MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-DEVELOPING FLASH LITE 2.X User manual

Developing Flash Lite Applications

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Acknowledgments

Project Management: Mary Leigh Burke

Writing: Tim Statler

Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato

Editing: Linda Adler, Mary Kraemer, Lisa Stanziano, Anne Szabla

Production Management: Patrice O’Neill, Kristin Conradi, Yuko Yagi

Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman. John Francis, Geeta Karmarkar, Masayo Noda,

Paul Rangel, Arena Reed, Mario Reynoso

Special thanks to Lisa Friendly, Bonnie Loo, Erick Vera, the beta testers, and the entire Flash Lite engineering and QA teams.

First Edition: September 2005

Macromedia, Inc.

601 Townsend St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

What’s new in Flash Lite authoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Guide to instructional media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 1: Creating Interactivity and Navigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Keys supported by Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Using tab navigation in Flash Lite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Handling key events (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Handling button events (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using the soft keys (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Chapter 2: Working with Text and Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

About text in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Using input text fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Font rendering methods in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Flash Lite rendering quality and anti-aliased text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Embedding font outlines in SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Text field example application (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . 42

Creating scrolling text (Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 3: Working with Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

About sound in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Using device sound (Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Using native Flash sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Chapter 4: Optimizing content for performance and file size . . .57

SWF file size and memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Performance optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Device speed and frames per second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

4Contents

Chapter 5: Testing Flash Lite Content

(Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Overview of Flash Lite testing features (Flash Professional Only) . . . 63

Using the Flash Lite emulator (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Flash Lite error and warning messages (Flash Professional Only) . . 74

Selecting test devices and Flash Lite content type

(Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Flash Lite content types (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Determining platform capabilities (Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . 81

Appendix: Warning and Error Messages

(Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

Flash Lite emulator error and information messages

(Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Introduction

This manual describes how to develop applications for mobile devices using Macromedia

Flash Lite. You can use various modes of navigation for different devices and how to work

with text and fonts. This manual also describes how to manage the runtime memory available

to Flash Lite applications running on various models of mobile phones. Using a Flash Lite

emulator that is included with Macromedia Flash Professional 8, you can test and debug your

application in the authoring tool before you test it on an actual device.

What’s new in Flash Lite authoring

Flash Professional 8 includes the following new features to help developers create

Flash Lite applications:

Flash Lite emulator The Flash Lite emulator lets you preview your content as it will

function on an actual device. The emulator can configure itself to mimic the features available

on any supported device. The emulator also provides debugging information that alerts you to

potential problems and incompatibilities on the target device.

Device Settings dialog box You use the Device Settings dialog box to select your test

devices and Flash Lite content type. When you test your content in the Flash Lite emulator,

you can choose the test device you want the emulator to mimic.

Device document templates Flash Professional 8 includes document templates to let you

quickly start creating content for specific devices and content types.

6Introduction

Guide to instructional media

The Flash Lite documentation package includes the following media to help you learn how to

create Flash Lite applications:

■Getting Started with Flash Lite provides an overview of Flash Lite technology and

developing Flash Lite content for mobile devices. It also includes a step-by-step tutorial

for creating a Flash Lite application.

■Developing Flash Lite Applications is a comprehensive guide to creating Flash Lite

content, and includes instructions for testing your applications in the integrated

Flash Lite emulator.

■Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript Language Reference describes all the ActionScript language

features available to Flash Lite developers, and provides example code.

■Learning Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript complements the language reference and provides

additional code examples and an introduction to writing Flash 4 ActionScript, upon

which Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript is based.

■The Flash Lite sample applications demonstrate key concepts and best practices discussed

or mentioned in the written documentation.

Additional resources

For the latest information on developing Flash Lite applications, plus advice from expert

users, advanced topics, examples, tips, and other updates, see the Mobile and Devices

Developer Center at www.macromedia.com/devnet/devices/.

For TechNotes, documentation updates, and links to additional resources in the Flash Lite

developer community, see the Macromedia Flash Lite Support Center at

www.macromedia.com/support/flashlite/.

Typographical conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:

■Italic font indicates a value that should be replaced (for example, in a folder path).

■Code font indicates ActionScript code.

■Code font italic indicates an ActionScript parameter.

■Bold font indicates a verbatim entry.

■Double quotation marks ("") in code examples indicate delimited strings. However,

programmers can also use single quotation marks.

CHAPTER 1

Creating Interactivity and

Navigation

Macromedia Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1 support user interaction through the device’s

keypad, or through a stylus or touch-screen interface on devices that provide one.

There are two ways to add key-based interactivity to a Flash Lite application. You can use the

Flash Lite default tab navigation, or you can create a custom key-based navigation system.

Tab navigation functions the same way in Flash Lite as it does in Flash desktop applications,

where the Tab and Shift+Tab keys let users navigate between objects on the screen. In Flash

Lite, the device’s four-way arrow keys serve the same purpose as the Tab and Shift+Tab keys.

Tab navigation in Flash Lite works only with buttons and input text fields; it is typically best

used for simple user interactions, such as menus. For more information, see “Using tab

navigation in Flash Lite” on page 9.

Instead of using tab navigation, you can use custom key navigation. In this case, your

application handles keypress events that Flash Lite generates in response to a user pressing a

key on their device, and then takes the appropriate action. You would use this type of

navigation, for example, if you’re creating a Flash Lite game or other application whose

interaction model is more complex than that of a simple menu.

This chapter contains the following topics:

Keys supported by Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Using tab navigation in Flash Lite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Handling key events (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Handling button events (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using the soft keys (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

8 Creating Interactivity and Navigation

Keys supported by Flash Lite

In addition to the alphanumeric keys available on standard telephones, most mobile devices

feature a five-way keypad, which let users navigate and select items on the device’s display as

well as the Left and Right soft keys. A device’s soft keys are multifunctional keys that use the

device’s display to identify their purpose at any moment.

The five-way keypad has four arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, and Right) and a Select key, which

are typically located at the center of the keypad. Different applications can use these keys as

they choose. For example, in a Flash Lite game, the user might press the arrow keys to move a

character on the screen, and then press the Select key to perform another action, such as make

the character jump.

Flash Lite supports the following keys on mobile devices:

■Five-way keypad keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, and Select)

■Left and Right soft keys

■0-9, *, and # keys

The following images show these keys on a generic keypad and on an actual phone:

Not all devices and Flash Lite content types support all these keys. For example, on some

devices, a Flash Lite application can access only the Up and Down arrow keys, not the Left

and Right arrow keys. Also, not all devices and content types allow Flash applications to access

the Left and Right soft keys. When you test your application in the Flash Lite emulator, the

emulator generates warning messages when you press keys that aren’t available on the target

device and content type.

Soft keys

5-way keypad

Numeric, #, and

* keys

Using tab navigation in Flash Lite 9

Using tab navigation in Flash Lite

On desktop Flash applications, the Tab and Shift+Tab keys let users switch keyboard focus

among objects on the screen. The object that has focus responds to further keypresses. In

Flash Lite, the arrow keys on the device’s five-way keypad serve the same purpose as the Tab

and Shift+Tab keys.

Flash Lite supports three different modes of tab navigation: two-way, four-way, and four-way

with wrap-around. Different devices and Flash Lite content types support different navigation

modes. In two-way navigation, users can For more information, see “Modes of tab navigation”

on page 9.

Tab navigation in Flash Lite works with buttons and text fields. When an input text field has

focus and the user presses the Select key, Flash Lite opens the device’s generic text input dialog

box, in which the user can enter text. For an example of using input text fields to get user

input, see “Text field example application (Flash Professional Only)” on page 42.

This section contains the following topics:

Modes of tab navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

About the focus rectangle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Guidelines for using tab navigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Modes of tab navigation

Flash Lite supports three modes of tab navigation: two-way, four-way, and four-way with

wrap-around. Different devices and Flash Lite content types support different navigation

modes. For information on determining the navigation mode for a specific device and content

type, see “Determining platform capabilities (Flash Professional Only)” on page 81.

10 Creating Interactivity and Navigation

Each navigation mode discussed in the following sections references a sample file that you can

view in the Flash Lite emulator. Each sample file consists of the same three-by-three grid of

buttons, as shown below. The only difference between the sample files is that each is

configured to target a device and Flash Lite content type that support the navigation mode

in question.

To use each sample file, open it in Flash and test it in the emulator (select Control > Test

Movie). Click the arrow keys on the emulator’s keypad (or press the arrow keys on your

keyboard) to see how each navigation mode affects user navigation.

Two-way navigation In two-way navigation, the device’s Up and Down arrow keys move

focus from one object (button or input text field) to another; the Left and Right arrow keys

have no effect. The Down key moves the focus to the next object on the right. If there are no

objects positioned to the right of the current object with focus, focus moves to the leftmost

object below the current object with focus. If there are no objects below the rightmost object

with focus, focus moves to the top and leftmost object. The Up key moves focus to the next

object on the left. If there are no objects to the left of the current object with focus, focus

moves to the rightmost object above the object.

For an example of two-way navigation, see the sample file named 2_way_nav.fla, located in

the Samples and Tutorials/Samples/Flash Lite folder in the Flash installation folder.

Four-way navigation In four-way navigation, the user can move focus from one object to

another with the device’s Left, Right, Up, and Down keys. Pressing the Left key moves the

focus from the current object with focus to the object to the left of the button with focus. The

Right key moves the focus to the next button to the right of the button with focus. The Up

and Down keys similarly move focus to the button above and below the button with focus.

For an example that uses four-way navigation, see the sample file named 4_way_nav.fla

located in the Samples and Tutorials/Samples/Flash Lite folder in the Flash installation folder.

Four-way navigation with wrap-around This mode is the same as four-way navigation,

except that when there are no buttons below the rightmost button with focus, focus moves to

the top and leftmost button.

Array of buttons in sample file

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