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 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

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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We are diligently working on getting things ready for the Degrafa beta release. Things like documentation, samples, getting set up on Google Code and Google Groups, etc. are all being worked out as I write this.

Of course, with New Year’s celebration and the team being distributed all over the world, the roll out of all the components (documentation, samples, etc.) will probably be distributed throughout the day of the 1st. Then more will be added as the days go by. The main thing we want to get out there is the framework itself, so people can start playing. So stay tuned…

By the way, information will be distributed across these URLs:

• code.degrafa.com : Points to the Degrafa Google Code page.
• group.degrafa.com : Points to the Degrafa Google Group.
• samples.degrafa.com : This is where links to samples in the documentation will point to.
• docs.degrafa.com : This is where the Degrafa documentation will go.

This is all subject to change, but we’ll let you know if it does.

It’s about time, right? So, what’s taking so long? Well, our team grew a bit and we’ve spent the time to integrate some extra features that we felt would be important to have in the first release. When we set out to create this framework we definitely had some feature sets in mind, but in many cases the first beta will exceed them.

The public beta will finally be available January 1st under the MIT License. What a great way to start off 2008, right? For the public release, Degrafa will be available on Google Code, which will also provide a bug management system and integration with our new Google Group.

UPDATE: We moved our Google Group here. So if you signed up for the other one that was listed you’ll need to sign up for the new one to get current info. Sorry for the inconvenience.

As we work to polish things off, here’s a feature summary of what will be available in Beta 1. Keep in mind these are all accessible via MXML.

Stay tuned for more info and examples as we get closer to the date.

Shapes

Degrafa has a number of predefined shapes that can be used to create your graphics compositions:
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• Rectangles
• Circles
• Ellipses
• Lines
• Polygons
• etc.

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Freeform

If the Degrafa shapes aren’t flexible enough you can create your own using the following, including using SVG path data:

• Arcs (elliptical)
• Bezier Curves (cubic and quadratic)
• Paths
• etc.

or download from an ever growing library.

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Segments

Draw using segments:

• ï¾ MoveTo
• LineTo
• ArcTo
• Bezier To
• etc.

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Repeaters

Repeat an object to create advanced visuals.ï¾ 

Paint

Add fills or strokes using the following:

• Solid Fill and Stroke
• Gradient Fills and Strokes
• Bitmap Fill (position and repeat)
• Complex Fill (layer and blend fills)
• etc.

Binding & API Access

Degrafa supports the full MXML binding mechanism with runtime access, API access, collection support, etc.

Skins

Degrafa can be used for all your skinning needs. No more ActionScript and/or extending complex classes.

CSS

You may never create a skin again. Do more with CSS:

• background color (solid and gradients)
• background images (position, repeat, layer, and blend)
• border widths (left, top, right, and bottom independently)
• border colors (left, top, right, and bottom independently)
• border radii (left, top, right, and bottom independently)
• etc.

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