Getting Started with Flash Lite Trademarks 1 Step RoboPDF, ActiveEdit, ActiveTest, Authorware, Blue Sky Software, Blue Sky, Breeze, Breezo, Captivate, Central, ColdFusion, Contribute, Database Explorer, Director, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, FlashCast, FlashHelp, Flash Lite, FlashPaper, Flash Video Endocer, Flex, Flex Builder, Fontographer, FreeHand, Generator, HomeSite, JRun, MacRecorder, Macromedia, MXML, RoboEngine, RoboHelp, RoboInfo, RoboPDF, Roundtrip, Roundtrip HTML, Shockwave, SoundEdit, Studio MX, UltraDev, and WebHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words, or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, service marks, or trade names of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally. Third-Party Information This guide contains links to third-party websites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites. Speech compression and decompression technology licensed from Nellymoser, Inc. (www.nellymoser.com). SorensonTM SparkTM video compression and decompression technology licensed from Sorenson Media, Inc. Opera ® browser Copyright © 1995-2002 Opera Software ASA and its suppliers. All rights reserved. Macromedia Flash 8 video is powered by On2 TrueMotion video technology. © 1992-2005 On2 Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.on2.com. Visual SourceSafe is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Copyright © 2005 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without written approval from Macromedia, Inc. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the owner or authorized user of a valid copy of the software with which this manual was provided may print out one copy of this manual from an electronic version of this manual for the sole purpose of such owner or authorized user learning to use such software, provided that no part of this manual may be printed out, reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted for any other purposes, including, without limitation, commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this documentation or providing paid-for support services. Acknowledgments Project Management: Mary Leigh Burke Writing: Tim Statler Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato Editing: Linda Adler, Geta Carson 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 1: Flash Lite Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 About Flash Lite technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Flash Lite 1.x availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 About Flash Lite content types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Workflow for authoring Flash Lite applications (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Flash Lite authoring features in Flash Professional 8 (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Using Flash Lite document templates (Flash Professional Only) . . . . 16 Hello World Flash Lite application (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . 18 About the stand-alone Flash Lite player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Chapter 2: Creating a Flash Lite Application (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Café application overview (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Viewing the completed application (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . 26 Creating the application (Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 3 4 Contents Introduction This manual provides an introduction to Macromedia Flash Lite and the authoring features in Macromedia Flash Professional 8 for Flash Lite developers. 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. 5 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/. 6 Introduction Typographical conventions The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic font indicates a value that should be replaced (for example, in a folder path). Code font indicates Code font italic ActionScript code. 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. Typographical conventions 7 8 Introduction CHAPTER 1 Flash Lite Overview This chapter contains the following topics: About Flash Lite technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Flash Lite 1.x availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 About Flash Lite content types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Workflow for authoring Flash Lite applications (Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Flash Lite authoring features in Flash Professional 8 (Flash Professional Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Using Flash Lite document templates (Flash Professional Only) 16 Hello World Flash Lite application (Flash Professional Only) . . . 18 About the stand-alone Flash Lite player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1 About Flash Lite technology Macromedia Flash Lite is a version of Macromedia Flash Player designed for mobile phones. It balances Flash features and capabilities with the processing power and configurations of today's mass market mobile phones. There are currently two versions of Flash Lite: Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1. Flash Lite consists of the following features: The core rendering engine The rendering engine handles all vector and bitmap rendering. ActionScript interpreter Flash Lite supports the version of the ActionScript language used in Flash Player 4, including many mobilespecific commands, such as getting time and date information from the device. This hybrid of Flash Player 4 ActionScript and commands with properties specific to Flash Lite is collectively called Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript. 9 For more information about Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript, see Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript Language Reference and Learning Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript. Text and fonts Flash Lite supports static, dynamic, and input text fields. You can use fonts that are available on the device or embed font data in your published SWF file. For more information about using text and fonts in Flash Lite, see Chapter 2, "Working with Text and Fonts" in Developing Flash Lite Applications. Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1 both support device audio formats (such as MIDI or MFi). Flash Lite 1.1 also supports standard Flash audio. For more information about working with sound in Flash Lite, see Chapter 3, "Working with Sound" in Developing Flash Lite Applications. Sound Network connectivity Flash Lite 1.1 supports the ability to load external data and SWF files, as well as commands and properties for getting connectivity and HTTP request status information. Device and platform integration Flash Lite provides access to several system features and commands, such as the ability to initiate phone calls and short message service (SMS) messages, get platform capability information, and get user input using the device's standard input dialog box. Flash Lite 1.x availability Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1 are supported on a variety of mobile devices that are available in a number of different geographic regions and markets. Some of these devices are available globally, while others are available only in specific geographic regions or from specific mobile operators. Some devices come with Flash Lite pre-installed from the device manufacturer or mobile operator, while on others it can be installed after purchase. For the most current list of devices that support Flash Lite, see the Supported Devices page located at www.macromedia.com/mobile/ supported_devices/. 10 Flash Lite Overview Globally available devices that support Flash Lite include the Symbian Series 60-based devices from Nokia, Sendo, and Seimens, and the Symbian UIQ-based devices from Sony-Ericcson. As of this writing, all globally available devices support only the stand-alone Flash Lite player. The standalone player installs as a "top-level" application that a user can start from the device's application menu (just like a text messaging application or a mobile web browser, for example). For more information about the standalone Flash Lite player, see "About the stand-alone Flash Lite player" on page 23. As of this writing, the Flash Lite stand-alone player is not pre-installed on any globally available devices. You can purchase the stand-alone player for development purposes from the Macromedia online store at www.macromedia.com/store/. Regionally available devices that support Flash Lite comprise a larger group of devices than are available globally. As of this ...