30 May 2008

Nec's Flash Lite player

From EETimes.com, Nec has developed a Flash Lite player alternative.
Perhaps another project borns from Adobe Open Screen ? I don't think so, it seems too much finalized for me...I doubt they made it in 1 month.

We'll see in august.

28 May 2008

BlueStreak on Open Screen Project

Bluestreak, one of the two compagnies I tried to work with last year, see the Open Screen Project like a great opportunity

It will propel the development of Flash content for mobile devices


I really need to find a phone with their MachBlue Mobile platform.
It's an alternative to Flash Lite for Symbian S60, Windows Mobile 5/6, Linux, Brew and Java.

Samples here

Mobitween on Verizon

From Biskero, Mobitween will now sell their Flash Lite content throught their portal Mobigamz on Verizon.

Cool news for Mobitween, I really liked the contact I had with Mobitween some times ago.

First step with Jarpa

Here are the steps to successfully compile Jarpa.
It's very basic and I assume you already know it but, for people like me who fought so many hours with the security domain issue, I could be interesting...
I currently use JarpaDebug and not newly Jarpa_105 since Felipe removed web support on this last release...and S40 3rd FP2 only support web ;)


First download Netbeans mobility or full edition.
Unzip the file where you want to install it

Like I don't like wher software make a lot of folders in My Document folder, I personnaly created an 'user' folder where I unzipped Netbeans and modified netbeans/etc/netbeans.conf to define my userdir :
netbeans_default_userdir="e:/Nokia/user"


To run, Netbeans needs JDK not the JRE, so you have to download and install it.

You can now run Netbeans.

If problem occurs like a message box talking about JDK Home (like I had the first time I tried, because another JRE version was installed), you'll have to modify netbeans/etc/netbeans.conf to define JDK home :
netbeans_jdkhome="e:/Nokia/jdk"


Now, you have to download a S40 or S60 Java SDK.
Note : you'll have to sign the Forum Nokia to download it, and after 15 days, you'll have to request a free serial number to continue.
I personnaly used S40 3rd edition FP 2 because it's Nokia 5200's one (a common S40 here in France).

Relaunch Netbeans to add this SDK to your Netbeans.
Select Tools> Java Platforms
Click the Add Plaform... button
We want to use a Java ME MIDP Plaform emulator
Netbeans automatically detects the SDK
Finish platform installation
You're now ready to develop for S40 3rd Edition FP2

I created a folder 'projects' when I'll add my future projet

Download JarpaDebug and unzip to your own projects folder

On Netbeans, File > Open project... and choose Jarpa folder
Don't be afraid by the Error dialog box, Jarpa was made for the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit, not a Nokia SDK so it complains it doesn't found the Wireless Toolkit platform. Let's change that !
Right click on Jarpa project you just opened, Properties.
On platform, select the Emulator Platform you want, like Series 40 SDK 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2
Ok, it's now done, you could launch Jarpa using F6 or the big green arrow or Run>Run main project

"Application is not from a trusted supplier. Continue anyway ?"
Welcome in the great world of Security Domain ;)
Since your JAR file isn't signed, you're allowed to do a lot of thing : if you continue ("yes"), you'll see some "Application access set to not allowed".
Like I said, it's security issue : Nokia doesn't want you to launch malicious software without to be sure what's you're doing.
To resolve this, follow my post according Security Domain.
For this S40 3rd Edition FP 2 emulator
- exit Jarpa
- go to "Menu"
- go to "Apps"
- highlight "JarpaDebug"
- use left soft key "Options"
- On the menu, select "Application access"
- then "Data access"
- then "Add and edit data"
- select "Ask every time"

You problably saw some options like "Ask first time only" and "Always allowed" are greyed : they are disabled because Jarpa isn't signed.
Note : since I don't tried to sign a JAR yet, I don't know if you can automatically define to "Always allowed" after that. Let me know if you try!

To avoid this, you could also (on emulator only), set the Trusted domain to "maximum" on emulator preferences.

Still on the emulator, relaunch "JarpaDebug", you're now able, with "Options" left soft key, to open it from the Web : you'll have to exit Jarpa to launch Web
From memory and from phone memory doesn't work on emulator and I didn't tried them on a real device yet.

These settings are saved so you won't have to redefine then every launch.

23 May 2008

Flash Lite 2 on Sony Ericsson phones

I was reading latest white paper on Projet Capuchin when I saw SE had a Flash Lite dedicated page

You should read Developers' Guidelines - Flash Lite 2.0 , it's very interesting...well, sort of...

I think the most important to read is

There are two main implementations in Flash Lite enabled Sony Ericsson phones:
• The “stand alone” model. Flash Lite exists as a separate media application in the phone. In some Sony Ericsson phones, this model is used for wallpaper or screensaver applications.
• The “browser based” model. Flash Lite essentially runs as a plugin within the resident browser of the phone.
This model allows a user to access Flash Lite content via an Internet connection without needing to open a separate application for viewing. It is also the default way of viewing Flash content via the phone file manager. This model is implemented in all Flash-enabled Sony Ericsson phones.

and

Network access from Flash Lite is only permitted for Flash files running in the browser plugin.



So, if I understood correclty, Flash Lite 2 applications will be launched throught SE's browser Acces Netfront 3.5

Something came to my mind :
Capuchin....It's pure assumption but it could be a Netfront embedded on a midlet. It's what every Flash(Lite) wrapper do, so you only have to make call to localhost (raw method) from the Flash file and pseudo browser will intercept it and respond.
It's also what I'm trying to do on Jarpa

After sandbox, MIDP2 security domains!

I was fighting with Jarpa not working on my phone (N70) nor emulator (5300) when I found the Java Security Domains page at Forum Nokia.

In fact, my code was working but, as it's not signed (Netbeans's own certificate doesn't seems to work on S40), no writing (Edit user data) was able.

I so followed the 2 tutorials on Forum nokia (S60 or S40) and I'm now happy to make Jarpa work on my phone and emulator! So let's try to add some cool features !

After Kuneri great post on FLite3 sand box problem, I thought it was impossible to make something more than graphical application or wallpaper on mobile with FLite!