I have an old flex web application which now needs to access the camera and gps on a smartphone.
I see there are external libraries to do some of the work for you but what need is native flex support for accessing the phone's GPS and camera from the mobile browser.
The application can be recompiled to any version of flex from 3 to 4.6 if necessary.
To clarify further: The SWF file is embedded in a web page which is then displayed on a tablet/phone (android, ios, etc). I want to be able to read the current GPS coordinates from the hardware GPS and be able to take a picture with the onboard camera.
If this is 100% impossible, I can call a JavaScript function to read the photo and GPS from a third party component, this component would need to be all encompassing as far as mobile devices are and be compatible with the flex externalinterface setup.
Thanks for you help in advance.
Pete
You can pretty much forget about using flash on mobile and desktop for that matter, its a dead end technology now.
Sadly there are very very few mobile devices that will give you browser access to the camera yet. There are a few, but iOS for example has not yet implemented the standard. So you are not going to be able to readily access the camera for at least another year or so. It depends on when Apple, Google and Microsoft get their act together.
As for GPS all the mobile browsers that anyone uses supports the geolocation specification so you can know where the user is.
http://professionalaspnet.com/archive/2012/05/25/A-Study-Using-The-HTML5-Geolocation-API.aspx
Related
ASP.NET Form. If running a form in a browser on a small (Android) device with a barcode scanner, will the scanned barcode go into the ASP.NET textbox? Or I need to add something to the application?
Well, it going to depend on which of the 150+ barcode scanners you decide to grab from google play.
However, the answer is yes, or no. It will depend on the kind of scanner.
If you download just a scanning application (software based - not built in scanner).
The reason is Android (and even iOS) don't allow one application to set focus, get/grab/take data from other applications. Nor is the reverse allowed. If that was possible, then the app could also get/grab/take values from when you are say running your on-line banking application.
I don't think Android thus supports focus to another application during scan that has focus. Now if this is factory supplied software on the phone? Then yes, this works like a desktop keyboard "wedge". That means the program does not know if you are typing from keyboard, or input is from the scanner (hence the name keyboard wedge). These will work with a web form.
However, we now seeing the rise of software based keyboard wedges. That means the software scanner is installed on android as a custom keyboard. And this in case, then once again, it will work in a web form.
So, for devices with a built in scanner? yes, that will work in all applications. For a software only (uses built in camera), then again, this is possible if the software in question works as a keyboard/wedge scanner.
If you going to adopt android scanning? then use a purpose built Android scanner.
And another possible if you want to use a software scanner? Write a small android application and have it talk to your web site. This I think is the best solution, but of course means you have to adopt some Android dev tools.
So how this works will depend on if the android device has a built in scanner, or it is a software + camera based scanner. However, it would seem that even now installable software based scanners in theory can be made to work for any application since the application is running and behaving as a user installed keyboard.
So, you have to check the particular device. The answer is not in all cases, and the answer depends on if you using a Android device with a built in scanner, or you looking to use any Android phone as that scanner.
I'm building a flex mobile application that streams the device's live video to flash media server.I can't run such an application on the flash buider's emulator because it doesn't emulate the camera and i don't have an android device to test my work on it.I wonder if using the NetConnection and NetStream classes with the device's camera will work as in a regular flex web application.I really need an advice from someone who tested those two classes(NetConnection and NetStream) with flex mobile.Any pointers or advices will be appreciated.
Thanks in Advance.
NetConnection and NetStream with Adobe AIR for Mobiles works exactly as how it works with a regular web application.
However, some things have to be considered. Your mobile application should be developed on a "Landscape" mode. Since there is a bug with adobe such that the video stream gets rotated when you are sending the video stream from your front camera.
Bug Report
However, i am not recommending you to stop developing the application. This will be a good challenge though.
Can a Flex application that was designed for use on a PC be run on an iPad, iPhone, or Android-based mobile device?
Seems like a simple enough question. Visiting http://www.adobe.com/products/flex.html yields a picture of a dude running a (presumably) Flex application on an Android. So at first glance, the answer would appear to be "yes." End of story.
but yet…
There is so much (mis)information out there on various tech sites that suggest Flash-based technologies simply won't run on iOS or other mobile platforms. Why is this? Perhaps they mean to say that Flex won't run "out of the box" and requires a plugin? Or do they mean it won't run at all?
Every time I think I've reached a definitive conclusion, some post on SlashDot or CNET directly contradicts it. So what's the scoop? Can one take an existing Flex application and run it on iOS/Android? (I realize there are screen size issues to consider so the app might not run effectively. I just want to know if the runtimes are available on the mobile devices to allow the Flex app to launch at all.)
Sorry for the noob question. My background is WPF / HTML5. Adobe technologies are completely foreign to me.
I wrote a lot below if you'd like to read it enjoy, if not sorry for taking your valuable bytes :) I directly answered the questions up here first:
Why is this?
It's a confusing matter read below for the why details.
Perhaps they mean to say that Flex won't run "out of the box" and requires a plugin?
Or do they mean it won't run at all?
Using the flash builder tools (the bin folder in the SDK) you can compile for native desktop application, desktop web browsers, native iOS application, native Android application. Android with FlashPlayer plugin installed will show Flash content within the web browser, iOS will only run the ones compiled with AIR, not in the the web browser but as a native app.
Every time I think I've reached a definitive conclusion, some post on SlashDot or CNET directly contradicts it. So what's the scoop? Can one take an existing Flex application and run it on iOS/Android?
Yes, if using AIR and run as a native app on all three platforms (the desktop Flex API is for the most part a superset of the web Flex API), your other points about performance and form factor are valid and should be considered though. The nice thing is you can write your model/controller code in a common library in AS3 then write separate presentation layer interfaces that all share the library.
Here's the very long version:
Using the flash compiler results in "bytecode" in the form of a file with a swf extension using the swf format, you can read a ton more about that here:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf.html
To interpret the file you need some sort of run-time similar to some degree to running WPF/XAML/C# within a .NET framework context (either desktop or using silverlight on the web). In the case of adobe technologies (rough equivalence):
AS3 = C#
MXML = XAML
Flex = WPF+WCF (client side RPC not server side)
Flash Player = Silverlight
AIR (Adobe integrated runtime) = .NET
Framework Redistributable .dll(s)/.so(s) for desktop OSes
(Read this list very loosely please, I know XAML is preserved in the MSIL or whatever which is different because MXML is compiled to AS3 and only if a debug flag is set on the compiler does it include the debugging symbols, there's certainly tons of differences but I think this is an easy and correct enough model to use)
On iOS the browser does not allow for plugins in the traditional sense of netscape browser plugins or ActiveX plugins. For this reason you'll not be able to execute a plugin ie flashplayer or silverlight in the browser. Since Adobe did release a flashplayer for Android devices that does run in the browser it will work on those devices in the browser, however they have essentially thrown in the towel for supporting this long term, as they have to support the majority mobile device platform, iOS, in order to remain relevant (this was I think more a collective throwing in of the towel by Google, device manufacturers, carriers, Microsoft, all just following suit and trying to make the best business decision, WebKit and V8 or SpiderMonkey can probably do 99% of what Flash can do and better in some cases and WebKit will hopefully not splinter and will remain open source... frameworks and the browsers just need to get fleshed out and stabilized).
If the user installs AIR (or the runtime is packaged with the app) then a Flex/Flash (that is stuff coded in AS3 and/or MXML and compiled to a swf) can be transcoded/packaged to be interpreted by the run-time for that device correctly (be it iOS or Android or whatever RIM did, I don't think they have AIR for Windows Phone 7 and Win8 on ARM won't support browser plugins either). Part of the confusion is possibly from the fact that Apple denied the distribution of Apps that were "cross-compiled" which kept AIR out of the list of options for iOS for a good year, just after Adobe started announcing it was usable for that purpose (kicking Adobe while their down). Another part of the confusion probably comes from real vids of people who have 1 hacked their device or 2 were able to get open source alternatives to the flash player run-time to work on their iOS device (gnash was one I'm aware of from some occasional Linux tinkering, also possibly FAKE vids).
You can run Flex applications on mobile devices, but you cannot simply run any Flex project.
In Flash Builder ( Flex Ide) or in Flash Professional you can create mobile projects. These projects generate native applications for iOS and Android.
Last time I tried, the result and the available components where less than what I expected. So, if you can, I'll much recommend you go for something like Appcelerator.com or similar, which turns HTML5/Js code into native apps. I tried them, worked a lot better than Flex.
Short answer: No
Long answer: You can use Adobe's tools to compile your Flash/Flex app for use as a native iOS app. So you won't be able to embed the app in a web page like you normally could with Flex, but you can build it as a native app. Note you have to have Flash Builder 4.5 to do this.
It won't run on iPhone as a .swf file, but it will run on Android based devices that have adobe flash installed. It will also run on the BB playbook, which also has flash.
Flex is a framework.( Anyway it is very beutiful one which even sometime looks like complete different language ).
As soon as you are building AIR application it can run on various platforms like : Windows, iOS, Android, upcomming TV's, PlayBook, even .. into the future ( maybe/hopefuly ) on Windows Phone, plus Linux ( which AIR future is not very clear anyway ( but hopefuly Adobe will reconsider ) ).
So - application created with Flash Builder 4.5+ would probably run everywhere as soon as it is AIR application.
The compilation methoods is really simple, and you almost simultaneously compiling for everything you wanna to.
And one of the most important things here - your applications will run, work, look and feel the same way you were designed on one device. Flex is the thing which is responsible for everything to looks beutiful on each platform it is running.
For instance i am compiling currently for Android, and without even test i can clearly say that it will looks and feel the same way under iOS and Windows, and it will.
I would like to create an app for Blackberry, iPhone and Android using Adobe Flex. But I need to access the phone's contacts and I can't seem to find a way to achieve this.
This information is not exposed via AIR for Mobile APIs.
You can't access them on all platforms; and the ones where you can require complicated work arounds.
The next version of AIR should address this. I expect we'll find out more at Adobe Max in October.
Ive tried asking on the blackberry forums with no luck... Maybe there are some Blackberry/Adobe experts here...
Im just about to start a project using Adobe AIR/flex for the Blackberry Playbook, I have a few questions:
If I develop an application for the playbook, will the same application be able to run on a desktop? If so will there be any differences?
What is the difference between the desktop and mobile libraries? Can I only access a subset of the SDK on the mobile device compared to the desktop?
Can I create a playbook application that can call methods to a JAVA back end, located on my server?
Thanks
Phil
What’s different about developing a
mobile application versus a web or
desktop application? While many
existing Flex concepts and patterns
carry over directly to mobile
development, developers will need to
take into account the differences in
interaction patterns, screen real
estate, and performance
characteristics of mobile devices
compared to desktop computers. As a
result, we recommend using the new
mobile features in Flex to craft UIs
specific to mobile devices, while
sharing underlying model and data
access code with your desktop or web
application. Additionally, we
recommend certain best practices when
developing mobile applications with
Flex, such as using ActionScript and
FXG rather than MXML for creating item
renderers and skins.
Taken from http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/mobile/faq.html#differences
As per my usual qualifying statement: I haven't tried this. Since this is of some interest to me and I've got a bit of free time I'll give making a hero app and running it as a desktop app versus as a mobile app a shot and post back here once I have it working or find a wall.
The runtime: Adobe AIR 2.5 on mobile
devices The initial versions of the
mobile development features in "Hero"
and "Burrito" are targeted at creating
standalone installed applications
using the Adobe AIR runtime for mobile
devices. By focusing on AIR, Flex can
take full advantage of the integration
AIR provides with each mobile
platform, such as the ability to
handle hardware back and menu buttons
and to access local storage.
Running on AIR Finally, it's important
to realize that in addition to all the
mobile Flex components listed above,
you can also directly take advantage
of all the APIs that are available in
AIR on mobile devices—geolocation,
accelerometer, camera integration, and
so forth. While some of these features
are not exposed as Flex components,
they are easy to access directly using
ActionScript. For more information on
developing using the APIs provided by
AIR on mobile devices, see AIR mobile
docs.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/mobile_development_hero_burrito.html
Basically it's looking like the answer to all the questions is positive.
Yes and likely yes. (as they re-iterate throughout anything I've found on the topic the controls in Hero were made specifically for touch, taking into consideration the fat finger vs the mouse pointer, my guess is it will render slightly differently on the desktop and it's best to actually develop the UIs separately, although the web-services/model can be combined into a shared library/project)
You should have access to everything provided to the desktop (plus info from GPS/accelerometer etc., but obviously wouldn't get those on desktop), but don't have nearly as good a processor so what will work on the desktop may not on a lower performance computing device, but for low resource consumption tasks this shouldn't be a worry.
Yes this is a core feature of Flex, I don't see how it would be possible to make a (useful) RIA without web services. For confirmation on this one look no further than Adobe TV: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adc-presents/flex-mobile-part-1-beginning-a-mobile-application/ <-- that app is using a web service (doesn't really matter to Flex what the underlying server technology is so long as it can make HTTP requests against it, RemoteObject/AMFService should serve your purpose)
If I develop an application for the
playbook, will the same application be
able to run on a desktop? If so will
there be any differences?
Depends. the Air file for both desktop and Playbook is exactly the same, however for Playbook development, RIM has provided an Air library so that Flex developers can take advantage of the hardware further than just the normal Air capabilities. With that said, if your application is dependent on that extra library, it will not work on desktop.
What is the difference between the
desktop and mobile libraries? Can I
only access a subset of the SDK on the
mobile device compared to the desktop?
Desktop and mobile libraries? Do you mean the Playbook Air Library or something else? See above for the latter. Comment on this if you can clarify.
Can I create a playbook application
that can call methods to a JAVA back
end, located on my server?
Yes, you can, as long as you have internet connectivity on the Playbook.