Developing AIR for Android using Flash CS5

Chris Griffith

These opinions and thoughts are my own, and may or may not reflect the opinions of the company that I work for.

Disclaimer

Who has built for mobile?

Who uses what?

Native?

Web?

Other?

Flash/Flex?

My Mobile App Portfolio

Mobile is Everywhere

Designing for Mobile

Context

mobile vs. desktop

Orientation

Touch

44px

Touch

The average fingertip is 3x larger than the hand cursor

Make your buttons 3x larger

Then make them even larger

With fingers, come hands…

Ergonomics

How will they touch it?• One Thumb?• Two Thumbs?• Pointer Finger?

Device Resolution PPI Physical

Nexus One/ HTC Incredible/ HTC Desire

800x480 254 3.7’

HTC EVO/ HTC Desire HD 800x480 217 4.3’

Droid/ Droid 2 854x480 265 3.7’

Droid X 854x480 240 4.3’

Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant 800x480 232 4.0’

iPhone 3GS and lower 480x320 163 3.5’

iPhone 4 960x640 326 3.5’

iPad 1024x768 132 9.7’

Galaxy Tab 1024x600 170 7’

Data based on respective products published technical specifications

Pixels Per Inch (PPI)

The Adobe® AIR® 2.6 runtime enables developers to use HTML, JavaScript, and ActionScript® to build web applications that run as standalone client applications without the constraints of a browser. Adobe AIR allows designers and developers by providing a consistent and flexible development environment for the delivery of applications across devices and platforms. Support for Android™, BlackBerry Tablet OS,* and iOS mobile operating systems and televisions is now available.

• GeoLocation• Accelerometer• Camera• Multitouch / Gesture Support• Screen Orientation• Microphone• GPU Acceleration• SQLite DB• StageWebView

• No Native Widgets• No Multiple Camera Support• No Access to Contacts• Limited SMS Support

AIR for Android Overview

Get the Android SDK: http://developer.android.com/sdk

Allows you to create and install apps on your device

Android - SDK Manager to install packages etc.

ADB – Android Device Debugger installs apps on your device

DDMS - Dalvik Debug Monitor for desktop simulation.

Download AIR 2.6 http://www.adobe.com/products/air/

Get AIR for Android runtime .apk installed

Creating an Android App: Setup

Emulator Device

Development Environments

Accelerometer

var accel:Accelerometer = new Accelerometer();accel.addEventListener(AccelerometerEvent.UPDATE, update);

function update(e:AccelerometerEvent):void{

e.accelerationX;e.accelerationY;e.accelerationZ;

}

Gestures

cell.addEventListener(TransformGestureEvent.GESTURE_ZOOM, onZoom);function onZoom(e:TransformGestureEvent):void{

cell.scaleX *= e.scaleX;cell.scaleY = cell.scaleX;

}

cell.addEventListener(TransformGestureEvent.GESTURE_ROTATE, onRotate);function onRotate(e:TransformGestureEvent):void{

cell.rotation += e.rotation;}

Geolocation

var geo: Geolocation;

if (Geolocation.isSupported) { geo = new Geolocation(); geo.addEventListener(GeolocationEvent.UPDATE, updateHandler); geo.setRequestedUpdateInterval(10000);} else { log.text = "Geolocation feature not supported"; }

Hardware Keys

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, onKeyDown, false, 0, true);

function onKeyDown(event:KeyboardEvent):void { //Back Key if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.BACK) { event.preventDefault(); // to kill event from running default behavior //do your own back stuff }

//Menu Key if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.MENU) { event.preventDefault(); // to kill event from running default behavior //do your own back stuff }}

Orientation

stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;

stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;

function setPosition():void

{

vidHolder.x = stageWidth/2 - vidHolder.width/2;

vidHolder.y = stageHeight/2 - vidHolder.height/2;

//If the layout is vertical

if (stage.stageWidth < stage.stageHeight)

{

//Adjust graphics

}

}

setPosition();

stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, resizeLayout);

function resizeLayout(e:Event):void

{

setPosition();

}

SQLite Support

http://www.dehats.com/drupal/?q=node/58

StageWebView

• You get a browser in your Flash app!

• Good solution for– Maps– Facebook Connect– Remote Content

Limitations

No Native Controls

http://blog.kevinhoyt.com/2010/05/some-flash-android-components/

No Access to Contacts

Building Applications

Don’t Fear the Timeline

Publishing

Publishing

To the Market…

.ipa

.air

.air

.apk

.exe

.dmg

AIR Packaging & Distribution Workflow

Development Guidelines

Graphics

• Consider bitmaps over vectors• Keep bitmaps as small as possible• Minimize number of vectors• Test your animations with different qualities of Stage

Avoid, if possible:• Filters• Blend modes• Transparency• Perspective distortion

GPU Acceleration

Set rendering mode to GPU

Make sure cacheAsBitmap is set to true on your DisplayObject like this:square.cacheAsBitmap = true;

http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/archives/2010/10/gpu-rendering-in-adobe-air-for-android.html

GPU Acceleration

cacheAsBitmapMatrix property

http://blog.theflashblog.com/?p=2386

Make sure to assign a Matrix to the cacheAsBitmapMatrix property on your DisplayObject like this:square.cacheAsBitmapMatrix = new Matrix();

Text

Use opaque background over transparency

Avoid TLF Test different anti-aliasing techniques

(animation, bitmap text...) Avoid frequently-updated text Use appendText vs. text +=

Horizontal? Vertical? Both?

• Content should dictate orientation, but don’t forget about the keyboard.• Consider adjusting content based on layout:

Display Objects

Use the appropriate type of display object

Objects that aren’t interactive, use Shape();trace(getSize(new Shape()));// output: 216

Interactive but no timeline? Use Sprite();trace(getSize(new Sprite()));// output: 396

Need animation? Use Movieclip();trace(getSize(new MovieClip()));// output: 416

Freeing Movieclips

Alpha? RemoveChild? Visible?

Even when removed from the display list, the movie clip still dispatches the Event.ENTER_FRAME event.

runningBoy.addEventListener(Event.REMOVED_FROM_STAGE, deactivate);function deactivate(e:Event):void{

e.currentTarget.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, handleMovement);

e.currentTarget.stop();

}

Flex for Mobile - HERO

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flexsdk_hero/

Hero in a Nutshell: Mobile Application Development

Allow developers to create a single mobile project that will run on multiple mobile environments

• UI components supporting touchscreen interaction

• Application framework fitted with common mobile UI patterns

• Interactive performance tuned for mobile devices

Resources

Tour de Flex is a desktop application for exploring Flex capabilities and resources, including the core Flex components, Adobe AIR, data integration, and a variety of third-party components, effects, skins, and more.

https://market.android.com/details?id=air.adobe.flex.TourDeMobileFlex

Resources

Thanks!

Email: chris.griffith@gmail.com

Twitter: @chrisgriffith

Blog: http://chrisgriffith.wordpress.com/