Sandman 0.2 released

Demo:
Click here to view a demo of the latest version

New features:

- download attachments
- pagination to view all mail
- some slightly improved CSS markup
- various bug fixes

Loading an image using ActionScript with a DataGrid / ItemRenderer

I didn't find any examples of this on Google on how to do this programmatically.
What I wanted to do was display a trash icon / image indicating whether an email message was deleted or not.

For your DataGridColumn:

<mx:DataGridColumn headerText="" dataField="icon" width="11" 
itemRenderer="com.sandman.view.IconRenderer" />

Now your renderer:

package com.sandman.view
{
 import mx.containers.HBox;
 import mx.controls.Image;
 
 public class IconRenderer extends HBox
 {
     private var imageReference:Image = null;
        override public function set data(value:Object):void {

         if (value.deleted && imageReference==null) {
      var img:Image = new Image();
      img.source = 'assets/icons/trash.gif';
      img.height = 10;
      img.width = 10;
      imageReference = img;
      addChild(img);
         } else if (imageReference is Image) {
          imageReference.visible = value.deleted;
         }
            
            super.invalidateDisplayList();
            
        }
 
 }
}

The above is a more flexible equivalent to the <mx:Component /> tag.

Creativity in your application

Where does creativity begin or end?

I sent a message to Sebastien asking him about what he means by creativity...

At my job, I have rarely been asked to be creative. So what is it and how can I use it? Sebastien responded to my message and posted it in the comments. I suppose my main reaction is about including subtle experience changes. Another step to take is integrating useful 3rd-party plugins or services. How about integrating Soashable for a web-based IM client (compared to GTalk)?

What people most care about for email is new email notifications. So, how can I use existing technlogies to deliver these notifications? Text messages? IM's? XMPP? RSS? The poll instead of push model of email seems to muddy how real-time these notifications could be.

Sandman Mail 0.1 released!

What is Sandman Mail?
It is a Flex-based IMAP client.

What is the goal of Sandman Mail?
To be the future replacement of Squirrelmail, Neomail, commercial alternatives, etc.

What is the license?
All the Flex code is licensed under the BSD. All the IMAP PHP code is licensed under the GPL. There are also a few libraries (mainly PEAR, AMFPHP, Cairngorm) used which have their own licenses.

Where can I download it?
Download at SourceForge

What does the initial release have?
The first release is largely focused on some very basic things:

• Connect to IMAP server
• Download mail
• Read mail
• Read different mail folders

It should be noted that this release is definitely not meant for any production use but more of a look-and-see kind of thing.

Where is the repository?
Browse SVN Repository

Is there an online demo?
For now the online demo is hosted here:
Online demo

You may login using your Gmail account or your UMN account.

To test with your Gmail account, you will need to make sure IMAP is enabled. You can enable it under Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

Are there any limitations?
A constraint has been put in place where it will only download 25 email messages per mailbox. This is mainly because I have not yet determined how I will go about doing pagination yet and I don't want to overload anyone who may try out the demo.