Flash Mobile: Developing Android and iOS Applications (Visualizing the Web) [Paperback]

Matthew David (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0240815688 | ISBN-13: 978-0240815688 | Edition: 1

Build rich media applications for the iOS and Android platforms with this primer to Flash mobile development. It helps you get all of the essentials - from setting up your development environment to publishing your apps to the Google Market Place/Apple iTunes App Store. Develop elementary applications without coding; then realize the power of ActionScript 3 to add rich complexity to your applications. Step-by-step instruction is combined with practical tutorial lessons to deliver a working understanding of the development stages including: rapid prototyping; adding interactivity, audio, and video; employing iOS and Android Interface Calls; hardware optimization with AIR; game development; game engines, controlling physics, and 3D; designing for iPad, Android tablets, and Google TV; and, code optimization, testing, and debugging User interfaces are presented in full color to illustrate their nuances. The companion website, includes all of the AS3 code, project files, and a blog to keep you up to date with related news and developments; publication within weeks of Adobe's release of the Android packaging utilities; full-color illustrations of UI and design implementations; and, companion website with tutorial media and author forum.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Build rich media applications for the iOS and Android platforms with this primer to Flash mobile development. You get all of the essentials from setting up your development environment to publishing your apps to the Google Market Place/Apple iTunes App Store.

Develop elementary applications without coding; then realize the power of ActionScript 3 to add rich complexity to your applications. Step-by-step instruction is combined with practical tutorial lessons to deliver a working understanding of the development stages including:

*Rapid prototyping *Adding interactivity, audio, and video *Employing iOS and Android Interface Calls *Hardware optimization with AIR *Game development; game engines, controlling physics, and 3D *Designing for iPad, Android tablets, and Google TV *Code optimization, testing, and debugging

User interfaces are presented in full color to illustrate their nuances. The companion website, www.visualizetheweb/flashmobile, includes all of the AS3 code, project files, and a blog to keep you up to date with related news and developments.

About the Author

Matthew David is a specialist developing rich Web solutions using technologies like Flash and the latest Web design techniques. In addition, he works in online sales, marketing, and search engine optimization, with the aim of driving business to customer sites. Matthew partners with many companies as a business strategist, works closely with the World Wide Web Consortium Group (W3C), and is on Adobe's Advisory team.

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (February 24, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240815688
• ISBN-13: 978-0240815688
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,400,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected! March 30, 2011

By JDeveloper

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a Flash developer for a well recognized Flash development firm. I am currently developing apps for the iPad using the iPhone packager. This book is the most basic one I have read from all three books that are out there in the market for IOS development using Flash. I think at the time the author wrote the book, he did not understand the underlying problems you face when trying to deploy AIR-based apps into the iOS environment. I believe you should buy the Dolce or Wagner books as they seem to know what the basic limitations are on the iPhone Packager for Flash.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title June 21, 2011

By W. A. Carpenter VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This book is really about developing Flash for the Android OS. Although it mentions the iOS environment for iPhones in several places, it really is not at all useful for developing AIR apps for that platform. In fact, I think it seriously understates the problems involved in such apps.

However, it's probably OK as a beginner's book for developing Flash apps for Android phones. The book is organized intelligently and shows lots of screen shots and script examples. It should be titled and sold as an ActionScript 3.0 instruction/reference book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It's the Protocol; Not the Programming July 3, 2011

By W. Sanders VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This book is easy to kick around, but that's more a matter of the rapid change going on in the mobile device market and Adobe's rapid changes to meet that market than this book. I welcomed this book because as an advanced ActionScript 3.0 programmer I wanted a ground level introduction to mobile Flash and ActionScript. Chapter 1 starts off with what I considered an excellent introduction to setting up for developing Android applications. I was able to follow everything and develop a "Hello World" app for Android. The second chapter takes the next step in Android app development, but at this point strange things started to happen. First of all, the URL for downloading the supporting materials leads to a NOT FOUND page. Backing up one slash in the URL and removing the "/flashmobile" [...] provided a general link to books in the series where I was able to easily download all of the stuff that went with the book's projects. That was most welcomed. However, when I went to key in the ActionScript (through the Actions panel; not an AS class file) it threw errors. Finally, I realized a typo--the String datatype was missing. Then when I went to get it ready to publish, the Android SDK file has changed, and the "adb" file was no longer in the "tools" folder, but a note in the folder informed me how to get it and off I went into the SDK (Software Developer's Kit), which took me first into the Terminal (on a Mac) and then presented me with options that allowed me to construct a new folder now called the "platform-tools" folder where I was able to put my .p12 signature. No book or author or publisher can be prepared for that kind of contingency. Android simply changed their SDK from what it was when the book was written. Likewise between the time that the book was written (early it 2010 it appeared) to when it is published in 2011, Flash was upgraded from CS5 to CS5.5, and most of the important upgrades were related to mobile development.

The Flash/ActionScript 3.0 examples were to illustrate RIA development for mobile devices. I'm sure that the idea was to show the value of Flash development over something like Objective C, and that's a good point. However, for me, it tended to get in the way of the protocol for configuring for mobile apps. A section on regular expressions and a note to look at PureMVC was strange to see, but I'm sure that the author was just trying to show that ActionScript 3.0 could handle more sophisticated structures.

The ActionScript 3.0, for the most part, looked unformatted. Focal Press (or Elsevier) would be well-served to use a template that preserved the original formatting--it's a lot easier to see the structure. (Even WordPress makes ActionScript formatting available for bloggers.) The new mobile ActionScript 3.0 classes like CameraRoll() supported on mobile devices and other classes for mobile development were not used. The lack of some of these classes for mobile development may not have been available when the book was written or not fully integrated.

The author, Matthew David, has an engaging style. I liked the project approach, and while I had to use a magnifying glass to read to fine print in some of the screenshots, I was glad to see them. That's where the real difference lies in Flash for standard computers and Flash for mobile app development. Further, I was using Flash CS5.5 and was able to follow it. So both Flash CS5 and CS5.5 users can get something out of this book. Unfortunately, I was unable to use the iOS portion of the book--the tools just weren't available when the book was written. However, if you're interested in becoming an Android developer, you'll find plenty in this book to get off to a running start. If Mr. Daivd would care to take another run at getting started in Flash mobile (which I would welcome), focus on the set-up and protocol for mobile, and have smaller apps that use the mobile ActionScript 3.0 classes. The more the focus is on mobile development and not RIA, the more I believe the reader would get out of it.