Developing Flex Apps

For Android

A brief introduction ... I hope

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Background

•10 + years Actionscript developer

•Worked with Flex since v1.5

• Independent contractor/consultant

•Developing for Android since April ... grey beard ;)

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Considerations

•Screen Size

•User Interactions

•Device Capabilities

•Optimization

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Screen Size

•Size matters

•Follow best practices

•Rule of thumb - 3x

•Smaller and denser

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Remember fat fingers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DtbPOXFk00

Developing Flex Apps for Android

The Amazing Shrinking Screen

On Computer On Device

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Leverage expertise

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Demo

DemoComponents App

Developing Flex Apps for Android

User Interactions

•How do they interact

•Where are they interacting

•How long do they interact

•Who is interacting

•Brevity is key

Developing Flex Apps for Android

How do they really use it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHlN21ebeak

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Device Capabilities• Touch

• Accelerometer

•Orientation

•Microphone

•GPS

•Camera

• Keyboard

• Voice recognition

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Device Capabilities

Demo Capability Apps

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Optimization

•Tweens

•Filters

•Scaling graphics

•Transitions

•Drawing API

• JPEG/PNG

"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil"

Donald Knuth

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Flex Hero“Slider” was originally planned to be a separate version of the Flex framework that would contain mobile-specific functionality. However, due to the evolution of the mobile device landscape, as well as significant performance improvements in the latest releases of the Adobe® Flash® Player and Adobe® AIR® runtimes, it is now feasible to integrate these mobile development features directly into the core Flex framework. As a result, the mobile features that were originally planned

•for the separate “Slider” framework will now simply be a part of the next version of Flex, code-

•named “Hero”.

Developing Flex Apps for Android

The Tools You Need

•Android SDK

•Your favourite Flex IDE

•Some ANT knowledge

•An Android 2.2 phone

•An imagination

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Android SDK Goodies

•Debugging (tools/adb logcat)

•Screen Capture (tools/ddms)

•Emulator (it’s slowww)

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Hello World• Create new Flex project

• Embed in code (no RSLs)

• Extend s:Application (not WindowedApplication)

• Application descriptor and manifest

• Install to device via ANT

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Debugging•Debugging between device and

computer

•Use Flash command line debugging tools (fdb)

•Must be on same wifi network

•Compile with Debug=TRUE

•Add Internet option to Android Manifest

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Resources

•http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

•http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/2010/02/01/ipad-gui-psd/

•http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/2009/06/18/iphone-gui-psd-30/

•http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/index.html

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Adobe Resources

•http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Hero

•http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Mobile+Application

•http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air2/android/

•http://www.openscreenproject.org/

Developing Flex Apps for Android

Contact Info

•www.dgrigg.com

•twitter.com/derrickgrigg

•derrick@dgrigg.com