Flash CS5 on the iPhone, Apps

Flash CS5 on the iPhone, Apps

At the MAX conference yesterday, Adobe announced that designers and developers will be able to use Adobe Flash Professional CS5 to create rich, interactive applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
This is NOT Flash Player running on the iPhone. There is no new information about Flash Player on the iPhone. This announcement means that Flash designers and developers can use Flash Professional CS5 and ActionScript 3 to build native applications that can be distributed and downloaded via the Apple App Store.
This new feature was demonstrated in a sneak peak of Flash Professional CS5. The new features of Flash Professional CS5 also include a new text engine for creative freedom and control with text, XML based FLAs to boost team collaboration on projects, prebuilt code snippets for rapidly adding interactivity, as well as integrations with Adobe Flash Builder to improve ActionScript editing. A beta of Flash Professional CS5 will be available later this year via Adobe Labs.
Adobe announces ability to publish ActionScript 3 projects to run as native iPhone apps. More info at http://www.adobe.com/go/iphone
Adobe Flash Pro CS5 beta coming, supporting native iPhone apps. Sign up and more info at http://www.adobe.com/go/flashprobeta
You can learn more about this announcement in the FAQ below as well as in the following places • Adobe News Room (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/) •
Information about apps for iPhone on Adobe Labs (http://www.adobe.com/go/iphone) • Information about Flash Professional CS5 on Adobe Labs (http://www.adobe.com/go/flashprobeta)
More about Flash Professional CS5
What did Adobe announce at MAX regarding Flash Professional?
Adobe previewed an early version of the next major version of Flash, Adobe Flash Professional CS5. Adobe also announced that a public beta of Flash Professional CS5 will be available for download from Adobe Labs later this year. That beta will include support for the ability to compile ActionScript 3® projects in Adobe Flash Professional to run as applications for iPhone. Interested designers and developers can go to Adobe Labs to sign up and to be notified when the beta is available.
What are the new features of Flash Professional CS5?
There are many new and exciting features in Flash Professional CS5. These include
• New text capabilities via the Text Layout Framework (TLF). Get unprecedented control and creativity with text in Flash projects. Advanced styling and layout, including right to left text, columns, threaded text blocks let you work with text in Flash like never before.
• XML based FLA files let you manage and modify project assets using source control systems, and enable teams to easily collaborate on files.
• Code Snippets panel provides pre-built code that can be injected into projects for greater interactivity and also reduces the ActionScript 3 learning curve. The panel includes code for timeline navigation (ie: click to go to the next scene) actions (ie: drag and drop), animation (ie: move with keyboard arrows), audio and video, event handlers (ie: mouse events) and loading and unloading of assets.
• Flash Builder integration. Use Flash Builder to write ActionScript code within Flash projects.
• Improved ActionScript editor, including custom class code-hinting and completion
When will the Flash Professional CS5 beta be available for download?
The beta will be available for download from Adobe Labs before the end of 2009. How much will Flash Professional CS5 or Creative Suite cost? We are not announcing any pricing at this time. Where can customers go to be notified when the beta is available? You can sign up to be notified: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmfor/index.cfm?name=fpcs5_notify
More information about applications for iPhone
Q: When will Adobe Flash Platform tooling support building applications for iPhone?
A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 including support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year. Sign up to be notified when the beta is available.: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=fpcs5_notify
Q: How does the Flash Platform tooling update help developers?
The tooling update allows developers to use Flash technologies to develop content for iPhone and iPod touch, devices that were previously closed to them. Developers can write new code or reuse existing web content to build applications for iPhone. Because the source code and assets are reusable across the Flash Platform runtimes,—Adobe AIR and Flash Player—it also gives developers a way to more easily target other mobile and desktop environments.
Q: How is this different from Adobe Flash Player 10 coming to iPhone? Will iPhone users be able to view web content built with Flash technology in the iPhone browser?
The new support for iPhone applications in the Flash Platform tooling will not allow iPhone users to browse web content built with Flash technology on iPhone, but it may allow developers to repackage existing web content as applications for iPhone if they choose to do so. Flash Player uses a just-in-time compiler and virtual machine within a browser plug-in to play back content on websites. Those technologies are not allowed on the iPhone at this time, so a Flash Player for iPhone is not being made available today. Flash Professional CS5 will enable developers to build applications for iPhone that are installed as native applications. Users will be able to access the apps after downloading them from Apple’s App Store and installing them on iPhone or iPod touch.
Q: Can applications for iPhone built with Flash Platform tooling be delivered through Apple’s App Store?
Yes. Developers can deliver applications built with Flash Platform tooling just like any other iPhone application. This will require the developer to be a member of the iPhone Developer Program and follow the program guidelines.
Q: Do developers need to participate in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program in order to develop or deploy applications for iPhone using the Flash Platform tools?
Yes. A developer certificate from Apple is required in order to test and deploy applications to iPhone. Apple provides information on its developer programs at http://developer.apple.com/iphone/.
Q: Are applications for iPhone built with Flash Platform tools interpreted at runtime?
No. iPhone applications built with Flash Platform tools are compiled into standard, native iPhone executables, just like any other iPhone application.
Q: Can applications load SWF files or other code at runtime, such as a module from a website?
No. iPhone applications built with Flash Platform tools are compiled into standard, native iPhone executable packages and there is no runtime interpreter that could be used to run ActionScript bytecode within the application.
Q: Which version of the iPhone SDK/operating system is supported by the applications?
Applications can be built targeting iPhone OS 3.0 and later.
Q: Will applications built with Flash Platform tools work on iPod touch? iPhone 1.0? iPhone 3G? iPhone 3GS?
Applications should work on all iPhone and iPod touch devices. However, as the hardware specifications of the devices are widely divergent, content performance may vary between devices and device generations.

5 new Flex and AIR books for Fall and Winter 2008

Here are five great Flex 3.0 and AIR books that are worth checking out in the next several months. Programming Flex 2 is an outstanding book and the updated Programming Flex 3 is sure to please. Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0 by Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh is a must read and these AIR books also look really awesome. I’m putting these books on my radar for those cold winter (stay-at-home) nights approaching…

Programming Flex 3: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex

Authors: Chafic Kazoun, Joey Lott

Available: September 24, 2008

Publisher: Adobe Dev Library

Description:

If you want to try your hand at developing rich Internet applications with Adobe’s Flex 3, and already have experience with frameworks such as .NET or Java, this is the ideal book to get you started. Programming Flex 3 gives you a solid understanding of Flex 3’s core concepts, and valuable insight into how, why, and when to use specific Flex features. Numerous examples and sample code demonstrate ways to build complete, functional applications for the Web, using the free Flex SDK, and RIAs for the desktop, using Adobe AIR. This book is an excellent companion to Adobe’s Flex 3 reference documentation.

More info.

Adobe AIR: A Guide for Developers

Authors: Mark Blair, Andrew Muller, Andrew Spaulding

Available: February 1, 2009

Publisher: Adobe Dev Library

Description:

The only authoritative resource on Adobe AIR’s first full release, with content created, reviewed, and critiqued by Adobe’s AIR team. Lots of resources exist for Adobe AIR and more are on the way, but most try to cover too much information for a technology that’s changing rapidly. What most developers need right now is a definitive introduction to Adobe AIR: How it works and how to develop for it. Written and approved by Adobe experts who know the real story behind AIR, the information in this book comes straight from the source.

More Info.

Professional Adobe Flex 3

Authors: Joseph Balderson, Peter Ent, Jun Heider, Todd Prekaski, Tom Sugden, Andrew Trice, David Hassoun, Joe Berkovitz

Available: February 24, 2009

Publisher: Wrox

Description:

With Professional Adobe Flex 3, put your prior experience with Flash, Actionscript and XML-based language to good use and learn how to use the Flex 3 platform to create rich Internet and Apollo applications. Understand the potential of the Flex 3 platform through practical examples and hands-on advice on topics like developing applications in MXML, creating custom flex components, charting, targeting Apollo runtime, and data interconnectivity. In addition, this book addresses the ways that you can contribute to the development of Flex 3, which is open source.

More info.

Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0

Authors: Juan Sanchez, Andy McIntosh

Available: November 17, 2008

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Description:

Don’t settle for Flex’s boring, standard user interface: set your Flex applications apart with the breakthrough skinning and programming techniques found in Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0. Leading Flex developers Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh show how to build Flex and AIR applications that are stunningly beautiful — and amazingly usable. You’ll learn how to apply state-of-the-art branding and visual design techniques that add value to all your Flex applications, no  matter what they do or who you’re building them for.

More info.

Adobe AIR Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Rich Internet Application Developers

Authors: David Tucker, Marco Casario, Koen De Weggheleire, Rich Tretola

Available: November 20, 2008

Publisher: Adobe Dev Library

Description:

The hands-on recipes in this cookbook help you solve a variety of tasks and scenarios often encountered when using Adobe AIR to build Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. Thoroughly vetted by Adobe’s AIR development team, Adobe AIR Cookbook addresses fundamentals, best practices, and topics that experienced web developers and application designers have inquired about most. This collection also includes solutions for using this runtime environment to build truly innovative applications.

More info;

Reducing CPU usage in Adobe AIR

Let's be honest. AIR gets a bad rap for being a bloated runtime, using up a lot of precious memory and CPU. Although a lot of AIR applications seem to fall into this trap, it doesn't have to be this way. There are a number of techniques you can use to develop a lightweight application that rivals native programs in terms of performance.

One simple and easy way to drastically reduce CPU usage is through framerate throttling. In this article, I will explain what framerate throttling is and how best to implement it in your application.

Note: To make the most of this article, you should have general knowledge of ActionScript and AIR application development.

WHAT IS FRAMERATE THROTTLING?

Framerate throttling is the technique of controlling an application's framerate to increase performance when in use and reduce resource usage when idle. As of ActionScript 3, developers have an extremely useful property in their possession—Stage.frameRate. This gem lets you change the framerate on the fly. In previous versions of ActionScript, we were stuck with what we set it to in the IDE. Thankfully, times have changed and there's no longer an excuse for processor-heavy applications lingering in the background.

HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT FRAMERATE THROTTLING?

Since framerate throttling is essentially a matter of setting the Stage.frameRate property to a lower or higher value, it's up to the developer to decide how involved or advanced it will be. It also depends on the application itself—some allow for more integration than others.

Note: The performance results in the following examples are done on a Macbook Pro 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Since CPU usage is in terms of percent, results will vary from computer to computer.

Novice

The rawest form of throttling is by using the NativeApplication Event.ACTIVATE andEvent.DEACTIVATE events—increase the framerate when active, decrease it when inactive. With a single blank window, this results in 1.8% CPU usage when active and .4% when inactive. You can actually set the framerate to .01 on deactivate for .2% usage, but in testing I discovered the window chrome never loses focus.

package {
   import flash.desktop.NativeApplication;
   import flash.display.Sprite;
   import flash.events.Event;
 
   public class Application extends Sprite {
      public function Application () {
         __init ();
      }
      
      private function __init ():void {
         NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
           (Event.ACTIVATE, __activate__);
         NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
           (Event.DEACTIVATE, __deactivate__);
      }
      
      private function __activate__
         ($event:Event):void {
         stage.frameRate = 50;
      }
      private function __deactivate__ ($event:Event):void {
         stage.frameRate = 1;
      }
   }
}

Intermediate

Certain applications allow more advanced framerate throttling—for example, an application that still needs a level of interaction, even when in the background. Let's say your application has scrollable content to reference and since AIR allows mouse wheel scrolling while in a different application, you need a higher framerate at that time.

In this example, if the application is in the background, but the mouse wheel is scrolling, theMouseEvent.MOUSE_WHEEL handler increases the framerate and sets up anEvent.ENTER_FRAME event that will reduce the framerate half a second after scrolling. In cases like these, it's best to have a buffer in place, so you won't change the framerate with every scroll, but also because there's no event for when the mouse wheel is idle.

package {
   import flash.desktop.NativeApplication;
   import flash.display.Sprite;
   import flash.events.Event;
   import flash.events.MouseEvent;
   import flash.utils.getTimer;
 
   public class Application extends Sprite {
      public static const ACTIVE:int = 50;
      public static const INACTIVE:int = 1;
 
      public var active:Boolean;
      public var scrolling:Boolean;
      public var buffer:int;
      
      public function Application () {
         __init ();
      }
      
      private function __init ():void {
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
        (Event.ACTIVATE, __activate__);
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
        (Event.DEACTIVATE, __deactivate__);
        stage.addEventListener 
        (MouseEvent.MOUSE_WHEEL, __mouseWheel__);
      }
      
      private function __activate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = true;
         stage.frameRate = ACTIVE;
      }
      private function __deactivate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = false;
         stage.frameRate = INACTIVE;
      }
      private function __mouseWheel__ ($event:MouseEvent):void {
         if (!active) {
           if (!scrolling) {
              stage.addEventListener 
                (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __enterframe__);
           }
           stage.frameRate = ACTIVE;
           scrolling = true;
           buffer = getTimer () + 500;
         }
      }
      private function __enterframe__
         ($event:Event):void {
         if (buffer < getTimer ()) {
           stage.frameRate = INACTIVE;
           scrolling = false;
           stage.removeEventListener
            (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __enterframe__);
         }
      }
   }
}

Expert

If performance optimization is what you live for, you can impress your friends with some intricate framerate throttling. (Note: This won't impress girlfriends.)

In my applications, I like to have transitions from one state to the next for both a smoother environment and a better feel. Because of this, I like to use a high framerate (50). Unfortunately, the higher the framerate, the higher the CPU usage. Therefore, I set the framerate to 50 only when a tween is active. When one isn't, I reduce the framerate to 24. On top of that, there are instances when a loader is animating while the application is in the background. A loader doesn't need 50 fps, so I'll set the framerate to 5 when the application is visible in the background and 1 when not visible.

Note: For this example, I'm using an animate() method to call at the beginning of each tween. Ideally, you would want to build the framerate throttler into your tweening engine, so you wouldn't need to call animate() manually.

package {
   import flash.desktop.NativeApplication;
   import flash.display.Sprite;
   import flash.events.Event;
   import flash.utils.getTimer;
 
   public class Application extends Sprite {
      public static const ANIMATING:int = 50;
      public static const ACTIVE:int = 24;
      public static const INACTIVE_VISIBLE:int = 5;
      public static const INACTIVE_INVISIBLE:int = 1;
      
      public var active:Boolean;
      public var animating:Boolean;
      public var buffer:int;
      
      public function Application () {
         __init ();
      }
      
      private function __init ():void {
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener
        (Event.ACTIVATE, __activate__);
        NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener 
        (Event.DEACTIVATE, __deactivate__);
      }
      
      public function activate ():void {
         if (!animating) {
           stage.frameRate = ACTIVE;
         }
      }
      public function deactivate ():void {
         if (!animating) {
           stage.frameRate = (stage.nativeWindow.visible) ? 
              INACTIVE_VISIBLE : INACTIVE_INVISIBLE;
         }
      }
      public function animate ($duration:int = 1000):void {
         stage.frameRate = 50;
         buffer = getTimer () + $duration;
         animating = true;
         
         if (!animating) {
           stage.addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __checkBuffer__);
         }
      }
      
      private function __activate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = true;
         activate ();
      }
      private function __deactivate__ ($event:Event):void {
         active = false;
         deactivate ();
      }
      private function __checkBuffer__ ($event:Event):void {
         if (buffer < getTimer ()) {
           stage.removeEventListener
           (Event.ENTER_FRAME, __checkBuffer__);
           animating = false;
           if (active) {
             activate ();
           } else {
             deactivate ();
           }
         }
      }
   }
}

Framerate throttling is a small chapter in the optimization of your AIR application's performance. It's a basic way to get your foot in the door and in the mindset of keeping resource usage low. This mentality and practice can easily lead to more responsive applications that enhance the user's experience while leaving a light footprint. Let's face it—no one likes bloatware.