Beginning Flash, Flex, and AIR Development for Mobile Devices

CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO FLASH, FLEX, AND AIR 1

Adobe Flash 1

Flash on Mobile Devices 2

ActionScript 3.0 2

ECMAScript 2

Key Concepts 3

The Flex Framework 11

Flex 4.5.1 11

MXML 12

Spark Library Components 14

Data Binding 21

Flex Mobile Application Structure 22

Considerations for Mobile Development 31

Adobe AIR 31

Summary 32

CHAPTER 2: GETTING STARTED 35

Using Flash Builder 4.5.1 35

Working with Workspaces 36

Using the Flash Perspective 37

Using the Flash Debug Perspective 38

Using the Source and Design Views 39

Creating a Mobile Project Using Flash Builder 41

Creating a Hello World App Example 41

Defi ning Run Confi gurations 51

Running Mobile Applications on the Desktop 52

Running Mobile Applications on the Device 55

Summary 64

CHAPTER 3: BUILDING AIR APPLICATIONS FOR ANDROID, BLACKBERRY, AND IOS DEVICES 67

AIR Application Descriptor Files 67

Setting Properties in the AIR Application Descriptor File 68

Manually Editing the Application Descriptor File for the Hello World App 69

BlackBerry Tablet OS Confi guration 79

Packaging for Google Android 82

Packaging for Apple iOS 88

Packaging for BlackBerry Tablet OS 94

Updating AIR Applications 96

Retrieving Details from the Application Descriptor File 97

Using the Version Number 97

Summary 98

CHAPTER 4: TOUCH, MULTITOUCH, AND GESTURES 101

Multitouch Interactions 102

Determining Touch Input Support 102

Creating a Multitouch and Gestures App Example 103

Touch Event Handling 106

Registering Touch Events on Interactive Objects 114

Determining the Supported Touch Points 117

Gesture Interactions 117

Determining Which Gestures Are Supported on a Device 117

Gesture Events and Event Handling 118

Registering Gesture Events on Interactive Objects 119

Handling Gesture Events 124

Utilizing the Multitouch Panel in Device Central 128

Summary 128

CHAPTER 5: DEVELOPING FOR MULTIPLE SCREEN SIZES 131

Considerations for Multiple Screen Sizes 132

Pixel Density 132

Utilizing Device DPI 133

Adapting Content to Stage Size 138

Using the StageScaleMode and StageAlign Classes 138

Handling Stage Resize Events 140

Creating the Sprite Layout App Example 140

Handling Device Orientation 151

Using the StageOrientation Class 152

Using the StageOrientationEvent Class 152

Using Layouts in Flex 154

Aligning Items in Group Containers 155

Summary 174

CHAPTER 6: DEBUGGING APPLICATIONS 177

Setting Breakpoints 177

Global Error Handling 188

Handling Uncaught Errors 188

Try…Catch Statements 191

Stepping through Code 193

Summary 196

CHAPTER 7: WORKING WITH THE FILESYSTEM 199

Reading from the Filesystem 200

The File and FileStream Classes 200

Creating a Files Explorer App Example 203

Modifying Files and Filesystems 216

Creating New Files and Directories 216

Utilizing Browse Dialogs 229

Opening a Single File 230

Opening Multiple Files 230

Saving a Single File to a Location 236

Summary 237

CHAPTER 8: WORKING WITH DATA 239

Detecting Changes in Network Availability 239

Retrieving Data with URLRequest 240

Monitoring the URLRequest Object 240

Creating the Maintaining Data App Example 241

Using SQLite for Storing Data 247

Creating a SQLite Database 248

Summary 286

CHAPTER 9: WORKING WITH AUDIO AND VIDEO 289

Introducing the Open Source Media Framework 289

Creating a URLResource Object 290

Creating a MediaElement Object 291

Media Traits 292

Using the MediaTraitType Class to Identify Traits 293

Using the MediaPlayer to Play Media Elements 294

Using the MediaPlayerSprite Class to Play Media Resources 297

Handling Trait Events 298

Using an AudioEvent Object 298

Using the Flex OSMF Wrapper 300

Using the VideoPlayer Component 300

Creating a MediaPlayer Example 301

Summary 313

CHAPTER 10: UTILIZING DEVICE FEATURES 315

Using the Device's Camera 315

Using the CameraUI Class 316

Creating a Camera App Example 316

Capturing Sound Using the Device's Microphone 323

Using the Microphone Class 323

Using the SampleDataEvent Class 324

Creating a Microphone App Example 326

Utilizing the Device's Web Controller 336

Using the StageWebView Class 336

Creating a Browser App Example 338

Utilizing the Device's Geolocation Sensor 346

Using the Geolocation Class 346

Using the GeolocationEvent Class 347

Creating a Geolocation App Example 348

Summary 355

INDEX 359