Bomhof Integrated LLC

Flex 3 Saving a Snapshot

I needed a way to not only take a snapshot of my Flex graph, but also the code to write the image to the webserver. I found multiple sites that gave me parts of the solution. Here is an example of all the bits put together.

1. Flex App with private or public function (depending on how you decide to access the function.)
2. Server: Rails and rMagick

Flex 3 Function


private function takeSnapshot(component:UIComponent,url:String):void
{
var snapshot:ImageSnapshot = ImageSnapshot.captureImage(component, 300, new JPEGEncoder(100));
var imageGrab:ByteArray = snapshot.data as ByteArray;
var header:URLRequestHeader = new URLRequestHeader ("Content-type", "application/octet-stream");
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
request.requestHeaders.push(header);
request.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
request.data = imageGrab;
var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
loader.load(request);
}


Note: You’ll need to import these classes for access to the ImageSnapShot, and UIComponent types

import mx.core.UIComponent;
import mx.graphics.ImageSnapshot;
import mx.graphics.codec.*;


Rails Code:


begin
image = Magick::Image.from_blob(request.body.read).first
image.write("#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/images/test.jpg")
render :layout => false
rescue Magick::ImageMagickError
logger.error "\n\n--------------RM ERROR---------------\n\n"
logger.error "ERROR: " + $! + "\n"
logger.error "#{$0}: ImageMagickError - #{$!}"
logger.error "\n\n--------------RM ERROR----------------\n\n"
end


This solution worked great for me.

Hope it can help someone else out.

HP Mini 1000 - MIE

We had the pleasent opportunity of purchasing an HP Mini 1000 this week. It was purchased from Best Buy for $299.99 (this online offer is still showing it for $349.99.) The screen is a 10 inch glossy, and it packs nice power with a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB of Ram and 16 GB SSD.

This is a very impressive little machine.  The keyboard is huge (click the above link to read CNET’s review) and although some complain about the overly glossy screen, we have been very happy.

We didn’t want to spend all of our time writing about the hardware however, the experts have spent plenty of time in that arena.  The discussion of the day concerns HP’s foray into the Desktop Operating System: MIE.

The OS is Ubuntu based and has raised a few eyebrows in that it isn’t pure open source (There is an annoying do not attempt reverse engineering this software warning at the initial install.) We are also not going to delve into that arena as it would turn into a major flame war.

We do want to talk about the design and usability: In short HP did a real bang up job!

The glade interface does a lot with 10 inches of real estate. They prominently display the majors: Email, Browser, Music, and Photos while making the Settings and Files area easy to find. The OS happily suspends when the lid is closed, and it finds the nearest WIFI networks without annoying questions. We were also impressed with the speed it comes out of suspend when the lid is opened.

Frankly it just works.

There was a lot of work put into making the Dashboard intuitive for the common user. I applaud the HP team on a job well done.

We heartily applaud the thousands of hours put into the Ubuntu Distro, Gnome, Glade, and thousands of additional packages. I also want to thank the open sources contributors for thousands of programming hours which essentially built the bits that became HP’s Ubuntu Distro MIE.

We are excited about the possibilities of this new OS. HP seems to have plenty of support behind this endeavor and looks like they’re really going to push its adoption. I hope so! Bravo to bringing Linux to the Netbook community with such an impressive showing!

Millions of e Commerce Options

I’ve been doing some e commerce research for a potential client. They are looking to save money on the software, while running their store on a rock solid open source platform. Of all the options I offered two obvious choices: Joomla using Virtuemart.
The CMS was the easy part, now what do I show the client when it comes to selling the product?

What should the site look like?

As things go, there are millions of options for skinning your storefront. This is a small sampling of what I found in my research:

Free Themes

Pro: Thousands of options.

Con: Watch out for companies who haven’t kept their themes updated with
changes made by Joomla / Virtuemart.

Pay for use Themes

Pro: Thousands of options.

Caveat: Make sure to check prices and how far the template covers the application.

More expensive options tend to provide more skin for administrative tasks as well as parts the user sees.

Con: More expensive does not necessarily mean better developed or the best cross browser support: read the small print, read reviews.

Theme Clubs

Pro: Multiple themes and updates for a given contract period. This is a good idea if you’re interested in a close tie to the community that created the theme(s) you’re using.

Con: Recurring monthly fees.

Con: Vendor lock in.

Essentially if you want to set up an e commerce site, you can find all the tools you need, for free. I would recommend a few sanity checks before diving in:

Know your product

The site should match what you sell. You want to sell your product, don’t let the user get lost in your theme.

Spend a little to help your site stick out

Sometimes paying a little extra for the nice theme, or possibly a custom design could make all the difference.

Take a look at what your competition is doing both online and offline

Paying attention to online competition makes obvious business sense, but brick and mortar stores also are about selling a product. Pay attention to product features, placement, and timing of sales. You may find a magic nugget just down the street at your local mom and pop shop.

Harvestcrc.com is live

We had the chance to help out Harvest Community Church in Lake Odessa MI.

They owned a domain, but never had a site to go with it.

We just finished their Wordpress based site and are quite proud to show it off.

Take a look at Harvestcrc.com

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We are just getting started, but thebomhof.com is the official site for Bomhof Integrated LLC. We also provide free blogs for churches and communities to post local news about their organization.

Start a new blog for your favorite organization. If you need help or more information you can email:

drew@thebomhof.com