J. G. Anderson - Beginning Flash, Flex, and Air Development for Mobile Devices

CONTENTS

Beginning Flash, Flex, and AIR Development for Mobile Devices

Published by

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

10475 Crosspoint Boulevard

Indianapolis, IN 46256

www.wiley.com

Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-94815-6

ISBN: 978-1-118-19334-1 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-19335-8 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-19336-5 (ebk)

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (877) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Not all content that is available in standard print versions of this book may appear or be packaged in all book formats. If you have purchased a version of this book that did not include media that is referenced by or accompanies a standard print version, you may request this media by visiting http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit us at www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011905204

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Wrox Programmer to Programmer, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Flash, Flex, and AIR are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

This book is dedicated to my wife, Joanna, and to the little one, our beautiful darling daughter, Olivia.

Love you both to bits!

Xx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JERMAINE G. ANDERSON works within the Software Engineering department of British Sky Broadcasting in London, UK, currently as Scrum Master, where he manages the technical delivery for an Agile team responsible for the short-form online video platform.

In recent years, Jermaines work has predominantly centered on video streaming, where he has been instrumental in creating cutting-edge and innovative products, specializing in Flash, the Flex framework, and, more recently, AIR.

Jermaine grew up in the town of Wincobank, Sheffield, where he developed his passion for science, technology, art, design, and computing. From an early age he started coding on the family computer, using BASIC on an Amstrad CPC 6128. When Jermaine was eight years old, his father set him the task of designing a level for the critically acclaimed U.S. Gold computer game Gauntlet, which he completed, only to discover that there was a submission date for the level entry, and that date had passed, to Jermaines disappointment. He cites this as one of the early lessons he learned, to always do something for the enjoyment, and rewards come in various guises. Ultimately, problem solving and working with technology are his main drivers working in online media, driven by the Internet.

Having earned a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry at The University of Birmingham, and a MSc in Computer Studies from Sheffield Hallam University, Jermaine devoted much of his professional career to working with Flash and online media over the last 11 years, taking a keen interest in mobile application development from early 2004.

In 2005, Jermaine was awarded the Best Productivity category for his Mobile TV application, a concept that he designed and developed for the Macromedia Flash Lite Contest.

Jermaines first book, Professional Flash Lite Mobile Application Development (Wrox, 2010), focuses on structuring several mobile application concepts using the PureMVC framework targeting the Flash Lite player. His second book, Beginning Flash, Flex, and AIR Development for Mobile Devices , focuses on the Flex framework for mobile development, targeting Android, BlackBerry, and iOS devices.

Jermaine tweets at www.twitter.com/jganderson and writes his personal blog at www.jgorganic.co.uk/blog.

ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR

DARREN OSADCHUK has been creating games and applications in Flash for approximately 10 years. In 2005, he started Ludicrous Software and began developing games for Flash Lite-enabled mobile devices. Since then, Ludicrous Softwares games have been available on a variety of platforms, including Apples App Store, the Android Market, Amazons Appstore, BlackBerry App World, and Nokias Ovi Store. In addition to games published under the banner of Ludicrous Software, Darren has developed mobile and web games and applications for clients around the world. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Manitoba and a Master of Arts in Contemporary Social and Political Thought from the University of Victoria, British Columbia.

CREDITS

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Robert Elliott

PROJECT EDITORS

William Bridges

John Sleeva

TECHNICAL EDITOR

Darren Osadchuk

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Rebecca Anderson

COPY EDITOR

Kim Cofer

EDITORIAL MANAGER

Mary Beth Wakefield