Choropleth Map Component (Adobe Flex 3)

As promised, releasing an Adobe Flex 3 component for Choropleth Map. The Choropleth Map component is an extension/implementation of my Map component released earlier.

What is a Choropleth Map?
A choropleth map (Greek χωρα + πληθαίν:, (”area/region” + “multiply”) is a thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed on the map, such as population density or per-capita income.

The choropleth map provides an easy way to visualize how a measurement varies across a geographic area or it shows the level of variable within a region. — Wikipedia

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The component does just that. It plots a map and then applies a theme to the various regions of the map. Relevant data and legend information needs to be provided to the component. (See example attached below!)

The component also provides tooltips on specific regions and provides an “Active Legend” that lets you highlight and hide/unhide specific regions of the map based on the data and legend.

Demo | Source code

Map Component (Adobe Flex 3)

Releasing a simple, powerful and extensible Map component developed using ActionScript and Flex 3. The idea is that a map contains one or more polygons representing each sub-region. Each polygon can have mouse events attached to it and can have further properties set. This concept is further extended in my second map component i.e. the Choropleth Map that will be released later this week so stay tuned!

Demo | Source code

Adobe releases public beta of Flex 4 SDK, Flash Builder 4 and Flash Catalyst

So its time to get our hands on Adobe’s Flex 4 technologies. Public beta’s are available on Adobe Labs.

Here’s from the Adobe AIR Team Blog:

Exciting news! Now available on Adobe Labs are the public beta releases of Adobe Flash Builder 4 (formerly Flex Builder), Adobe Flash Catalyst and the Flex 4 Framework.

Flash Builder 4 is the next evolution of Flex Builder, and includes a long list of feature improvements, new data-centric development features, and a new design-develop workflow with Flash Catalyst. Flash Catalyst, also now available in public beta, is a new interaction design tool for rapidly building application user interfaces without coding. Both Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst are based on the updated Flex 4 framework, also available for beta download.

Visit Adobe Labs to find out more and to download the installers.

Oracle Acquires Sun: Is this the end for MySQL?

Putting an end to IBM’s quest for Sun Microsystems, Oracle has announced the acquisition of The Java Company Sun Microsystems priced at USD 9.50 per share. For us who’ve worked extensively on the LAMP platform, Sun’s acquisition of MySQL last year was promising for it strengthened the future of MySQL. MySQL is the most popular Database Management System leading its nearest competitor Oracle by a steady margin. But Oracle, through its acquisition of Sun, now also owns its biggest competitor – MySQL.

The acquisition gives Oracle a massive 55% (approx.) market share as far as Database Management Systems are concerned. The acquisition also raises doubts of the future viability or growth of MySQL as a platform for obvious reasons.

Some could argue that there is space for two variants of DBMS’s in today’s market. MySQL being Open Source has a huge following and a very attractive adoption rate among small to medium business, personal and not for profit operations. While Oracle is generally preferred for mission critical, enterprise or other high end requirements.

One thing is certain – MySQL with a 30% (approx.) market share isn’t going to disappear in a hurry. In fact MySQL could continue to survive as a community, open source project but the chances of MySQL Enterprise Edition’s survival look bleak.

Could the forthcoming demise of MySQL be the opening PostgreSQL needs? Time will tell.

Adobe Flex 3 Certification Study Material

I plan to get the Adobe Flex 3 with AIR certification this summer. Over the weekend I jotted down all the study material I could find. That makes for useful a blog post I recon.  This is what I could find grouped by source.

Adobe resources

• Adobe Flex 3 with AIR Exam Preparation Guide
• Adobe Devnet Tutorial
• Flex 3: Introducing Cairngorm
• Flex 3: Architecting Applications with Cairngorm
• Flex 3: Using ActionScript 3
• Flex 3: Developing Rich Client Applications
• Flex 3 and LiveCycle Data Services: Integrating with Data and Messaging
• Flex 3 and LiveCycle Data Services: Integrating with ColdFusion
• Flex 3: Building Charting and Dashboard Applications
• Flex 3: Extending and Styling Components
• Flex 3: Developing Rich Internet Applications
• Flex in a week (Video)

Third-party resources

• Getting Started with Flex 3 (O’Reilly, June 2008)
  Download the PDF version of the book (PDF, 1.44M)
• Flex 3 Cookbook (O’Reilly, June 2008)
• Learning Flex 3 (O’Reilly, June 2008)
• Attest – a standalone Adobe AIR application that allows you to take your mock exam, view results and helpful tips, and refer to the Flex 3 livedocs website in real time.

Feel free to suggest more resources to add to the list above.