Better User Interaction with Flash Lite 1.1

Flash Lite is great at delivering the "wow factor" with its potential for easy animation, layout, and design. However, it also provides some major improvements for how users interact with content on their phones. Building a WAP and a Flash Lite application in parallel shows that Flash has many performance and interaction benefits.

Flash Lite Simply Works

Flash Lite content can be transferred through the WAP browser, Bluetooth, IR, or USB cable. Regardless of how it gets through, you are one click away from the application. You don't have to go to the browser, find a bookmark, and then wait for the server response to get to your first useful screen. The "it just works" factor is one of the things I hear users comment on most about the power of Flash Lite when demonstrating content.

Flash Lite Reduces Wait Time

One of my chief complaints about WAP applications is that I feel like I am always waiting for something to transfer. I click once, and wait… click once again… wait a bit longer. Flash applications on the other hand can act more intelligently. Not every interaction has to result in a server hit. In Flash Lite, your application can ask your user for all the information needed, even simulating different "pages" and other organizational techniques.

The important part is that the application does all of the logic on its own without having to ask the server what to do, each time downloading more and more HTML. You only make a connection when you have all the information you need in order to get a useful result from the server. For a complex form, this could save you as much as 10 roundtrip connections to the server. When users are on the go and need information, wait time can really add up.

Flash Lite Enables Download on Demand

Flash Lite is in an interesting position: it has all of the benefits of an installed application while also being able to extend itself easily through the use of dynamic content. Since storage is a more pressing issue on a mobile phone than on a desktop computer, the need to create small initial downloads is very important. With Flash Lite 1.1 it is easy to make a base file that has the information that is needed every time the application is run, and then the rest can be loaded at runtime when the user requests the information.

One thing to be aware of is that you cannot store any type of persistent data with Flash Lite 1.1. If you plan on allowing a user to customize or enter information that may be available the next time he or she uses the application, you will have to either upload the data to a server or use a third-party solution.

By dividing your application into segments, you can stream small chunks to your user only when necessary, balancing a light initial file with limited bandwidth resources.

Where to Go from Here

I hope my short overview has inspired you to create your own connected Flash Lite application. At this point, you should be familiar with the techniques and formats available to you for loading dynamic content onto your Flash Lite–enabled mobile phone. As a next step, take a look at the example files for creating dynamic content in the Flash Lite CDK. Also be sure to check out the Flash Lite Exchange as well as the Flash Support forums.

If you are interested in transcoding images or other media into Flash files for dynamic loading, visit actionscript.org's list of converters. For starters, you may want to try creating static SWF files to download with the standalone applications, and as you feel more comfortable, move on to the server-side converters.

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