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CHAPTER 2

Optimizing Content

This chapter describes considerations for creating Macromedia Flash Lite content that runs on 
mobile phones, from general functionality to performance and size constraints.

Navigation and key events

Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1 for mobile uses three keys for navigation: Up, Down, and Select. 
These three keys correspond to the Shift+Tab, Tab, and Enter keys on the Windows versions of 
Macromedia Flash Player.

The keys 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, *, and # are also available. These correspond to the same keys 
on the desktop versions of Flash Player. You can attach ActionScript to these keys and to the Enter 
key as you would normally in Flash. ActionScript attached to other keys is ignored.

Fonts and text

Flash Lite 1.1 includes support for both device fonts and embedded fonts. Although embedded 
fonts give you more control over the design of your content, they increase the size of the SWF file. 
Supported mobile phones support multiple device fonts providing content developers with 
multiple options for using device text fonts helping keep your file size small.

When using device fonts, Flash Lite 1.1 limits text-formatting options in dynamic text fields to 
justification (left, center, right) and color. Formatting options such as superscript, subscript, and 
kerning are not supported.

When you create Flash Lite content, you can use Flash to embed text. If you place text inside the 
application or graphics, use a typeface that is designed specifically for small screens. Choosing 
readable fonts is always an important design consideration. This section describes several options 
for using fonts and text for Flash Lite content. 

Device fonts

When you create static text, you can specify that Flash Player use device fonts to display certain 
text blocks. Using device fonts can decrease the file size of your SWF file, because the SWF file 
does not contain font outlines for the text. 

Summary of Contents for FLASH MX PROFESSIONAL 2004 - FLASH LITE 1.1...

Page 1: ...Macromedia Flash Lite 1 1 Authoring Guidelines...

Page 2: ...y 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...

Page 3: ...ents 11 Fonts and text 11 Device fonts 11 Alias text support 12 Alias Text button 12 Alias text rendered in Flash MX Professional 2004 12 Pixel fonts 12 ActionScript and properties 13 Sound 15 Network...

Page 4: ...ER 5 New FSCommand and FSCommand2 commands 29 General commands 29 URL Encoding 29 Escape 29 Unescape 30 Input text fields 30 SetInputTextType 30 Controlling Flash playback 31 Display 31 Key configurat...

Page 5: ...lopment Kit Examples 57 CHAPTER 9 Resources and Support 59 Let us know about your application 59 Web resources 59 Books 60 Discussion groups 60 APPENDIX A Supported ActionScript 61 APPENDIX B Supporte...

Page 6: ...6 Contents...

Page 7: ...depending on the CPU This and its runtime memory requirements make it too large for most mobile phones Therefore Macromedia created a new version of Flash Player called Macromedia Flash Lite designed...

Page 8: ...HD Applications Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Configuration Players Installing the FlashLite1_1 xml file To author content using the FSCommand and the new FSCommand2 ActionScript copy the FlashLite1_1 xml...

Page 9: ...Supported Devices 9 Supported Devices For details about mobile phones that support Flash Lite functionality see the Macromedia Developer Center web site at www macromedia com devnet devices...

Page 10: ...10 Chapter 1 Introduction...

Page 11: ...he design of your content they increase the size of the SWF file Supported mobile phones support multiple device fonts providing content developers with multiple options for using device text fonts he...

Page 12: ...he text appear aliased even when anti aliasing is enabled Pixel fonts It is very important to use the right type fonts for the Flash Lite content you intend for display on mobile phones which have sma...

Page 13: ...lash Lite 1 1 Two new FSCommand2 commands have been added to encode a string into a format that is safe for network transfer Escape and Unescape For more information see Chapter 5 New FSCommand and FS...

Page 14: ...bject email body Key events can be attached only to the keys 0 9 and the Enter key Sound functionality is limited to event sound Only the first event sound in a keypress statement block is played and...

Page 15: ...ry Supported mobile phones impose limitations on the size of Flash Lite SWF files and on the amount of runtime memory they use The SWF file size is a larger issue for mobile phones than for desktop co...

Page 16: ...on about the setQuality function see Chapter 5 New FSCommand and FSCommand2 commands Limit the number of simultaneous tweens Use Alpha effects on symbols sparingly as they are very CPU intensive In pa...

Page 17: ...many complex shapes to scroll and animate well on a mobile phone if it were created as a vector graphic a bitmap would work much better Using bitmaps produces larger files than using vector images so...

Page 18: ...less PNG GIF to compress the image with lossless compression in which no data is discarded from the image Save the bitmap as a PNG file 6 Click Test to determine the results of the file compression Co...

Page 19: ...mages it s not likely that the device processor speed will be an issue The complexity of Flash requires some important trade offs when developing content for mobile phones Until mobile phones have fas...

Page 20: ...20 Chapter 2 Optimizing Content...

Page 21: ...used to trigger an event sound Event sound data must download completely before it begins playing and it continues playing until either the end of the sound buffer has been reached or it is explicitl...

Page 22: ...an example a single Flash movie can contain the same sound represented in both MIDI and MFi formats This Flash movie can be played back both on a device that supports only MIDI and on a device that s...

Page 23: ...ce sound such as a MIDI file or a Sound Bundle file During the document publishing process the proxy sound is replaced with the linked external sound The SWF file generated contains the external sound...

Page 24: ...h Lite 1 1 from the version menu 8 The SWF file now contains the linked Sound Bundle File 9 Select Control Test Movie to test your Flash application 10 Select File Publish to save the SWF file that co...

Page 25: ...hones FSCommand Flash Lite 1 1 supports the FSCommand function which enables Flash Lite content to communicate with Macromedia Flash Player the host application and the device hosting the player FSCom...

Page 26: ...this variable is defined and has a value of 1 if not this variable is undefined Example myVarValue _capEmail _capMMS The _capMMS variable indicates whether Flash Lite can send MMS messages by using th...

Page 27: ...ble indicates whether the device can play sound data in the MIDI audio format If so this variable is defined and has a value of 1 if not this variable is undefined Example myVarValue _capMIDI _capSMAF...

Page 28: ...o navigate down Example myVarValue _cap4WayKeyAS New ActionScript properties The following properties are new in ActionScript scroll You can use the scroll property to retrieve and set a text field Wh...

Page 29: ...rk transfer to a server and back to the mobile phone Escape and Unescape Escape The Escape function encodes an arbitrary string into a format that is safe for network transfer All characters that are...

Page 30: ...ones SetInputTextType In Flash Lite input text functionality is supported by asking the host application to start the generic device specific text input interface often referred to as the Front End Pr...

Page 31: ...lash playback The commands in this section control the playback of Flash content on mobile phones Display The commands in this section control the display aspect of Flash content on mobile phones Full...

Page 32: ...y can be accessed and remapped The left and right parameters to this command specify the text to be displayed for the left and right soft keys respectively After this function is executed pressing the...

Page 33: ...ion provide the mobile phone s memory value to Flash content on the mobile phone GetFreePlayerMemory The GetFreePlayerMemory function returns the amount of memory in kilobytes currently available to F...

Page 34: ...a value of 1 is returned The Quit function is supported only when Flash Lite is running in stand alone mode It is not supported when the player is running in the context of another application for ex...

Page 35: ...rted otherwise the current month returned as a number 1 12 GetDateWeekday The GetDateWeekday function returns a numeric value that is the name of the day of the current date Valid days are 0 6 where 0...

Page 36: ...s returned Syntax status FSCommand2 GetLocaleLongDate longdate Return value A value of 1 if the function is not supported 0 if it s supported Sample resultant values for longdate October 16 2004 16 Oc...

Page 37: ...GetTimeHours function returns the hour of the current time of day based on a 24 hour clock It is a numeric value without a leading zero Valid hours are 0 23 The GetTimeHours function is executed immed...

Page 38: ...value returned is numeric and may be a positive or negative number The GetTimeZoneOffset function is executed immediately upon invocation If this function is not supported a value of 1 is returned Sy...

Page 39: ...ied by an on time followed by an off time Both the on time and the off time are specified in milliseconds and neither can exceed 5 seconds The pulse can be repeated sequentially up to three times If a...

Page 40: ...meric value in the range of 0 to the maximum value returned by the GetMaxBatteryLevel This function is executed immediately upon invocation If this function is not supported a value of 1 is returned S...

Page 41: ...evel function returns the maximum signal strength level It is a numeric value greater than zero This function is executed immediately upon invocation If GetMaxSignalLevel is not supported a value of 1...

Page 42: ...s not supported a value of 1 is returned Syntax status FSCommand2 GetNetworkName networkname Return value A value of 1 if the function is not supported otherwise the following values are returned 0 No...

Page 43: ...t been made GetNetworkStatus The GetNetworkStatus function returns a value indicating the network status of the phone that is whether there is a network registered and whether the phone is currently r...

Page 44: ...ly used by the mobile phone The language is returned as a string in a variable that is passed in by name This function is executed immediately upon invocation If GetLanguage is not supported a value o...

Page 45: ...ID id Return value A value of 1 if the function is not supported 0 if it s supported Supported applications This feature is not supported in all mobile phones GetPlatform The GetPlatform function iden...

Page 46: ...e on which Flash is running This identifier is typically the model name The name of the mobile phone is returned in a variable that is passed in by name The device identifier is a string This function...

Page 47: ...h export settings are set to Flash Lite 1 1 before you start creating any content There are three ways to adjust your Flash export settings for developing Flash content for mobile phones you can manua...

Page 48: ...group environment Creating a simple movie for Flash Lite 1 1 no sound You can create a Flash application without sound that runs on a mobile phone Make sure you have installed the necessary updater f...

Page 49: ...mmf located in the CDK Tutorials folder into a Flash Lite 1 1 SWF file To associate a SMAF sound file with an ActionScript sound symbol 1 In Flash MX Professional 2004 create a new document and name...

Page 50: ...your SWF file 12 Select File Publish to save the SWF file as FlashLiteSound swf When you add sound files to your Flash Lite SWF file keep the following points in mind The Effect Sync and Edit options...

Page 51: ...slow difficult to use or not viewable your development effort is wasted You should use the following methods to test the Flash Lite content you develop for mobile phones The Flash Player Test Movie co...

Page 52: ...g is present that feature is turned on no matter what the original settings of the Test Movie player are This string added by the user will be displayed in the authoring tool output window to remind t...

Page 53: ...Fujitsu extension is allowed MFI Mitsubishi On Mfi sound with Mitsubishi extension is allowed MFI NEC On Mfi sound with NEC extension is allowed MFI Panasonic On Mfi sound with Panasonic extension is...

Page 54: ...be associated with a key press but only one call is allowed per key and per frame FSCommandOnePerKey Off When turned on only FSCommand calls associated with a key press are allowed FSCommandOnePerKey...

Page 55: ...ure line specified in the configuration file Email Off When turned on _capEmail is set to 1 otherwise it is set to 0 SMS On When turned on _capSMS is set to 1 otherwise it is set to 0 MMS Off When tur...

Page 56: ...56 Chapter 7 Testing Content...

Page 57: ...strate many of the concepts and applications that are described in this document These examples are included to help you create content for mobile phones The files include capabilities examples proces...

Page 58: ...58 Chapter 8 Development Kit Examples...

Page 59: ...bile applications macromedia com Web resources For more information about Macromedia Flash Lite 1 1 for mobile phones visit the following sites Macromedia Mobile and Devices Developer Center www macro...

Page 60: ...to real world scenarios and complement each other well Flash Enabled Flash Design Development for Devices by Phillip Torrone Branden Hall Bill Perry et al New Riders Publishing ISBN 0735711771 Flash T...

Page 61: ...les or properties Fully supported string delimiter String delimiter when used before and after characters double quotes indicate that the characters have a literal value and are considered a string an...

Page 62: ...For example the following two statements have the same result x y x x y Fully supported multiply Operator arithmetic multiplies two numerical expressions Fully supported multiplication assignment Oper...

Page 63: ...sion2 false The following examples illustrate true and false results for comparisons 5 10 true 2 2 true 10 3 false Fully supported greater than Operator comparison compares two expressions and determi...

Page 64: ...value of expression1 expression2 For example the following two expressions are the same x y x x y Fully supported logical OR Operator logical evaluates expression1 and if expression1 is false evaluate...

Page 65: ...two or more strings Fully supported and Operator performs a logical AND operation If both expressions evaluate to true then the entire expression is true Fully supported break Action appears within a...

Page 66: ...riables The value of the variable is returned Fully supported fscommand Action allows the Flash application to communicate with the program hosting Flash Player Partially supported ge string greater t...

Page 67: ...turns true if the string representation for expression1 is greater than the string representation for expression2 otherwise returns false This action is string specific Fully supported if Action evalu...

Page 68: ...supported lt string less than Operator comparison compares expression1 to expression2 and returns true if expression1 is less than or equal to expression2 otherwise returns false This action is strin...

Page 69: ...String function converts characters to ASCII code numbers Fully supported play Action moves the playhead forward in the Timeline Fully supported prevFrame Action sends the playhead to the previous fra...

Page 70: ...s a value of true Fully supported tellTarget Action Can be used to apply instructions to a particular Timeline or movie clip For example tellTarget can be assigned to buttons that stop or start movie...

Page 71: ...the alpha transparency value of the movie clip Valid values are 0 fully transparent to 100 fully opaque Fully supported _currentframe Property read only returns the number of the frame where the play...

Page 72: ...e clip Timeline of levelN Fully supported Maxscroll Property a read only property that works with the Scroll property to control the display of information in a text field This property can be retriev...

Page 73: ...inate of the movie clip relative to the local coordinates of the parent movie clip Fully supported _xscale Property determines the horizontal scale percentage of the movie clip as applied from the reg...

Page 74: ...74 Appendix B Supported ActionScript Properties...

Page 75: ...ecified device s Flash Lite does not support No modifications are made to the device specific SWF file this is just a warning SWFS018 Detected getURL restrictions may apply Flash Player detected that...

Page 76: ...d ActionScript command which Flash Lite does not support No modifications are made to the device specific SWF file this is just a warning SWFS033 Not enough memory to perform operation Flash Player wa...

Page 77: ...is just a warning SWFS048 Sound bundle found Flash Player detected that the SWF file contains a sound bundle while parsing the movie The playback bundled sound on the real device might be different S...

Page 78: ...he movie clip an PCM sound was encountered The specified device s Flash Player does not support PCM sound format FTPS026 Debug movie is not supported in the specified test movie player While the Flash...

Page 79: ...lash Player No modifications are made to the device specific SWF file this is just a warning FTPS038 The call to StartVibrate StopVibrate was ignored because there was more than one request per frame...

Page 80: ...navigation is not supported on these platforms platform name Flash Player is in four way navigation mode This mode is not supported on certain platforms This message is shown only when platform string...

Page 81: ...nored This feature is not supported on certain platforms This message is shown only when platform strings are specified in corresponding flags in the configuration file FTPS058 StartDrag and EndDrag f...

Page 82: ...form name Flash Player detected a SMAF MA 5 sound It is not supported on certain platforms This message is shown only when platform strings are specified in corresponding flags in the configuration fi...

Page 83: ...Panasonic extension not supported on these platforms platform name Flash Player detected an MFI sound with Panasonic extension It is not supported on certain platforms This message is shown only when...

Page 84: ...is shown only when platform strings are specified in corresponding flags in the configuration file FTPS089 loadVariables requests are allowed on frame not supported on these platforms platform name A...

Page 85: ...tion This feature is not supported on certain platforms This message is shown only when platform strings are specified in corresponding flags in the configuration file FTPS097 _capMMS is set to 1 this...

Page 86: ...l configuration file FTPS104 No key is allowed this feature is not supported on these platforms platform names The Flash Player has detected that the user set KeySetNone to on in the local configurati...

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