Now you can integrate my parser into your library as open-source under GNU GPL license ..

ActionSctipt 2.0 version available here
ActionSctipt 3.0 version available here

Features Supported:

1. Embedding Fonts (just put a dynamic textfield on-stage and select at least Basic Latin (95 glyphs) and Arabic (1088 glyphs) from the Character Embedding menu).
2. Arabic Ligatures.
3. Word Wrapping.
4. Bi-Directional text.
5. HTML Text.
6. Loading External text on run-time.
7. Windows/Mac/Linux support.
8. Arabic enabled input fields using actionscript method (createArabicInput) with the help of javascript (arabicinput.js) beta

Features Not Supported:

1. Arabic Diacritics (not necessarily for reading Arabic language in general, arabs are using diacritics mostly for writing Quran, and in that case diacritics are not the only missing feature, there’re many other ligatures cases in Arabic used for Quran writing).

You can use the old example found here, just replace the StringUtils.as class file ..

This tutorial uses ActionScript 2.0, for ActionScript 3.0 follow this one ..

The following is a step-by-step tutorial for using shared fonts in Flash with the use of Arabic Parsing solution:

1. Create New Flash file to store shared fonts, in this case “arabic_fonts.fla”
2. Create new MovieClip symbol, in this case “arabic_fonts” and check the option “Export for runtime sharing”, in this case “arabic_fonts.swf”
   
3. Edit “arabic_fonts” MovieClip and create as many TextFields as you require, each with specific font to be shared
   
4. Select each TextField individually and embed fonts from the properties panel
   
5. Make sure you have checked the Arabic glyphs and you have chosen font name for linkage
   
6. Complie the output movie, save and close “arabic_fonts.fla”
7. Open your rendering Flash file, in this case “arabic_as2.fla” located in the same directory with “arabic_fonts.fla”
8. Create new MovieClip symbol and give it the exact same name for the shared library symbol, in this case “arabic_fonts”, then check the option “Import for runtime sharing”, in this case “arabic_fonts.swf”
   

   When asked to edit the newly created symbol, make sure that you choose “No”

   
9. Drag and instance of “arabic_fonts” MovieClip off-stage
   
10. Compile the output movie, you should see fonts displayed correctly
11. Download sample files here

Update: a newer version available here

Well, I discovered some annoying bugs, all fixed in this version ..
As per my previous post here, I still recommend embedding fonts to avoid improper rendering.

ActionSctipt 2.0 version available here
ActionSctipt 3.0 version available here

Requirements:

1. Dynamic TextField
2. HTML Enabled TextField
3. Pre-Assigned TextFormat
4. Arabic Font

Recommended Properties:

1. embedFonts: for proper rendering on Mac/Linux.

Properties:

1. data: for referencing original input string, use the data property (utils.data) instead of (TextField.text) where “utils” is an instance of StringUtils class.
2. wrapFactor: optional reduction value (Mac only) for wrapping correction when using bi-directional text, possible values: .98 or less.
3. htmlLines: array of spliced text block HTML lines.
4. numLines: integer value of total text block lines.

Features Supported:

1. Embedding Fonts (just put a dynamic textfield on-stage and select at least Basic Latin (95 glyphs) and Arabic (1088 glyphs) from the Character Embedding menu).
2. Arabic Ligatures.
3. Word Wrapping.
4. Bi-Directional text.
5. HTML Text.
6. Loading External text on run-time.
7. Windows/Mac/Linux support.
8. Arabic enabled input fields using actionscript method (createArabicInput) with the help of javascript (arabicinput.js) beta

Features Not Supported:

1. Arabic Diacritics (not necessarily for reading Arabic language in general, arabs are using diacritics mostly for writing Quran, and in that case diacritics are not the only missing feature, there’re many other ligatures cases in Arabic used for Quran writing).

Change List:

1. Proper rendering for HTML bullet list (include the bullet character “•” in the Character Embedding menu).
2. Optimized conditions for basic thorough loop.
3. New properties for referencing text block lines (htmlLines, numLines).

Fixed Bugs:

1. Multi-level HTML tags, for example:

   <a href="#"><font>text</font></a>

2. Line-break determination on Mac.

Known Bugs:

1. Improper wrapping for non-embedded fonts only on Mac when begin text line with non-Arabic characters or when using custom format HTML tags.

Here is an example works with this external XML file (with run-time resizing vs. wrapping):

download the above example here

Test files are available here using ASUnit Framework

Update: a newer version available here

This is a bit late, my apologies to you all, yet again, thanks to Jan Jonas and Yasmin (geekgirl)
I tried my best to solve bi-directional issues, it took me sometime to re-construct the wrapping part using completely different approach, it seems to be good when embedding fonts, but more wrapping issues pops-up for non-embedded fonts and only on Mac! this is weird, the whole solution was to solve Arabic ligatures when embedding Arabic fonts!
In addition, an overall code review has been taken care of, a lot of modifications in several places throughout the code has been done, if you like this one then you can start from hear instead, but if you don’t I think I need to know
Anyways, this is exactly why I released my solution as open-source from the first place, what good of a solution without sharing it with others to contribute, may be you’ll have better luck than I did when you update this one yourself ..

ActionSctipt 2.0 version available here
ActionSctipt 3.0 version available here

Requirements:

1. Dynamic TextField
2. HTML Enabled TextField
3. Pre-Assigned TextFormat
4. Arabic Font

Features Supported:

1. Embedding Fonts (just put a dynamic textfield on-stage and select at least Basic Latin (95 glyphs) and Arabic (1088 glyphs) from the Character Embedding menu).
2. Arabic Ligatures.
3. Word Wrapping.
4. Bi-Directional text.
5. HTML Text.
6. Loading External text on run-time.
7. Windows/Mac/Linux support.
8. Arabic enabled input fields using actionscript method (createArabicInput) with the help of javascript (arabicinput.js) beta

Properties:

1. For matching/comparing input string, when referencing original input string use the data property (utils.data) instead of (TextField.text) where “utils” is an instance of StringUtils class.

Features Not Supported:

1. Arabic Diacritics.

Change List:

1. New approach for wrapping text properly involving HTML tags, brackets, punctuation marks and bi-directional cases.
2. Looping through input string thoroughly only once for better performance.
3. Object class model structure with public properties and methods instead of static parser.

Fixed Bugs:

1. Arabic character condition for letter (?).
2. Beginning and ending text lines with non-Arabic characters (Embedding fonts required for Mac).
3. Inline HTML tags (Embedding fonts required for Mac).
4. Symmetrical swapping for bi-directional brackets.

Known Bugs:

1. improper wrapping for non-embedded fonts only on Mac when begin text line with non-Arabic characters or when using custom format HTML tags.

Here is an example works with this external XML file (with run-time resizing vs. wrapping):

download the above example here

Well, still not perfect, for some reason I feel that a tiny code snippet can do all the magic to contain the mac issues with non-embedded fonts, just can’t find that one … yet!

Test files are available here using ASUnit Framework

]]> http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2010/05/23/actionscript-2-0-arabic-parsing-v1-3/feed/ 2 http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2010/03/26/actionscript-2-0-arabic-parsing-v1-2/ http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2010/03/26/actionscript-2-0-arabic-parsing-v1-2/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:05:21 +0000 xVisage http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/?p=288

Update: a newer version available here

As per my previous post here, I have another improved version, my deepest thanks to Jan Jonas who did contribute on this one, you can use and test my new parseArabic method ..

Requirements:

1. Dynamic TextField
2. HTML Enabled TextField
3. Pre-Assigned TextFormat
4. Arabic Font

Features Supported:

1. Embedding Fonts (just put a dynamic textfield on-stage and select at least Basic Latin (95 glyphs) and Arabic (1088 glyphs) from the Character Embedding menu).
2. Arabic Ligatures.
3. Word Wrapping.
4. Bi-Directional text.
5. HTML Text.
6. Loading External text on run-time.
7. Windows/Mac/Linux support.
8. Arabic enabled input fields using actionscript method (createArabicInput) with the help of javascript (arabicinput.js) beta

Properties:

1. For matching/comparing input string, when referencing original input string use the data property (TextField.data) instead of (TextField.text)

Features Not Supported:

1. Arabic Diacritics.

Fixed Bugs:

1. Single Characters.
2. Single-line TextField with autoSize.
3. Upper-Case non-arabic characters.
4. Extra Spacing at the end of each line (fixed by “Jan Jonas”).
5. Double line-breaks (fixed by “Jan Jonas”).
6. Empty String input.
7. All Arabic Fonts are supported (requires embedding)
8. Improved string processing performance

Here is an example works with this external XML file (with run-time resizing vs. wrapping):

download the above example here

And here is another example for using a work-around approach for solving Arabic Input on Mac/Linux, the approach uses this JavaScript file in conjunction with ActionScript to create transparent HTML controls and place them exactly over our input TextFields inside flash, the method works fine on Firefox, but it needs a lot more modifications for cress-browser compatibility, your contributions are most welcome for sure ..

download arabic input example here

]]> http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2010/03/26/actionscript-2-0-arabic-parsing-v1-2/feed/ 21 http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2010/01/26/actionscript-2-0-arabic-parsing-v1-1/ http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2010/01/26/actionscript-2-0-arabic-parsing-v1-1/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:24:14 +0000 xVisage http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/?p=241

Update: a newer version available here

As per my previous post here, I’ve made some improvements to my method for proper Arabic rendering in a dynamic TextField using ActionScript 2.0.

An ActionSctipt 3.0 version available here

Many thanks to all reviewers, your comments were very helpful bringing this version available, now you can use and test my new parseArabic method ..

Requirements:

1. Dynamic TextField
2. HTML Enabled TextField
3. Pre-Defined TextFormat
4. Arabic Fonts must include a complete Arabic Presentation Forms-B (glyphs from FE70 to FEFE according to the Unicode Standard 5.2)

Features Supported:

1. Embedding Fonts (just put a dynamic textfield on-stage and select at least Basic Latin (95 glyphs) and Arabic (1088 glyphs) from the Character Embedding menu).
2. Arabic Ligatures.
3. Word Wrapping.
4. Bi-Directional text.
5. HTML Text.
6. Loading External text.

Features Not Supported:

1. Arabic Diacritics.

Fixed Bugs:

1. Correct Arabic Ligatures with/without embedding fonts
2. Correct Brackets Directions
3. Clean Line-Breaks

Here is an example works with this external XML file:

download the above example here

Note:
When you try to select and copy the above text into a static TextField it will display Arabic properly as well, just another benefit of this method, but if you paste the copied text into any other text editor you will see an alien version instead!

]]> http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2010/01/26/actionscript-2-0-arabic-parsing-v1-1/feed/ 18 http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2009/12/21/arabic-text-in-actionscript-2-0/ http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2009/12/21/arabic-text-in-actionscript-2-0/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:56:55 +0000 xVisage http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/?p=212

Update: a newer version available here

Well, this issue is a very old one, I’ve always experienced annoying problems each time I try to render Arabic text on run-time using Flash and ActionScript 2.0, Flash doesn’t support right-to-left languages, and when it comes to Arabic, we are talking about proper characters joining and word wrapping ..

I never stopped tracking this specific issue, googling it to find any new solution has been developed somewhere, for a long time I can only find this one, the guy have it perfectly solved, he was having his solution implemented using ActionScript 2.0 at some point earlier, but he stopped publishing that and kept his latest version only, which works with ActionScript 3.0, and for old fashion guys like me he left another version to manually copy proper Arabic text using an AIR application he developed here

Recently, Adobe says that they finally supports right-to-left languages along with bi-directional and complex script ones, only using ActionScript 3.0 and it requires Flash Player 10 or above, they even have an open source framework called Text Layout Framework, it’s perfect actually, it should put an end to this issue, but ..

I have my own objections, I made my quick test to check their new technique here, Arabic text is finally rendered properly, but why we have to add so many childs to our display list from different TextLines and TextBlocks instead of a single TextField? also we have to set a max width, and I couldn’t find a way to scroll through text unless I used a custom scroller and masking the text just like any other MovieClip or DisplayObject, personally, I find this much complicated experience just to display simple string!

I do like ActionScript 2.0 a lot more anyway, not just for handling text easily, but for many other reasons, I can stop to post another article to explain why I’m saying this, right now we need to know what I’ve reached regarding to our issue ..

In a nutshell, ActionScript 2.0 used to refuse right-to-left languages, so we can’t embed fonts, wrap text properly, and when it comes to Arabic text we also see our characters splitted which is inappropriate for Arabic readers, the old solution for this was loading text encoded in UTF-8 from external text/xml files, and still no word wrapping, and on Mac machines Arabic letters still splitted, we can align text but its direction still not right-to-left ..

So, logically, I know that I have to construct my Arabic text manually, to achieve that I had to analyze Arabic rules for character joining with all it’s special cases, and then find a way to force its direction to be left-to-right, and the word wrapping part is not that hard after all, this is basically what I did actually!

My only problem was in finding a way to inject all proper Arabic characters with its unique cases, for a long time I found that very difficult, Flash doesn’t allow me to copy those from other text processing tools, and of course there’s no way to type each character a lone in different cases using keyboard ..

Finally, I found a way to do that, and it was extremely simple! I found these charts at unicode official website, and that’s it! now I can instruct ActionScript 2.0 to handle my Arabic characters properly!

You’re most welcome to use and test my parseArabic method, it supports word wrapping, right-to-left, bi-directional (inline English characters), embedded fonts and custom text formats, here is an example:

download the above example here

The above approach doesn’t support html tags yet, it’s a bit confusing, but as I said, you’re welcome to contribute, your reviews can help improving the code ..
This may help any ActionScript 2.0 loyal friend, and I think the same approach can be used for ActionScript 3.0 as well, I will post that soon ..

]]> http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2009/12/21/arabic-text-in-actionscript-2-0/feed/ 27 http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2008/09/16/scale9grid-with-masking/ http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2008/09/16/scale9grid-with-masking/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:07:33 +0000 xVisage http://interactive-developer.com/blog/?p=49

ActionScript DisplayObject has a property called scale9grid used to scale objects according to nine regions based rectangle, detailed information could be found here

One day I was trying to use it for scaling effect applied to a MovieClip with curved corners and dynamic loaded image within, the problem was that the mask didn’t scale properly using scale9grid ..
I didn’t find an answer to why not, this post on Kirupa still has no reply, and I was using ActionScript 2.0

Well, I used a work-around way to bypass this issue, it’s simple, just leaving the mask with sharp corners with no scale9grid applied, and draw extra border that has the same background color to hide the image corners visually!
this won’t work nice unless we have only solid background color

hiding image corners

I was hoping that adobe fixes this issue in AcrionScript 3.0, but unfortunately they didn’t ..

Few days ago I found this post at Mark Grossnickle’s blog, his custom Scale9Mask works fine with masked objects, but it has to be applied individually, and there’s a scaling factor issue, here is a demonstration example with source code available via flash context menu

Many thanks to Mark Grossnickle ..

]]> http://ixd-consultant.com/blog/2008/09/16/scale9grid-with-masking/feed/ 0