Flash Development for Android Cookbook

Flash Development for Android Cookbook

By : Joseph Labrecque

Buy this Book

Flash Development for Android Cookbook

By: Joseph Labrecque

Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Flash has now arrived to Android — the fastest growing smartphone platform. This offers massive opportunities for Flash developers who want to get into mobile development. At the same time, working on smartphones will introduce new challenges and issues that Flash developers may not be familiar with. The Flash Development for Android Cookbook enables Flash developers to branch out into Android mobile applications through a set of essential, easily demonstrable recipes. It takes you through the entire development workflow: from setting up a local development environment, to developing and testing your application, to compiling for distribution to the ever-growing Android Market. The Flash Development for Android Cookbook starts off with recipes that cover development environment configuration as well as mobile project creation and conversion. It then moves on to exciting topics such as the use of touch and gestures, responding to device movement in 3D space, working with multimedia, and handling application layout. Essential tasks such as tapping into native processes and manipulating the file system are also covered. We then move on to some cool advanced stuff such as Android-specific device permissions, application debugging and optimization techniques, and the packaging and distribution options available on the mobile Android platform. In a nutshell, this cookbook enables you to get quickly up to speed with mobile Android development using the Flash Platform in ways that are meaningful and immediately applicable to the rapidly growing area of mobile application development.

Flash Development for Android Cookbook

Credits

Foreword

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Free Chapter

Getting Ready to Work with Android: Development Environment and Project Setup

Introduction

Using Flash Professional CS5.5 to develop Android applications

Targeting AIR for Android with Flash Professional CS5.5

Using Flash Builder 4.5 to develop Android applications

Enabling Flash Builder 4 or Flex Builder to access Flex Mobile SDKs

Using Flash Builder 4 and below to develop Android applications

Enabling Powerflasher FDT 4.1 to access Flex Mobile SDKs

Using Powerflasher FDT 4.1 and below to develop Android applications

Converting a standard Flex project to a Flex Mobile project

Configuring the AIR SDK to package AIR for Android applications on Windows

Configuring the AIR SDK to package AIR for Android applications on Linux or Mac OS

Interaction Experience: Multitouch, Gestures, and Other Input

Introduction

Detecting supported device input types

Detecting whether or not a device supports multitouch

Verifying specific gesture support for common interactions

Using gestures to zoom a display object

Using gestures to pan a display object

Using gestures to swipe a display object

Using gestures to rotate a display object

Accessing raw touchpoint data

Creating a custom gesture based upon touchPoint data

Emulating the Android long-press interaction

Invoking the virtual keyboard programmatically

Responding to Android soft-key interactions

Responding to trackball and D-Pad events

Movement through Space: Accelerometer and Geolocation Sensors

Introduction

Detecting whether or not an Android device supports the accelerometer

Detecting Android device movement in 3D space

Adjusting the accelerometer sensor update interval

Updating display object position through accelerometer events

Switching between portrait and landscape based upon device tilt

Detecting whether or not a device supports a geolocation sensor

How it works...

There's more...

Adjusting the geolocation sensor update interval

Retrieving map data through geolocation coordinates

Visual and Audio Input: Camera and Microphone Access

Introduction

Detecting camera and microphone support

Using the traditional camera API to save a captured image

Using the Mobile CameraUI API to save a captured photograph

Using the Mobile CameraUI API to save a captured video

Using the device microphone to monitor audio sample data

Recording Microphone Audio Sample Data

Rich Media Presentation: Working with Images, Video, and Audio

Introduction

Loading photographs from the device cameraRoll

How it works…

There's more…

Applying Pixel Bender Shader effects to loaded images

Playing video files from the local filesystem or over HTTP

Playing remote video streams over RTMP

Playing audio files from the local filesystem or over HTTP

Generating an audio spectrum visualizer

Generating audio tones for your application

Structural Adaptation: Handling Device Layout and Scaling

Introduction

Detecting useable screen bounds and resolution

Detecting screen orientation changes

Scaling visual elements across devices at runtime

Scaling visual elements based on stage resize in Flash Professional CS5.5

Employing the Project panel in Flash Professional CS5.5

Freezing a Flex application to landscape or portrait mode

Defining a blank Flex mobile application

Defining a Flex mobile view-based application

Defining a Flex mobile tabbed application with multiple sections

Using a splash screen within a Flex mobile application

Configuring the ActionBar within a Flex mobile project for use with ViewNavigator

Hiding the ActionBar control in a single view for a Flex mobile project

Native Interaction: StageWebView and URI Handlers

Introduction

Opening a website in the default Android browser

Rendering a website within an application

Managing the StageWebView history

Using StageWebView to load ads using ActionScript

Using StageWebView to load ads within a Flex mobile project

Making a phone call from an application

Sending a text message from an application

Invoking Google maps from an application

Invoking the Android Market using application URIs

Sending e-mail from an application

Abundant Access: File System and Local Database

Introduction

Opening a local file from device storage

Saving a file to device storage

Saving data across sessions through local shared object

Storing application state automatically by using Flex

Creating a local SQLite database

Providing a default application database

Automating database tasks with FlexORM

Manifest Assurance: Security and Android Permissions

Introduction

Setting application permissions with the Android Manifest file

Preventing the device screen from dimming

Establishing Android custom URI schemes

Anticipating Android Compatibility Filtering

Instructing an application to be installed to Device SDCard

Encrypting a local SQLite database

Avoiding Problems: Debugging and Resource Considerations

Introduction

Debugging an application with Flash Professional

Debugging an application with Flash Builder

Rendering application elements using the device GPU

Automating application shutdown upon device interruption events

Exiting your application with the device back button

Monitoring memory usage and frame rate in an application

Final Considerations: Application Compilation and Distribution

Introduction

Generating a code-signing certificate using Flash Professional

Generating a code-signing certificate using Flash Builder

Generating a code-signing certificate using FDT

Generating a code-signing certificate using the AIR Developer Tool

Preparing icon files for distribution

Compiling an application using Flash Professional

Compiling an application using Flash Builder

Compiling an application when using FDT

Compiling an application using the AIR Developer Tool

Submitting an application to the Android Market

Customer Reviews

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About the Reviewers

Fabio Biondi is a freelancer living in the north east of Italy. Since 2003 he deals almost exclusively with the Adobe Flash Platform technologies.

He is an Adobe Certified Instructor (ACI) in Flex, AIR, Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, and FlashLite (ACE) and lately he has devoted time and resources to the development of mobile and social networking applications.

Fabio runs a blog (www.fabiobiondi.com/blog) and a YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/BiondiFabio) where he provides free tutorials, scripts, and news about the latest Adobe Flash Platform technologies.

Sean Moore has been developing web applications since 1998. He's been passionate about Flash and ActionScript development for over eight years and working with Flex for over four years. He was chosen to be a Flex Developer Community Champion and an Adobe Community Professional by Adobe for his hard work and dedication to the Flash Platform Community. Sean is a certified Flash developer and also a certified Flex developer. Sean specializes in the development of Adobe AIR applications. He is the creator of the ActionScript Cheatsheets. Sean has provided development and consulting services for 2Advanced, Adobe Consulting, and Universal Mind. He's also worked with many small businesses on Flash, Flex, and AIR applications. Sean has written Flex and AIR articles for Adobe, O'Reilly, and Flash Magazine. He's provided technical authoring for Manning Publications, Addison Wesley and O'Reilly. Sean has also given presentations at various user groups on best practices for Flex development. Sean is also very interested in BCI technology and Arduino development.

Leonardo Risuleo is a designer and developer with several years experience in mobile, new media and user experience. He's a highly dedicated professional and passionate about what he does. He started back in 2003 and during these years he worked on a variety of different mobile and embedded platforms for a number of well known brands. Leo designs, prototypes, and develops mobile applications, games, widgets, and websites.

Apart from being a Flash Platform enthusiast, Leo also contributes to the Flash and mobile community as an author and blogger, and he's co-founder of the Italian 'Mobile & Devices Adobe User Group'. From 2008 to 2010, Leo had the honor to be Forum Nokia Champion—a recognition and reward program for top mobile developer worldwide.

In 2010 he formally founded Small Screen Design, a design and development studio focused on mobile design and user experience.

Flash Development for Android Cookbook

By : Joseph Labrecque

Flash Development for Android Cookbook

By: Joseph Labrecque

Overview of this book

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Current Title:

Flash Development for Android Cookbook

About the Reviewers