Archived:Porting to Flash Lite from desktop

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Created: Risalmin (13 Jul 2010)

Last edited: hamishwillee (03 Oct 2012)

Overview

There is no single method for making sure your Flash app, meant for the bigger displays and more powerful processors, will work in a mobile device. There are five main considerations you need to take into account when planning on porting your existing Flash app to mobile:Flash Version, Action Script version, Screen size and input methods, packaging and using mobile specific APIs to enhance the app.

Flash version

The majority of the Nokia devices out there use either Flash Lite 2.x or Flash Lite 3.x. The former is based on Flash Player 7 and latter on Flash player 8. There is more information on the differences here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplatformruntimes/ The update for Flash Lite 3.x, labelled Flash Lite 3.1 was actually based on Flash Player 9, but not many devices where shipped with it. It has mainly been available through firmware update. New Symbian devices, like the N8 will have Flash Lite 4, which is based on Flash Player 10. More information on the Flash versions in different Nokia Devices see here: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/?filter2=flashLite1_1 (choose the Flash Lite version as criteria) Maemo/Meego devices do not have Flash Lite, but they use the same Flash players used in Linux PCs.

Of course many people are still using devices supporting Flash Lite 1.1, which is mostly compatible with later releases too, but only the newer devices can connect to the Ovi store, so you might consider dropping support for older devices and going with at least Flash Lite 2.x

Note: There was a change in the security model in Flash 8, done by Adobe. This means, that if the devices player version is Flash Lite 2.x an app can access both network and locally stored content. If the devices player is Flash Lite 3.x or above, it can only use network or locally stored content. More info

ActionScript version

For all the devices before Nokia N8, you need to use ActionScript 1 or 2. For Symbian^3 devices, you can use also ActionScript 3.

Screen size and input methods

The mobile devices screen is a lot smaller than the PC's. Not only in pixels, but also in physical size. If your app is a game, for instance, you need to make it fit to the screen all at once while still keeping items big enough to make sense. There is a very good article about designing for a small screen and making the app react to different input methods, like touch and ITU-T keypad input here: http://library.developer.nokia.com/index.jsp?topic=/Flash_Lite_Developers_Library/GUID-26240182-DC3B-4A2F-B3C9-AF3BCF4C7712.html

Porting mouse operated apps to touch devices is relatively easy, you only need to avoid using onMouseOver and onMouseOut events, since these naturally are not occurring in touch screen devices.

Packaging

To deploy the Flash Lite app you have three options, put it on your mobile web site, package as "native app" or package into a Widget. For Symbian, please see how to package into .sis here: Create Flash Applications with Carbide.c++ There are also commercial solution for doing this, and you can find more information in the Flash Lite developers library

To package in a WRT widget, you can refer to this document: How to package Flash content in a Widget

For newer Series 40 devices you can use the NFL packaging format: http://www.developer.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/384a5c01-70fe-480d-86bc-627f92d3ed7c/Series_40_Nokia_Flash_Lite_NFL_Package_Format.html

Where to get help

The best place to start is the Nokia Developer Landing page for Flash

Have fun ;o)