list of recommended classes?

[scottc]

I checked the stickies and such and i couldn't find a nice list of recommended classes...

Utils/Misc/Large repos
Gaia Framework (http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/) - Great framework for making websites, looks good!
as3corelib (http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/) - encryption, picture formats and some networking classes..
as3 data structures (http://lab.polygonal.de/ds/) - for game devs
as3FlexUnitLib (http://code.google.com/p/as3flexunitlib/) - It's like JUnit but for flex.
FlUint (http://code.google.com/p/fluint/) - Similar to Flex unit, but different.
OS Commodore 64 Emulator (http://osflash.org/fc64)
Senocular's Repo (http://www.senocular.com/flash/actionscript/) - Alot of nifty classes

Animation/Tweeners
TweenMax (http://blog.greensock.com/tweenmaxas3/) - best tweener class?
TweenLite (http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3/) - Lightweight tweener for use in flash banners and such.
gTween (http://www.gskinner.com/libraries/gtween/)
Tweener (http://code.google.com/p/tweener/) - "Tweener is not awesome" says sekasi (I believe him.)

Cast 3D (http://www.cast3d.com/) - 3D animation framework to use with 3D renderer like PV3D

File Types & Encryption
as3crypto (http://code.google.com/p/as3crypto/) - some more encryption classes..
Crypto (http://crypto.hurlant.com/) - some more encryption...
fzip (http://codeazur.com.br/lab/fzip/) - modifying zips etc
ascollada (http://code.google.com/p/ascollada/) - collada file type
as3syndicationlib (http://code.google.com/p/as3syndicationlib/) - xml feeds (rss/atom)
GIF Player (http://www.bytearray.org/?p=95)
GIF Encoder (http://www.bytearray.org/?p=93)

Networking
loaders...
loader manager (http://code.google.com/p/loadermanager/) - great for preloading lots of stuff
Bulk Loader (http://code.google.com/p/bulk-loader/) - Anyone know which loader is better?
AMF..
AMFPHP (http://www.amfphp.org/) - amf protocol
ZendAMF - supported by zend and adobe
Database protocols..
assql (http://code.google.com/p/assql/)* - mysql driver/utils for as3
assqliteutils (http://code.google.com/p/assqliteutils/)* - sqlite utils
asql (http://asql.mooska.pl/)* - Another MySql library
Other Protocols...
XMPP (http://code.google.com/p/as3xmpp/) - protocol for jabber/google talk etc
IRC (http://code.google.com/p/as3irclib/) - Internet Relay Chat protocol
VNC (http://osflash.org/fvnc) - Virtual Network Computing protocol & client
Flex FTP (http://projects.maliboo.pl/FlexFTP/) - File Transfer Protocol
POP3?
other..
http://puremvc.org/
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/cairngorm/Cairngorm
http://mate.riaforge.org/


Website API's
Youtube (http://code.google.com/p/as3youtubelib/)
Youtube data api (http://code.google.com/p/as3-youtube-data-api/) - not sure how its different to the one above...
Youtube Chromeless api (http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/articles/youtube_as3_chromeless.html) - A wrapper for the youtube video api
Flickr (http://code.google.com/p/as3flickrlib/)
Mappr (http://code.google.com/p/as3mapprlib/) - Flickr & Mapping
Amazon (http://code.google.com/p/as3awss3lib/)
eBay (http://code.google.com/p/as3ebaylib/)
Facebook (http://code.google.com/p/facebook-as3/)
Odeo (http://code.google.com/p/as3odeolib/)
Yahoo (http://developer.yahoo.com/flash/) - lots of components and stuff also
Last-fm (http://code.google.com/p/lastfm-as3/)

UI - mouse/keyboard
Mouse Gestures (http://www.bytearray.org/?p=91)
Senocular's Key Class (http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2098269&postcount=319) - Awesome lightweight class that recreates the as2 Key object.
Senocular's Virtual Mouse (http://www.senocular.com/demo/VirtualMouse/VirtualMouse.html)

Sound
popforge (http://code.google.com/p/popforge/) - sandbox project.. it makes beats and rhythms... me thinks.
soundeditorlib (http://code.google.com/p/as3soundeditorlib/) - no idea..

3D graphics
Papervision 3D (http://code.google.com/p/papervision3d/) - Best 3D?
alternativa3d (http://alternativaplatform.com/en/alternativa3d/) - Powerful 3d engine (free for non-commercial use).
Away 3D (http://away3d.com/)
Sandy 3D (http://www.flashsandy.org/)
FIVe3D (http://five3d.mathieu-badimon.com/)

GUI/Components
flexlib (http://code.google.com/p/flexlib/) - flex gui components
ASWing (http://www.aswing.org/) - Gui Component things.
Flare (http://flare.prefuse.org/) - charts and stuff..
SmileArea (http://www.valentin-manthei.de/as3/) - inline pictures/smilies textarea component

2D Graphics/Particles
degrafa (http://www.degrafa.org/) - Drawing tools and alike
htmlwrapper (http://motionandcolor.com/) - a html rendering engine in flash... it looks very nice.
Flint Particles (http://flintparticles.org/) - some cool particles

Vector Drawing
µSprite (http://musprite.sourceforge.net/) - I'm not sure if this should be in here, its more like an app...

2D Physics
box2d as3 (http://box2dflash.sourceforge.net/) - Best 2D physics?
Motor2 (http://lab.polygonal.de/motor_physics/)
ape (http://www.cove.org/ape/)
Foam (http://code.google.com/p/foam-as3/)
Glaze (http://code.google.com/p/glaze/) - aka exile remake inspired from n

3D Physics
wow engine (http://seraf.mediabox.fr/wow-engine/as3-3d-physics-engine-wow-engine/) - best 3d physics? (not for long)
jiglibflash (http://code.google.com/p/jiglibflash/) - based on papervision & the c++ library called jiglib.

Tile/game engines
FFilmation (http://www.ffilmation.org/website/)
CDK (http://www.coreyoneil.com/Flash/CDK/index.html) - Collision Detection Kit (BitmapData collision checking)

Maths
The Canadian's Extended Math (http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=251648) - Does the same thing as default Math class plus more.
The Canadian's Equation Parser (http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=251592) - Give it a string equation and it'll solve it :D (requires extended maths class)


Other (Apps & haXe)
ASDoc - Generates Documentation for as3 projects (comes with the flex sdk/builder)
haXe (http://haxe.org/doc/intro) - OOP language that can compile into swf, neko, php, js & c++
Policy File Server (http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2399929&postcount=5) - haXe source code from ViktorHesselbom
haXe font manager class (http://ralcr.com/classes/fontmanager/) - haXe/flash class

If you got any to add to the list please post a link. :P
or something better to replace something with..


some classes that would be nice to add to this list:
- advanced key binding class similar to that of valve games..
- mouse class?
- hybrid BitmapData/Bitmap class thats nicely written with a buffer etc.
- shapes like stars, diamonds... great for particle effects.
- text management? speech bubbles, bitmapData text etc

Note *:
I labeled the database classes with * because its more efficient and secure to use AMF protocol to connect to php then have php connect to the database.

This way the user will not have access to a database password if they decompile the swf/use a packet sniffer.
Also the AMF protocol is compressed binary, it uses alot less bandwidth then xml formatted results etc. (xml is still nice for usability reasons like rss feeds, SEO etc)

However you can still use the direct connection libs, just keep in mind the above and create a MySql account with SELECT only privileges.

[scottc]

I'm going to sleep... I'll probably add some more tomorrow.

Mods could you rename this thread to something more useful like "useful api's and libraries"?
also feel free to modify/add to the list.

[ViktorHesselbom]

I'd rather class Glaze as a better 2D physics engine than box2d. We all have our preferences though. Other than that I think it looks good.

These lists make me hate myself for not creating a website so I can publish my tween class. I use it all the time and for the things I use it for it performs better than any other I've tried. I'll notify you if I some day get it up.

[scottc]

I'd rather class Glaze as a better 2D physics engine than box2d. We all have our preferences though. Other than that I think it looks good.

These lists make me hate myself for not creating a website so I can publish my tween class. I use it all the time and for the things I use it for it performs better than any other I've tried. I'll notify you if I some day get it up.

Glaze does look nice, but last time i checked it had no documentation.

[Groady]

Really great list. Should definately be stickied. I've listed some more below. I haven't used all of them.

Tween classes
Tweener (http://code.google.com/p/tweener/)
gTween (http://www.gskinner.com/libraries/gtween/)
TweenLite (http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3/)

Loading
BulkLoader (http://code.google.com/p/bulk-loader/)

Images
GIF Player (http://www.bytearray.org/?p=95)
GIF Animation encoder (http://www.bytearray.org/?p=93)

Mouse
MouseGesture (http://www.bytearray.org/?p=91)

[scottc]

^ added

[theCodeBot]

I have a keyBindings class!
Go ahead and throw Senocular's KeyObject up there for a simple key class, I will make a page for my KeyBindings class tonight. I think it's about as optimized as it's going to get, time to tell someone about it.

[scottc]

I have a keyBindings class!
Go ahead and throw Senocular's KeyObject up there for a simple key class, I will make a page for my KeyBindings class tonight. I think it's about as optimized as it's going to get, time to tell someone about it.

Sweet..:fab:
Can't wait to see it. :)

Do you know the "official" link for :sen:'s key class?
http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2098269&postcount=319
would this be it?

[scottc]

I found a flash vnc client, but the link to download it seems to be broken... if someone can find a mirror, i'll use that instead.
http://osflash.org/fvnc

author's website:
http://www.darronschall.com


Edit:
You can get a copy from the trac system at the moment.

By the way can anyone recommend a nice svn checkout app?
or just do it by the console/cmd?

Might help for those who are new to this type of thing. *cough* myself *cough*

Edit2:
http://tortoisesvn.sourceforge.net/
nice one on windows..

there is a list of clients at:
http://subversion.tigris.org/
* TortoiseSVN (Windows)
* Subclipse (Eclipse)
* Subversive (Eclipse)
* SCPlugin (Mac OS X)
* RapidSVN (cross-platform)
* AnkhSVN (Visual Studio)
* VisualSVN (Visual Studio)
* ...more clients...

[senocular]

Someone suggested earlier that I provide a svn repo for my classes; so that's something I hope to get done sometime in the near future.

To add to the mouse classes, there's also my VitualMouse class. It's even used in Papervision ;)
Demo: http://www.senocular.com/demo/VirtualMouse/VirtualMouse.html

All classes:
http://www.senocular.com/flash/actionscript/

[McFreaq]

I would like to add ASQL (not to confuse with ASSQL) to the »network« list above.

It can be found here: asql.mooska.pl/ (http://asql.mooska.pl/)

Basically it is an AS3 library that allows to directly access a MySQL database from ActionScript, without the need for a server like XAMPP, without PHP and without XML.
The API is fairly simple, you just make a new instance of an ASQL-Object, call a function to connect it to the database and another one to send your queries. The result for example of SELECT queries comes back as an Array.

[.ral:cr]

hello, not shure if anyone needs this, but i've done a FontManager class wich can load fonts from another swf, keep all your textformats in one place, styles and css.
here: http://ralcr.com/classes/fontmanager/

it's for haxe, not for flash yet but if anyone wants it i can speed the process of porting it.


ASQL seems very very interesting, i'll try it.

[scottc]

^ added

yay for haXe....

haXe has papervision, glaze(physaxe) and AsWing ports also a few other note worthy ones like massloader etc. :)
http://lib.haxe.org/p/

ScreenweaverHX (make flash a front end for desktop{neko} apps).

then haxe also has other libraries that are also awesome. (but are outside of the scope for this forum/thread)
like hxGtk

[mooska]

Fluint
http://code.google.com/p/fluint/

Similar to flexunit, but with a bit more possibilities, tdd lib for both flash and flex. Its gui is not so pretty as flexunit`s though ;)

Gaia
http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/

A must for anyone that use swfadress for flash-made sites. Manages section in and out animations, deeplinking and assets preloading. Great documentation.



I labeled the database classes with * because its more efficient and secure to use AMF protocol to connect to php then have php connect to the database.

This way the user will not have access to a database password if they decompile the swf/use a packet sniffer.You can restrict mysql user on the mysql side, ie. to let him execute only select queries, wich makes mysql something similar to http server, but with sql instead of GET ;)

[scottc]

^ added


You can restrict mysql user on the mysql side, ie. to let him execute only select queries, wich makes mysql something similar to http server, but with sql instead of GET ;)

true that, i'll write a note about it.

[mooska]

also

FTP?
Theres a pilot project available.

http://projects.maliboo.pl/FlexFTP/

If someone need that ;)

[scottc]

Sweet Thanks.

I'll add that too...

Sorry i haven't added the previous one either, been in very lazy mood.
(I blame the australian summer weather.)

[Sage_of_Fire]

Nice thread, somebody should sticky this.

[wvxvw]

These can go to Networking:
http://mate.riaforge.org/
(Mate, Flex architectural framework to organize event flow within application + remoting)
http://puremvc.org/
(PureMVC, virtually the same as above, but less flexible, though more popular, Flex / Flash)
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/cairngorm/Cairngorm
(Cairngorm, the same as above, and finally I can spell it without making more than 2 typos!)

Graphics:
http://www.degrafa.org/
(Degrafa - Flex library for various drawing / skinning)
http://code.google.com/p/flexlib/
(Lots of different visual components for Flex)

[Tsukiyomi]

Anyone tried gskinner's Janitor class?

I stumbled on to it today and thus far it looks pretty cool, it handles a lot of resource management. It keeps track of all your listeners and other resources on an object and allows you to remove them all with a single function to make them eligible for garbage collection.

http://gskinner.com/talks/resource-management/

Heres the description for it:

Janitor:
Cleans up most common elements of an object, including:
* remove event listeners
* unload any swf's that were loaded so they can also clean up on unload
* close any LocalConnections, NetConnections, NetStreams, XML, Sockets, etc
* stop any sound channels from playing
* stop any running multiframe movieclips on the time line
* stop the timeline if multiframe and playing
* clear intervals, clear timeouts, stop Timers

myJanitor = new Janitor(this);
myJanitor.addConnection(myNetStream);
// etc.
...
// in dispose():
myJanitor.cleanUp();

It sounds like it could save some headaches, but does anyone have any experience with it as to how well it works?