Coding a better flex mobile app
Hi, last year I created a mobile app for IOS and Android using Apache Flex. My app uses a SQLite database and makes large use of graphics and bitmapdata (being a design app that manipulates images) and I encountered many problems with general performances and memory management. My app now is heavy and slow. It was my first project with Flex and Air technologies, and now it's time to clear, improve, rewrite the code. What would be the better approach? Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. There are many opportunity out there (MVC frameworks like Robotlegs and PureMVC, or pure AS3 solutions like MadComponents), could they be a viable alternative? Thanks Gabriele
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Hi Gabriele, i would suggest you to continue using Apache Flex but adding the Starling framework and the fathersUI interface. This software stack will improve your app performance FOR SURE but you have to consider to re-code at least the view layer (if you developed in MVC architecture) or the entire app if you don't... Anyway these are the software we use when performance are an important requirement for our clients. Here are the links: *STARLING*: http://gamua.com/starling/ *FATHERSUI: *http://feathersui.com Hope this help Angelo 2014-04-02 10:05 GMT+02:00 Gabriele Campi [Media Logic] gabriele.ca...@medialogic.eu: Hi, last year I created a mobile app for IOS and Android using Apache Flex. My app uses a SQLite database and makes large use of graphics and bitmapdata (being a design app that manipulates images) and I encountered many problems with general performances and memory management. My app now is heavy and slow. It was my first project with Flex and Air technologies, and now it's time to clear, improve, rewrite the code. What would be the better approach? Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. There are many opportunity out there (MVC frameworks like Robotlegs and PureMVC, or pure AS3 solutions like MadComponents), could they be a viable alternative? Thanks Gabriele
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:05 AM, Gabriele Campi [Media Logic] gabriele.ca...@medialogic.eu wrote: Hi, last year I created a mobile app for IOS and Android using Apache Flex. My app uses a SQLite database and makes large use of graphics and bitmapdata (being a design app that manipulates images) and I encountered many problems with general performances and memory management. My app now is heavy and slow. It was my first project with Flex and Air technologies, and now it's time to clear, improve, rewrite the code. What would be the better approach? Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. There are many opportunity out there (MVC frameworks like Robotlegs and PureMVC, or pure AS3 solutions like MadComponents), could they be a viable alternative? Thanks Gabriele Gabriele, It is possible to create well performing mobile apps using Apache Flex. Here are a few examples: http://flex.apache.org/community-showcase.html Use the profiler and Adobe Scout to ensure that your code does not have significant performance bottlenecks. If you have more details on the performance problems you see, we might be able to help you out. Thanks, Om
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
On 02/04/14 09:05, Gabriele Campi [Media Logic] wrote: My app uses a SQLite database and makes large use of graphics and bitmapdata (being a design app that manipulates images) and I encountered many problems with general performances and memory management. My app now is heavy and slow. This doesn't mean much without being qualified. What's 'large use' ? How big is the bitmap you are manipulating ? What are you doing to it ? On what spec of computer was it slow and why ? Was it thrashing the disk or the CPU, for instance ? Tom
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Hi, My app uses a SQLite database and makes large use of graphics and bitmapdata (being a design app that manipulates images) and I encountered many problems with general performances and memory management. My app now is heavy and slow. Scout should be able to show you many places where you can improve your code. There are many opportunity out there (MVC frameworks like Robotlegs and PureMVC, Any framework usually comes with some performance costs/overheads but make make development more manageable and most mobile applications probably wouldn't benefit a heavyweight framework like PureMVC (IMO). or pure AS3 solutions like MadComponents That can be an option and is likely to be faster and may not have all the components you needs. There have also been many speed and performance improvements in recent versions of Apache Flex you might want to try out 4.12 and see if that improves things. Thanks, Justin
Re: No Prompt in TextInput when layoutDirection set to RTL (Mobile)
Hi Maurice, Sorry for the late response. The issue that the letters order is not inverted as it should be is very disappointing. Thanks for your new skin. I tried it and the prompt text appear, but not in right place. I added to your skin: prompt.setStyle(textAlign, right); and it works fine. Thank you very much, Ori. On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 2:22 PM, Maurice Amsellem maurice.amsel...@systar.com wrote: Hi Ori, To conclude this lng RTL journey, I didn't succeed in displaying RTL text using the mobile-optimized StyleableTextField. The idea was to fix all default mobile skins (based on StyleableTextField and ScrollableStageText) to display correctly when using RTL text (Arabic/Hebrew) and layoutDirection set to RTL. So I changed StyleableTextField to correct it's matrix and textAlign. I tested it on ADL with default skins and it worked fine! https://www.dropbox.com/s/ee61mpazlgyloof/ADL_RTL_OK.png However, the same application run on the device (Android or iOS) the letter order is not inverted as it should be. https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfme0g60xxkne87/android_rtl_ko.png I have no explanation yet why the result differs on ADL and device (difference in the AIR rutime implementation maybe ?) So I drop it for now. Regarding your last issue on the TextInput prompt text, the solution is easy: you need to create a custom skin of TextInput that uses spark Label for the prompt display. I did it for you and attached the custom skin to the JIRA ticket: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FLEX-34181 Regards, Maurice -Message d'origine- De : Ori 007 [mailto:ori...@gmail.com] Envoyé : jeudi 27 mars 2014 08:03 À : users@flex.apache.org Objet : Re: No Prompt in TextInput when layoutDirection set to RTL (Mobile) Thanks, this is great news. Let me know if you need something. On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Maurice Amsellem maurice.amsel...@systar.com wrote: I'm using Spark Label. In the renderers i'm using Spark Labels as well. and in the buttons i'm using spark label as well :-) That explains why it displays RTL without any issues. Except for the TextInput prompt text, wich still uses StyleableTextField. I tried the app on an iPad 3 and indeed there is no performance issue, the lists scroll rather smoothly etc. This means spark label can be used at places, when there are not too much text, and when you don't need the text shadow effect. But I did other tests with an app that displays lot more of text, using spark Label, and the result was very bad (1-4 fps) So, in the most general case, I think it's better that StyleableTextField knows how to display in RTL. I will continue in that direction, and that will also fix the prompt text issue. Maurice -Message d'origine- De : Ori 007 [mailto:ori...@gmail.com] Envoyé : jeudi 27 mars 2014 07:37 À : users@flex.apache.org Objet : Re: No Prompt in TextInput when layoutDirection set to RTL (Mobile) Hi, The StyleableTextField doesn't include feature I required (sometime). I'm using Spark Label. In the renderers i'm using Spark Labels as well. and in the buttons i'm using spark label as well :-) As I said before i don't have any issue with performance. (As you can see) Ori. On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 12:40 AM, Maurice Amsellem maurice.amsel...@systar.com wrote: Hi Ori, I have installed the Hebrew version as you indicated and it's displaying fine, with RTL layout. I have a few questions: the UI is very customized, so it's difficult to tell what mobile component you are using, or if everything is custom. - are you using spark Label to display custom text, or is it StyleableTextField? - are you using StyleableTextField in the custom list renderers ? - what about the many buttons, which have a custom skin most of the time (orange, green). Are you using spark label in the button custom skins? Thanks for your answers. Maurice -Message d'origine- De : Ori 007 [mailto:ori...@gmail.com] Envoyé : mercredi 26 mars 2014 11:44 À : users@flex.apache.org Objet : Re: No Prompt in TextInput when layoutDirection set to RTL (Mobile) Please try to install it in English, remove it, and install it again in Hebrew. On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 12:30 PM, Ori 007 ori...@gmail.com wrote: Yes. Exactly what you said! And it works great (except the TextInput in some cases) On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 12:15 PM, Maurice Amsellem maurice.amsel...@systar.com wrote: Hi Ori, Thanks for the answer. I will download the app when at home and try it in Hebrew. One question: From the screenshot in the app store (in English), the UI layout is left to right. Do you change it to right-to-left when the language is Hebrew , which means not only the text letters are from right to left, but
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Hi Om, Tom and Justin, I experienced performance problems with bitmapdata (I had to avoid pixel to pixel iterations cause they're too slow, also on small images of 1024x768px) and in general with views transitions and UI components (they aren't as fluid and responsive as the native apps' ones - for example I wasn't able to create a simple, fluid, scrolling image gallery). Another issue (a big issue on mobile) was the memory management: the app eats RAM and isn't easy to avoid memory leaks. It happens that EventListeners and particular components (like StageWebView) keep referenced in memory and the garbage collector seems unable to get rid of them. I also notice an increasing RAM consumption on retina devices when 'requestedDisplayResolution' is set to 'high'. For sure my code isn't optimized, I will start from there using Apache Flex 4.12 Il 02/04/14 10:20, OmPrakash Muppirala ha scritto: On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:05 AM, Gabriele Campi [Media Logic] gabriele.ca...@medialogic.eu wrote: Hi, last year I created a mobile app for IOS and Android using Apache Flex. My app uses a SQLite database and makes large use of graphics and bitmapdata (being a design app that manipulates images) and I encountered many problems with general performances and memory management. My app now is heavy and slow. It was my first project with Flex and Air technologies, and now it's time to clear, improve, rewrite the code. What would be the better approach? Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. There are many opportunity out there (MVC frameworks like Robotlegs and PureMVC, or pure AS3 solutions like MadComponents), could they be a viable alternative? Thanks Gabriele Gabriele, It is possible to create well performing mobile apps using Apache Flex. Here are a few examples: http://flex.apache.org/community-showcase.html Use the profiler and Adobe Scout to ensure that your code does not have significant performance bottlenecks. If you have more details on the performance problems you see, we might be able to help you out. Thanks, Om
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it’s essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn’t originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I’m absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I’m forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I’m very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it’s so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it’s not a criticism, I’m absolutely not complaining, it’s just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Coding a better flex mobile app
I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I thought the eye perception was limited to 24/25 fps (which is the frame rate at the movies) So what's the difference ? Maurice -Message d'origine- De : After24 [mailto:vinc...@after24.net] Envoyé : mercredi 2 avril 2014 12:13 À : users@flex.apache.org Objet : Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it’s essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn’t originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I’m absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I’m forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I’m very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it’s so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it’s not a criticism, I’m absolutely not complaining, it’s just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Coding a better flex mobile app
Reading from wikipedia on this topic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate) It seems that it's not the frame rate itself that is important for creating a fluid animation, but rather motion blurring, which is something natural when you film moving real objects with a camera, and which can be simulated in 3D movies. So I guess that running an app at 60 fps will create some sort of basic motion blurring by mixing two images into one (at least for the eye). The other important factor for fluidity is the latency, which can be bad even at high frame rates. Thoughts? Maurice -Message d'origine- De : Maurice Amsellem [mailto:maurice.amsel...@systar.com] Envoyé : mercredi 2 avril 2014 12:27 À : users@flex.apache.org Objet : RE: Coding a better flex mobile app I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I thought the eye perception was limited to 24/25 fps (which is the frame rate at the movies) So what's the difference ? Maurice -Message d'origine- De : After24 [mailto:vinc...@after24.net] Envoyé : mercredi 2 avril 2014 12:13 À : users@flex.apache.org Objet : Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it’s essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn’t originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I’m absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I’m forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I’m very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it’s so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it’s not a criticism, I’m absolutely not complaining, it’s just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Coding a better flex mobile app
Hi Maurice, No that's not true, The 24 fps limit is a misconception. In fact some studies shows that the amelioration of movements perception by human eyes can be improve until 120 fps ( http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1889/1.2433276/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1889/1.2433276/abstract ) -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5898.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Multiple Air Instances
Thanks nemi... I am using appduplicator right now . it copy the folder of the application replacing application id, I found it last night after my email We will want to make it work in runtime but something is something. Regards saul -Original Message- From: Nemi [mailto:nemino...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 6:32 AM To: users@flex.apache.org Subject: Re: Multiple Air Instances Maybe this can help: https://github.com/chrisdeely/AirAppDuplicator -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Multiple-Air-Instances-tp5884 p5904.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Coding a better flex mobile app
It will be interesting to see if FlexJS on mobile is faster. Peter is working on a mobile app right now. -Alex From: After24 [vinc...@after24.net] Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 3:12 AM To: users@flex.apache.org Subject: Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it’s essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn’t originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I’m absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I’m forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I’m very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it’s so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it’s not a criticism, I’m absolutely not complaining, it’s just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Coding a better flex mobile app
Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. This doesn't sound right to me. Forget 60fps graphics, it seems Gabriele is not able to get a very simple UI working properly. Do you want to post some code so that we can test and figure out what is going on? Thanks, Om On Apr 2, 2014 6:38 AM, After24 vinc...@after24.net wrote: Hi Mark, Yes but like you said it's a Nexus 5... and it will probably take time before this level of power reaches low-end devices. Mark Line wrote Not sure how it was coded, but on http://flex.apache.org/community-showcase.html CityU Mobile runs really really nice on my nexus 5 (I know it's a higher end), you should check it out -Original Message- From: After24 [mailto: vincent@ ] Sent: 02 April 2014 11:13 To: users@.apache Subject: Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it's essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn't originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I'm absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I'm forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I'm very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it's so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it's not a criticism, I'm absolutely not complaining, it's just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5906.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Coding a better flex mobile app
This is why I mentioned trying to leverage some basic starling/feathers capabilities for some of the most used components like scrolling lists. I'm not sure if that would be possible but that slight lag plays into that whole narrative about slowness, memory hogging, battery life etc that has plagued the runtime on mobile. My experience is that pretty much none of that is true or accurate but if there's a specific rendering lag on lists that aren't hardware accelerated it gives people and excuse to class the whole thing is somehow slow or bad or whatever else. Meanwhile the framework itself is great because it makes things easier and faster for development and control over the runtime. David -Original Message- From: OmPrakash Muppirala bigosma...@gmail.com To: users@flex.apache.org Sent: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 9:51 AM Subject: RE: Coding a better flex mobile app Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. This doesn't sound right to me. Forget 60fps graphics, it seems Gabriele is not able to get a very simple UI working properly. Do you want to post some code so that we can test and figure out what is going on? Thanks, Om On Apr 2, 2014 6:38 AM, After24 vinc...@after24.net wrote: Hi Mark, Yes but like you said it's a Nexus 5... and it will probably take time before this level of power reaches low-end devices. Mark Line wrote Not sure how it was coded, but on http://flex.apache.org/community-showcase.html CityU Mobile runs really really nice on my nexus 5 (I know it's a higher end), you should check it out -Original Message- From: After24 [mailto: vincent@ ] Sent: 02 April 2014 11:13 To: users@.apache Subject: Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it's essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn't originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I'm absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I'm forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I'm very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it's so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it's not a criticism, I'm absolutely not complaining, it's just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5906.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Re: Spark Datagrid with Multiple Columns
any specific reason for not using Datagrid, which already has a pretty decent multi-column support? On Apr 2, 2014, at 9:30 AM, Ronny Shibley rshib...@codefish.com wrote: Yes i simulated columns in my list item renderer... basically just drew some cells with a fixed width Kind Regards, Ronny Shibley, Eng Software Architect | Codefish | www.codefish.com t +961 5 450824 | m +961 70 250650 On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 3:28 PM, Tom Chiverton t...@extravision.com wrote: On 02/04/14 13:22, Ronny Shibley wrote: If so, yes the rows were not the issue, it's the number of columns... I though this was with a List item renderer, so there are no columns, just a bunch of stuff in a HorizontalLayout ? Tom -- Julio Carneiro
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Hi Gabriele, Feather UI works on top of the Starling framework, I use it to for the user interface. Robotlegs and AS3 signal helps me to implement MVC architecture. For handling remote operations I use rpc.swc (wich has a dependency with framework.swc) of the flex framework. You can find documentation and tutorials on the Robotlegs ( http://www.robotlegs.org/ http://www.robotlegs.org/ ) and Feather UI ( http://feathersui.com/ http://feathersui.com/ ) websites. Gabriele Campi [Media Logic] wrote But for now I’m forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal So you're using Starling and FeatherUI for the interface and Robotleg for the data handling? Is it possible to do the same with Flex instead of RL? Are there tutorials or documentation on the web? -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5916.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
RE: Coding a better flex mobile app
I agree with David, Saying Flex on mobile is slow is inacurate and mainly caused by the average performance of scrolling lists. I have tried to look into ListBase to see if I could make optimizations but the I must recognize that the amount of code is very intimidating... flex wrote This is why I mentioned trying to leverage some basic starling/feathers capabilities for some of the most used components like scrolling lists. I'm not sure if that would be possible but that slight lag plays into that whole narrative about slowness, memory hogging, battery life etc that has plagued the runtime on mobile. My experience is that pretty much none of that is true or accurate but if there's a specific rendering lag on lists that aren't hardware accelerated it gives people and excuse to class the whole thing is somehow slow or bad or whatever else. Meanwhile the framework itself is great because it makes things easier and faster for development and control over the runtime. David -Original Message- From: OmPrakash Muppirala lt; bigosmallm@ gt; To: users@.apache Sent: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 9:51 AM Subject: RE: Coding a better flex mobile app Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. This doesn't sound right to me. Forget 60fps graphics, it seems Gabriele is not able to get a very simple UI working properly. Do you want to post some code so that we can test and figure out what is going on? Thanks, Om On Apr 2, 2014 6:38 AM, After24 lt; vincent@ gt; wrote: Hi Mark, Yes but like you said it's a Nexus 5... and it will probably take time before this level of power reaches low-end devices. Mark Line wrote Not sure how it was coded, but on http://flex.apache.org/community-showcase.html CityU Mobile runs really really nice on my nexus 5 (I know it's a higher end), you should check it out -Original Message- From: After24 [mailto: vincent@ ] Sent: 02 April 2014 11:13 To: users@.apache Subject: Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it's essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn't originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I'm absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I'm forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I'm very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it's so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it's not a criticism, I'm absolutely not complaining, it's just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5906.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5918.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Have anyone on this thread EVER had a look at the s:Application object attribute *frameRate*? http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/spark/components/Application.html It *defaults to 24fps*, but everything runs really great at 60 :) (and believe me, your high end mobiles are PRETTY much capable of that with just some opaqueBackground and cacheAsBitmap optimizations of your MXML itemRenderers, not even AS3 :). For iOS (which in my personal experience is much better handling flex view pipeline than Android, although less powerfull computing-wise), setting it to 60 makes everything silk smooth, almost near any native app. Just add that attrib to your main.mxml and recompile :) On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 5:53 PM, After24 vinc...@after24.net wrote: I agree with David, Saying Flex on mobile is slow is inacurate and mainly caused by the average performance of scrolling lists. I have tried to look into ListBase to see if I could make optimizations but the I must recognize that the amount of code is very intimidating... flex wrote This is why I mentioned trying to leverage some basic starling/feathers capabilities for some of the most used components like scrolling lists. I'm not sure if that would be possible but that slight lag plays into that whole narrative about slowness, memory hogging, battery life etc that has plagued the runtime on mobile. My experience is that pretty much none of that is true or accurate but if there's a specific rendering lag on lists that aren't hardware accelerated it gives people and excuse to class the whole thing is somehow slow or bad or whatever else. Meanwhile the framework itself is great because it makes things easier and faster for development and control over the runtime. David -Original Message- From: OmPrakash Muppirala lt; bigosmallm@ gt; To: users@.apache Sent: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 9:51 AM Subject: RE: Coding a better flex mobile app Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. This doesn't sound right to me. Forget 60fps graphics, it seems Gabriele is not able to get a very simple UI working properly. Do you want to post some code so that we can test and figure out what is going on? Thanks, Om On Apr 2, 2014 6:38 AM, After24 lt; vincent@ gt; wrote: Hi Mark, Yes but like you said it's a Nexus 5... and it will probably take time before this level of power reaches low-end devices. Mark Line wrote Not sure how it was coded, but on http://flex.apache.org/community-showcase.html CityU Mobile runs really really nice on my nexus 5 (I know it's a higher end), you should check it out -Original Message- From: After24 [mailto: vincent@ ] Sent: 02 April 2014 11:13 To: users@.apache Subject: Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it's essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn't originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I'm absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I'm forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I'm very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it's so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it's not a criticism, I'm absolutely not complaining, it's just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5895.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5906.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Here's a couple of link with examples and info: http://www.morearty.com/blog/2006/07/17/flex-tip-a-higher-frame-rate-even-makes-text-entry-look-better/ http://help.adobe.com/en_US/as3/mobile/WS948100b6829bd5a61c0b0b612763986266-8000.html On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 6:18 PM, Javier Guerrero García javi...@gmail.comwrote: Have anyone on this thread EVER had a look at the s:Application object attribute *frameRate*? http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/spark/components/Application.html It *defaults to 24fps*, but everything runs really great at 60 :) (and believe me, your high end mobiles are PRETTY much capable of that with just some opaqueBackground and cacheAsBitmap optimizations of your MXML itemRenderers, not even AS3 :). For iOS (which in my personal experience is much better handling flex view pipeline than Android, although less powerfull computing-wise), setting it to 60 makes everything silk smooth, almost near any native app. Just add that attrib to your main.mxml and recompile :) On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 5:53 PM, After24 vinc...@after24.net wrote: I agree with David, Saying Flex on mobile is slow is inacurate and mainly caused by the average performance of scrolling lists. I have tried to look into ListBase to see if I could make optimizations but the I must recognize that the amount of code is very intimidating... flex wrote This is why I mentioned trying to leverage some basic starling/feathers capabilities for some of the most used components like scrolling lists. I'm not sure if that would be possible but that slight lag plays into that whole narrative about slowness, memory hogging, battery life etc that has plagued the runtime on mobile. My experience is that pretty much none of that is true or accurate but if there's a specific rendering lag on lists that aren't hardware accelerated it gives people and excuse to class the whole thing is somehow slow or bad or whatever else. Meanwhile the framework itself is great because it makes things easier and faster for development and control over the runtime. David -Original Message- From: OmPrakash Muppirala lt; bigosmallm@ gt; To: users@.apache Sent: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 9:51 AM Subject: RE: Coding a better flex mobile app Just to test performances I created an Hello World app in Objective-C, AS3 and Flex, just a pair of views with a few buttons, and the Flex one was dramatically slow and heavy compared with the others. This doesn't sound right to me. Forget 60fps graphics, it seems Gabriele is not able to get a very simple UI working properly. Do you want to post some code so that we can test and figure out what is going on? Thanks, Om On Apr 2, 2014 6:38 AM, After24 lt; vincent@ gt; wrote: Hi Mark, Yes but like you said it's a Nexus 5... and it will probably take time before this level of power reaches low-end devices. Mark Line wrote Not sure how it was coded, but on http://flex.apache.org/community-showcase.html CityU Mobile runs really really nice on my nexus 5 (I know it's a higher end), you should check it out -Original Message- From: After24 [mailto: vincent@ ] Sent: 02 April 2014 11:13 To: users@.apache Subject: Re: Coding a better flex mobile app Hello, From my personal experience, it's not possible to get a super fluid app using flex mobile (especially on mid range phones and tablets). I think this perception is mainly due to the list component which never reaches 50/60 fps even when its itemRender is well optimized. I know that this need of smoothness is very subjective, but for me it's essential and greatly improves the user experience and the pleasure to use an app. I understand that the flex framework wasn't originally designed to run on mobile devices and that optimizations are limited because of the architecture of the framework (14 000 lines of codes for UIComponent for example). I'm absolutely not complaining about it and the situation is going better and better with new generations of mobile devices. But for now I'm forced to choose other solutions to get a fluid mobile app, to be specific I use : - Starling - Feather UI - Robotleg - AS3 signal I'm very happy with the result but frankly, the choice between this stack and flex will be a no brainer if flex was able to perform as well on mobile. This is the trap with flex, it's so good and easy to develop with it that others solutions, even if they works well, are very far from approaching the ease of working with flex :-) One more time, it's not a criticism, I'm absolutely not complaining, it's just my personal opinion about flex on mobile. -- View this message in context:
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Have anyone on this thread EVER had a look at the s:Application object attribute*frameRate*? I did, and my apps are running at 60 but I didn't noticed great improvements. I think that performance and fps are only part of the problem. On low end devices (but also iPad2 or iPad mini) the available memory is limitated, and excessive ram consumption is a real issue. Did you test your application performance on a real device? I use Instruments (an Xcode tool), and a blank Flex app with retina support requires at least 60MB RAM (with peaks of 80MB while changing view).
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Yep, although it's true that retina iPads trend to run a little bit slow in some versions of the SDK. Have a look at look4color app in the store (ios/android), and check the performance of the list itemrenderers by yourself :) (I promise they're all simple MXML renderers even with bindings, no ultra-high-end AS3 sourcery here :) On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 6:32 PM, Gabriele Campi [Media Logic] gabriele.ca...@medialogic.eu wrote: Have anyone on this thread EVER had a look at the s:Application object attribute*frameRate*? I did, and my apps are running at 60 but I didn't noticed great improvements. I think that performance and fps are only part of the problem. On low end devices (but also iPad2 or iPad mini) the available memory is limitated, and excessive ram consumption is a real issue. Did you test your application performance on a real device? I use Instruments (an Xcode tool), and a blank Flex app with retina support requires at least 60MB RAM (with peaks of 80MB while changing view).
RE: MobileGrid Skins
Thanks Maurice I was able to set up a sharp looking Mobile Grid header, one thing I noticed is when you select the second row down and try to sort the data - any rows above it flicker to the change, and there is no flickering when the last row is selected. Just a little peculiar so I thought I'd let you know -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/MobileGrid-Skins-tp5693p5923.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Re: Spark Datagrid with Multiple Columns
Yes a very specific reason, the scrolling starts lagging once you have 500 columns with 100 rows in a spark datagrid with column width 30px and column height 30px. Lots of item renderers... I'm not saying its not performant, because it is and it renders pretty fast... but the scrolling is not not smooth at all... it lags... especially on a laptop. In my use case... I need super fast scrolling because my whole application is based on a Calendar. Kind Regards, Ronny Shibley, Eng Software Architect | Codefish | www.codefish.com t +961 5 450824 | m +961 70 250650 On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 6:08 PM, Julio Carneiro ju...@4ctv.com wrote: any specific reason for not using Datagrid, which already has a pretty decent multi-column support? On Apr 2, 2014, at 9:30 AM, Ronny Shibley rshib...@codefish.com wrote: Yes i simulated columns in my list item renderer... basically just drew some cells with a fixed width Kind Regards, Ronny Shibley, Eng Software Architect | Codefish | www.codefish.com t +961 5 450824 | m +961 70 250650 On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 3:28 PM, Tom Chiverton t...@extravision.com wrote: On 02/04/14 13:22, Ronny Shibley wrote: If so, yes the rows were not the issue, it's the number of columns... I though this was with a List item renderer, so there are no columns, just a bunch of stuff in a HorizontalLayout ? Tom -- Julio Carneiro
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Hi Javier, To be honest I never tried to change the framerate of the application... I'm feeling a bit stupid now :-) Will try with an app on a Nexus S and a nexus 4. Thanks. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5925.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Exactly the way I felt the first time :) I mean, it's not THE silver bullet, and your opaqueBackground/cacheAsBitmap/etc... optimizations of course counts (hugely on low end devices), BUT ... you really can notice the difference :) Cheers :) On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 7:03 PM, After24 vinc...@after24.net wrote: Hi Javier, To be honest I never tried to change the framerate of the application... I'm feeling a bit stupid now :-) Will try with an app on a Nexus S and a nexus 4. Thanks. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5925.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
BR in TextArea
Hi I am trying to build a Paragraph from sentences, this builds the Paragraph (from am XML file and itemRender) the build function looks like var linkWrapper:LinkElement = new LinkElement(); var sentence:SpanElement = new SpanElement(); sentence.styleName = 'linkStyle'; sentence.textDecoration = TextDecoration.NONE; sentence.text = model.text + ; linkWrapper.addChild(sentence); paragraphArea.addChild(linkWrapper); Layout s:TextArea id=ta minHeight=0 width=100% editable=false s:p id=paragraphArea paragraphSpaceBefore=0 /s:p /s:TextArea I get sentence1 sentence2 sentence3 my problem is how to i add a br in to the Paragraph and end up with sentence1 sentence2 sentence3 it would be good if the input text model.text could be sentence1brsentence2brsentence3 Disclaimer: This electronic mail and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this email, and destroy all copies of this email and any attachments. Thank you.
Re: Coding a better flex mobile app
Does it use more CPU if you're not running any code? I mean a higher frame rate updates the display in the case of 30 fps to 60 fps 30 more times than normal but if the view doesn't change and no code needs to execute how much is really being used? Because, Flex has a invalidation for specific regions that triggers a redraw for certain areas only when they change and the Flash Player uses the display list to indicate to the GPU or software renderer to indicate what areas need to be redrawn. It would be a good test to see how much battery is drained in a blank or simple app running at 30 FPS where there are no visual updates and then again at 60FPS. Then another test where there is a visual change, say a ball animating around the screen and measure the battery drain again in both 30/ 60 FPS. On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:09 PM, Alex Harui aha...@adobe.com wrote: Using a higher frame rate can increase your cpu utilization and potentially burn battery faster. You can change it at runtime for when you really need it Sent via the PANTECH Discover, an ATT 4G LTE smartphone. Javier Guerrero García javi...@gmail.com wrote: Exactly the way I felt the first time :) I mean, it's not THE silver bullet, and your opaqueBackground/cacheAsBitmap/etc... optimizations of course counts (hugely on low end devices), BUT ... you really can notice the difference :) Cheers :) On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 7:03 PM, After24 vinc...@after24.net wrote: Hi Javier, To be honest I never tried to change the framerate of the application... I'm feeling a bit stupid now :-) Will try with an app on a Nexus S and a nexus 4. Thanks. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Coding-a-better-flex-mobile-app-tp5888p5925.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Not able to play video in my iPad
Hi every one, I am developing a flex mobile application which runs video in call out. This is running perfectly in android tabs, but when i compile my code for my iPad i only see video player, but their is no sound and video playing. I have tried many things to resolve my problem, but nothing helped me till now. If any one knows about it please let me know about it, so that i can finish my project ASAP. I am using Flash Builder 4.7, AIR 3.9 and SDK 'Apache Flex 4.11.0 FP 11.9 AIR 3.9 en_US' Till now i have tried in built video player, video bridge, stage web view, and few others but, none of them were helpful in playing video in my iPad. Thanks. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Not-able-to-play-video-in-my-iPad-tp5932.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Re: Not able to play video in my iPad
There are some limitations when it comes to video on iOS with Adobe AIR. Perhaps this doc might help? http://www.overdigital.com/2012/01/09/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-advanced-video-delivery-with-air-for-mobile/ Here is another technical doc about encoding video for iOS http://download.macromedia.com/flashmediaserver/mobile-encoding-ios-v2.pdf Thanks, Om On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 9:40 PM, sam991 samarth.gu...@firmwisegroup.comwrote: Hi every one, I am developing a flex mobile application which runs video in call out. This is running perfectly in android tabs, but when i compile my code for my iPad i only see video player, but their is no sound and video playing. I have tried many things to resolve my problem, but nothing helped me till now. If any one knows about it please let me know about it, so that i can finish my project ASAP. I am using Flash Builder 4.7, AIR 3.9 and SDK 'Apache Flex 4.11.0 FP 11.9 AIR 3.9 en_US' Till now i have tried in built video player, video bridge, stage web view, and few others but, none of them were helpful in playing video in my iPad. Thanks. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Not-able-to-play-video-in-my-iPad-tp5932.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Rendering issues with Flex application
Hi, We are using automation for testing our applications.Sometimes there is a delay in rendering of flex screens.The backend call is completed but not everything can be seen on screen.Because of this the test cases fail. Is there any flash event which can tell us the client side rendering on the screen is complete. -- View this message in context: http://apache-flex-users.246.n4.nabble.com/Rendering-issues-with-Flex-application-tp5934.html Sent from the Apache Flex Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
Re: BR in TextArea
According to the docs [1] the breakelement gets converted into newline character and hence does not appear in TextFlow markup. As a hack, you can try inserting #13; where you want a br Again, if you export the markup, the #13; will get replaced by a newline character. But at least your display would look like how you want. Thanks, Om [1] http://blogs.adobe.com/tlf/category/tlf On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:50 PM, Scott Matheson smathe...@intralinks.comwrote: Hi I am trying to build a Paragraph from sentences, this builds the Paragraph (from am XML file and itemRender) the build function looks like var linkWrapper:LinkElement = new LinkElement(); var sentence:SpanElement = new SpanElement(); sentence.styleName = 'linkStyle'; sentence.textDecoration = TextDecoration.NONE; sentence.text = model.text + ; linkWrapper.addChild(sentence); paragraphArea.addChild(linkWrapper); Layout s:TextArea id=ta minHeight=0 width=100% editable=false s:p id=paragraphArea paragraphSpaceBefore=0 /s:p /s:TextArea I get sentence1 sentence2 sentence3 my problem is how to i add a br in to the Paragraph and end up with sentence1 sentence2 sentence3 it would be good if the input text model.text could be sentence1brsentence2brsentence3 Disclaimer: This electronic mail and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this email, and destroy all copies of this email and any attachments. Thank you.
