Central 1.5's Greatest Hits

This blog has been silent for a while since I've been working at Macromedia on the Central 1.5 and AOL Instant Messaging SDK projects. The schedule was tight, and of course I couldn't blog about any of the cool new features until after the release.

Now that 1.5 is out there I'll start with my list of favorite new features, which I'm calling Central 1.5's Greatest Hits:

1. The new Open Distribution License. This license essentially says: sell your Central apps however you want. This is really a generous licensing deal from Macromedia, and it removes the main obstacle developers had to selling Central apps to corporate customers.
2. ActionScript 2.0 Support. Central's is a well designed but somewhat complex architecture. The object-oriented capabilities of AS2.0 make it easier to design clearly-defined application classes that work well in Central. Plus the use of the V2 Flash UI Components makes it much easier to share code between your browser-based Flash apps and your Central projects.

3. AIM Integration. You won't realize how cool the new messaging features are until you send a message from your own Central app to someone else on AIM. This really does open up your apps to the rest of the world!
4. File I/O. We all wanted access to the local file system, and now we've got it!
5. The Central Product Wizard. This Flash MX 2004 utility makes it a lot easier to publish your apps into Central. Yes, after you've built a few product.xml files by hand you can get used to doing it that way. But really, who should have to go through that? I recommend using the Wizard on all your new Central projects.

There are other improvements too, but the features above are the ones that really transform what Central can do.

By the way, the Central team also spent a lot of time improving memory management and performance of the whole environment, making it easier to use Central as a day-in, day-out productivity tool.

If you're new to Central, or you haven't checked it out since version 1.0, start at the Central Developer Center and go from there. Here are some key articles:

• For a quick introduction to using AS2.0 and the Central Product Wizard in Central, try the updated Central Development Quick Start article (my rewrite of Mike Chambers' timeless original).
• Mike Williams goes into the Central Product Wizard in more depth in this article.
• Waleed Anbar's Desktop Dynamo article gives more details about the new features and performance improvements.
• In the article What is Gemini? Christian Cantrell puts the Central 1.5 release into perspective, talking about improvements since 1.0 and future Central directions.

For other views about the Central 1.5 release, check out these entries on the Brajeshwar and ASVGuy blogs.