blackcj.com » AIR http://www.blackcj.com/blog Cutting edge development with Adobe Flex, ActionScript and AIR Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:01:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Detect Pen Tablet Pressure using an AIR Native Extension http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/12/14/detect-pen-tablet-pressure-with-the-air-3-native-extension/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/12/14/detect-pen-tablet-pressure-with-the-air-3-native-extension/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:40:27 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=1132 This native extension allows you to detect the input pressure of compatible pen tablet devices. This post includes a video demo of the code running on the Eee Slate and a downloadable ANE that you can use without installing Visual Studio.

Problem:
A big thanks to the Magical Hobo for creating the c++ code for this. The only problem is that the code was built in debug mode and requires Visual Studio and the MSVCP100D.dll. Great for people who want to dive into the c++ code but it adds a lot of upfront time in getting everything setup.

Solution:
After downloading the project from GitHub, removing all debug dependencies and re-building in release mode, the ANE was ready for use without Visual Studio. If you’d like the full c++ source, checkout the Magical Hobo’s source on GitHub.

More information on Adobe Native Extensions:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/native-extensions-for-air.html

Link to original c++ source code by the Magical Hobo:
http://blog.magicalhobo.com/2011/10/01/air-3-native-extension-example-pentablet/

How do you know if your device can detect pressure?
Open up PhotoShop, select a brush, click on the pressure sensitivity icon and start drawing. If PhotoShop can detect the sensitivity than you should be good to go.

Requirements:
> Touch sensitive capable device.
> Windows OS
> Flash Builder 4.6
> AIR 3.1

Download the ANE:
http://www.blackcj.com/blog/wp-content/swfs/PenTabletLib.ane

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/12/14/detect-pen-tablet-pressure-with-the-air-3-native-extension/feed/ 1 AIR Mobile User Group http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/09/07/air-mobile-user-group/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/09/07/air-mobile-user-group/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:38:08 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=1097 Are you interested in cross platform mobile development with AIR? Join us next Tuesday, September 13 at 7:00pm to get the inside scoop on AIR mobile development from community members in the Twin Cities. Speakers will include Danny Patterson, Andrew Charon and Chris Black with more to be announced. We’ll be running through our real world applications talking about the challenges of mobile development. There will be plenty of Q/A and open discussion.

What? AIR Mobile User Group
When? Tuesday, September 13th from 7-9pm
Where? Zeus Jones in Uptown, Minneapolis

We’ll have free pizza at the meeting and a social hour after the meeting at the Bulldog in Uptown. Please RSVP by posting a comment to this thread or on the Facebook MN.swf group. If all goes well, we’ll be meeting up every month to discuss a new mobile topic. Future topics include:

>Mobile Arduino integration
>Performance optimizations
>AIR 3.0 features
>Marketing and monetization of apps
>Building mobile games with AIR
>Multi-screen developmen
>And more…

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn about mobile development with AIR. With version 3.0 around the corner, cross platform development is going to continue to grow!

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/09/07/air-mobile-user-group/feed/ 1 Flash is Alive and Kicking, FITC Toronto Highlights http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/06/19/flash-is-alive-and-kicking-fitc-toronto-highlights/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/06/19/flash-is-alive-and-kicking-fitc-toronto-highlights/#comments Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:12:28 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=1053 Interested in what devices support mobile AIR? Want to know how to keep your PlayBook app running in the background? Are you in the market for a $2,750 Tron watch? In this post I’ll share the highlights from FITC Toronto 2011. Being the first conference since AIR 2.6 and the launch of the PlayBook there was plenty of great information to go around.

The Venue
Before we jump into the tech tips, I wanted to mention that this was the coolest venue I’ve ever been to for a conference. They rented out a huge night club and transformed dance floors and lounges into speaker rooms. Cotton candy and popcorn were available at all times. A few shots from the event:

Guvernment Club
Click the image to enlarge.

The PlayBook
Both Julian Dolce and Rajeev Messand uncovered some great tips and tricks for PlayBook development. First, Julian discussed how to use the Throttle mode to keep your application running in the background. This is key for anyone playing music, tracking GPS or that need background services running. He also talked about how to tap into the system media to ensure sound stops when another application (like a YouTube video) starts playing audio.

Rajeev talked about creating applications using Flash / HTML5 with Webworks. Did you know the BAR extension is really just a ZIP file? You can extract the contents to ensure your application has been signed correctly and to adjust meta data if needed. Another great he mentioned is to navigate the file structure by typing file:/// in the web browser. It’s an interesting little trick to find out whats on your machine.

Adobe AIR
I skipped out on the keynote but caught the tail end of Lee Brimelow’s talk and attended a full session on devices with Renaun Erickson. Adobe was really pushing both Molehill and multi-platform development. They had a 3D demo running on the first generation Galaxy Tab showing that Flash truly rocks on mobile devices without taxing the battery or processor. Renaun outlined the full road map for Flash / AIR on all platforms. His presentation is definitely worth embedding here:

Digital Fun for the Digital Home

Brass Monkey
Chris Allen showed off some really cool games including a Star Wars 3D shooter and Smuggle Truck err… Snuggle Truck for mobile devices. The best part? When connected up to a computer, the games turned into controllers that could be used to play the desktop version! This is some seriously cool shit. The mobile applications are built natively in iOS and Android with the desktop receiver is built using Unity 3D. Both the Unity plugin and an ActionScript version are coming soon. Check out the demos on the Brass Monkey website and download Snuggle Truck for your iPhone today!

Flash Video and Lazy Programming
Robert Reinhardt did a great job comparing HTML5 and Flash video. As he mentioned many times throughout his presentation, HTML5 has a ways to go. Lack of captioning, full screen, DRM and codec support leave much to be desired of the new video tag. Luckily there is still plenty of time for the specs to be finalized. For now, only use HTML5 for simple video and use Flash when you need more.

Lazy programming was about how to be efficient so that you’re working less and enjoying it more. Key tips were to use tools to assist in programming, don’t fix every bug and always have a scope doc. Phillip Kerman concluded with comedy show on his handbill delivery system. Make sure to ask him for one the next time you see him.

Missed Sessions
A notable mention to the session that I wanted to see was Trainyard: a Flash Dev’s Journey to App Store Success with Matt Rix. I hope that Matt presents at a future conference so I can check that session out!

Conclusion
This was one of the best conferences I’ve been to in a while. Sessions were top notch with lots of new material, the event was great for networking and overall it was a blast.

Until next year!

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/06/19/flash-is-alive-and-kicking-fitc-toronto-highlights/feed/ 2 iOS, Android and BlackBerry in a Single Click with ANT http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/04/04/ios-android-and-blackberry-in-a-single-click-with-ant/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/04/04/ios-android-and-blackberry-in-a-single-click-with-ant/#comments Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:43:34 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=977 ***Update: Use package.blackberry OR install.blackberry when running the ANT task, using both will overwrite the BAR file and remove signing. Verify your BAR is signed by renaming it from app.bar to app.zip, extract and ensure you have META-INF/AUTHOR.EC and META-INF/RDK.EC included in the zip.***

Create your market ready AIR apps for iOS, Android and the BlackBerry PlayBook in a single click using the same code. This ANT task compiles, signs and pushes out to attached devices (iOS requires dragging into iTunes). All of the signed apps created with this ANT task can be published to the market.

Overview:
The AIR 2.6 SDK is great but doesn't have full Flash Builder support yet. This ANT task can be used in Flash Builder, Flash Develop, FDT or even the command line. Using Flash Develop, you can create apps for all devices without paying for expensive software!

Pre-requisites:
You will need to install Flash Builder Burrito, the BlackBerry PlayBook SDK, the AIR 2.6 SDK and acquire signing keys for all three devices. If using Flash Develop, you will need to follow some additional steps for ANT integration. You'll also want to download the base project from Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/air-mobile-tools/

Video Tutorial:

Wiki:
The wiki on Google code contains more information on getting started with this base project: http://code.google.com/p/air-mobile-tools/wiki/BaseMobileActionScriptProject

ANT Task:

PLAIN TEXT
XML:
  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  2. <!--
  3. MIT License:
  4. Copyright (c) 2010 Christopher Black
  6. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sub license, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
  8. The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
  10. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
  11. LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
  13. Resources:
  14. http://www.terrenceryan.com/blog/post.cfm/using-ant-to-package-the-same-air-app-to-multiple-devices
  15. http://technophi.com/2011/03/08/using-ant-to-compile-a-flex-mobile-project-for-ios/
  16. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex_ant_pt1.html
  17. http://help.adobe.com/en_US/air/build/WSfffb011ac560372f-5d0f4f25128cc9cd0cb-7ffb.html
  18. -->
  19. <project name="Box2D" default="main" basedir="."><property name="environment" value="local" /><property file="settings.properties"/>
  20.  
  21. <!-- Path to the Flex task libraries. -->
  22. <path id="flextasks.classpath">
  23.   <fileset dir="${FLEX_HOME}/ant/lib">
  24.     <include name="*.jar"/>
  25.   </fileset>
  26. </path>
  27. <typedef resource="flexTasks.tasks" classpathref="flextasks.classpath" />
  28.  
  29. <!-- Add dependencies here (android, blackberry, apple) or uninstall.blackberry -->
  30. <target name="main" depends="android, blackberry, apple" />
  31. <target name="android" depends="prepPackage, package.android, install.android" />
  32. <!-- Use package.blackberry OR install.blackberry, using both will overwrite the .bar file and remove signing. -->
  33. <target name="blackberry" depends="prepPackage, package.blackberry" />
  34. <target name="apple" depends="prepPackage, package.apple" />
  35. <target name="clean">
  36.   <echo message="Cleaning Build Space"/>
  37.   <delete dir="${build.dir}"/>
  38. </target>
  39. <target name="prepPackage" depends="compile,handleDevices" />
  40. <target name="compile" depends="clean">
  41.   <echo message="Compiling swf"/>
  42.   <mxmlc file="${projectFile}" output="${swfFile}" optimize="true" configname="airmobile" debug="false">
  43.     <load-config filename="${FLEX_HOME}/frameworks/airmobile-config.xml"/>
  44.     <source-path path-element="${FLEX_HOME}/frameworks"/>
  45.     <static-link-runtime-shared-libraries />
  46.     <compiler.library-path dir="${FLEX_HOME}/frameworks" append="true">
  47.       <include name="libs/*" />
  48.     </compiler.library-path>
  49.     <compiler.library-path dir="${basedir}/libs" append="true">
  50.       <include name="*" />
  51.     </compiler.library-path>
  52.   </mxmlc>
  53. </target>
  54.  
  55. <!-- Create Android directory. -->
  56. <target name="collect.android">
  57.   <echo message="Creating device folder for Android"/>
  58.   <mkdir dir="${build.dir}/android"/>
  59.   <echo message="Copying SWF for Android"/>
  60.   <copy file="${cert.dir}/androidcert.p12" todir="${build.dir}/android" />
  61.   <copy file="${swfFile}" todir="${build.dir}/android" />
  62.   <echo message="Copying Application Description File for Android"/>
  63.   <copy file="${dev.dir}/${app.name}-app.xml" todir="${build.dir}/android" preservelastmodified="true" />
  64.   <copy todir="${build.dir}/android/assets">
  65.     <fileset dir="${dev.dir}/assets" />
  66.   </copy>
  67.   <echo message="Modifying application description file"/>
  68.   <replace file="${build.dir}/android/${app.name}-app.xml">
  69.     <replacefilter token="${contentText}" value="${app.name}.swf" />
  70.   </replace>
  71. </target>
  72.    
  73. <!-- Create BlackBerry directory. -->
  74. <target name="collect.blackberry">
  75.   <echo message="Creating Device Folder for BlackBerry"/>
  76.   <mkdir dir="${build.dir}/blackberry"/>
  77.   <echo message="Copying SWF for BlackBerry"/>
  78.   <copy file="${swfFile}" todir="${build.dir}/blackberry" />
  79.   <copy file="${cert.dir}/${bb.cert}" todir="${build.dir}/blackberry" />
  80.   <echo message="Copying Application Description File for BlackBerry"/>
  81.   <copy file="${dev.dir}/${app.name}BlackBerry-app.xml" todir="${build.dir}/blackberry" preservelastmodified="true" />
  82.   <copy file="${dev.dir}/blackberry-tablet.xml"
  83.     todir="${build.dir}/blackberry" preservelastmodified="true" />
  84.   <copy todir="${build.dir}/blackberry/assets">
  85.     <fileset dir="${dev.dir}/assets" />
  86.   </copy>
  87.   <echo message="Modifying application description file"/>
  88.   <replace file="${build.dir}/blackberry/${app.name}BlackBerry-app.xml">
  89.     <replacefilter token="${contentText}" value="${app.name}.swf" />
  90.   </replace>
  91. </target>
  92.    
  93. <!-- Create Apple directory. -->
  94. <target name="collect.apple">
  95.   <echo message="Creating device folder for apple"/>
  96.   <mkdir dir="${build.dir}/apple"/>
  97.   <echo message="Copying SWF for Apple"/>
  98.   <copy file="${swfFile}" todir="${build.dir}/apple" />
  99.   <copy file="${cert.dir}/${apple.cert}" todir="${build.dir}/apple" />
  100.   <copy file="${cert.dir}/${apple.provision}" todir="${build.dir}/apple" />
  101.   <echo message="Copying Application Description File for Apple"/>
  102.   <copy file="${dev.dir}/${app.name}Apple-app.xml" todir="${build.dir}/apple" preservelastmodified="true" />
  103.   <copy todir="${build.dir}/apple/assets">
  104.     <fileset dir="${dev.dir}/assets" />
  105.   </copy>
  106.   <echo message="Modifying Application Description File"/>
  107.   <replace file="${build.dir}/apple/${app.name}Apple-app.xml">
  108.     <replacefilter token="${contentText}" value="${app.name}.swf" />
  109.   </replace>
  110. </target>
  111.    
  112. <target name="handleDevices" depends="collect.android, collect.blackberry, collect.apple"/>
  113. <target name="package.android">
  114.   <echo message="Packaging for Android ${cert}"/>
  115.   <exec executable="${ADT}" dir="${build.dir}/android">
  116.     <arg value="-package"/>
  117.     <arg line="-target apk"/>
  118.     <arg line="-storetype pkcs12"/>
  119.     <arg line="-keystore ${cert}" />
  120.     <arg line="-storepass ${cert.password}" />
  121.     <arg value="${app.name}"/>
  122.     <arg value="${app.name}-app.xml"/>
  123.     <arg value="${app.name}.swf"/>
  124.     <arg line="assets" />
  125.   </exec>
  126. </target>
  127. <target name="package.blackberry">
  128.   <echo message="Packaging for BlackBerry"/>
  129.   <exec executable="${BBPackager}" dir="${build.dir}/blackberry">
  130.     <arg value="-package"/>
  131.     <arg value="${app.name}.bar"/>
  132.     <arg value="${app.name}BlackBerry-app.xml"/>
  133.     <arg value="blackberry-tablet.xml"/>
  134.     <arg value="${app.name}.swf"/>
  135.     <arg line="assets" />
  136.   </exec>
  137.   <exec executable="${BBSigner}" dir="${build.dir}/blackberry">
  138.     <arg value="-verbose"/>
  139.     <arg line="-cskpass ${bb.cert.password}"/>
  140.     <arg line="-keystore ${bb.cert}"/>
  141.     <arg line="-storepass ${bb.store.password}"/>
  142.     <arg value="${app.name}.bar"/>
  143.     <arg value="RDK" />
  144.   </exec>
  145.   <exec executable="${BBSigner}" dir="${build.dir}/blackberry">
  146.     <arg line="-keystore ${bb.cert}"/>
  147.     <arg line="-storepass ${bb.store.password}"/>
  148.     <arg value="${app.name}.bar"/>
  149.     <arg value="author" />
  150.   </exec>
  151. </target>
  152. <target name="package.apple">
  153.   <exec executable="${ADT}" dir="${build.dir}/apple">
  154.     <arg line="-package -target '${apple.target}'" />
  155.     <arg line="-provisioning-profile '${apple.provision}'" />
  156.     <arg line="-storetype pkcs12" />
  157.     <arg line="-keystore '${apple.cert}'" />
  158.     <arg line="-storepass '${apple.cert.password}'" />
  159.     <arg line="'${app.name}.ipa'" />
  160.     <arg line="'${apple.descriptor}'" />
  161.     <arg line="'${app.name}.swf'" />
  162.     <arg line="assets" />
  163.   </exec>
  164. </target>
  165. <target name="install.android">
  166.       <echo message="Uninstalling attached Android Device"/>
  167.       <exec executable="${ADT}">
  168.         <arg line="-uninstallApp"/>
  169.         <arg line="-platform android"/>
  170.         <arg line="-appid '${app.name}'"/>
  171.       </exec>
  172.   <echo message="Installing onto attached Android Device"/>
  173.   <exec executable="${ADT}">
  174.     <arg line="-installApp"/>
  175.     <arg line="-platform android"/>
  176.     <arg line="-package '${build.dir}/android/${app.name}.apk'"/>
  177.   </exec>
  178.   <echo message="Launching on attached Android Device"/>
  179.   <exec executable="${ADT}">
  180.     <arg line="-launchApp"/>
  181.     <arg line="-platform android"/>
  182.     <arg line="-appid '${app.name}'"/>
  183.   </exec>
  184. </target>
  185. <target name="uninstall.blackberry">
  186.   <echo message="Uninstalling from Blackberry VM"/>
  187.   <exec executable="${BBDeploy}" dir="${build.dir}/blackberry">
  188.     <arg value="-uninstallApp"/>
  189.     <arg value="-device"/>
  190.     <arg value="${bb.ip}"/>
  191.     <arg value="-password"/>
  192.     <arg value="${bb.password}"/>
  193.     <arg value="-package"/>
  194.     <arg value="${app.name}.bar"/>
  195.   </exec>
  196. </target>
  197. <target name="install.blackberry">
  198.   <echo message="Installing onto Blackberry VM"/>
  199.   <exec executable="${BBPackager}" dir="${build.dir}/blackberry">
  200.     <arg value="-package"/>
  201.     <arg value="${app.name}.bar"/>
  202.     <arg value="-installApp"/>
  203.     <arg value="-launchApp"/>
  204.     <arg value="${app.name}BlackBerry-app.xml"/>
  205.     <arg value="blackberry-tablet.xml"/>
  206.     <arg value="${app.name}.swf"/>
  207.     <arg value="-device"/>
  208.     <arg value="${bb.ip}"/>
  209.     <arg value="-password"/>
  210.     <arg value="${bb.password}"/>
  211.     <arg value="assets"/>
  212.   </exec>
  213. </target>
  214. </project>

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. flex.path = C:/Program Files (x86)/Adobe/Flash Builder Burrito/Adobe Flash Builder Burrito/sdks
  2. flex.sdkVersion= 4.5.0_air
  3. flex.sdkPath= ${flex.path}/${flex.sdkVersion}
  4. FLEX_HOME= ${flex.sdkPath}
  5. BB_HOME = ${flex.path}/blackberry-tablet-sdk-0.9.4
  6. contentText = [This value will be overwritten by Flash Builder in the output app.xml]
  7.  
  8. ADB = C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/Froyo/android-sdk-windows/platform-tools/adb.exe
  9. ADT = ${flex.sdkPath}/bin/adt.bat
  10. adt.path = ${flex.sdkPath}/bin/
  11. IPHONE_PACKAGER = adt
  12.  
  13. BBDeploy = ${flex.path}/blackberry-tablet-sdk-0.9.4/bin/blackberry-deploy.bat
  14. BBPackager = ${flex.path}/blackberry-tablet-sdk-0.9.4/bin/blackberry-airpackager.bat
  15. BBSigner = ${flex.path}/blackberry-tablet-sdk-0.9.4/bin/blackberry-signer.bat
  16. bb.ip = [PLAYBOOK_IP]
  17. bb.password = [YOUR_PASSWORD]
  18.  
  19. ## Directories
  20. build.dir = bin-release
  21. dev.dir = ${basedir}/src
  22. cert.dir = ${basedir}/certs
  23. app.name = BaseMobileActionScriptProject
  24.  
  25. ## mxml or as
  26. app.type = as
  27.  
  28. ## Apple cert info: ipa-test | ipa-debug | ipa-app-store | ipa-ad-hoc
  29. apple.target = ipa-ad-hoc
  30. apple.cert = [APPLE_CERT_NAME].p12
  31. apple.cert.password = [CERT_PASSWORD]
  32. apple.provision = [PROVISION_NAME].mobileprovision
  33. apple.descriptor = ${dev.dir}/${app.name}Apple-app.xml
  34.  
  35. ## Android cert info
  36. cert = [ANDROID_CERT_NAME].p12
  37. cert.password = [YOUR_PASSWORD]
  38.  
  39. ## PlayBook cert info
  40. bb.cert = [BB_CERT_NAME].p12
  41. bb.cert.password = [YOUR_PASSWORD]
  42. bb.store.password = [YOUR_STORE_PASSWORD]
  43. bb.descriptor = ${dev.dir}/${app.name}BlackBerry-app.xml
  44.  
  45. ## General
  46. swfFile=${build.dir}/${app.name}.swf
  47. projectFile=${dev.dir}/${app.name}.${app.type}

Resources:
http://www.terrenceryan.com/blog/post.cfm/using-ant-to-package-the-same-air-app-to-multiple-devices
http://technophi.com/2011/03/08/using-ant-to-compile-a-flex-mobile-project-for-ios/
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex_ant_pt1.html
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/air/build/WSfffb011ac560372f-5d0f4f25128cc9cd0cb-7ffb.html

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/04/04/ios-android-and-blackberry-in-a-single-click-with-ant/feed/ 14 Link Directly to the Mobile Android Market http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/02/12/link-directly-to-the-mobile-android-market/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/02/12/link-directly-to-the-mobile-android-market/#comments Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:07:08 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=949 With one line of code you can open up the mobile Android market from within your app! You can open the market to a specific application or to a page listing all of your apps. This is a great way to cross sell your applications and limit the number of clicks for a user to download your app.

Problem:
Linking to the Android market on a mobile web browser brings up a security warning saying "There are problems with the security certificate for this site." This pop up is rather troublesome, who is actually going to click to continue? Even if they do the web interface doesn't display very well on mobile devices. Let's bypass this message all together and bring the user directly to the Android market app within the mobile device!

Solution:
Replace "https://market.android.com/" with "market://" for any valid market URL. It's that easy! Just make sure to do this only within mobile applications. Desktop browsers and any other non-Android device will not know what to do with the "market://" preface. On the desktop use the standard URL and within mobile devices use the shorthand URL. This will ensure the best user experience for everyone and ensure the most downloads of your app.

Use this line of code in your AIR for Android Apps to bring up a search result (example 'terry paton'):
navigateToURL(new URLRequest("market://search?q=terry+paton"));

or link directly to an app with this:
navigateToURL(new URLRequest("market://details?id=air.com.terrypaton.tc2"));

Navigating to "https://market.android.com/..." on an Android brings up this message:
Security warning message.

However, navigating to "market://search?q=terry+paton" brings the user to the market!
Terry Paton on the Android Market

A big thanks to Terry Paton for working with me on my mobile marketing campaign. Make sure to check out all of his awesome AIR for Android games on the market:
https://market.android.com/search?q=terry+paton

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/02/12/link-directly-to-the-mobile-android-market/feed/ 1 Publishing Apps to iOS, Android and BlackBerry with AIR http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/02/02/publishing-apps-to-ios-android-and-blackberry-with-air/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/02/02/publishing-apps-to-ios-android-and-blackberry-with-air/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:44:19 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=942 Using Flash Builder Burrito and the Flash IDE you can export your ActionScript projects to three mobile platforms without any change in code! Let's take a look at how to make this possible. Before we get started, here is a video with one of my demo apps running on all three devices:

Multi-screen:
The variety of screen resolutions and DPIs can be the hardest part of building a mobile app. When building an AIR app for mobile devices you have two important properties Capabilities.screenResolutionX(Y) and Capabilities.screenDPI. Using stage.stageWidth on mobile devices does not work the way you would expect it to. If you set up your application in Flash to have a width of 480 and a height of 800, the stageWidth and stageHeight will return these numbers even if the screen is smaller. Another thing to note is that the iOS packager currently targets 320x480 even though many of the iOS devices run 640x960. We'll account for that by adding a screenResolution check.

In my application when a device has lower than 400 pixels in width I drop down the paint brush width. When the device has higher than 400 pixels I increase the size of the menu accordingly. A better approach would be to use the Capabilities.screenDPI for this calculation rather than just the screenResolution. All of your view components should be able to render at different DPIs and resolutions. When you know this from the start it is easy to build into the code. Here is an example:

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. if(Capabilities.screenResolutionX <400){
  2.     _canvas = new SimplePaint(Capabilities.screenResolutionX, Capabilities.screenResolutionY-85);
  3.     _canvas.ratio = 0.66;
  4. }else{
  5.     _canvas = new SimplePaint(Capabilities.screenResolutionX, Capabilities.screenResolutionY-125);
  6.     _menuBar.scaleX = _menuBar.scaleY = 1.5;
  7. }

Notice how we are changing the size ratio of the brushes for smaller screens with a lower DPI. For larger screens we are increasing the size of the menu. This makes the application appear the same to the end user even when the app is running at 480x800 on the Android and 320x480 on the iOS! This could be improved to use the actual DPI value but the basic idea is there.

Multi-touch
This is the easy part. Use the Multitouch.maxTouchPoints to determine if the device supports touch. If it does than add touch listeners, if the device has 0 touch points add mouse event listeners. Don't be that person that only codes for one device. With only a few extra lines of code you app will work on desktop and mobile. This also makes debugging much easier!

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. if(Multitouch.maxTouchPoints> 0){
  2.     Multitouch.inputMode = MultitouchInputMode.TOUCH_POINT;
  3.     _canvas.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, onTouchBegin);
  4.     _canvas.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_MOVE, onTouchMove);
  5.     _canvas.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_END, onTouchEnd);
  6. }else{
  7.     _canvas.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, onMouseBegin);
  8.     _canvas.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, onMyMouseMove);
  9.     _canvas.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, onMouseEnd);
  10. }

Wasn't that easy? One thing to note is that TOUCH_END was not always dispatched, especially when you start using 3+ touch points. To work around this add a timer into your class that checks to see if a TOUCH_MOVE event has been called. The TOUCH_MOVE event is dispatched even when the user has stopped moving and only stops when the touch has ended. As a backup, check every half a second or so to make sure the specific touch point id is still moving.

Setup:
To setup your workspace to export to all three platforms you'll need to create a ActionScript only Mobile project in Flash Builder Burrito. Create an FLA in the source folder that uses the runnable AS file as its base. Create your assets in the FLA file, export them into a SWC to be used for FB and mark them as run time compiled so they work with the Flash IDE. From here you can export to all three devices without changing any files. Life is good :)

Conclusion:
In just 17 lines of code and a little setup we've got our multi-screen, multi-touch application ready to go! Make sure to add your event listeners for Android to close the app when the user hits back or home. This entire painting application is less than 400 lines of code (~4KB compiled), was built from scratch in less than 12 hours and is easily maintainable across multiple platforms. Performance is great and native APIs are easy to use. My only complaints are that the file size for the iOS is rather large and the iOS exporter doesn't support the Camera API yet. Outside of that, this is the best way to build cross platform apps.

Wet Paint on the Web:

Wet Paint Flash application.

Get Adobe Flash player

Porting to the web required changing 3 lines of code. To get these source files running on mobile devices change the _webMode value to false and remove the width / height from the SWF declaration. I also had to comment out the cacheAsBitmapMatrix to get it running on the web. Still very easy to convert!

Source files.

Enjoy!

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2011/02/02/publishing-apps-to-ios-android-and-blackberry-with-air/feed/ 5 Box2D on the Nexus One with Adobe AIR http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/07/13/box2d-on-the-nexus-one-with-adobe-air/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/07/13/box2d-on-the-nexus-one-with-adobe-air/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:23:58 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=831 This native application uses the accelerometer to determine the direction of gravity for the Box2D physics engine. It performs quite well given the number of computations and could probably be optimized considerably. Check out the video for a demo on the phone!

Porting the code was the easy part. Configuring Adobe Flash and setting up the Android SDK was a bit more work. Check out Lee Brimelow's awesome tutorial on http://www.gotoandlearn.com/. If you run into problems finding your device with the adb devices command than check out my previous post. We are going to see some pretty exciting stuff around the corner with Adobe AIR for mobile devices!

Full source code can be found here. You'll need to run through Lee Brimelow's tutorial to configure Flash before you get started.

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/07/13/box2d-on-the-nexus-one-with-adobe-air/feed/ 8 No Device Listed with ‘adb devices’ Command http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/07/13/no-device-listed-with-adb-devices-command/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/07/13/no-device-listed-with-adb-devices-command/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:49:53 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=823 Applications -> Development to turn on debug mode. After [...]]]> Just received my Nexus One and got past my first hurdle in Flash development. Followed Lee Brimelow's tutorial at http://www.gotoandlearn.com/ but did not see my device listed when running the adb devices command! After some digging, I found that there is a checkbox under Settings -> Applications -> Development to turn on debug mode. After checking that box, Windows 7 recognized the device and successfully installed 3 of the 4 necessary drivers. From there I had to go into my devices under windows, select update driver and manually choose the location of the usb driver within the Android SDK download. That could not have been more confusing / difficult just to get the computer to recognize the device.

In a society where the phone can arrive at my door step with free shipping in less than 25 hours we still can't make it easy for a computer to recognize a damn phone. Anybody else have this much trouble? More, hopefully uplifting, posts to come based on Flash application development for the Nexus One!

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/07/13/no-device-listed-with-adb-devices-command/feed/ 2 Fix Disappearing Fonts Caused by SWC’s http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/01/03/resolve-swc-font-conflicts/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/01/03/resolve-swc-font-conflicts/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:15:47 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=659 Have you ever had that feeling that something is very wrong in your project? Maybe that some paranormal force is working against you? Well, when embedded text starts disappearing after adding a SWC to a project, that's the feeling I used to get.

Problem:
Let me start by saying SWC's are great. I've been using them more and more to include third party API's, utilities and assets. There is one problem, embedding a font into an asset in a SWC will override the internally defined fonts in a project. Why is that bad? Well lets say you have a static text field in your SWC using Georgia and a TextField instance in your Flex project using Georgia. No text will show up in your Flex TextField. Check out this example (notice it starts invisible):

SWC Text Embed Conflict:

Example of Conflicting Fonts

Get Adobe Flash player

(switch between MyGeorgia and Georgia fonts to see the disappearing text)

Full source code can be found here.

Solution:
Define your embed tags in ActionScript with a different fontFamily and fontName. So, if your font is Georgia than name it EmbedGeorgia. This will allow your TextField to reference the correct class definition. In my experience the SWC will always win if there is a conflict.

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. [Embed(source="/assets/fonts/georgia.ttf", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontFamily="MyGeorgia",
  2.     fontName="MyGeorgia", fontWeight="normal", mimeType="application/x-font" )]
  3. private var MyGeorgiaFont:Class;
  4. public static const MY_GEORGIA:String = "MyGeorgia";

rather than...

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. // This will conflict with Georgia references in a SWC!!!
  2. [Embed(source="/assets/fonts/georgia.ttf", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontFamily="Georgia",
  3.     fontName="Georgia", fontWeight="normal", mimeType="application/x-font" )]
  4. private var GeorgiaFont:Class;
  5. public static const GEORGIA:String = "Georgia";

It's that easy?
Yup.

What if you have two SWC's with Georgia embedded text?
Will they conflict with each other? Based on the example above the answer is no. Awesome!

What if my fonts are stored in a SWF file?
Than duplicate the above code but reference your SWF instead of the font in the assets folder.

Code that results in invisible text:

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. // This will conflict with Georgia references in a SWC!!!
  2. [Embed(source="/assets/fonts/georgia.ttf", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontFamily="Georgia",
  3.     fontName="Georgia", fontWeight="normal", mimeType="application/x-font" )]
  4. private var GeorgiaFont:Class;
  5. public static const GEORGIA:String = "Georgia";
  6.  
  7. private var georgiaFormat:TextFormat;
  8. private var georgiaText:TextField;
  9.  
  10. public function ConflictingFonts()
  11. {
  12.     // Component from SWC which uses Georgia in a static text field
  13.     var cc:ColorComponent = new ColorComponent();
  14.     cc.colorPicker.addEventListener(ColorPickerEvent.CHANGE, selectColor, false, 0, true);
  15.     cc.y = 30;
  16.     this.addChild(cc);
  17.    
  18.     // Create the local TextFormat
  19.     georgiaFormat = new TextFormat(GEORGIA, 18);
  20.    
  21.     // Create the local TextField (the text won't show up!)
  22.     georgiaText = new TextField();
  23.     georgiaText.embedFonts = true;
  24.     georgiaText.width = 300;
  25.     georgiaText.height = 20;
  26.     georgiaText.defaultTextFormat = georgiaFormat;
  27.     georgiaText.setTextFormat(georgiaFormat);
  28.     georgiaText.text = "Hello World";
  29.     this.addChild(georgiaText);
  30. }

Swap out the Embed tag, update the TextFormat and you will be good to go.

Rant:

On the way to this solution I came up with a number of hacks that appeared to work only to break at the worst time. These hacks included storing a second reference of the font in the SWC (assuming you have access to the source), enumerating through the font list at runtime (which only fixes the problem in debug), and breaking apart the text into bitmaps (you don't want to know how long that takes). Rather than stop using SWC's I started to create more and more of them pushing towards an acceptable solution. This is what I ended up on. Hopefully it will save everyone some time and a little sanity ;)

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/01/03/resolve-swc-font-conflicts/feed/ 6 Compress Transparent PNGs with Flash http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2009/07/24/compress-transparent-pngs-with-flash/ http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2009/07/24/compress-transparent-pngs-with-flash/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:52:48 +0000 Chris Black http://www.blackcj.com/blog/?p=465 Do you use transparent PNGs in Flash, Flex or AIR? Want to cut your application file size in half?

Problem:
Embedding transparent PNGs dramatically increases the size of your Flash, Flex and AIR applications. Photoshop and Fireworks dot not have any compression available for transparent PNGs (that I am aware of).

Solution:
Import your PNGs into Flash, give them a linkage id, and export the file as a SWF. Make sure to set your compression level in the publish settings (default is 80%). Using this method, I was able to cut the file size in half for a number of applications.

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. [Embed(source="/assets/images/images.swf#myImage")]
  2. private var MyImage:Class;
  3. private var myImage:Sprite = new MyImage() as Sprite;

rather than...

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. // Don't use this one ;)
  2. [Embed(source="/assets/images/myImage.png")]
  3. private var MyImage:Class;
  4. private var myImage:BitmapAsset = new MyImage() as BitmapAsset;

It is also much easier to manage your external assets from a SWF. Designers can set up a nice slice sheet using the stage in Flash. Much easier than managing tons of small PNGs in folders everywhere.

Image Manager

In addition to using the SWF it can also be very useful to set up an ImageManager to serve out images to your application. This prevents having to change code in multiple places to update the same image reference.

Image Manager Class:

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. package com.cb.utils
  2. {
  3.     import flash.display.Sprite;
  4.    
  5.     public class ImageManager
  6.     {
  7.         public static const MY_IMAGE_ID:String = "my_image_id";
  8.        
  9.         [Embed(source="/assets/images/images.swf#myImage")]
  10.         public static var MyImage:Class;
  11.  
  12.         public static function getMovie(id:String):Sprite
  13.         {
  14.             var result:Sprite;
  15.             switch(id){
  16.                 case MY_IMAGE_ID:
  17.                 default:
  18.                     result = new MyImage();
  19.                 break;
  20.             }
  21.             return result;
  22.         }
  23.     }
  24. }

To access an image from the manager class just make this call:

PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
  1. var myImage:BitmapAsset = ImageManager.getImage(ImageManager.MY_IMAGE_ID);

Importing PNGs into Flash

And for those of you that need a refresher on importing PNGs into Flash and setting up linkage IDs:

File->Import->Import to Stage...

File->Import->Import to Stage...

Right click on the image. Select 'Convert to Symbol'...

Step 2

Finally...

Step 3

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: It may be obvious but you must be using transparent PNGs in your app to see a decrease in file size ;) Most of the apps I work on have lots of transparent PNGs!

]]> http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2009/07/24/compress-transparent-pngs-with-flash/feed/ 2