Scott Morgan

Better late then never right? For about a year and a half, maybe even 2 years now, developers have been requesting an Actionscript 3 Yahoo Maps API. To cool the fires I wrote the Yahoo Maps Communication Kit, which was a hack that allowed you to use the Actionscript 2 Yahoo Maps component in an Actionscript 3 application. I am glad to say that the Maps communication kit is no longer needed. Head on over to the Yahoo Flash Developer center and download the real Yahoo AS3 Maps Component.

The component looks great, out of the gate I did notice one bug though. They didn’t account for the MOUSE_LEAVE event. You can see this bug in this example, start dragging the map and move the your cursor outside of the map, if you release your mouse while you are still outside of the map and move your cursor back into the map you will notice the map is still moving. A very minor bug. I can’t wait to use this component. I already have a few ideas where I can use it.

Thanks Yahoo! Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into the Microsoft Live Maps AS3 component

Tags: actionscript 3.0, maps, Yahoo

A short time ago, almost a year now, I blogged about how I was leaving Critical Mass to go and work on the Yahoo! Flash Platform team. Well, believe it or not, I am on the move again. This time I have accepted a job with the Disney Internet Group in North Hollywood. Just like Yahoo! I will be a Senior Flash Engineer working on the core technologies team. I am not sure who is more excited about me working for Disney, my son or me?What excites me the most about this opportunity is the creative environment I will be working in. Those who know me know that I thrive in a creative environment, and it doesn’t get much more creative than Disney. I love to push the envelope and one thing I have learned over the past 10 years is it takes a great creative team and environment to push development teams to the next level.

Yahoo was great, I learned a lot, met some great people, and I worked with some of the smartest people I have ever had the chance to work with. Plus I got to see Taylor Hicks in concert at the Yahoo! campus, oh wait; I am only supposed to be mentioning the good memories.

I would like to thank Yahoo for the great opportunity they gave me and everything I learned. There are some very talented people in Sunnyvale and around the world painting the internet purple. Do you Yahoo? I did and it was spectacular! (obscure Seinfeld reference for you hardcore fans). Now I must replace my Yahoo! hat with a pair of ears.

Tags: disney, job, moving, Yahoo

Yahoo’s Flash Platform team is looking for another member. Below is the job description, if you’re inerested apply online and you may end up sitting next to me (literally). The Yahoo! Flash Platform team is looking for an exceptional engineer to join the team. We are looking for someone who is passionate about Flash platform technologies, someone who would debate design patterns and methodology just for sport and most of all someone that is best described as omniscient when it comes to Flash.

The Flash platform team is responsible for the Flash code library and component set that will serve Yahoo!’s wide array of applications. Members of the team will also provide training and development support, as well as shape the direction of the overall platform.

You will be responsible for designing and developing the code library that will make Flash development elegant, optimal, and a pleasure to use. You will collaborate with extremely talented engineers on this team and throughout Yahoo! to make the platform a reality, and encourage best development practices throughout the organization. You must comfortable with articulating and evangelizing the platform strategy to influencers and decision-makers.

The ideal candidate will be an expert with Flash platform technologies along with 5 to 8 years of development and leadership experience. A strong portfolio of applications, including large-scale/enterprise usage of Flash, and experience with systems-level development and foundation code development are expected.

As a senior engineer, you are expected to be well-versed in: - ActionScript 2 and 3 - Flex 2 - Flash Lite - Flash security model - Flash-to-JavaScript interactions - Server interactions (socket, remoting, FCS/FMS) - Development design patterns - QA and testing practices - Internationalization - Accessibility factors

Applied knowledge of PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and general Web development practices are highly desirable for this role.

Tags: Flash, job, platform, Yahoo

So how’s this for enterprise level Flex applications. Yahoo! Messenger launched their beta version of it’s web-based Flex Messenger application today. Currently the beta is only available in select parts of the world, rest of the world check back soon. Congratulations to all involved.

  The Messenger desktop application already has hundreds of millions of users, not only is this a huge win for Flex but it is a huge win for increasing the penetration rates of Flash Player 9 which are already at 84%.

This is just the beginning, stay tuned to see what else Yahoo! has up their sleeves.

Take that Silverlight

Tags: Flex, Web Messenger, Yahoo

As I mentioned in my presentation on Tuesday at 360 Flex pipes.yahoo.com have launched a wide open crossdomain file today. Flash Community rejoice! This is huge news for us. Not only does it mean we can load in manipulated aggregated data feeds, it also means we can load in feeds that normally we do not have access to because there is no crossdomain policy. Before you could do this with a php or any server side based page proxy file. But now you don’t have to worry about that. Log in to pipes, do a simple fetch, save it, and load in your pipe through pipes.yahooapis.com. Simple! If needed, you can manipulate the feed, remove unnecessary data and output it. No one wants to parse irrelevant data, especially client side! As some have already said, pipes is the future of the Internet and if we didn’t know it already flash is too!

One last thing, if you want to learn more about using pipes, there is a great video tutorial up on the Yahoo! Developer Network.

Thanks a lot pipes from the entire flash development community.

Tags: Actionscript, Flash, Flex, Mashups, Pipes, Yahoo

I am proud to announce the new Yahoo! AS3 Libraries that were released today on the Yahoo! Flash Developer Network. We timed this launch with the 360Flex conference in San Jose at the Ebay campus. I will be presenting the Yahoo! AS3 Maps Commuication Kit tomorrow morning. As a side note this is my first contribution to the Yahoo Developer Network since I started here a couple months ago. Let us know what you think, and what else you would like to see. We’re here to make your job easier. We don’t want you to worry about accessing all of our data, we want you to concentrating on creating the best application with our data.

Happy Mashing!

Tags: actionscript 3.0, apis, Flash, Flex, Yahoo

Headline reads, Canadian hockey fan is leaving the great white north. That’s right, for those who know me, know I am a Team Canada superfan. I even live in the city where they train. But I recently received an opportunity to work at Yahoo! in California. A southern state where hockey is almost non-existent some would think, myself included. No more Don Cherry, no more Kelly Hrudey, no more Ron Mclean, and no more Bob Cole, well unless you have Satellite TV, which I plan to have. And the other thing is Yahoo is right outside of San Jose, home of the Sharks, one of the best teams in the league. Anyway, back to the move. In a week I start at Yahoo as a Senior Flash Engineer and I am leaving my post at Critical Mass as their Flash Development Manager. Critical Mass has been great, and always will be great. I learned a lot in my short year and a half tenure. They are an amazing group of creative people who pump out amazing work. I was amazed almost every day in some of the stuff I saw coming out of there. There is a reason they were named Foresters Interactive Agency of the Year the past two years running. If Critical Mass is so great why am I leaving you ask? I wasn’t looking, it just happened. The opportunity landed in my lap, or inbox, however you want to look at it. I was headhunted. And it is not an opportunity that you can let slide by. It’s Yahoo!

So starting December 11 I will be an official Yahoo employee, working in a new city, and in a new country. I am not 100% sure what I will be working on yet but I am sure it will be extremely cool and forward leaning. Yahoo has so many properties that would make great Flash applications. Heck, they even own that small photo site, you may have heard of them, Flickr.

So wish me luck. I will be sure to post how things are going when I get there. And thank you Critical Mass for everything. You have and always will have something special. It’s an amazing company, with an amazing atmosphere. Good luck in your future endeavours

Tags: Critical Mass, Hockey, Yahoo