Best practices for Flash applications on mobile devices

Best practices for mobile development with the Flash PlatformMark Doherty | Flash Platform Evangelist

Before starting...

3 questions

Why Mark looks so French today?

Ok then... who are you ?

Michaël ChaizeFlash Platform Evangelist

My blog: www.RIAgora.com

@mchaize

Best-practices for mobile development ?

“Hopefully everyone understands that Michael Chaize commenting

on mobile development is equivalent to Tiger Woods

commenting on PaperVision 3D”

Lee Brimelow

Menu du jour

Flash and screens

Design considerations

Flash best practices

Flex on mobile ?

AIR on mobile devices

Resources

Flash and screens

Applications are beginning adapt to context

RIA Cloud Devices

Adobe Systems Inc.| FOTB2009

Digital Explosion Across Multiple Screens

Consumer Electronics

Personal Computers

Mobile Phones

Flash Platform - A complete system for web innovation

Flash Player 10.1

!e only consistent browser-based runtime for connected devices

Targeting desktops, mobile phones, netbooks, tablets, and the Digital Home

On track for delivery to consumers in "rst half of 2010

Runtimes will be available over-the-air through marketplaces and Adobe.com

Brings full Flash Player feature set to devices

New Features:

Multi-touch & gestures

Accelerometer

Screen orientation

Mobile text input

Device capabilities discovery

Globalization support (GSLib)

Mobile se#ings manager

Global error handling

Flash Player 10.1

Flash Player 10.1 API and testing

Design considerations

Context

Screens

44px7mm

Finger

Usually, a "nger comes with a hand

Native keyboard

Flash best practices

Graphical optimizations

rendering pure algorithm

Understand its behavior

FPS and enterFrame

events

Avoid high-rate timers

Keep FPS as low as possible

Set dynamic FPS

Memory optimizations and the getSize() method

trace(getSize(new Shape()));// output: 236

trace(getSize(new Sprite()));// output: 412

trace(getSize(new MovieClip()));// output: 440

Display Objects Primitive types

var a:Number;trace(getSize(a));// output: 8

var b:int;trace(getSize(b));// output: 4

var name:String;trace(getSize(name));// output: 4

name = "";trace(getSize(name));// output: 24

Reusing objects

Freeing memory

var mySprite:Sprite = new Sprite();

mySprite = null;

Remember that when an object is set to null, it is not necessarily removed from memory. Sometimes the garbage collector does not run, if available memory is not considered low enough. Garbage collection is not predictable.

Object pooling

Freeing MovieClips

runningBoy.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,activate);runningBoy.addEventListener(Event.REMOVED_FROM_STAGE,deactivate);

function activate(e:Event):void{ e.currentTarget.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,handleMovement);}

function deactivate(e:Event):void{ e.currentTarget.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,handleMovement); e.currentTarget.stop();}

Rectangle ? Alpha ? RemoveChild ? Visible ?

Bitmaps

Consider bitmaps vs. vectors.

Avoid filters and blend modes.

Transparency is very expensive.

Keep bitmaps as small as possible.

cacheAsBitmap is not that easy

Feel the transparency > opaqueBackground

Avoid TLF

Test different anti-aliasing technics (lisibility, animation...)

Test your animations with different qualities of Stage

Flex on mobile ?

Slider : Flex Mobile Framework

Flex applications run on Flash Player 10.1, but...

Challenges: Performance of the SDK, Different screen sizes and densities.

Based on the Flex 4 codebase, Slider will include signi"cant changes to optimize both the performance and user experience on more constrained device environments.

Slider will include new capabilities speci"cally designed for mobile development, such as a new construct for managing application “screens”. Resolution-independent layout.

A new set of user interface components will be added which are designed for mobile form factors and input methods.

AIR on mobile devices

Adobe AIR for smartphones (and tablets)

Adobe AIR allows developers to build standalone applications using Flash technology

Public support from RIM and Motorola

First mobile operating system to be supported is Android

Provides Flash developers access to app stores

AIR applications can be repackaged for the iPhone

AIR Packaging & Distribution Work%ow

.air (swf, jpg, mp3)

Resources

■ Slides and samples on my blog: h#p://www.RIAgora.com

■ Adobe TV

■ Optimization guides:■ Flash Player optimization for mobile devices■ Optimization for the iPhone■ AIR best practices for mobile devices■ Ads optimization

■ Technical articles:■ h#p://www.adobe.com/devnet/%ashplayer/articles/

fplayer10.1_hardware_acceleration.html

■ h#p://www.%ashmobileblog.com/

Fight !

Questions?

Remember... slide "ve...

“Hopefully everyone understands that Michael Chaize commenting

on mobile development is equivalent to Tiger Woods

commenting on PaperVision 3D”

Lee Brimelow

Best practices for Flash applications on mobile devices

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