You're clients will love it! And in the end you will know more about the sites you build and how to better drive traffic to certain areas! Win! Win!
Ok so I have been using Google Analytics for quite sometime now and I must say i love it! So if you don't know by now Google provides FREE website statistics that go above and beyond any stat tracking systems I have seen to date. Well that is for something that is FREE. Anyway I want encourage all of you to get out there and start using Google Analytics for all your flash site going forward. Its really very simple to implement into your flash sites and even track individual events that occur in each of your sites. Please see analytics.google.com for more information on setting up your personal analytics with google and to get the Javascript needed for the code below to work. With that said let's get on to some actionscript!
googleAnalytics.as (right click - save as)
/// GOOGLE ANALYTICS SIMPLE TRACKING
/// Script by: corban baxter
import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
function gaTracking(page) {
ExternalInterface.call("pageTracker._trackPageview", page);
}
//end
Code for simple call
gaTracking("/flash/home"); //sends event to google's analytics system
Now what you can understand from this is... You can call this function during ANY event function etc that you so desire. And any string combination that you want to pass to it is fair game. Use best practices when passing in the strings though so its easier for you and your clients to read when you all are reviewing the numbers. Ok so thats that! Cheers!
Good morning! Hey guys, gals and all other bloggers. I was just doing some browsing of the nets and found out there is going to be a WordCamp meeting in Frisco, Tx. I was just wondering if any of you other Flash bloggers in the area would be attending! I am thinking about going. But I'm not sure I can make the whole event due to previous plans. Are you going? I'd love to know if so! Ping me on Twitter or just comment below! Thanks!
Wow what a morning to wake up to! Adobe has news all over the place. iPhone is getting the Flash Player! Yeah I said it! Well not me but... They did... Wall Street Journal, Engadget, MacRumors and Bit101. 
How great is this going to be! Its really very interesting to speculate what they will actually do.
So lets think... Ok we all know that the old VM1 is pretty slow compared to the VM2 engine. And the VM1 engine might not cut it on a handheld device since it already has problems on some of our older desktops. Or even on old G4's for that matter. So how is adobe going to get Flash to operate smooth on the iPhone with the VM1 engine? Cause honestly I don't want old flash content to crash my iphone constantly. But I don't want to missout on about 95% of all the Flash content on the web running on the VM1 player. So will they port a version that runs parts of the VM1 engine for video playback and just use the VM2 engine to keep things lite? Or what's the deal going to be? Iis it going to be something we can run AIR apps in only? Hummzzz. Only time will tell. Oh and the last question is will they make iPhone users pay for the player? I really hope not! I might even boycott that decision by Adobe even though I REALLY wants me some Flash on my iPhone!
Ok then onto some other news from the ol Adobe boys this morning...
Adobe Flash Media Rights Management Server? Do what? Well its a way to protect your FLV's in all Flash platform apps. Which is great for MANY content providers all over the web and now the desktop. It even gives some tracking abilities even if the user has downloaded the video! Wow those statistic guys will go berserk for that! Anyway follow the link for more info. This is going to be very neat though and it will help Flash video out a ton when competing with the Quicktime's and Windows Media Player's. Next does anyone know the price point?
Wow! Have you guys seen this? Sprout Builder is a new startup that brings flash widget/banner building to the browser through a very clean and simle interface. It lets you build FLV player's, RSS readers, slideshows, countdown timers, mp3 players and the list goes on. The Beta has become public and anyone can try it out! It truely is incredible work. I built a simple custom RSS reader for my blog in about 5 mins. I would suggest checking it out and digging around. Its a great place for non developers to start seeing developers tools come to life quickly and easily! For you developers be careful though, sending those pesky creatives to it might give them ideas thinking our job is really this easy! Great work Sprout team its a beautiful project!
My buddy Preston emailed me this, this morning and its probably the greatest thing ever. The email's title was "Is this how our employers feel??" Pretty damn funny! More thoughts to come on this topic no time now!
Wow, wow and wow. Apple is doing it again. If you weren't aware it was press conference day for Steve Jobs and the new iPhone/iPod Touch SDK kit and the iPhone 2.0 update! This is some pretty exciting news for most of us. If you missed all the nuts and bolts you can visit Engadget or Gizmodo or whoever you can find. 
What I am excited about here is the iFund! iFund is a move made from a company called KPCB in alignment with Apple to encourage young minds and entrepreneurs to submit business ideas for new products to be built on the SDK! They are willing to help anywhere from 100k to 1.5M!! This is a great great thing and something I am proud of Apple to put out there. Its a chance for everyone to have an opportunity for their dream to come true! Even if you aren't a developer and you don't have the time to build the app on your own. You know have a chance with the right words and right idea to dream HUGE!
I would encourage all of you to step outside yourselves and reach for the stars! Dreams and not impossible they just take some work!
Now get out there and submit proposals to get FLASH on the iPhone! Let's Go!!! HA!
Ok no no no... I don't need some people in trench coats to help scare old women! Come on people! Do you use Adobe Flash and live in the DFW area? Well your in luck things are slowly starting to come together on our very own Dallas FUG or as a few of us like to call it the actionscript mafia. We are having a couple struggles getting things moving so if your interested and/or can help run over to dallasfug.com and see what your missing out on!
