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Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Nokia Series 40 Flash Lite–enabled devices
  3. Nokia Series 40 Flash Lite capabilities overview
  4. Disabled player functionality
  5. Designing and developing content for Series 40
  6. Content types

Working with Nokia Series 40 Flash Lite content – Part 1: Capabilities overview

Nokia Series 40 Flash Lite capabilities overview

The underlying operating system on Series 40 devices is fundamentally different than that found on Symbian-based Series 60. In fact, the Series 40 Platform devices use a proprietary real-time operating system, and it is not even Symbian-based. Instead, it is Java-based. It is an operating system developed by Nokia.

Apparently, due in part to this, the Flash Lite 1.1 ActionScript on this set of devices has some innate restrictions that are not present with Flash Lite on S60 devices. It's important to understand these capabilities and limitations before you start to design and develop wallpapers and screen savers for Series 40–based devices.

These differences may very well have an impact on your plans for the content you had in mind for development on Series 40 handsets. They could also impact your porting efforts from one device to another within Nokia Platforms (Series 60 to Series 40, for example). It's important to take all of this into consideration when designing and developing Series 40 wallpaper and screen saver Flash Lite content.

Table 1 shows a breakdown of the Flash Lite 1.1 API command availability within the Flash Lite 1.1 Series 40 devices (specifically, the 6125, 6131, 6136, and 6233).

Table 1. FSCommand2 functions on Series 40 devices (6125, 6131, 6136, 6233)
FSCommand2 Available? FSCommand2 Available?
setSoftKeys Yes getPowerSource No
resetSoftKeys Yes getTotalPlayerMemory No
Launch No getFreePlayerMemory No
getLanguage Yes FullScreen Yes
getVolumeLevel No getDevice No
setQuality Yes getPlatform No
getMaxVolumeLevel No GetDeviceID No
getDateDay No getSignalLevel No
getDateWeekday No getMaxSignalLevel No
getDateMonth No getNetworkConnectStatus No
getDateYear No getNetworkRequestStatus No
getLocaleShortDate No getNetworkStatus No
getLocaleLongDate No getNetworkName No
getLocaleTime No startVibrate No
getTimeZoneOffset No stopVibrate No
getTimeHours Yes Escape Yes
getTimeMinutes Yes UnEscape Yes
getTimeSeconds Yes setInputTextType Yes
getMaxBatteryLevel No getBatteryLevel No

Note: When working with wallpaper and screen savers, limitations may also apply. For example, as I will discuss shortly, user key input is disabled for wallpapers and screen savers. So, for instance, the command setInputTextType() is disabled within these specific content types (see the Disabled player functionality section of this article) even though this property can be "polled" for a value.

From Table 1, you can see there are some restrictions in place when dealing with Series 40 content for wallpapers and screen savers with these devices (i.e., battery levels and signal strengths cannot be checked on these devices currently). Take these results into consideration as you map out your wallpaper and screen saver content for this platform and these specific Flash Lite 1.1–enabled devices.

In addition to the set of FSCommand2 functions, the results for global variables found in the Flash Lite player on our Series 40 devices appear in Table 2.

Table 2. Results for global variables on Series 40 devices (6125, 6131, 6136, 6233)
Global variables Available?
_capCompoundSound Yes
_capStreamSound Yes
_capMFi No
_capMIDI Yes
_capMP3 No
_capSMAF No
_capEmail Yes
_capMMS Yes
_capSMS Yes
_capLoadData Yes
_cap4WayKeys Yes

Note: When working with wallpapers and screen savers, limitations will apply. For example, as I will discuss shortly, loading data over a network or sending an e-mail or SMS message via a content type other than standalone mode is strictly forbidden (see the Disabled player functionality section of this article). So _capLoadData within this context is not useful for wallpaper and screen saver content types even though the property can be queried.

Capability testing tools

It is important to analyze the capabilities of your target device before starting to build content. You want to avoid as many surprises as possible before you begin.

The quickest and easiest way to do this is to run the Flash Lite 1.1 capabilities devices SWF provided with the Flash Lite 1.1 CDK (it is also available in the ZIP file provided with this article). This simple application reports back the complete capabilities for each Flash Lite–enabled device you run it on (see Figure 2).

Adobe Flash Lite 1.1 Device Capabilities application

Figure 2. Adobe Flash Lite 1.1 Device Capabilities application

Another excellent resource is the Flash Lite 1.1 capabilities and benchmark metrics application, which you can freely download and use at the Flash Mobile Forum's Flash Lite Capabilities Database website.

In addition to posting device capabilities, this application reports back some basic performance metrics for devices (see Figure 3).

Flash Lite 1.1 Device Benchmark/Performance tester

Figure 3. Flash Lite 1.1 Device Capabilities tester (actual results may vary)

You can copy both of these applications via PC Suite to your physical device to test your target device's capabilities.

Important: Running these applications within the Adobe Flash Mobile emulator or Nokia Series 40 emulator (instead of on an actual target device) will not yield accurate results.

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