Adobe adds support for BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone and iPad to Adobe Flash Builder 4.5.1

Posted by Simon in Adobe, AIR, Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Development, Flash, Flash Builder, Flash Mobile, Flex, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, PlayBook, Tablets on Jun 22nd, 2011 | 0 comments

Developers can now use the Adobe Flash Builder platform to develop applications for iOS devices, such as Apple’s iPad and iPhone, as well as for the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Support for the devices (which had been announced in April) in Flash Builder 4.5.1 allows developers to create apps for a variety of popular devices and platforms using one code base with different presentation layers.

“The reaction from developers to the new mobile capabilities in Flash Builder 4.5 and the Flex 4.5 framework has been absolutely fantastic,” Ed Rowe, vice president of developer tooling at Adobe Systems, said in a statement today.

Adobe’s Flash Platform evangelist Serge Jespers shows us what “one tool, one framework, one codebase” means, and demonstrates an app developed for different devices using Flash Builder and Flex:

Developers from different industries have been using Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 to help them reduce development time and the cost of delivery to build some pretty amazing apps across the major platforms:

• Politifact.com: A project of the St. Petersburg Times and a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner, the PolitiFact.com team extended its website content into a mobile app available across leading app stores. The PolitiFact.com app helps readers find truth in politics by investigating statements by members of Congress, the President, lobbyists and other Washington D.C. personalities.

• Netflix Queue Manager: Using Adobe AIR 2.5, Flash Builder 4.5.1 and the Flex framework, RIA design and development group UnitedMindset created the Netflix Queue Manager, which allows users to connect with and manage their Netflix queue across devices and features intuitive search capabilities. With success in the Android Market—over 340,000 downloads since October 2010—the app is coming soon to BlackBerry AppWorld and the Apple App Store.

• Mr. Mixit and Pyramix: Web design and development agency HD Interactive first released Pyramix, a word game combining the strategy of Cryptoquote and the simplicity of Boggle, and Mr. Mixit, a spin-based matching game where you mix record labels against the clock, to Apple’s App Store. The new updates allowed HD Interactive to use the same code to deliver the apps to Android Market and BlackBerry AppWorld in record time.

• Muni Tracker: Are you from the San Francisco Bay Area or maybe planning to visit? This app helps you track locations, arrival times and bookmark your favorite stops and lines for Muni (San Francisco Municipal Railway), San Francisco’s public transit system. The developer was able to quickly and easily port this original Android app to iOS.

• Conqu is an easy to use yet powerful task management tool designed to help conquer an e-mail inbox and get things done. Using Flash Builder 4.5, the developer, AsFusion, was able deploy the app on multiple platforms with minimal effort. They were also able to reduce the time to develop the app since there was no need to debug different code for each individual platform.

Juxio Project featured on TechCrunch

Posted by Simon in Adobe, AIR, Apple, Development, Flash Builder, Flex, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, RIA, Services on Dec 7th, 2010 | 0 comments

In August 2010, Juxio was released in beta and so far has had quite a good reception from the public. The word Juxio [juhk-see-oh] comes from the word juxtaposition, the placement of two or more elements together to create new meaning. The company is based in Burlington, MA, USA.

The best way to describe the services is as follows:

“Juxio is a new visual way to communicate. Individuals and businesses use Juxio to combine images, text and more into mashable, visual streams called Juxes to share across social media and in print. Juxes are created on both our Web and iPhone apps. In the future we will support additional mobile devices. By making Juxio available anywhere at any time, we hope you find more ways to create new meaning.”

ThoughtFaqtory have been involved in the development of Juxio since the beginning of 2009. We were brought on-board to develop the web application, using Adobe Flex, Flash and ColdFusion. The biggest challenge in developing the web application was the client wanted the Juxios to be a maximum of 72″ x 36″ in size. One of the challenges we faced in the design phase was how we were going to handle the memory issues. We designed the application with these potential issues in mind.

The first idea we had was to use a tile layout and only render the tiles which were on the screen. This would reduce the memory load because only a portion of the Juxio would be stored in memory. But when zooming out so that the entire Juxio is shown we would have to store the entire Juxio in memory anyway. We could not afford to have the entire Juxio in memory because it could cause the application to crash due to insufficient resources. The team had to find a way to use less memory per inch of the Juxio. The biggest consumer of this was the images, so we looked at optimizing the system used to load and store images.

We worked on a system that would download an image stored in the cloud, scale and crop it to best fit the component it belongs to. A snapshot was taken of the transformed image and the original one is discarded. The smaller image is then rendered and kept in memory. Depending on the size of the original image we saved a significant amount of resources. The disadvantage of this approach is that when scaling an image we lose image quality. But because we are scaling down and not up, the loss is not as great. We also found that by taking the snapshot with Adobe Flash’s highest quality rendering mode we limited this loss.

One of the requirements was to render a 76” x 36” at 300 pixel per inch (PPI) PDF for print. Standard web graphics are 72 PPI to put this into perspective. An image of this size and quality would be 744 MB. While we could compress the image for the PDF, we would still need to create all of the pixels in order to compress them. It would be unfeasible to allow the Juxio to be edited at this quality. The team had to find a way to edit the Juxio at a low resolution and output it into a high resolution.

We decided to edit the Juxio with the standard 72 PPI and then scale it to 300 PPI when outputting to PDF. In order to create a 300 PPI image we needed to scale the Juxio up 4 times. Adobe Flash Drawing API is done using vector graphics and wouldn’t lose quality when scaling them up to the desired size. We used embedded font’s so that Adobe Flash would scale the text without losing quality too. But the images obviously pose a problem when scaled up 4 times the size. So we had scale the original image up by 4 to fit into it’s image component (explained earlier). Now the image stored in memory would be the correct size for the required 300 PPI to output to PDF. Essentially we were storing a 300 PPI image in memory. When the Juxio is edited, the image is scaled down and rendered at 72 PPI. Once the Juxio is being outputted, the image maintains its 300 PPI.

The screen shot below shows a set of images that have been cropped to match the exact size of the rectangle, so memory usage is minimal.

The team were very happy with the results and the effort that went into prototyping the different scenarios, it definitely paid off. That was the first of many obstacles that we encountered in the design and implementation phases of the project. We are continually adding new features as users become more advanced which allows the creation of even greater content. In the next article we will dive deeper into the functionality of the web application that make it such a powerful and unique product.

Earlier this year Juxio asked us to develop an iPhone application that allowed users to create Juxes (*smaller versions of Juxios) based on selection of templates using there iOS devices. Designing a mobile application requires a different approach compared to a web application on the desktop. Firstly, the screen size is a lot smaller, you are required to think on a screen by screen basis when designing mobile applications. When we started to design the iPhone app with the client, we need to take into account the hardware, form factor, screen size, orientation, input methods and other capabilities such as GPS and camera etc.

The one major challenge when designing for a mobile device is to take into account the network connectivity. Users take their phones everywhere with them which means variable Internet connectivity or sometimes non at all. So ideally the application should work in offline mode and check whether a network connection is available before sending or receiving data from the device.

So that is exactly what our team did, we designed and developed the application to work with or without a network connection. The app is smart enough to know when a connection is available and sync the data appropriately. Implementing a robust syncing framework is quite challenging but when it’s working can be a very rewarding experience. This functionality was essential in keeping the users different devices and web application in sync. We kept the process very simple for the user, there was no conflict management, that was all handled within the framework.

The next biggest challenge was implementing a layout engine for the different templates that the user can choose from. This was developed using Core Graphics API and is a little more complicated compared to using Adobe Flex and the Adobe Flash Drawing API. Each template is rendered based on a data structure defined in XML, and both the web and iPhone apps understand this structure.

To enable cross device content creation, sharing and display, we persist XML which is used by the layout engine to render the Juxio. The XML used to create the Template is modified by the users when they add content to the Juxio. This XML which describes the user’s Juxio is persisted to the cloud and allows the iPhone or web application to load and render the persisted Juxio.

Link to the TechCrunch article on Juxio when it launched in August 2010 as a private beta.

* A Juxio is created using the web application

* A Jux is created using the iPhone application

PruHealth and ThoughtFaqtory deliver healthier interactive lifestyle online

Posted by Simon in Adobe, Development, Enterprise, Flash, Flex, Java, RIA on Jul 27th, 2010 | 0 comments

Award-winning health insurance provider uses the Adobe Flash Platform to create a unique interactive online service empowering customers to lead healthier, happier lives.

A new take on healthcare
For many people, the concept of wellness is relegated to an occasional visit to the doctor at the first sign of illness or for an annual check-up. But with climbing insurance premiums — particularly for employees who make contributions to employer-sponsored plans — and frequent coverage from news outlets about the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle, more citizens are rethinking their approach to healthy living.

“We’ve always viewed ourselves as a leader and innovator in the insurance industry,” says Paulo dos Santos, CIO at PruHealth. “Encouraging and rewarding our customers with discounted premiums and other services for living a healthier lifestyle would certainly distinguish us from our competitors. We needed to create a unique program to deliver that message. Adobe software and technologies proved to be the most logical choice to achieve that goal.”

Working with our business applications development team at ThoughtFaqtory, PruHealth adopted the Adobe Flash Platform, including Adobe Flex Builder, to create an interactive online, incentive-based curriculum that encourages physical activity, healthy eating, and smoking cessation among the many ways for customers to earn redeemable points and valuable rewards. The challenge for us was to build a rich experience, that was easy to use, enjoyable to work through and be able to retain the users interest throughout the completion of the health and fitness goals process.

With the Adobe Flash Platform, PruHealth provides customers with richly detailed and dynamically animated graphs and charts, giving them a comprehensive understanding of how their habits affect their health and wellness.

Leveraging the Adobe Flash Platform and Adobe Flex Builder 3, PruHealth delivered its innovative online Vitality Interactive application, a secure online portal to accompany the long-standing Vitality Program. The dynamic portal features a range of interactive wellness tools that enable customers to create their own health and fitness goals and timelines.

“With the Adobe Flash Platform, we created a richly animated site that brings a unique visual perspective to show customers how their daily habits contribute to their overall health and wellness,” says Greg Peringuey, development manager for PruHealth Online.

The application provides customers with a questionnaire about their current lifestyle choices—exercise habits, calorie intake, and lifestyle choices, among many others. They can watch as rich-media charts and graphs update instantly with their answers to paint a comprehensive picture of lifestyle changes they can make to live healthier, and save money.

The full Adobe Success Story is available here.

ThoughtFaqtory’s mobile development services

Posted by Simon in Android, Development, Flash Mobile, iPhone, Mobile, RIA, Services on May 10th, 2010 | 0 comments

ThoughtFaqtory originally offered development services on Adobe Flex and AIR platforms. We have created many great experiences for small to large corporations in the USA, Europe and South Africa.

At the end of last year, we decided to embark on offering services in the mobile space. The type of platforms we currently develop for are iPhone, iPad, Android and Adobe Flash Platform for mobile devices. We actually have a few iPad’s floating around the office. Another technology we are looking forward to this year is AIR for Android, Flash Player 10.1 for mobile devices and Flex Mobile Framework (codenamed Slider). This is very exciting, because it allows our company to leverage existing ActionScript 3 skills and apply them to mobile devices.

We forsee that from 2010, there is going to be large demand for development of custom software solutions on mobile devices. A number of our team members are currently working on iPhone and iPad solutions for products that already have a web presence. Many companies are creating mobile experiences from existing products that are already available to the public. Then there are the products exclusive to mobile devices such as Foursquare and Gowalla, these types of products require location-based services function correctly.

ThoughtFaqtory is looking forward to this year as the mobile development space heats up.

See you at Net Prophet 2010 event on the 13th May 2010, Mutual Park, Pinelands, Cape Town.