Flash Builder and Flex Future - Multiscreen Development

Flash Builder and Flex Future:Multiscreen Apps with “Burrito” and “Hero”

Ryan Stewart Developer Evangelist, Adobe ryan@adobe.com blog.digitalbackcountry.com @ryanstewart github.com/ryanstewartBased in SeattleThings I Like: Beer Mountaineering/Hiking/Backpacking Geolocation/Mapping stuff

Mobile Flash Development

Flash Player 10.1In-browser content Games, video Deploy as a SWF, put on the web

Flash Player 10.1 Adobe AIRIn-browser content Mobile applications Games, video Native APIs, extra functionality Deploy as a SWF, put on the web Package to target individual devices

Device Landscape Desktop Netbooks Android RIM PlayBook Apple iOS Google TV Televisions WebOS

AIR for Device Applications are “Native”That means they can be put on app stores NOT that the UI components are native

Building Multiscreen Applications with Flash Builder

Issues with Flex on Mobile Devices Complex Components: DataGrids, Charts, Tree Memory Footprint Desktop UI Screen Patterns

Solving Mobile UI Paradigms with Flex “Hero”

Mobile-Optimized Components

Mobile/Touch Friendly Components Bigger labelsControls fit for fingers 40 px Auto-show Scrollbars to save screen real estate

Pixel-Density Flex creates components that will resize based on how many pixels per inch the device supports

The Mobile ThemeUsed automatically with mobile projectsIncludes larger, touch-friendly controls Adds inputMode CSS style for touch

interactionMode Style mouse touchFires hover events Creates wider hit area Use scrollbar Hides scrollbar

interactionMode can in theory be used to swap between devices while keeping the same codebase.

Mobile UI Patterns in Flex “Hero”

Dealing with Screens

ViewNavigator The pattern for screens on devices for sequential navigation Can define transitions between views Uses push/pop stack to move between views

Tabbed UI Used for navigationwhen sequence doesn’t matter

TabNavigator Tab through views Just set up multiple ViewNavigators with the firstView property Can’t use push/pop

Global Navigation and “Breadcrumbs”

ActionBarnavigationContent actionContent titleContent Provides easy access to important features Won’t scroll Can be defined globally or for each view

Demo:Flex Mobile in Action

Deploying Mobile Applications With Flash Builder “Burrito”

Mobile Debug Panel Allows you to set up debuggingvia the desktop or debugging via the device Has built-in device profiles for screen resolutionsDevelopers can build their owndevice profiles for resolutions that aren’t supported

DebuggingDebug over USB or Wifi (USB isbetter - with Wifi you have to be on the same network) Use trace statements, set breakpoints, it all works Flash Builder compiles anddeploys a debug version of the app to the phone for you

DeploymentFlash Builder walks you throughthe deployment steps including creating a certificate (forAndroid) and builds a native file (.apk, .bar, etc)Uses the same “Export releasebuild” that Flex developers use today

Optimization Techniques

Use as Much ActionScript as Possible ItemRenders Skins* Custom Components *In general, a few MXML skins won’t hurt, especially if you use FXG assets

Graphical Assets In general, the fastest typewill be ActionScript and Bitmaps MXML is pretty slow: Don’t use MXML GraphicsDon’t use MXML skins with FXG Pre-compiled FXG with AS3 is a pretty good solution

Use a SplashScreen Flex takes a bit of time to loadsplashScreenImage is set to be fast and first Provides near-instant user feedback

View EventsPerform data actions AFTER the Transition The View dispatches aCREATION_COMPLETE eventbefore the transition happensListen for the VIEW_ACTIVATE event, then perform data operations

Developing Apps for the

Three Ways to Develop in Flash on the PlayBook ActionScript Projects Tooling support in Builder and Flash Pro Flex Projects Best support for mobile patterns Most robust components Native Projects QNX components used to build core applications

Getting Setup withthe PlayBook SDK

Download the PlayBook AIR SDKDownload the PlayBook Simulator Install the Flash Builder Plug-in

Available as a VMWare ImageHas a Developer mode so you can debugon the deviceTest fonts/features/etc on the device

PlayBook provides the QNX framework and APIs

ComponentsThe native components for the PlayBookInclude base components like buttons, lists, etcAlso include higher level components likeLoginDialogue, MediaPlayer, etc

Demo:Deploying an application to the PlayBook

Native PlayBook APIs

qnx.system.* qnx.system.Device Device information (hardwareID, vendorID) Battery information (state, level,etc) qnx.system.QNXApplication Swipe events for OS

qnx.media.*qnx.media.StageWebView Webkit component for PlayBook Display HTML in Flash-based PlayBook appsqnx.media.MediaPlayer Supports hardware accelerated media Includes support for extra codecs

Bringing it all together

Conclusion Mobile development means new design tricksCritical to be able to deploy to multiple platforms Leverage device specific features Think mobile first

Q&ARyan StewartDeveloper Evangelist, Adobe ryan@adobe.com blog.digitalbackcountry.com @ryanstewart github.com/ryanstewart

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Flash Builder and Flex Future - Multiscreen Development

by Ryan Stewart on Mar 18, 2011

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Flash Builder and Flex Future - Multiscreen Development — Presentation Transcript