I get a lot of emails containing great questions about topics like Flex, rich Internet applications, and bull riding. These emails are usually the highest priority emails for me to respond to – because that’s what a cowboy does. But I was just thinking that when people ask me questions over email other people with similar questions don’t get the benefit of seeing my response. So here is how it works:
- Ask a Question on StackOverflow.com
- Post a comment here with a link to the question
- Wait for me to get on my horse and respond
Please make sure that questions asked on StackOverflow are for a general developer audience, ie. something that more people than just you want to know the answer to. If your question is specific to you then email is still the best way to ask me.
36 Comments
hmmm… tried doing as you said, but got an error saying that because I was a new user on stackoverflow, I would not be able to create a new tag… any ideas?
Matt
Hi Matt,
Whoops. Sorry about that. I just asked a question and tagged it with “riacowboy” so now you should be able to use the tag. Let me know if you have problems. Thanks.
-James
its a gr8 move james. Stackoverflow is a great site for programmers to learn/ask/solve doubts n u wer first 4m the evengelist team to dive into it. This would definitely help a lot to Flex community.
Excellent! Done now:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1268351/how-do-i-set-the-dataprovider-for-an-slist-component-to-be-an-xml-file
Another one coming up soon…
Matt
And here’s my next question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1268473/how-do-i-ensure-a-flex-dataprovider-processes-the-data-synchronously
G’nite!
Matt
Very good idea James.
One more thing!! Can I email this to my flex user group so that they can also take this opportunity to as you questions?
Hi Vivian,
Of course!
-James
Hey Matt,
Were your questions sufficiently answered?
-James
Hi James.
Yes, they were thank you!
I have yet to have time to check out your suggestion, but would like to… broaden my experience.
Matt
Please be aware that the tag has been removed of SO.
http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/17318/why-the-tag-riacowboy
This is not the purpose or idea of the tagging system. However if you are interested in being a part of the community, just answer questions reasonably well. Alternatively contact the site owners regarding joining the League of Justice.
This practice is discouraged. If you want to know why, or discuss it further, please follow this link
I think the idea of StackOverflow is to get multiple inputs from different people. If you get emails with questions, tell them to post on StackOverflow. Even if they can’t/shouldn’t tag it riacowboy, you should be able to find their question based on other tags.
It sounded like a good idea at first.
Ahh, I was just waiting for the ria cowboy to come to rescue not realizing the tag has been removed from stackOverflow.
James, would you mind looking at this when you have a chance
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1324548/how-to-introspect-a-flex-component-before-adding-it-to-display
Hi Eric,
I’m looking into it.
Sorry about the “riacowboy” tag thing. Apparently what I’m recommending people do here is abuse of SO so I need to figure out a new approach.
-James
Oh noes! Seemed like such a great idea.. Ah well, I dropped a question anyhow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1358104/unit-testing-flex-flash-libraries-in-flashbuilder
Cheers,
James,
can you give a look at this?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1394433/display-datetime-on-linechart
thnx
Tried the riacowboy thing and it’s not working so below is my question.
“What technology best describes the backend that your Flex application will connect to? ”
I’ve used Flash for a while, now I’m looking to install Flex Builder 3 trial version to try it out and i’m stumped by the above question. Do I need to install something before i install Flex?
Hi Justin,
I need to update this page since the “riacowboy” tag was banned.
Flex applications can connect to any back-end: Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Ruby, ColdFusion, etc. The simplest way to make the connection is with XML using HTTPService in Flex. However AMF is a better performing option.
I hope that helps.
-James
Here is my question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1602997/blazeds-support-on-z-linux
Looking for a way to build something like what you explain in this article below, but I don’t have livecycle yet. Is there a way to accomplish this with CF8, Flex3, AlivePDF, or other?
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/portable_ria.html
Below is the link to my question on Portable RIAs:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1606560/is-there-a-way-to-build-a-portable-ria-without-using-livecycle
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Thank you!
Ron
The issue I am having is creating an application with nearly every component skinned using CSS. The majority of the components are skinned using: Embed(source=”file.png”); method. The problem I am running into, is flex trying to compile all of the embedded assets into the final swf. As it stands now, my compiled swf stands around 16mb!@@ OUCH. It is a very large application, but not that big. Any ideas on how to load the assets into the application at run time, or on request maybe?
Link:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1615720/using-skins-without-embeding-in-css-doc-and-swf-in-flex
Hi Kapil, Ron, and Mike. I’ve done my best to answer your questions. Let me know if they were not answered sufficiently.
-James
Posted here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1733079/swf-optimizer-that-james-ward-is-excited-about
Must have written the name of that app wrong…
Thanks!
Census is no longer working, can check it out?
Any ideas if this is possible?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1760893/how-can-you-delete-a-file-in-the-application-directory
Hi James,
would be great if you had a look at this.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1814286/problems-with-parallel-calls-to-remote-objects
Thx
Philipp
RE: My previous coment
I did work arround this using a timer to delay the calls, however dont know if thats best practise.
Philipp
Xavi: It should be working. Are you still having issues?
Ryan: Looks like you discovered the answer before I got to it. Sorry for not getting to it sooner.
Philipp: Yes, that is one way to deal with the problem. I’ve posted details about why that is happening.
Hi James Pls. find the link below:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1988940/not-a-question-just-like-you-to-see-my-site-developed-in-flex-www-sajish-org
Hi Sajish,
It looks like you question was removed from StackOverflow. Maybe it didn’t follow the StackOverflow guidelines for a question. Sorry.
Hi James,
Probably you can help me with this one:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2133464/blazeds-servlet-not-responding-through-proxy
Thanks :-)
Henrik
Hi Cowboy,
please have a look on:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2185096/tour-de-flex-source
Thank you very much
Bernd
Hi James, I’m not posting this to Stack Overflow ’cause it isn’t a technical question.
I’m on the board of the Adobe Boston User Group.
Do you ever come to Boston?
Any chance that we could get you to present at one of our meetings?
Thanks,
Douglas
Hi Douglas,
I don’t have plans to be there any time soon. But if that changes then I’ll let you know.
-James
Hi James,
I posted a question on StackOverFlow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2414719/handling-cookies-with-flex-for-authentication
For handling user session and authentication with Flex. I wish you can help.
Thanks,
Tam