Posts Tagged Flash Platform
Adobe AIR2 Launch – Helisso Source
Posted by Mark Doherty in Flash Player on June 11, 2010
To celebrate the launch of AIR2 for Mac, Windows and Linux in this blog post I am providing the full source and build chain for Helisso. In case you missed the blog post…
Helisso is a packaging tool that allows you to package your AS2 Flash applications that target Flash Lite. Under the hood Helisso uses a combination of Python compiled binaries, OpenSSL and an AS3 based cab packager written by our engineering team.
In the source you are going to find a huge swathe of code, everything from the Symbian stub applications source to the template Windows application and Python sources. Prepare to be blown away by the amount of work that went into this 
What is it?
- A packaging utility that can produce SIS packages for S60 devices
- This new version supports Windows Mobile 5/6 devices
- It targets the Flash Lite 3.x runtime
- It runs on Windows and Mac OS, all versions
AIR2
Helisso would not have been possible without AIR2, for the simple reason that the time investment in creating two separate applications would have been too great. Ask yourself, how many examples of SIS or CAB packaging have you seen on Mac OS? (clue: none!)
Within the application source you’ll discover a class called PackagerService that makes use of the AIR2 NativeProcess API. This is a HUGE boon for development on platforms using native code, for the first time with AIR it’s possible to make use of applications and services running natively on the OS.
In the case of Helisso, we use NativeProcess to run the Python compile binary Wrap.app and Wrap.exe. Although in the case of the Mac we use a simple script called doWrap.sh, which has the wonderful task of ensuring that we use the correct version of Python on the Mac. So this will be a particular point of interest for the Python developers among you.
Flash Catalyst
At the time that I began work on the user interface we were testing Flash Catalyst CS5, so I thought it appropriate to use this for my project. I began the work in Fireworks CS5 and then moved to Photoshop CS5 for some optimization and to generate the PSD.
From there I was able to produce the simple UI and skin my very first Flex 4 application. If you haven’t tried this then I cannot recommend it enough, the process is ridiculously simple and you can get started in no time.
You can learn more about Flash Catalyst over here.
Flash Builder 4
Using Catalyst it’s possible to produce skins and define the user experience and interface for your Flex 4 applications. Flash Catalyst will write A LOT of code for you, but to really get the most out of the Flash Platform you should know a bit of Actionscript 3.
Flash Builder 4 is now a CS5 product, and its the second step to working with Flash Catalyst, allowing me to add all of the backend code. I merely had to import the FXP file from Catalyst and I was all set after moving a few items around. There were some minor issues with the actual display of fonts at the time, all of which are now fixed in this latest version.
From there I added quite a bit of code to handle the various buttons presses, error events and used our corporate “Adobe Clean” font. So that way it actually looks consistent on Windows and Mac – as well as appearing like an Adobe application.
Oppian
I must also acknowledge the efforts of Steve Hartley at Oppian who worked tirelessly on this project. Many of you have noticed the “much faster SIS package installations” and various other super-tweaks applied to make the end-user experience amazing.
End User Installation
Helisso Source Installation
Unzip Helisso source
Unzip the Flex4/AIR2 SDK
Place the Flex/AIR SDK into the helisso\SDK\ folder so that it looks like this..
Add this SDK to Flash Builder preferences, it should look like this…
Mac users are now all setup because Python and OpenSSL are baked into the OS. Windows users need to install Python and OpenSSL separately, so follow closely
Python
The installer is located in Helisso\tools\build\pc\installs\python-2.6.4.msi
Run this installer and use the default settings
OpenSSL
Unzip the file Helisso\tools\build\pc\installs\openssl-0.9.8h-1-bin.zip
Rename the folder to OpenSSL and move it to a root folder, you might want to put it in the same location as Python
Add Python and OpenSSL to the Path variable
Check out this video that shows you how to add an Environment variable and find the Environment variables dialog (watch carefully)
You merely have to add C:\Python24;C:\OpenSSL\bin to the end of the string
I hope you enjoy looking at the code and playing with all of these Flash Platform tools. Let me know if you have any questions regarding Helisso and about your AIR 2 projects and ideas.
Mark
Announcing Flash Builder 4
Posted by Mark Doherty in , Flash Lite, Industry News on May 16, 2009
During the past year we’ve been focussing on branding around the Flash Platform’s tools and runtimes.
For example Flash Platform for the Digital Home is how we refer to the optimized Flash Player that runs on set-top boxes. Under the hood it’s Flash Lite 3.1, but that’s a Flash Player optimized for TVs, get it? You’ll notice that in the coming months I’ll be referring to Flash Lite as Flash Player across the board, and you should too.
To be clear though Flash Lite is still the name of the product.
So today we announced that one of our key products Flex Builder will be renamed Flash Builder in the next release. It makes a lot of sense when you consider Flash Catalyst is on the way and we need a way to tie them together, they both rely on the same open source Flex SDK.
In terms of workflow you could create your assets in Photoshop, use Flash Catalyst to turn these assets into a interactive experience. Then in Flash Builder you tie up the underlying functionality and hook up the data services etc.
Flex doesn’t disappear as a brand, you still call yourself a Flex Developer because you’re using the open source Flex SDK. The only difference is that you do your development in Flash Builder.
So that’s all clear then, but Serge has a nice post on this.
Announcing: Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home
Posted by Mark Doherty in , Devices, Flash Lite, Industry News on April 20, 2009
Today we announced the Flash Platform for the Digital Home one of the most exciting products I think we’ve produced in the devices space. We’ve been working on this flat out for many many months, and finally all this hard work has resulted in an incredible new product.
It should be no surprise that the Digital Home player is built on Flash Lite 3.1 (same as the Distributable Player). Though of course the major challenge has been to create a player that can survive on a set-top box. Think about it, an average set-top box or TV sits in the home for about 5-7 years, these devices are rarely turned off and they are expected to consume little power. Although to be fair, many are very bad at saving power in the off state including my box.
I remember sitting in an engineering training session (a year ago) watching a Flash Lite game playing on a television. The team informed us that the challenge ahread was similar to plugging an HD TV into a mobile phone and attempting to go on youtube. Think about it, a 300mhz CPU playing 1080p H.264 video; it just shouldn’t be possible.. but with the magic of Flash Lite and very clever engineers, it is
The results have been incredible and it’s pretty clear now that there’s a real opportunity to bring the web to your TV. As usual we haven’t done this alone, we’re working with partners across the industry including Broadcom, Intel, Comcast, Disney Interactive, Netflix, New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs, STMicroelectronics, Atlantic Records. Of course there are others, but that would be telling 
But these days we’re all about “multi-screen” so let us consider that for a moment. Just think of all those users sitting in front of their TVs every night, and every single one of them fiddling with their mobile phone. You see, interactive TV may have been around for some time but this changes the market and opens up a huge opportunity.
To give you an idea of what has been considered here at Adobe, enjoy!