Printing in Flex Mobile Applications (Flash builder 4.7) - apache-flex

I was hoping to find an easy way to print PDFs that display from my flex developed mobile iphone app.
Doesn't look like Adobe has made this available on Air.
At this point, is there any way to print anything from a flex mobile app? Print screen or print bitmap?
Thanks!

Yes and no. It is not available through the AIR SDK in any shape or form on mobile (as of 3.7, anyway).
However, you can create an AIR Native Extension (a code base written in Objective-C or Java, depending on platform that connects through an AS3 library) that can do this. On my last project, we tasked one of our iOS devs to create an extension that allowed for the native "Open In" and "Sharing" menus to display and interact with data in an AIR app. Along with that share menu came the option to Print, depending on content. It worked great and did exactly as we had hoped. I am sure you could build one that only did this with the print menu and did not do the full Share menu if needed.
I will warn you, however, that native extensions are not easy to create by any means. It involves knowing a separate language, using poorly documented libraries from Adobe, and command line work. Additionally, an iOS ANE must be created on OS X in XCode. There is no way (that I know of, at least) to create it in Windows or Linux.

Related

Is there an orthodox way to develop Android TV apps

I have a few problems with understanding of android tv development. First of all when i had launched android tv project and was trying to create custom interface for new activity, unfortunately i couldn't find any xml elements which could help me. From the example i got some ideas that whole interface provided by android SDK collected in many fragments. I just can modify colors, fonts, fonts size, transparency maybe animation and etc. But if i really need to customize structure of controls and WTF i wanna output "Hello World" inside label!!! Is it possible? I read all articles from this link https://developer.android.com/training/tv/index.html but it is still useless for me (maybe I am unique :) ). After this suffering with google guide, i have done a conclusion that the platform so new and there is no way to do some thing except only way that was provided by google. Am i right? If not, what should i do to find successful way?
The fragments provided by Google as part of the "leanback" framework are templates designed to make it easy for content providers to start publishing to Android TV without having to worry about the technical details of building a TV UI. The idea is that a content provider can create a channel just by feeding in their video content. This ease of use comes at a cost, customization is difficult or impossible with these templates.
However there is nothing preventing you from creating your own Activities and Fragments from scratch and implementing a completely custom UI for the TV, it works just like any other Android device. Add "android.intent.category.LEANBACK_LAUNCHER" to your manifest and see for yourself.

Qt 5 General Questions about QT / QML and Widget customizations

I am an iOS / Cocoa developer looking to port one of my apps to PC platform. I don't care to code multiplatform and maintain one app. I will continue using cocoa and cocoa touch for iOS Mac Development.
I have chosen to use QT 5 for PC, I am not sure if its wise choice but its easy and I can understand c++. If its not please point me to the correct direction.
My App is not hugely complicated, but needs some special customization e.g. ListView that looks like an iOS Table View, uses custom rounded windows with twitter bootstrap style search box and I want to monitor some global OS events like keystrokes, and what other applications the user is currently working with. I also use SQLite and AES encryption.
My questions is regarding UI customization.
Should I start studying and use QML for that? I am not sure what exactly it is, seems extremely simple CSS like, but I have the feeling is more designed for embedded devices and have limitations...
Do I have access to the entire power of QT if I use QML ?
What other options I have to customise widgets instead using QML (e.g. in objective C we use subclassing and drawing whatever we want or handling events...)
I am inexperienced in windows platform. Should I use VisualStudio C++ instead of QT5? With the changes in ownership I feel somehow insecure.
Yes you should. QML is declarative language which allows javascript to be executed within it. And you can do almost anything UI related with QML. If you don't have some particular UI element you can draw it in plain C++(Qt) and use it in the QML. So QML is the best choice for Qt development at the moment. It is not like CSS though, it is much more powerful.
Yes you have all the power Qt has and additional power which declarative language may offer - simplification of UI development process as well as modern decomposition of UI&logic.
You have this option in plain C++ Qt, you may subclass widget, redraw them, change behavior etc. This approach is inferior to the QML one.
This point doesn't make sense. Some people count Visual C++ like separate language which is wrong. You may count Visual C++ as C++ + some minor extensions MS compiler has. But it is as ridiculous to refer as GCC C++. So basically you can use Visual Studio with Qt almost without a pain if you use Qt integration add-in which is freely available. Or you can choose Qt creator, which some people count as superior to MSVS. It is up to you what to choose, but I believe for the novice it is much simpler to use Qt creator with Qt. But note you will need to have some compiler because Qt creator is just an IDE it should use some 3rd party compiler(either MS or GNU one)
You can use QML Desktop Components to build easily your application:
https://web.archive.org/web/20121203050945/http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2012/06/06/desktop-components-for-qt-5/
http://qt-project.org/wiki/Qt_Quick_Components
Anyway I recommend you use Qt Widgets and Qt Style Sheets to costume your widgets:
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/stylesheet-reference.html

Choosing a suitable multi-media builder software

Hi foks
I need a software but I am not a multimedia builder I am a .net developer I want to choose a software to build my first multi-media application I have to do something with this software :
1- it must be portable between different Windows operation
2- it would be independent I mean I don't want to install other software before it.
3- it must run at the autorun for CD
4- I need search ability for some values in the information
5- I don't want someone copy my information easily.
6- The information are videos and rich text
7- it has ability to change on specific screen resolution
Please guide me which softwares I mean a software to build this application are suitable for me I need something to build more easy not very complex but I need beautifull User Interface at the result.
You should try medichance's multimedia builder. It is doing the exact things you described.
http://www.mediachance.com/mmb/
It sounds like you are wanting to develop a multimedia distribution which has videos and text for the end user. That's very similar to a tutorial or training CD or DVD. There are many ways to develop this sort of content, but perhaps the easiest (although not particularly .NET-related) would be a web-based site stored on disc.
Design the product using HTML, CSS, and your preferred video format for web. (Silverlight, Flash, Quicktime...)
To address your points:
Web-based data is extremely portable, not just between Windows installations but across platforms and browsers.
It would be free from dependencies for the most part, assuming the user has a web browser with applicable add-ons to view the video content (such as a Flash or Silverlight plug-in).
You can use a text editor to create an autorun.inf file which will automatically load the main file (usually index.html).
The user can use the browser search functionality to easily find keywords in the pages. If you need the ability to search the entire contents of the multimedia package, that will add a small amount of complication.
The downside to a web-based product is that the files are plain text and anyone can easily copy the data. The question I have is whether you want to try and prevent copying of the entire product (say, as a CD) or just the information it displays?
There shouldn't be any problems displaying videos and rich text in a web environment, provided you've converted them to a format that is compatible with the intended distribution. (For example, if your audience uses Windows and you know they will have a Flash plugin, then a Flash-based video format would be ideal.)
Assuming that you mean reflow by "change on specific screen resolution," this was one of the main reasons I thought of web-based media. The browser of course be capable of displaying content with appropriate resizing capability just as most web sites which are crafted with consideration for multiple screen sizes. This is simply a matter of using appropriate CSS to ensure that elements appear just as logical on a widescreen, high-resolution monitor as they do on the lowest expected resolution screen.
To build a multimedia site, consider Adobe's products such as DreamWeaver, Photoshop, Flash, Fireworks, etc. (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/web/whatsnew/)
If you would prefer to develop an application using .NET Framework, instead you may want to consider Windows Presentation Foundation (http://windowsclient.net/wpf/white-papers/when-to-adopt-wpf.aspx) however there may be prerequisites depending on how you build the application.

flashdevelop vs flex builder

I just started making games and I decided for my next project to use either flashdevelop or flex builder. Reason being is because you can embed just about everything and for licensing purposes and it recommended the the game is compiled into one file. flex sdk is good with that type of stuff.
As of right now I decided to use flashdevelop. but recently it's been kicking my behind. First I wasnt able to use ui class (e.i. buttons, and textboxes) probably because of something stupid I did. Now for some reason I can not compile my applications. When I compile, nothing happens, no errors, no nothing. below is a screenshot of what happens when I compile.
Yes i installed debugger and yes I installed sdk
So now I was thinking about just going with flex builder. Not sure which one is more easier to assemble and use. But I do know the flex builder community is bigger, and they have a much better documentation. I am good with actionscript, but I am not so good with using flex.
My ultimate question is...
Which one is easier to assemble
which one is easier to use
which one is BETTER overall
as far as not compiling goes, looks like it compiled just fine.
I don't know what you're expecting to see from the code other than the "Hello"
to see that open up your output window (under View)
Whether you use flex or flashdevelop, you end up using the same compiler.
Like Adam, I find flashdevelop easier to use than flex, but that's because I've used it more (flex trial expired and FD didn't)
And plus I'm fast with FD, like really fast :)
Try some of the shortcuts:
to create getter and setter or
generate function press 'ctrl shift ~' and PRESTO
or for a for loop or for each loop type in the first few
letters and press 'ctrl B'
to find instances of any string in code you
can do F3 and shift F3, whereas F4
will find the object or function
declaration(even in separate files)
FD also adds a lot of the classes as
needed (sometimes I have to do it manually)
and the latest version lets
you generate classes which extend
another class easier.
I'm sure that flax does most of this as-well, but when you're already used to this then switching slows you down.
I had the same issues when I started working with FD. What it boils down to is that flex has a bunch of libraries that it's using that FD doesn't unless you link to them, and sometimes even then.
But once you start compiling your libraries and assets into SWCs you will be able to compile them through Flash and Flex. Which can be handy (like when you're working with other developers)
FD doesn't have a profiler, but this has not prompted me to stop using it. When I need some debugging and trace isn't enough I add the demonsters debugger class: http://www.monsterdebugger.com/ it's pretty powerful, but you still can't step through your code.
** Update - Flash Develop has had a profiler for a few versions now, It's good for watching memory use, but I still end up using monster debugger a lot. You can use debug in Flash Develop as-well and step through your code.**
FD doesn't have the UI that flex does, and for developing mxml it is a bit more tedious, but at pure as3, I find FD is all I need. Well than and Flash to create my SWCs
I think a lot of it is personal preference, and what you have previously used. Some people do have strong opinions though.
Personally I like FlashDevelop, but only because I am use to it, and can get things done a lot faster e.g. setting up projects, workflow, shortcuts etc. But I am sure If I forced myself to only use FlashBuilder (formally FlexBuilder) that I would soon come to grips with its nuances.
Here are a few of my points for either side:
FlashDevelop:
I like how FlashDevelop is so simple,
where as Flash Builder is rather
bulky.
FlashDevelop is totally free, where Flash Builder actually cost quite a bit.
Flash Builder:
Built on Eclipse, so has a massive community, tons of plug-ins etc.
Source control intergrated into the IDE (very important in large projects).
Also might want to check out this article on ActionScript Editors.
I know it's an old topic, but in case someone finds it, here is an interesting thing I've noticed:
I am using pixel fonts in my project, and by default Flash Player blurs part of it (it is a known problem). One solution is to use a bitmap text (some kind of custom class) and the other is to use Text Renderer with some of its related elements to force Flash to render the font correctly. When compiling under the same version of Flex SDK in Flash Builder 4+ the font rendered correctly. But when I compiled with Flash Develop (latest version) the text was really ugly, with missing pixels at random places. It might be caused by the fact that Flash Develop or Flash Builder are sending some hidden arguments to the compiler which either make it work/break.
This is a long running question that has been repeated a few times. Review this question and see if it answers yours.
Web-based Game Development: Flex Builder or Flash CS3?

What features do you need the most in Adobe Air?

I recently started to develop using Flex 3 and Adobe Air and I wanted to know what features you want to be in futures releases of Adobe Air ?
The ones that I miss are:
Cross-systems way of launching a local file (shellExec) right from an Air application (although you can do this using workaround at least under Windows)
Ability to setup dynamic paths for Embed statement (e.g. Embed[(variable+"/path/to/file")] ). I didn't find any way to do this properly.
Some way of setting Flex object's positions with absolute values from CSS (that sounds more Flex related by the way)
Don't hesitate to add your workarounds to theses limitations if you know somes.
Ability to call out to native code - you currently have to ship a server written in another language and make calls to that to do anything more than Air gives you.
Modal windows. There's a hack you can do which involves setting Application.application.enabled = false, setting dialog.nativeWindow.alwaysInFront = true and then re-enabling the application when the dialog closes, but this is long-winded and doesn't disable any native menus you may have! It's crazy that something so simple is made so difficult.
A usable way to set the application's icon. I spent 2 hours trying to do this the other day and gave up after persistent "303" errors that gave me no idea of what I was doing wrong. Again, really basic stuff.
"Call native code", "Modal windows", agree-agree.
loadLibrary would be really great :)
ps.:
if we can not have this features in AIR, if would be awesome to have an opportunity to embed flash(AIR) graphics engine into your own app. in that case we'll get great performance improvement and liberty of choice what to write (not only small gadgets).

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