Nick Bilyk

In mxml, you have no access to the constructor of the component. Therefore, you have no way of requiring constructor arguments to be set.
I was thinking, it would be nice to have a way to enforce at least that certain properties get set.

So here's my solution. Feel free to improve upon it, it's just the first way I could think of to do this.
First, we add a metadata tag to all required properties of your Component.

[Required] public var requiredArgument:Object;

If you want to see this in AS4, vote for it here:
https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/ASC-3153

Many times have I been asked the question, "Should I use Silverlight or Flash?".

Now, I don't want to start off some fanboy discussion or write an article that appears to be biased. I'm a web developer, and I choose the tools best to solve a problem. Having said that, before the question of "Silverlight or Flash?", you should really ask:

HTML or plugin?

• Does your web app require a large amount of interactivity?
• What types of media does your app use? (Images, video, sound, animation)
• Does your media need to be protected?

Flex Repeaters can save you a lot of time. As long as they work, but troubleshooting these little guys can be a serious pain in the butt. In this article I'm going to talk about some best practices to avoid some major headaches.

MNSWF Camp is April 6th in Minneapolis at the Central Library
http://www.mnswf.com/camp/

FlashMN will be hosting a table at FlashBelt this year! Look for us there, we'll have some entertainment and a drawing. We will be offering a 2100$ Adobe software giveaway in order to promote the user group.

*NEW* This Wednesday (May 20th), FlashMN will be giving away two free passes!