Adobe Flash Lite in S60

Flash is a multimedia authoring tool originally brought to prominence by Macromedia in the late 1990's. Macromedia merged with Adobe in 2006. Based on vector graphic and time line animation, its success has been largely due to the ease of learning curve, and its evolving and extending ActionScript language. Developing applications in Flash is extremely fast and the time from idea to market is short.

Flash Lite is the cut-down version of Flash that has been designed to run on mobile devices. Most of the cutting down has been done on effects that would not be visible on the small displays of mobile devices or on functionality that is too resource-heavy for a mobile device. Additionally, some functionality has been added, like handling softkeys and numeric keypad events as well as acquiring the IMEI code or network and battery status of the device.

Flash Lite is preinstalled in all the latest Nokia devices. Most of the little older ones either have it or it can be installed for free from Adobe.

You should have a certain level of understanding about designing applications for the mobile context. The screen is smaller and the input is different than in a desktop PC. Also, since you probably will be using the ActionScript language, which is very closely related to JavaScript, it’s a big help if you are at least familiar with basic programming terminology such as functions and variables as well as object-oriented programming. It is possible to create quite complex Flash Lite applications without a single line of code, but if you want to create some logic and complexity behind your beautiful user interface, ActionScript is needed.

With Nokia, Flash technology becomes more broadly available, because it is supported across all Nokia platforms and is widely integrated with our mobile WebKit browser. Nokia makes publishing Flash content easy, too, via packaging solutions and tools for both the S60 platform and the Series 40 platform. Through S60 Platform Services, Nokia also enables Flash developers to use GPS-location and calendar functionality and much more.

If you are a web or media developer, Flash Lite could offer the quickest and most effective way of building on your existing skill set to create mobile content.

Flash Lite content can be broken down into 4 different types: Screensaver, Wallpaper, Stand Alone, and browser embedded - each handled differently. Flash Lite dramatically accelerates the delivery of rich content and browsing as well as customized user interfaces. An estimated 500 million devices around the world are capable of playing Flash Lite content, with Nokia shipping around 150 million in 2008 alone.

Nokia was the first to deliver the complete web-video experience to people on the go, thanks to the integration of Flash video with the Web Browser for S60. Users of the browser can view Flash Web sites and Flash video content, such as YouTube videos, just as they would on their desktops. Flash Lite 3 enables simple desktop Flash 8 content to be viewed through the mobile browser.

The core Flash technology helps creative professionals deliver interactive web sites, rich-media advertisements, instructional media, engaging presentations, games, and more. Designers and developers working across all platforms depend on Flash and the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player software to ensure that their content reaches a wide audience.

Flash Lite expands that audience further by delivering the same richly graphical interactivity to a universe of mobile users. It also adds features that are uniquely mobile, including the ability to vibrate mobile devices and send text messages. For Flash developers, embracing Flash Lite involves an easy transition: They can use the same powerful Adobe tools to create Flash content for mobile devices as they do for desktop computers.

Here's what Flash Lite delivers:

• A Nokia customised player integrated with our platforms.
• Implementation speed and flexibility.
• A large developer base and a mature toolset.
• Great connectivity options.
• Extensibility through S60 Platform Services

For web and media designers, Flash Lite offers a great opportunity to tap huge new markets. For mobile developers, it offers a mature and popular authoring tool that can cut development time and deliver an engaging experience to mobile users.

Adobe’s Flash authoring tool offers great features to assist in mobile development, through the Device Central element. Device Central is a testing environment that enables a developer to select a target platform or device and test content on it. Nokia and Adobe work closely to deliver specifications and regular updates for this tool.

The process of packaging and distributing Flash Lite applications has become much easier with the introduction of the Nokia Flash Lite (.nfl) format for Series 40 devices. There is now a range of online and offline tools available to help developers package their products — and two solid formats that cover S60 (.sis) and Series 40 (.sis). Casual Flash content created for Desktop can be viewed using the WebKit browser, and Flash content can be embedded in Web Runtime (WRT) widgets. Nokia recommends that content embedded in web pages or widgets be simple, and that the browser engine not be used to deliver full applications.

Flash support in the S60 SDK is limited to S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1. Nokia recommends that application testing be done through Adobe Device Central, Forum Nokia’s Remote Device Access service, or, best of all, on actual devices such Nokia N96.

Download KungFu Panda Flash Lite widget to try the power of Adobe Flash Lite directly on your mobile phone. (File is ZIP format. Use File Manager to extract the downloaded file).