Degrafa Beta 3.1 is now available. You can grab the new beta and read the new documentation.

Degrafa Beta 3 was a huge update from Beta 2 and took almost about 8 months to get done. The Beta 3 release as already received around 4,200 downloads and it seems more and more content is starting to float around, like screencasts, user group presentations, samples and tutorials. The response and encouragement from the community has been inspiring. It’s also great to hear how Degrafa has made it’s way into some of the biggest RIAs out there.

Now that the core features have been defined, we can move forward with things like updates to features, optimization, performance and bug fixes. We’re also on a more frequent release cycle on our way to Degrafa 1.0. In these releases we’ll also be including samples that display just how powerful Degrafa can be. So, be sure to keep an eye on the Degrafa Samples page.

Along with this release we gave a much needed update to the documentation. Hopefully exploring the documentation will offer some insight into all the additional goodies that comes with Beta 3 and the potential for future releases. We’ll also be updating the Degrafa Samples page with more great stuff.

If you’re using Degrafa Beta 2 or 3 you’ll probably want to update to this latest release. For SVN users, we’ve noticed some people have been unintentionally checking out old code via svn. If you are using the http://code.google.com/p/degrafa/source/browse/#svn/trunk/Degrafa for SVN you are still using the Beta 2. Beta 3 will remain in it’s original home located at http://code.google.com/p/degrafa/source/browse/#svn/branches/Origin/Degrafa . If you wish to use Beta 3 and take advantage of the ongoing work there you will need to use the Branches/Origin path for checking out from SVN in the second of those two links. Also, older downloads have been deprecated, but are still available on Google Code.

So, what exactly is in Degrafa Beta 3.1 and where are we going next? Here’s some notes:

Enhancements/Features

• RasterText now has support for regular Degrafa Fills
• Geometry now offers two mask modes
• Advanced math utilities added.
• A standard decorator package has been included, including two stroke decorators (for now)
• GeometryRepeater now provides easy access to the current iteration counter
• PropertyModifier offset property has been changed to modifier.

Bug Fixes

• Issue 64 addressed – Changes to inline MXML segments or points on path , polygon, and polyline will now properly update/draw with binding.
• BezierSpline will now properly auto close with the correct curvature.
• Issue 65 addressed – RasterText binding is now working as expected.
• RoundedRectangle and RoundedRectangleComplex now internally adapt their rendering to reduce a Flash Player rendering artifact under some circumstances. See this blog post

Known Issues

• Multiple decorator processing has not yet been implemented. Only one decorator will have an effect. Resolution planned for next update.
• TransformGroup processing of multiple registration points is not yet final. Review is underway. Resolution planned for next update.
• RasterText does not support alpha with a SolidFill. Resolution planned for next update.

The Framework

We will continue to evolve the framework in various areas.
Work has starting on optimization with focus on:

•     General Memory use and CPU
•     Object pooling and externalization of state. 
•     Opt in BitmapData cache

Initial memory and performance results are very promising.

The Degrafa Site

Look for new Degrafa code libraries and content based resources coming soon.

Just a quick not that we’ll be forwarding Degrafa.com to Degrafa’s new home here at Degrafa.org. We’re looking to start adding a bunch of new content and posting it to the blog including screencasts, samples, presentation recordings and more. Stay tuned and update your feeds and bookmarks as necessary.

Degrafa.org is the new site for Degrafa, a declarative graphics framework. Formerly hosted at Degrafa.com, here you’ll find new things like better organization of information, a new “Learning” section and a focus on community. We’re excited about the new site and the things we have planned for the future.

Pretty soon degrafa.com will be forwarding here, so update your bookmarks and feeds. And, as always, we’re looking for feedback on what you’d like to see here.

Since the very start of Degrafa our goal was to make it easier and more intuitive to create graphics in Flex than working directly with the native Flash drawing API. By enabling people to work with graphics through an easy to understand compact markup syntax we believed it would open up new areas of innovation and would improve and streamline the designer/developer workflow. Since we started we’ve had over 8,000 downloads of Degrafa, which is really a testament to how important tackling a strong graphics markup really is.

Of course, we weren’t the only ones to recognize the need that Degrafa addresses. At MAX 2007 Adobe officially announced Thermo (their RIA design tool), and FXG (MXMLG) the graphics markup that would support it. We were excited to see this – not only from a markup standpoint, but from a tooling perspective that would help streamline user adoption. Some people said FXG was the answer and Degrafa wasn’t needed anymore; others asked about a potential collaboration and some were Degrafa die-hards. Well, we’ve always felt strongly about the solutions Degrafa enables and have always been receptive to potential collaborations with Adobe. We really just wanted to create an awesome graphics markup.

Over the past several months we have had many conversations with Adobe where both the Degrafa team and the Flex team shared insights into each others respective endeavors and looked at potential ways for both teams to collaborate. Today, we are very happy to announce that after further conversations and discussions, Adobe has asked if the Degrafa team would consider helping directly contribute to the Flex Graphics open source effort. Our response was a unanimous “Yes!”

Initially, Degrafa will be adapting its core graphic rendering engine directly into Flex Graphics, as the command stack pipeline approach envisioned by Jason over a year ago is very similar to the path Adobe was contemplating and lends itself perfectly to take advantage of the Flash Player 10 optimizations. Everyone on both the Degrafa and Adobe team is very excited by this opportunity to work together. In addition to adding the respective expertise of the Degrafa team to the Flex Graphics effort, we will also be testing the waters as the first direct external contributors to Flex. This is a big step for Adobe and a real indication of their commitment to open source and the community.

What does this mean for Degrafa? The most likely scenario we envision will have Degrafa becoming a superset of FXG, with Degrafa extending what will be possible in FXG. Part of of work with Adobe is helping to ensure that both FXG and Degrafa leverage the same graphics pipepline and command stack approach as mentioned above. This collaboration with Adobe will not only make Flex Graphics more powerful through the enhancements made by Degrafa, but it will also allow Degrafa to become more powerful and easily tooled and extended through Flex Graphics’ closer association and architectural design to Degrafa.

While the FXG syntax and the Flex Graphics classes primarily serve as the needed markup to support Thermo tooling and bridge the gap between the Designer and Developer workflow, we see Degrafa taking a different approach to the same problem. Instead of making a tooling constrained markup, we wanted Degrafa to be an extremely flexible and powerful design that could be directly used by both designers and developers alike, allowing them to push the boundaries of graphics innovation.

We are all looking forward to this opportunity to work together and help build upon each others respective success and strengths.

Wow, does time fly. The deadline for Degrafa Derby submissions is rapidly approaching with one week left on the board. We’ve seen a mix of uses of Degrafa and even more talks of ideas for submissions, so keep it going.

We know some people are waiting until the last minute to submit, which is fine. The submission cut off is February 22nd and since we’re scattered across the globe, you don’t have to worry about adhering to a particular time zone.

We’ll take late submissions, but we can’t guarantee it’ll get into judging. The more time we have to spend with a submission the better, and since a majority of the “judges” will be heading off to 360|Flex, we have a window of time to get all the judging in. Also, submissions from any country are accepted.

Send your Degrafa Derby submission to derby [at] degrafa [dot] com with:

• Your Submission: source files or a URL
• Title of Submission
• Name(s) of Developers
• Description
• Any unique challenges, approaches, etc.
• Contact Email
• Proof that submission uses Degrafa. We basically need to know you used Degrafa. This can be source files, a secret link to a submission with view source enabled, or an “I swear it’s Degrafa” statement.

Any questions, email derby [at] degrafa [dot] com.

We’re happy to announce Jim Cheng as an addition to the Degrafa Team. Jim is a seasoned Flex/AJAX developer with a strong background in data structures and algorithms. He augments the Degrafa team with years of experience in performance optimization and file format parsers. Jim looks forward to improving the core framework as well as contributing new features.

As more developers dig into the Degrafa framework and provide feedback for new features and the broadening of current features, Jim is a welcomed addition to the team. He’ll be helping us out with core framework and helping us tackle some great new features we have planned for the next major release. We feel we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg of what this framework may be capable of.

Just as a reminder, you can log issues and enhancements concerning the framework at Google Code location. Thanks to everyone who has provided us feedback so far and kept us on our toes with questions.

The Degrafa Derby is out in full force and we’ve already started to see some really cool stuff being created. In many ways they’ve exceeded what we even thought the framework was capable of. As news of the Degrafa Derby has spread, some other supporters have offered to kick in some additional prizes, in addition to the initial Flex Builder 3 license.

Ryan Stewart is pitching in a choice of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium OR Web Premium out of his own pocket to support the contest. He likes where the framework is going and wanted to help out. Doug McCune has offered up a hand-bedazzled 360|Flex Shirt based on his “alternate” rendition of the 360|Flex badge. Who wouldn’t want that? Lastly, the winner of the Degrafa Derby will also receive a free ticket (or reimbursement) to 360|Flex Atlanta courtesy of John Wilker and Tom Ortega.

So, the final prize tally for the winner of the Degrafa Derby Contest:

• Flex Builder 3 License
• Choice of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium OR Web Premium
• A hand-bedazzled 360|Flex Shirt
• Ticket to 360|Flex Atlanta

By the way, you might find your entry useful for something else being announced very soon. Thanks everyone, for pitchin’ in the sweet prizes. The support has been amazing. You have until February 22nd to submit your entries. Get more information here.

On a side note, you can follow Degrafa on Twitter for updates and such.

Just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone who’s interested know that the Degrafa source code is now available on Google Code. Go grab it, use it, critique it, add to it or whatever you want. Ignore the typos and rough documentation .

Be sure to log any issues you might have along the way. You can do that on the Issue Tracking page on Google Code.

Get the Degrafa Source Code

With Degrafa at over 200 downloads in the first 24 hours we thought we’d propose a challenge for those of you beginning to get familiar with the framework. We’re opening up a contest for the coolest thing created in Degrafa.

The deadline is February 23rd. The prizes are listed below. Also, since there will be a session about Degrafa at 360|Flex Atlanta, the winning submission will be included as a part of the presentation (credits included of course).

ï¾ We understand the Degrafa framework is still in flux, so we’re giving a fair amount of time to compensate for the additions and refinements that are currently underway. The source will be up soon as well for those of you who’d like to get your hands dirty in the code.

ï¾ So what are we looking for? Well, anything. If you need some ideas, you might want to consider looking at the discussion board. Other than that, there’s plenty of things we’ve talked about doing, but we’re busy putting the finishing touches on the framework.

ï¾ Here’s some other ideas:

• Add to the library of static or dynamic shapesï¾ 
• Add or suggest a feature
• A Degrafa Explorer
• Creating a set of skins
• A series of gauges
• Data visualization
• Artistic Exploration
• Contributing to the project
• Tying into Kuler

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Although some of these ideas may be a bit more involved for a Flex license, we don’t want to hold anyone back . Go nuts! Oh, and if you’re the only one who submits, guess what? You win! Oh, and we’re working on getting some more prizes, so stay tuned!

Special thanks to Adobe, 360|Conferences, Ryan Stewart and Doug McCune for providing the prizes.

Prizes

The winning entry will receive:

• Flex Builder 3 License
• Choice of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium OR Web Premium
• A hand-bedazzled 360|Flex Shirt
• Ticket to 360|Flex Atlanta (or reimbursement)

“Terms”

Deadline: February 22nd

We would prefer that whatever is entered into the contest becomes open for others to learn from and see the power of Degrafa. If that is not possible, then the judges must have proof that the entry did indeed use Degrafa.

Entry Submission: Send a link or code of your entry to derby [at] degrafa [dot] com.

Questions: Any questions concerning the Degrafa Derby can be sent to derby [at] degrafa [dot] com.ï¾ 

It’s hard to believe that what started as a casual email exchange between fellow developers would evolve into what we’re releasing today. That’s right, the Degrafa beta is finally here! We’re calling this initial beta Degrafa Origin (for obvious reasons) and we hope it will be the first in a series. There’s a huge amount of features that we want to add, but we opted to get something out there before 2010 and get some feedback.

Release Notes

• You can get the SWC from Google Code. We’ll be making the source available in the next couple days. We were pushing to get it out today, but with the holiday schedule it wasn’t happening.
• Check out the documentation at docs.degrafa.com. We’ll be updating the documentation throughout the week.
• View samples at samples.degrafa.com. We’ll be adding more samples in the next few days/weeks.
• Get in on the discussions on the Degrafa Google Group.

We’ll continue to add to all these areas in the coming days and weeks. We welcome any feedback, feature requests, “what the hell” inquiries and the like. It’ll only make the framework better.

Some parts of the framework are still rough around the edges and we hope to smooth those out over the next few weeks. ï¾ Here are some items we hope to release/complete in the coming weeks/months:

• Transformations
• Tons of skinning improvements
• Layout management
• Improved and complete documentation
• Many, many more great examples to get you up and running
• An SVG to Degrafa conversion tool and all round better SVG support
• Optimization improvements
• Several other features that will make Degrafa more valuable

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Stay tuned for more to come and be sure to hone your Degrafa skills, as they may come in handy very soon.

Special Thanks

The Degrafa team would like to extend a huge thank you to the folks over at Effective UI for graciously providing Degrafa a welcome home during it’s inception. We would also like to thank the beta testers: Dirk, Dominique, Ken, and Nahuel.

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Also, we’d like to thank people at Adobe, including Ely Greenfield, Glenn Ruehle and Ted Patrick for sharing their thoughts with us along the way. We look forward to the further advancements of graphics related work within the Flex framework and hope to be a part of efforts in this area.

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