Flex on mobiles and iPhones...

TonyCollins · ‎10-23-2010

So, before I dust of the Mac and play with some horrible XCode I wondered if anyone had done any research into Flash/Flex on the iPhone?

I know Apple went back on it's silly decision to ban the Flash iphone packager, so I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or comments that would help me decide on what could be done if anything at all?

The idea of creating something in Flash that would then work on iPhone and other mobile devices with a lot less work...

TonyCollins · ‎10-28-2010

So, before I dust of the Mac and play with some horrible XCode I wondered if anyone had done any research into Flash/Flex on the iPhone?

I know Apple went back on it's silly decision to ban the Flash iphone packager, so I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or comments that would help me decide on what could be done if anything at all?

The idea of creating something in Flash that would then work on iPhone and other mobile devices with a lot less work...

No one doing anything on mobiles yet then?

JustinGreco · ‎10-29-2010

I haven't done anything for the iPhone, though I'll have to eventually (unforunately). I've heard XCode or ObjectiveC isn't the most fun to work with. I don't have a Mac, so I don't know much about it.

I have worked with Android though and have viewed my Flex apps on my Incredible. Haven't been impressed with how they function on the phone. First of all if I click on a button (or other object), I always have to tap off of it to get it to click. Though that is using the 3.5 SDK, not 4. The map was also hard to navigate. I know there is Air for Android, but I haven't looked at that yet, not sure if there are plans to do something similar for the iPhone. For the Android, i personally prefer making native Android apps using Eclipse.

BjornSvensson · ‎10-29-2010

I just came back from the Adobe MAX 2010 Conference and mobile applications and touch-enabled devices were hot topics.

Adobe just released Adobe AIR 2.5 which supports smartphones and tablets that run on Android, iOS, and Blackberry Tablet OS, along with Windows, Macintosh and Linux desktops. Developers can build applications for AIR using the next version of the Flex framework, which allows developers to use a common framework for building mobile and desktop applications. For example, writing applications for Adobe AIR for Android is now very easy.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/air25_whatsnew.html

Also released was a preview of the next version of Adobe Flash Builder called Flash Builder Burrito. New features include the ability to build mobile and tablet applications. It's a "preview" so has bugs and is not a supported product, but still pretty cool:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/mobile_development_hero_burrito.html

As for Esri's Flex API, we added additional touch support in version 2.1 (pinch in/out, double-tap) and are planning to add additional mobile/touch features in version 2.2.

If you are writing applications for the Android, using the latest version of AIR seem to be a good way to go.

TonyCollins · ‎11-02-2010

Thanks for your replies,

I'm keen to start looking at this and was hoping to avoid XCode. Obviously the iPhone is popular (I''m on my third one although I would like to move to Android next) It would just be nice to not have to use multiple languages.

Thanks again I shall just wait and see what is coming along..

MartinAndersen · ‎11-02-2010

@Bjorn

Seems like you are trying to make the Arcgis API ready for mobile development, any plans on when it is ready for testing?

I've tried building an app with a ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer, but It seems like you are still depending on mx.controls.Button and mx.controls.Text, so it won't compile in a burrito mobile app.

BjornSvensson · ‎11-02-2010

@Hviid
Actually, you can start playing around with it already. When you create a "Flex Mobile Application" in Burrito, it will not automatically include the mx library, but if you add the following SWCs you can get a basic map working.

C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Flash Builder Burrito/sdks/4.5.0/frameworks/libs/sparkskins.swc
C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Flash Builder Burrito/sdks/4.5.0/frameworks/libs/mx/mx.swc

Ref: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/mobile_development_hero_burrito.html

ReneRubalcava · ‎11-03-2010

Thanks Bjorn. Looking forward to getting some test projects done this weekend. AIR lets me work in my comfort zone, but I'm still looking forward to an Android SDK. I like to get native when I can 😉

DasaPaddock · ‎11-04-2010

Here's a great blog post from Mansour Raad on this:
http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-use-esri-flex-api-on-android-and.html

TonyCollins · ‎01-11-2011

Here's a great blog post from Mansour Raad on this:
http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-use-esri-flex-api-on-android-and.html

Quite positive results on both iPhone and Droid although layers seem to be a bit hit and miss sometimes as to whether they show and it is pretty slow.

Will be looking forward to the final release of Burrito!