Using camera on Series40?

[powerpixels]

Is it possible to take photos using flash lite in s40?
Api bridge in S60 works just fine, but I don't know if there's any solution for camera in s40 so far?

[sajisoft]

Hi powerpixels,
May be or may be not. If your S40 phone support MIDP 2.0 ,JSR 75 (FileConnection API) , Flash Lite 1.1 or later and obvoisuly JSR-135 (to access camera) then may be these projects will help u :
SWFxME (Local http Server supports FL 1.1 or later)
Jarpa (Local XML socket server supports FL 2.0 or later)
What u have to do is to write a function that captures the image, add that function to the http server and then call the http server from the Flash Lite via HTTP request i.e loadVariables or sendAndLoad API. BUT before that try the samples provided in SWFxME to test whether this server is going to work on your phone or not. Both of the open-source local servers Jarpa & SWFxME are tested on S60 phones basically but i am sure they will work on S40 phones as well. Best Ov Luck

Best Regards,
Sajid Ali Anjum

[powerpixels]

Thanks Sajid, glad to see you again
Jarpa came to my mind too, but the latest version I found is 2 years old and wasn't sure about its possibilities. Have you tried the Sony Ericsson's Project Capuchin?

[sajisoft]

Hi powerpixels,
2 years old never means that it will not work and i think Jarpa or SWFxME are best start if u would like to extend Flash Lite via JavaME. As far as project Capuchin is concerened i didnt tried it on any SE phone yet but i read that it will not work with Nokia because it requires some special APIs known as Capuchin APIs (provided by SE only.)

BTW, if u take a look at Jarpa site, you will come to know that it was working with few S40 phones :

Nokia 7500 Prism S40 5th Edition
Nokia 7390 S40 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
Nokia 6301 S40 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2

As far as its possiblities are concerned then both the projects are open-source and u can add whatever JavaME allows u .
BTW, I created SWFxME to support more phones and it was working fine with a number of S60 phones. Why dont give a try to SWFxME samples? and according to my observation, SWFxME must support all phones supported by Jarpa + Flash Lite 1.1 phones.Best ov luck

Best Regards,
SajiSoft

[powerpixels]

To be honest, actionscript / javascript is my territory, unfortunately I don't have much experience with Java and I'll take anything that doesn't requires much of java coding

[sajisoft]

Than to be frank, i doubt that u left with no other option then facing the limitation of Flash Lite because AFAIK in S40 phones, JavaME is the only technology Nokia allows to access platform services or in other words, i dont see any alternative to JavaME to access the phone camera in S40 .So, this game totally depends upon ur mood

Best Regards,
SajiSoft

[powerpixels]

Oh well, I'll put learning Java in my 2011 resolution list. One more reason for Java besides Android

[sajisoft]

Yeah thats true. But i work a few with some good and award winning cross platform development tools. Worth a look :
OpenPlug (Flash Builder(AS3) to Android+Symbian+iPhone+Windows Mobile+Bada(comming soon)
MoSync(C++ coding with support of all above platforms + JavaME
I am actually thinking to write an article in January to share experience of mine with these tools and at least, a hello world in each .

Best Regards,
SajiSoft