I finally release the version 2 of the framework Soma MVC and its source code generator SomaUI. It has been a long run since the last release, months of works and nights spent to make your life easier! But here we are.
Firstly, I’d like to thanks Less Rain. Not only they are amazing and skilled people, but they also have been very supportive to me. Thanks again!
Soma v2 have been already used for many projects and it has been a joy to work with it. I first built this framework for myself, as a tool. I wouldn’t release it if I didn’t think that Soma could help you with a minimum of learning and “framework fights”, and I hope… with a lot of fun!
If the concept, compare to the version 2, is similar, a lot have been improved and added.
First a SomaUI demo!
SomaUI is a tool that is generate source code, a Flash site based on Soma.
Soma, the AS3 MVC Framework
The framework is more consistent and is simpler to use, ease of use has always been my goal. And for this, the transitions proxies don’t exist anymore and the template system has been removed.
Paradoxically, the framework is a lot more powerful and stronger that the version 1, especially in terms of automation.
What’s new?
Some libraries have been added and they can also be used without the framework, such as a loader library SomaLoader (already released as a standalone) to manage loading processes, queue management and loading display.
I also built a video player “SomaVideoPlayer” (not released yet as a standalone), very easy to use and with a powerful skin system to alter built-in controls or create new ones.
I also built an assets system to dynamically create images, video, or anything, positioned them, describe layout behaviors, and a lot more… and just from an XML file, no code required! The process is amazingly quick. For example to create a video player on screen, it takes not more than a single XML node. This assets system can be used to dynamically create your own assets (custom display objects) at run-time from an XML.
There a new special “page mode movieclip” that works with the Flash IDE, that can make simple development of a whole site a matter of minutes (depending on what you want you want to reach). This will be my next tutorial.
I’ve never wanted Soma to impose rules to a developer, at least not too much. A big point in Soma (and SomaUI), it is never handling physical files or assets files. You can still embed images, fonts or anything the way you like (with SWC, in Flash IDE, metadata tags, or whatever). I did break some encapsulation rules though, and it was to reach a very high level of freedom and flexibility.
SomaUI, the source code generator
The first version has always been in beta and was more a kind of “concept”.
The version 2 is going a lot further and its purpose is:
– building an XML file required in order to make Soma working
– exporting deploy files (html, css, etc)
– exporting source (actinscript, Flash file, XML, etc)
– compile with the Flex SDK
If you know how to build the XML file that is required by Soma, you can avoid to use SomaUI. So the whole point of SomaUI is helping you building that XML and create files to spare time.
Through screens you can set up your project, configure it, create pages, create assets, backgrounds, and export!
Finally
I hope you will have nice time with those tools. To download the sources, get the documentation, samples, explanation or more help… everything is starting on the SomaUI Page.
Any feedback (good or bad) are always welcomed!
Happy development!
Romu
Comments
Romu,
thanks for sharing.. looks really interesting, so i will definitely have a closer look at it!
Jörg
looks good . i will look at it.
Great work again
Really nice. You have enabled a quick easy process to jump start nice looking flash sites. Going to start playing with it. Newbie question though. Why are the desktop applications not built entirely with Adobe Air?
You can use any kind of design, Soma is a structure managing empty sprites. Adobe AIR can’t execute files or launch processes. I’m using java to do that and Merapi as the bridge between the 2 technologies.
Romu
I’m having some problems… with windows vista x64… really simple proyect when I try to export and compile the dialog show this…
>> Process File Copy Item: loading class
>> Process File Copy Item: Soma framework
>> Process File Copy Item: static source
>>> FILE COPY START
======== EXPORT START ========================
.. but nothing more… swfs aren’t exported
This will be pretty hard to find out as I don’t have any Vista 64 to try. It is weird that it is happening right at this moment, it is an AIR job (it is just copying files) and it should be the same on any operating system. The file copy process is even cut in the middle, it is not making sense at all.
Is the app freezing?
Please start a thread on the forum so I can give you some instructions to find out what’s going on.
Romu
file copy it’s ok… well… copy source without pages and www with index.html no more
hi romu,
how do you make standalone executable of SomaUI?
I mean this file SomaUI.exe size = 7,48 MB (7.843.840 bytes)
thx
The windows executable file (exe) is a wrapper that contains a java file, a jar executable. I’ve done that with jsmooth.
Romu
hello dude
pratique ce programme xml !
good job papa
dan2lespace
ps: je cherche ton email, envoie le moi svp missiou !
a++
hi @all,
i am a absolute flash beginner. i tried to create the “basic site” via your xml definiton. compilation seems to work, but beside a grey background I do not see any menu or something else. can the reason be the missing flash IDE tool? I just configured a flash player as executable file. I saw, you configured “Adobe Flash CS4” in your demo project. Is there any other possibility for free only for testing pursose? In all the soma documentation there is nothing said about the relevance of these paths – it is only mentionedm that Flex SDK is necessary – so I installed version 3.4.
thx for your help!
Thomas
By Basic Site you mean the one from the Soma Protest XML page?
http://www.soundstep.com/somaprotest/www/data/xml-examples/BasicSite.txt
Just tested it again and everything works.
Could you create a post on the forum, so I can help you? Comments are not great for that 🙂
http://www.soundstep.com/forum/
Romu