Update: This project has been updated for the official release of the free Flex 2 SDK.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Today, I bring you the second release of my Flash-based client for AOL Instant Messenger. Since Adobe released Flex Builder Beta 1 a short while ago, I needed to change the project to work in the updated environment. Of course, I couldn’t leave it as-is, so I took some time to add a little more (much-needed) functionality.
I spent some time adding text-formatting. You can change the font size, color, and styling. The client can also handle formatting sent with messages from buddies. It’s all basic HTML, so the Flex components didn’t have too much trouble handling it. I just had to make a few tweaks, since AOL messages have weird font sizes (or is it Flex?).
I also added the ability to view buddy info, and I the client now connects to an AOL server that supports profiles. These are stored on the server in html, except it’s nowhere near standards-compliant. I had to do some extra parsing on what AOL sent my way to get Flex to like it.
Remember, you need the latest Flex Builder 2 Beta 1 and the pre-release 8.5 Flash player to try out the demo. If you aren’t a Flash/Flex programmer, you probably don’t have these. You’ve been warned. Now, head over to the downloads, and try it out.
If you have trouble running the SWF on its own, try importing the project into Flex Builder and running it in there. I think there might be an issue with Flash’s security and Sockets. Let me know your experiences.
In that case, is it able to run on a browser ? (as hosted on a website and not locally) thanks =)
Very nice!
Love the translucent windows.
Mike
It definitely won’t work hosted on a website, unless you wrap it with PHP (or another server-side script) by calling your own server and passing the data to AOL’s servers.
I Can’t Get It To Work Period
Abscout, I have not updated this project to the latest Flash 9 beta. I plan to do a big update to all my Flash 8.5-9 projects with the official release, which is coming soon.
i have flash 8
Abscout, this project is completely incompatible with Flash 8. It uses some exciting new features from the soon-to-be-released Flash 9.
Thanks for your interest, though. I encourage you to come back later this summer after Adobe unleashes the new version.
[...] Update: I\\\’ve added some more features to FlashAIM, such as text formatting. [...]
Note: To run the AIM client locally, you may need to add its parent folder as a trusted location in the Flash Player Global Security Settings panel. Otherwise, if you create a project in Flex Builder, you can run it in debug mode.
I hope that helps anyone who might be having problems.
Is there anyway to setup this on my webserver to be used with Flash 9 Player? I want to be able to connect to my website, run the FlashAIM client and connect to AOL from the flash client. Is this possible? If so, how? If not, why not?
David,
Off the top of my head, that’s certainly possible. You could change the target of a TocConnection instance to connect to your server instead. On your server, some sort of program or script would be running that could pass your messages to the correct AOL source, and it would pass the responses back to you.
I tried running aim on my webserver but it won work what do I need to change in order to make it work on my home webserver?
Don, as I stated in previous comments, this project will not work on a webserver without some major changes. I have not tried it myself, and I don’t plan to do it now or in the future.
where can i download the code? it is neither in download page nor this page ….
Hi,
How about the same application being ported on a mobile using FlashLite? How feasible is that? I am working on a mobile version of a IM client. I am facing issues with FlashLite? I would like to have ur advice on this.
Mohinish, this application was created with ActionScript 3. Unless I missed something, AS3 is not yet available for FlashLite. Maybe in the future, but right now, it can’t be ported.