 PM, Manish Jethani manish.jeth...@gmail.com wrote: On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 2:23 AM, Jason Boyd jayb...@gmail.com wrote: - Resource bundles appear to be an elegant way to handle localization of any type of resource -- strings, fonts, animations, code classes, etc. They allow cascading from specific to default locales, mixing statically compiled locales with dynamically loaded ones as needed, and very little code to make it all work. The caveat is that it is within the Flex framework, which may or may not be compatible with ActionScript projects or apps built entirely in CS3/4. Sorry about jumping in like this. I've just signed up for this list, and I don't have the context for this conversation, but it seems like there's something I could add. I've successfully used Flex resource bundles with my plain AS3 projects. You just have to write your own 'ResourceBundle' API that mimics the one in the Flex framework. It doesn't even have to be so advanced. For instance, you don't need chaining (cascading) in most cases, so you can just write something simple. It's worked for me. Yup, I've done the same. Just take a look at the source code for ResourceManagerImpl. Ian ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] multi language support and font embed/styling best practices?
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 9:15 AM, Ian Thomas i...@eirias.net wrote: I've successfully used Flex resource bundles with my plain AS3 projects. You just have to write your own 'ResourceBundle' API that mimics the one in the Flex framework. It doesn't even have to be so advanced. For instance, you don't need chaining (cascading) in most cases, so you can just write something simple. It's worked for me. Yup, I've done the same. Just take a look at the source code for ResourceManagerImpl. Oh, and... turn on --keep-generated (or whatever that option is called) on the command-line when compiling a resource bundle to see what a .properties file turns into in terms of ActionScript. Ian ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] multi language support and font embed/styling best practices?
It is possible to dynamically load embedded fonts. That is, create SWFs containing embedded font/glyph sets, then dynamically load these into a running app as needed and apply to even Flash CS-authored TextFields. It isn't obvious how to do this, but it is possible. Our group is exploring this now. I may post more as I understand the details and as people on the list are interested. This is very easy in Flex. I just wrote up a post with a quick how-to on this: http://artjumble.com/blog/?p=46 Steve On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 1:53 PM, Jason Boyd jayb...@gmail.com wrote: Just Another Handle -- Do we work in the same team? : ) I second the question. The team I am on is trying to solve the same types of issues. What I've dug up so far has led to the following conclusions: - There are [too] many ways to deal with fonts, text, and styles in Flash/Flex. The list is also growing fast. See Flex 4 aka Gumbo and its revamping of text with several new classes and a couple new frameworks to support bidirectional languages and dynamic text layout. - Resource bundles appear to be an elegant way to handle localization of any type of resource -- strings, fonts, animations, code classes, etc. They allow cascading from specific to default locales, mixing statically compiled locales with dynamically loaded ones as needed, and very little code to make it all work. The caveat is that it is within the Flex framework, which may or may not be compatible with ActionScript projects or apps built entirely in CS3/4. - For styling, CSS is supported by both Flex and Flash (better than HTML is supported, but not better than, say, IE5). If your designers are up on their web skills, they shouldn't have any trouble creating styles via CSS, but CS3/4 don't provide any means to generate CSS from visually created text styles that I've found. Workflow may be an issue. FlexBuilder does allow you to visually style and then generate CSS, but this is aimed at Flex components. Maybe useful depending on what types of apps you are making. - It is possible to dynamically load embedded fonts. That is, create SWFs containing embedded font/glyph sets, then dynamically load these into a running app as needed and apply to even Flash CS-authored TextFields. It isn't obvious how to do this, but it is possible. Our group is exploring this now. I may post more as I understand the details and as people on the list are interested. -Jason ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] multi language support and font embed/styling best practices?
Just Another Handle -- Do we work in the same team? : ) I second the question. The team I am on is trying to solve the same types of issues. What I've dug up so far has led to the following conclusions: - There are [too] many ways to deal with fonts, text, and styles in Flash/Flex. The list is also growing fast. See Flex 4 aka Gumbo and its revamping of text with several new classes and a couple new frameworks to support bidirectional languages and dynamic text layout. - Resource bundles appear to be an elegant way to handle localization of any type of resource -- strings, fonts, animations, code classes, etc. They allow cascading from specific to default locales, mixing statically compiled locales with dynamically loaded ones as needed, and very little code to make it all work. The caveat is that it is within the Flex framework, which may or may not be compatible with ActionScript projects or apps built entirely in CS3/4. - For styling, CSS is supported by both Flex and Flash (better than HTML is supported, but not better than, say, IE5). If your designers are up on their web skills, they shouldn't have any trouble creating styles via CSS, but CS3/4 don't provide any means to generate CSS from visually created text styles that I've found. Workflow may be an issue. FlexBuilder does allow you to visually style and then generate CSS, but this is aimed at Flex components. Maybe useful depending on what types of apps you are making. - It is possible to dynamically load embedded fonts. That is, create SWFs containing embedded font/glyph sets, then dynamically load these into a running app as needed and apply to even Flash CS-authored TextFields. It isn't obvious how to do this, but it is possible. Our group is exploring this now. I may post more as I understand the details and as people on the list are interested. -Jason ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] multi language support and font embed/styling best practices?
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 2:23 AM, Jason Boyd jayb...@gmail.com wrote: - Resource bundles appear to be an elegant way to handle localization of any type of resource -- strings, fonts, animations, code classes, etc. They allow cascading from specific to default locales, mixing statically compiled locales with dynamically loaded ones as needed, and very little code to make it all work. The caveat is that it is within the Flex framework, which may or may not be compatible with ActionScript projects or apps built entirely in CS3/4. Sorry about jumping in like this. I've just signed up for this list, and I don't have the context for this conversation, but it seems like there's something I could add. I've successfully used Flex resource bundles with my plain AS3 projects. You just have to write your own 'ResourceBundle' API that mimics the one in the Flex framework. It doesn't even have to be so advanced. For instance, you don't need chaining (cascading) in most cases, so you can just write something simple. It's worked for me. Manish -- http://manishjethani.com ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
[Flashcoders] multi language support and font embed/styling best practices?
greetings list. the team i am on is building an AS3 site that needs to support multi languages. I'm inquiring about best practices, custom built classes/solutions, etc for dealing with runtime font loading/sharing vs. embedding... basically a font management and styling solution allowing external text. i've seen a few blog posts on the subject and was wondering if there was a general consensus as to the best approach. thanks in advance. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] multi language support and font embed/styling best practices?
The way I handle this is to use a server-side script to serve a swf file (as an RSL). I.e. fonts.php that checks against a language cookie (or session) and depending on the language serves up a different swf. The only thing you have to take into consideration here is caching, so make sure server-side caching is turned off for the fonts.php file and set the caching headers appropriately Locally, to test you can just rename one of your font swf's to fonts.php and test away. Hope this helps. - Taka On Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 11:09 AM, Jah flash@gmail.com wrote: greetings list. the team i am on is building an AS3 site that needs to support multi languages. I'm inquiring about best practices, custom built classes/solutions, etc for dealing with runtime font loading/sharing vs. embedding... basically a font management and styling solution allowing external text. i've seen a few blog posts on the subject and was wondering if there was a general consensus as to the best approach. thanks in advance. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
