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Developing Flash Lite applications with dynamic layouts


David Brown

David Brown

www.agencynet.com

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Understanding the importance of dynamic layouts
  3. Setting up a dynamic layout
  4. Positioning the soft keys
  5. Testing dynamic layouts in Device Central
Created:
5 May 2008
User Level:
Beginner, Intermediate
Products:
Flash Lite

As developers, we must always consider the end user and their experience with our content. Mobile development includes several new factors to take into consideration. Mobile content can be accessed anywhere at any time. Your content should reflect that fact. In this article I'll discuss my experience while developing the Bacardi® Mobile Cocktail application.

When you develop mobile applications that adjust their layouts to best suit their current mode, you enhance usability and encourage user interaction. This practice also helps maintain compatibility across various devices. Developing an application that offers both portrait and landscape modes is a step in the right direction when developing for devices with the capability for either or both of those layout orientations.

In this tutorial I describe the process I used to develop the dynamic layout of the Bacardi® Mobile Cocktail application. I'll cover how to react to environment changes, such as the current time of day, and how to implement automatic Stage size and orientation switching. Automatic adjustment is especially important for devices such as the Nokia N95, because it is capable of changing its resolution. For other devices, you will learn how to manually alter the orientation of your application to mimic that functionality. Click here for a video preview of the Bacardi® Mobile Cocktail application referenced in this article.

Requirements

To make the most of this article, you'll need the following software and files:

Flash CS3 Professional

Adobe Device Central CS3

Sample files:

Optional:

  • Flash Lite 2.0 enabled mobile device

Prerequisite knowledge
Prior experience working with Flash CS3 Professional, Flash Lite and Device Central CS3 is advised. Additionally, basic ActionScript 2.0 knowledge is recommended. However, this article is geared towards anyone interested in learning how to develop dynamic layouts in Flash Lite applications.

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About the author

David Brown has been a Flash Developer since mid-2002. He developed his first mobile application in 2003 with Flash Player 6 for Pocket PC. Since then he has developed several Flash applications across many different platforms. He is the Lead Developer of Emerging Technology at Agencynet, a strategic digital agency.