Hi,
Glad I could help.
The .IPA file that is compiled from Flash Builder for iOS IS! A different
set of code than the .APK for Android or the AIR for Windows (which is also
different than the AIR for MAC). But that's the cool thing about Flash
Builder...it hides all that compilation complexity from you so you don't
have to worry about it. You focus on only the design and development and
let FB handle the compiles to the device of your choice.
And...are you sure that all of your backups, PDF files, HTML file, RPG
Source, etc...ALL! of that is less than 189 MB? 189 MB is not a very big
file and the fact that Machinarium is ONLY! That big is pretty amazing.
Did you by any chance think that they said 189 GB? Because then I'd agree
with you that that's would have been one whopping huge file!
Let's put this in context...the smallest iPad is 16GB. Just 1 GB
would be able to hold just over 8 copies of that one Machinarium game.
Granted 189MB is large for a mobile app...if you compare app size on the
iTunes App store, you'll see that the average graphics-intensive game is
roughly 50MB to 70MB and some of the more graphics intensive games are well
over 500MB...so really 1989 MB for such a graphics intensive game is not
that big.
I'd also guess that your backups on the iSeries are considerably bigger than
189 MB! On my little 520 the backup is over 1GB and I really don't have
much on there since it's a development machine.
Also, just to address one comment you made and this is really for the
archives more than anything else...a LOT! Of newer apps, especially games,
on the App store are built for iPad2 or above. Most work on all versions
of iPad. However there are some hardware changes that came with iPad2 that
were not there for iPad which improve game response and which allow the user
to use the built-in cameras (iPad doesn't have a camera....just iPad2 and
The NEW! iPad) and some of the newer features of the faster processor.
Same thing applies with the various generations of iPod. Some apps are
built to take advantage of the newer hardware changes in the newer iPods and
so it won't work on the older ones.
Now...for most business software...unless you're doing something with the
cameras...there is probably not a lot of stuff you'd need to write
specifically for a faster processer on a newer iPad or iPod. So anything
you wrote for the business world would most likely run on any version of
iPad/iPod/iPhone anyway.
By the way, that's the same reason that many new apps written for Android
only work with a certain level of Android or above. It's because unless you
root the device, the "official" version of Android at whatever version
level you are at, only supports a certain level of hardware and/or software
functions/features.
So in that respect, there's no difference between how developing for iOS is
any different than developing for Android.
We in the RPG world have gotten spoiled because we are used to writing code
that, for the most part, can run on any version of OS/400 clear back to
V1R1.
However...even in RPG we programmers are constantly taking advantage of
newer BIF's and capabilities of RPG and even CL in recent OS/400 releases
that make our jobs easier and our programs more feature rich...but which
will not run on earlier versions of OS/400. Right?
So if looked at from that context...there is really no difference between
writing an RPG program that works only on OS/400 V5R4 and above....with
writing an iOS iPad app that works only on the iPad 2 and above. Yes?
Anyway...if you have some time...download the free Flash Builder software
(free for 30 days) and go through my three tutorials on IT Jungle. At worst
you have wasted 2 or 3 hours of your time....at best, you've just discovered
a cool new way to build your own Web, Widnows/Mac desktop, Android,
Blackberry and iOS apps that can interact with your OS/400 programs and
data!
- Shannon O'Donnell
-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 2:20 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Re: the RPG problem - adrift in the PC-web wind
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
--
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