Creating a stock ticker in Flex 2.0?

[Jules Winfield]

Hi all,

I took the plunge into Flex 2 development with the ultimate goal
of converting one of my major Windows applications to Flex. If I can pull it
off I'll be a hero since my application would be available in users'
browsers, even on non-Windows platforms.

Take a look at the header for my Flex-based application [the data isn't
real -- it's just a prototype]. The URL is:

[url]http://flash.dsworder.com[/url]

I'm a bit disappointed by my scrolling stock ticker at the top of the page.
I wasn't really sure how to design a ticker so I just created a Label inside
a black Canvas and moved the Label one pixel to the left on each screen
refresh.

But the results are mediocre. The text seems to flash while moving. It's
hard on my eyes. I'd like it to be smooth like what one might see on CNBC.

The one downside to using Flex instead of .NET WinForms is the lack of third
party components. I've looked everywhere for a "ticker" component for Flex
2.0 and can't find one. There are plenty of Flash-based ticker components
out there, but according to my Flex 2.0 introductory book, a Flex 2.0
project using ActionScript 3.0 cannot control another flash component that
was built using an earlier version of ActionScript -- so alas, these
flash-based ticker components are useless to me.

I've only been using Flex for a week now so I'm still going through the
learning curve. Perhaps there's a more efficient approach to building this
ticker? Or perhaps there's a Flex 2.0 ticker component out there that I've
just missed?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

David

[abiswas@eforceglobal.com]

On Jun 28, 5:52 pm, "Jules Winfield" <ghe...@englewood.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I took the plunge into Flex 2 development with the ultimate goal
> of converting one of my major Windows applications to Flex. If I can pull it
> off I'll be a hero since my application would be available in users'
> browsers, even on non-Windows platforms.
>
> Take a look at the header for my Flex-based application [the data isn't
> real -- it's just a prototype]. The URL is:
>
> [url]http://flash.dsworder.com[/url]
>
> I'm a bit disappointed by my scrolling stock ticker at the top of the page.
> I wasn't really sure how to design a ticker so I just created a Label inside
> a black Canvas and moved the Label one pixel to the left on each screen
> refresh.
>
> But the results are mediocre. The text seems to flash while moving. It's
> hard on my eyes. I'd like it to be smooth like what one might see on CNBC.
>
> The one downside to using Flex instead of .NET WinForms is the lack of third
> party components. I've looked everywhere for a "ticker" component for Flex
> 2.0 and can't find one. There are plenty of Flash-based ticker components
> out there, but according to my Flex 2.0 introductory book, a Flex 2.0
> project using ActionScript 3.0 cannot control another flash component that
> was built using an earlier version of ActionScript -- so alas, these
> flash-based ticker components are useless to me.
>
> I've only been using Flex for a week now so I'm still going through the
> learning curve. Perhaps there's a more efficient approach to building this
> ticker? Or perhaps there's a Flex 2.0 ticker component out there that I've
> just missed?
>
> Any advice would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David

The answer will be FLex Data Services which allows server push etc.

[url]http://javacodeproject.blogspot.com[/url] contains some more details on RIA
and FLex in general. Planning to put some details on FDS also soon in
there how to create a real time application with Flex and Java.