“Trace” statements are likely the most known debugging tool used for actionScript code. You can place a trace statement anywhere you want and have it output just about anything you want also.

trace(”I’m a trace action!”);

myTrace = “I’m the content of a variable”;
trace(myTrace);

You can similarly use a text object you’ve placed directly on the stage to monitor during run time. You’ll only need to set something similar to: debug.text = myStringVariable;

Flash has an integrated debugger that is very powerful. To activate the
debugger, you need to go into Control > Debug Movie. You will see
the usual Test Movie setup but with an additional window aptly titled
‘Debugger’.

If you’re anything like me, you might use adobe’s liveDocs on line. I suppose it’s a debugging tool also. I plug in search criteria based on the error I’ve been delivered or the process I’m trying to complete. I also use forums and threads to help solve problems. I haven’t yet posted anything yet however.

http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/63/1/Common-Errors-and-Debugging/Page1.html

2. What is accessibility and why is it important? What should a web designer keep in mind when designing a web site to maintain accessibility? How does accessibility effect a web site’s animation?

Accessibility is an approach to web design that aims to ensure the widest access to the content and features of a website. The term is often used to refer to accessibility for people with disabilities, particularly blindness. … www.monash.edu.au/staff/web/glossary.html

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C director and inventor of the World Wide Web, defines it as access by everyone, regardless of disability.  Even though the World Wide Web is continuously growing, many users:
• use speech browsers or “eyes busy”/”hands busy”, as businessmen in cars;
• don’t have the latest graphical browsers and plug-ins;
• surf with slow modems, or reside in rural or remote areas with limited access to the Internet;
• browse without graphics, using text-only browsers or subscribe to non-graphic services;
• access in noisy, high- or low-light environments;
There are also many users with disabilities as;
• Visual – blind, low vision, color blind;
• Auditory – deaf, hard of hearing;
• Motor/physical – paraplegic;
• Cognitive/learning – dyslexic, learning disabled.
• They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
• They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
• They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse.
• They may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
• They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
• They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are busy or interfered with (e.g., driving to work, working in a loud environment, etc.).
• They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.
Accessibility increases benefits for both parties: the User and the Web site Provider. It may also persuade developers to take in some alternate considerations. They may be more likely to use stronger contrasting colors or, web safe colors, abstain from flashing screens or quick moving objects and use simpler navigation.

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_animatedimages.hcsp
http://www.webnauts.net/accessibility.html

In my opinion a lot of the web site trends are revolutionary and based on the latest technology.  With a new software product and capability, something old becomes new again.  The concept of most web sites is “attraction”.  The owner of the site wants you to view their site.  Transitions may or may not keep our ADD intellects amused long enough to hang out longer than 10 seconds.  I think I read the average web page can expect a visitor to make up his mind about leaving the site at about 4 seconds.

What do I think about the growing trend of using transitions?  Well, depending on their use, I think there is great potential for transitions. I like to think that transitions can be used for wonderfully interesting visual explanations for complicated or convoluted processes; for example this one showing how our bodies use energy and the resultant free radicals are bounced down the electron transfer chain to O2 in the process of oxidative phosphorylation:  http://www.brookscole.com/chemistry_d/templates/student_resources/shared_resources/animations/oxidative/oxidativephosphorylation.html

Transition trends are pretty cool; some are so cool they’ll stick around for over a week.  If you only want to show off your new skills and your transition does not enhance or contribute to the value or message of your site (determined by the visitor) then you’re likely to come to your senses or latch on to the next super coolness.

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/does-my-web-site-suck/does-my-web-site-suck-checklist-part-one.html

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/topic60.htm

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532847.aspx

http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/wacky/transitions/transitions.html

http://www.xeogen.com/

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/animation_guide_13.html
http://tutorials.learnflash.com/tutorials/flash/bettertransitionss.html
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/creating_animation_as3_02.html

The page located here:  http://www.jumpeyecomponents.com/Flash-Components/Transition-Effects/MovieClip-Transition-Effects-V3-45/
has a graphic that transitions from one image to the next.

AS 2.0 thread on transitions:  http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/190/862393

http://www.robertpenner.com/presentations/rpenner_Animation_Workflows_in_Flash_CS3_FITC_2007.pdf

sliding door transition:  http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area=resources&tab=movies&do=page&action=detailed&link_id=598

Mobile Challenges:  screen (size, pixel, depth), memory, CPU, fragmentation, bandwidth, security, connectivity, data input, distribution & deployment. Despite theses challenges, the number of mobile devices is growing at a staggering rate.  By the end of 2007, there will be 2713 million mobile devices and over 300 different models in use worldwide, compared to 755 million PC’s.  (Gartner Dataquest).  Along with the number of mobile devices offering Flash support, there is also a direct correlation to the  growth of application users.  Mobile application matters to those wanting to get out their brand recognition in a more personal method, beyond television and desktop computers.

The mechanics for mobile device design is different from normal design.  There isn’t a mouse pointer, usually, or a touch-pad.  There might be a touch-screen interface or a more common directional pad.  The use of a zoom allows the user to instantly recognize focus to an object.  You’ll also want to omit labels and headers to obtain every pixel of available screen real estate.  You can use this code: fscommand2("fullscreen", true); to display your content in full screen mode.  The "fscommand2" has access to specific device features like the signal strength and vibrate.  You can make use of these in your project design for interesting affects.  

Flash Lite couples rich presentation with solid programming, anything that the object oriented library facilitates.  The following steps are an example of the ease at which one might create the code for navigating a mobile device menu:

Using the scroll pad on the mobile device to control our phone games is likely how you will create player control and movement.  The up, down, left, right and enter key are the usual keys available.  For each menu item, you will create one layer.  Create a movie clip and make sure to have a stop action on the first frame.  Create the text for your menu items; new game, instructions, exit.  You will now make a layer for the background environment or image.  (This will likely be the bottom most layer.)  You may also want to build a square, oval or rectangle and fit it behind your menu item.  On the next frame, move your shape to fit behind the next menu item, and so on.  The “up” and “down” events will allow you to navigate through your menu structure.  Here is sample code:

on(keyevent “<Up>”){
// go to previous frame or stop at frame 1
tellTarget(”target path to mc”){ prevFrame(); }
}

on(keyevent “<Down>”){
// go to next frame or stop at last frame
tellTarget(”target path to mc”) {nextFrame();}
}

References: 

Link: Flash Lite Supported Devices:

http://www.adobe.com/mobile/supported_devices/

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/getting_started_flashlite_b.pdf

http://board.flashkit.com/board/archive/index.php/

flashmobilegroup.org

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/ten_tips_flash_lite_games.html

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/flashlite.html

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/packing_lite_09.html

 Josh Ulm’s excellent whitepaper on the subject articulates other important considerations.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/flashlite.html

Packing Lite: A Mobile Media Interface Design Primer

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/packing_lite.html

Introducing Adobe Device Central CS3

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/introducing_device_central.html

]]> http://alohahands.com/blog/2008/07/16/adobe-flash-lite-for-mobile-devices/feed/ 0 http://alohahands.com/blog/2008/07/14/flash-mobile-devices/ http://alohahands.com/blog/2008/07/14/flash-mobile-devices/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:15:33 +0000 alohahands http://alohahands.com/blog/2008/07/14/flash-mobile-devices/ tp://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/ten_tips_flash_lite_games.html

In the code example below, the _y property of the duplicated movie clip is extracting hard-coded values from an array. In contrast, the _x property is determined programmatically, by first calculating the width of the stage, and then placing the duplicate movie clips based on the resulting values of the calculation.

var clipNum = 3
var xLocate = Stage.width/ (clipNum+1);
var yArray = new Array (30,40,50);
for(x=1; x<=clipNum; x++){
var tempMc = attachMovie("block",
"block"+x, x);
with (tempMc) {
_x = xLocate*x;
_y = yArray[x-1];
}
}

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/flash_projects.html

People will access your project on different mediums and devices. They may even use a stylus or their finger to press buttons. Users will expect standard key presses will be used and followed. (Become familiar with common mobile device conventions.)

The options for functionality should be flexible and not device dependent. The general practice of keeping the functionality of your project separate from the events that trigger it will allow more compatibility and possibility of your project to operate on many different devices.

As you begin your project you should with a commonly used screen size (176×208 or even 240×320 pixels). These will allow you to port your game to devices much easier.

Your project files should be able to meet the needs of different displays. Perhaps allowing for resizing or rescaling the graphics and text will allow for greater display needs. Think about text size and legibility as well as graphics and bitmaps.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/total_training_key_press_events.html

It’s important for the user to interact with the device and the application. You will use a broadcaster-listener model and handler method to allow the application to respond when the user has interacted with the device.

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00002449.html

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/actionscript_guide_06.html

Use of variables should be utilized to help keep your code flexible. All of us have coded for “hitTest” functions now. Considering mobile devices, The method below is easy on the mobile processor and uses the objects x and y values as well as the objects dimensions.

var obj = new Object (x1, y1, w1, h1, x2, y2, w2, h2);
if((obj.x1 >= obj.x2) && (obj.x1+obj.w1 <=
obj.x2+obj.w2) && (obj.y1 >= obj.y2) && (obj.y1+obj.h1 <=
obj.y2+obj.h2)){
collision = true;
}else{
collision = false;
}

This code checks the relationship of obj.x1’s left edge in relation to obj.x2’s left edge. Next it evaluates the right edge, top edge and finally the bottom edge of both.

var clipArray:Array = new Array(one_mc, two_mc, three_mc);
a_mc.onRollOver = function() {
showClip(one_mc);
}
b_mc.onRollOver = function() {
showClip(two_mc);
}
c_mc.onRollOver = function() {
showClip(three_mc);
}
function showClip(l_Clip:Object):Void {
for (i=0; i
{
hideClip(clipArray[i]);
}
l_Clip._visible = true;
}
function hideClip(l_clip):Void {
l_clip._visible = false;
}
———————————————-
FUNCTION:

a_mc.onRollOver = function() {
onShow(one_mc);
}
b_mc.onRollOver = function() {
onShow(two_mc);
}
c_mc.onRollOver = function() {
onShow(three_mc);
}
function onShow(movClip:Object):Void {
onHide();
movClip._visible = true;
}
function onHide():Void {
one_mc._visible = false;
two_mc._visible = false;
three_mc._visible = false;
}
———————————————-
SWAPDEPTHS:

a_mc.onRollOver = function() {
onTop(one_mc);
}
b_mc.onRollOver = function() {
onTop(two_mc);
}
c_mc.onRollOver = function() {
onTop(three_mc);
}
function onTop (movClip:Object):Void {
movClip.swapDepths(0);
}

On the stage:

Create a movie clip containing your text with an instance name of “alert_mc”.

Jesse’s Example:  click here

I will post about two remote shared-object uses (from livedocs.adobe.com):

* Store and share data on Flash Media Server. A shared object can store data on the server for other clients to retrieve. For example, call SharedObject.getRemote() to create a remote shared object, such as a phone list, that is persistent on the server. Whenever a client makes changes to the shared object, the revised data is available to all clients currently connected to the object or who later connect to it. If the object is also persistent locally, and a client changes data while not connected to the server, the data is copied to the remote shared object the next time the client connects to the object.

* Share data in real time. A shared object can share data among multiple clients in real time. For example, you can open a remote shared object that stores a list of users connected to a chat room that is visible to all clients connected to the object. When a user enters or leaves the chat room, the object is updated and all clients that are connected to the object see the revised list of chat room users.

reference: http://flash-communications.net/technotes/sharedObjectEditor/index.html

http://flash-communications.net/technotes/sharedObjectEditor/editor.html

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/net/SharedObject.html

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/shared_objects.htm