Thanks for your response, Shannon. It was more than I expected, and one that will be good to have in the archives for those of us who follow-up on i/OS and Android application development. I spent some time trying to triangulate your response with other content on the Adobe web site and other web resources and some of the puzzle pieces are coming together.
One question is about your assertion that a .SWF file might be compiled into a native i/OS app. It appeared to me that in Flash Builder, i/OS development would be a separate project with a separate code base than projects that run under Flash Player and deploy via Web pages.
Thanks for sharing a reference to the Machinarium game. They said it only took 2 months to port over to i/OS, but they also said it would run ONLY under iPad 2. A lot of iPad 1 owners complained about that! The application I referred to in my earlier post was released about 2 years ago under Flash Player and still has not been ported to run under i/OS. Unfortunately, I can only speculate why, for now. But I'd like to follow up on that sometime.
I've had a lot of thoughts swimming in my head about developing and deploying i/OS and Android applications via Flex Builder, vs a tool like PhoneGap, which compiles JavaScript to run under i/OS and Android as native apps, vs browser based interfaces.
I was kind of shocked that the Machinarium game was a 189 MB download at the App Store. Our daily IBM i backup which includes thousands of HTML files, PDF documents, etc., many thousands of RPG source file members, and database libraries with hundreds of thousands of records in only about 1/3 that size.
-Nathan.
----- Original Message -----
From: Shannon ODonnell <sodonnell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'RPG programming on the IBM i / System i' <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc:
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 5:36 PM
Subject: RE: the RPG problem - adrift in the PC-web wind
Sure.
The basic steps are this:
Design/Build your Flash Builder app for the mobile device of your choice (or
for web, or Windows/Mac desktop as an AIR app). When ready to test...
To test your iOS app (and ultimately install on other iOS devices) you will
need to obtain a Development Provisioning Certificate from Apple. You do
this by joining the Apple Developer program ($99/yr for individual
membership...I think something like$299 for corporate...I can't remember
exactly).
The Development Provisioning Certificate is your .P12 file. It is device
specific for testing. That is, you need to create one on the Apple site for
your iPad, one for your iPod, one for your iPhone, etc.... for testing.
There's also something called a Distribution Provisioning Certificate for
your publicly accessible apps.
Note you also need a .P12 file when installing on Android but you can either
create your own or purchase one from an authorized certificate authority
such as Thawte or Verisign, etc..
So I do all my provisioning on my Mac using the KeyChain utility there, but
that was mostly because I started developing in Objective C first. I
think you can also do all this just from the Apple website without requiring
a Mac but I have never tried it that way.
In flash Builder you install the .P12 file in your app build and the whole
process then packages it all into the .IPA file for iOS installation.
You can then either install it using iTunes or if it's a development/debug
process, just tether the device to your development PC and install it that
way.
You are correct that Flash will not run by itself on iOS. But what happens
when you create the Adobe Flash Builder-created app, it packages/compiles
the .SWF file into a binary object that contains its own internal flash
player for that app (as I understand that...you can visit Adobe's website to
find out how that works exactly).
Android creates an .APK file with its own .P12 certificate (either created
by you during the package process or better...one you purchased from someone
like Verisign)).
It's pretty slick. Sounds complicated, but do it once or twice and it's
really not.
I've never found an easier way to create AS/400 mobile apps that run on all
devices, than using Flash Builder. I really like programming in
ActionScript and the FB Eclipse IDE is very intuitive.
Granted it's a LOT! To learn and a ton of new concepts for someone who has
only built RPG programs or maybe CGI RPG.
There's definitely a learning curve for a traditional RPG programmer that is
incredibly steep if you're starting from scratch. But none of it is
insurmountable.
There are other ways to create mobile apps out there...TONS! of other
ways...but I really like Flash Builder. There are already thousands of
Flash widgets/code samples, etc... out there that for the most part can be
dropped into your app with little or no effort...and of course you have
direct access to Web Services, PHP (running locally with WAMP or LAMP or
running on iSeries), BlazeDS, HTTP Services, really anything you could
think of.
One of the all-time best selling games on iTunes App Store is Machinarium
which was developed in Flash and then packaged as an .IPA file.
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/casestudies/so
lutions/amanita/pdfs/amanita-casestudy.pdf
Adobe recently announce too that they have a tool (will probably be built in
for future versions) that will output Flash apps as HTML5 apps. I've seen
video of it, but have not tried it. It's very cool. It creates all the JS
you need and exports your Flash symbols and other assets for you and
apparently creates a very tidy little HTML5 package.
So when that gets put into Flash Builder also (actually that same tool may
already work for Flash Builder...I need to look at that a little closer I
think), then you have one development tool, Flash Builder, that outputs to
Web, Windows Desktop, Mac Desktop, iPad/iPod/iPhone, Android and Blackberry
Playbook (assuming anyone ever buys one) and HTML5!
The only thing it won't compile to directly, as far as I know, is a native
Windows 8 app which has its own unique requirements.
HTH
midrange.com
