Flex on the iPad

March 23, 2011 in Air, Flex, iOS, iPad

Here is a video showing a sample Flex application running on the iPad. This Mobile Trader application shows chart manipulation and drill-downs using touch events, real time market data updates (in lists and charts), as well as video-conferencing (with your financial advisor) and screen synchronization between clients (“simulations” and “what-ifs” collaboration use cases).

In addition to the iPad 2, I also show the same Flex application running on an iPod Touch and on an Android tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab).

This application was built with the current engineering builds of Flex and AIR with iOS support.

  • david

    is source code available?

  • Thanks for this post Christophe. What a great example of where we can take Flex. Will you be posting source code eventually?

  • david’s dad

    What’s the size of the ios .app package?

  • It’s great news!
    Off the record but, it’s possible to publish from flash CS5 an AIR 2.6?
    Do we need an apple developer license for that?

    Cheers!

  • Chris Griffith

    @Jorge – You will still need an Apple Developer license to publish for iOS.

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  • Dean Iverson

    I didn’t think it was possible to use the Camera API with the front camera. Is this a new feature or is there some trick to making it work?

  • That’s great demo flex in iOS… I like when how the iPad can synchronize with the iPod on this video.

  • Does the current Adobe AIR 2.6 SDK can compile the camera API? or this is an in-house sdk build?

  • Krzysztof

    Did you use Flex 4.5 (Hero) or Flex 4?

  • Andrew Muller

    Christophe, does this need the additional performance of the iPad 2 or, presumably because it works on an iPod Touch, will it also work on an iPad?

  • corey

    Wow, great performance. Not really a graphic intensive application, but I can see major improvements from where the iOS package was a few months ago.

  • Any idea when this ability is going to be included in burrito so the masses can see under the hood? Most of us are already tearing up the keyboards exploiting the Droid abilities and would love to get our hands on digging into iPad/iPod development. It seems Adobe has most of the evangelists talking about IOS yet there has been no word on when we developers can have at it and see for ourselves if its going to finally get us a foot in the door to the coveted Apple userbase and have a viable alternative to Apples rediculous decision to disregard Flashplayer on their platform which has treated flah users and developers like so much rubbish. My kids literally hate their iPad not so much in defense of the fact their dad codes with Flex and exports as Flash/AIR but but because the plain fact of the matter is every website they like has flash content and Apple seems to think its of little concern. Seriously….lets get this in the hands of developers and let us ALL talk about it. Maybe Apple will wake up a bit :)

  • Christophe Coenraets

    @Krzysztof: The application was built using the current engineering build of Flex “Hero”.

  • Christophe Coenraets

    @Andrew: The app works great on the iPad 1 as well. The only reason I’m showing it on an iPad 2 here is because I needed a camera to demo the videoconferencing feature.

  • Christophe Coenraets

    @Dean: Front and rear camera support for iOS 4 was added in AIR 2.6.

  • Christophe Coenraets

    @Adam: Thanks! I will post the source code soon.

  • Erik Ramalho

    AMAZING!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
    PLEASE, POST THE CODE!!

  • zole

    air/flex not be used!
    much too late…too slow…terrible!
    I switch to microsoft c#
    adieu adobe

  • George McKinney

    Great job… once again.

    We’ll talk about this in our next Flex User Group meeting in Los Angeles!

  • Parag

    Wow… great… Hope to know more about development process of iPhone compatible application.

  • John Weber

    Great demo!
    Christophe, we are also experimenting with flex for iPad/iPhone applications for the financial industry with the ultimate goal to deliver highend apps that work across multiple devices. Since we developed various flex app for financial institutions (remember eTrade Germany, RSGV, Deutscher Ring etc…), using these apps and components would give us a jump start for our mobile device strategy.
    Having said this, we do encounter several problems / questions:
    1. We do have severe problems with application performance. Especially starting an flex for ipad application is very cumber stone. Even with tiny little applications, we wait between 30-45 seconds (iPad 1) before the app starts. How long does it take to start your demo on an iPad 1?
    2. Were do we get more founded and more detailed information in on how to get things done properly. Is there a ‘best practice’ guide?
    3. Would this or a similar app pass the Apple app store requirements? Apart from game apps, do you or adobe (partner) have tried this already? I’m not eager to invest in flex for the Apple platform when apps are not excepted.

    I would like to implement a cross mobile devices showcase application for one of our customers. At this point in time, I don’t know exactly what I can promise the customer. Therefore these demo’s are always ‘visionary’ demo’s . I need to pass this ‘visionary level’ soon. Otherwise investment decisions will be in favor of objective C and ‘back to the future’.

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  • Kay Siegert

    Hi Christophe.
    Great job. Apple once said they won´t accept applications that aren´t build with xCode. Are there any news on that issue?

    Cheers,
    Kay

  • Amer Dababneh

    Are we able to call the phone dialer and email application in iPhone using Air 2.6

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  • It was great to see this demo as it shows proof that Flex also has potential on the iOS platform, something that I’ve doubted after playing with the iOS packager on Air 2.5 / FB4 projects. I hope to see an example of a scrolling list or grid sometime, as I still have concerns with regards to its performance.

    Is the “engineering build” already available somewhere? I really can’t wait to get my hands on it…

  • Christophe,

    This is refreshing, and exciting. I am very glad to see that Flash is indeed going to be a player in the future of mobile/tablet devices!

    Excellent job!

  • Derek

    That is awesome!

    Can you please post the source when you have a chance… And can you please post the compiler process as well… Are you using ANT to build the .ipa?

    Can you even comment on the performance of lists and scrolling.

    Thanks!!!

  • Solid demo!

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  • Dean Iverson

    Thanks Christophe. Just to be clear, are front and back cameras supported on Android as well as iOS?

  • Tom G

    Awesome demo Chris,

    Can you elaborate on the technical side of this? Is Flex running natively or via some SWF>ObjectiveC converter? Is this something Apple will support in future and not decide to allow?

  • Derek

    Update:… I did manage to get all my old test apps ( which I compiled through the PFI packager ) working with AIR 2.6

    For those who are interested, list performance is a LOT better but still slightly laggy… I am mostly testing with the TourDeMobileFlex app

    To compile the SWF into an .ipa I was in touch with John Lindquist and he hooked me up with his AIR app that will help in publishing.

    http://johnlindquist.com/air4air/

    Hope this helps some people.

    Derek

  • bullnabi

    GGGGGGGGGGreat news!!!!!!
    with an easy mind~

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  • Hi Christophe – Thanks for saying that you’ll post the source code soon. In the meantime, would it be possible to get compiled copies of the applications so that we could play with them on our own devices? This is a great demo and very exciting to our team.

  • Francisc

    This is excellent news! Marvelous job!

  • Hey Christophe — exactly which Hero engineering build are you using, or is it something that is still intra-Adobe? All I am getting on the iPad is a blank screen in the app window, with the correct background color. Seems like the app is not starting up properly.

  • Stephane

    Christophe,
    very very very very big good news !!!
    Now I’m looking for documentation, did you have any urls ?
    Today I’ve made my first AIR application using DataServices for iPad, but the way is still not so esay. If i choose Mobile Project, I can’t used DataServices, then I use AIR project but needs to compile by hand and use some obscur tricks …
    Anyway many thanks to Adobe, thanks to all teams, to all guys you are :-)

  • Fantastic job Christophe…thanks for the demo! I’ m looking forward to whipping up my first Hero iPad app too ;)

  • love it and can’t wait to get my hand dirty on it…

  • Kalyan

    Outstanding!

  • Christophe,

    I noticed that your demo did not show the Android and the iOS devices cross communicating between user and adviser via video conferencing, etc., between the different platforms.

    Using your app, can the Android talk to the iPad and video conference with the new iPad and iTouch?

    Jim

  • @Derek: regarding list performance, the internal build of the iOS packager that Christophe is using yields significantly better performance than the AIR 2.6 packager.

    Ed Rowe
    Adobe

  • @Jim: yes the iPad can videoconference with an Android device. The collaboration piece in the application is powered by LiveCycle Collaboration Services. You can join a collaboration session using a Flex app running on an iPad, an iPhone, an iPod Touch, an Android device, or a traditional computer (as an app or in the browser). All these different clients can communicate/videoconference/collaborate with each other.

  • @Joe: the app was built with the current engineering build which is not yet publicly available. Stay tuned for more news…

  • @Kay (and @John): yes, things changed on September 9th last year. See this post for more info: http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2010/09/great-news-for-developers.html

  • WOW… looking forward to seeing how the Video conference capability code source would work.
    Thanks Christophe

  • Hi, Christophe this awesome app, simple WOW.

    Can you share the workflow how you build it?

    Thank you!!!!

  • Manu

    Hello Christophe,
    I would like to know the ability for Burrito to make installers using with another embedded applications, for instance a Java process, and if that would pass the Apple filters.

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  • luchyx

    Great demo.!
    I’m fighting with a FlexMobileApp that doesn’t run on iPad 1 (iOS 4.3.1).
    The iPA seems to be OK. I can install the app but only start and display a screen with the background colour specified on the MXML file but the UI is not initialized. Seems to be a framework or initialization issue.
    Have yo faced this issue???
    Any chance to get your project??
    I think we need something like “HelloWorldiPadfromFlex” project, a turn-key demo that the only things you have to provide are the provisioning and the p12 file.!

    Thanks for your response!

  • Really cool demo!
    Love Adobe AIR.

  • Jaisson santos

    is source code?

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  • Ade

    Have seen a few demos now like this but no real details on the process.

    Is this a native app in OSX?

    How is it published?

  • Mohammad

    Hi Christophe,
    Many thanks for all these great inspiring examples.
    Please check this cloud to mobile app built with Flex Hero: Lighthouse2go for Salesforce for Android! http://t.co/7UztFUd
    Let me know what you think of this as a use case which utilizes some of the great samples from of you and James Ward’s work as well as others at Adobe.
    Thanks again!
    Mohammad.

  • Rich Morey

    Will the source code for the app in the demo eventually be made available?

  • Michael Noriega

    Does Air 2.6 for iOS allow interaction with the Flash Media Interactive Server and sending/receiving of video streams using RTMP? Or is does it only work with the Collaboration services? We currently develop our seminar video software using FMIS and have been waiting for iOS support. Thanks.

  • Juan Carlos

    Hi Christophe,

    First of all, the demo is amazing. Exactly, what tools you used to create the app in addition from the SDK ‘Hero’? Using Adobe Flash Builder ‘Burrito’? And how you did this?. It would be great if you share the project (code) of the demo. Thanks.

    Cheers!

  • Mr P

    Hi Christophe,

    First of all, the demo is very interesting. You used the standart flex chart components for the charts? I have a problem, when I generate the .ipa I have some jaa exception “Exception in thread “main” java.lang.Error: Unable to find named traits: mx.controls::Label”, can you help me?
    Thanks.
    P

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  • satish

    Hi Christophe,
    The Demo was fantastic , could you please post the source code for it.

    thanks
    -Satish

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  • erick mendez

    ayudeme no lo puedo instaler fhas player a mi hp ipaq 6945

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  • Simon O’Connor

    Hi Christophe,

    A question in regards to doing this with the current preview Burrito build of Flash Builder and the Air 2.6 SDK.

    We have a desktop app that we’ve tried to get running on the iPad and have succeeded except for the vital part of all network requests (via RemoteObjects and Channels, using BlaseDS to a Java backend) don’t work.

    I also compiled this demo app of yours onto the iPad also and the second pane with the live stock prices doesn’t populate either.

    It seems that just all network/RemoteObject requests don’t work.

    Is there a trick we can do to get network requests working on the iPad without waiting for the June release of the iOS ability for Flash Builder?

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  • Sudha.R

    Hii Christope,

    The Demo is too good and very helpful. This will provides the extra energy for the Flex developers to do the coding for ipad and android devices.
    Thanks a lot for posting this :) :)
    I have a doubt in accessing the device camera through the flex code. can u help me in this.

  • Nice Job! I will build instant messenger on Android :) like this Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and OOVOO :)

    Thank you for supporting webcam drive connects with phone cam :)

    regards, Jens

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  • I think this an awsome app works real good

  • David

    I might be a little lost here, but.. what about the Apple vs Adobe stuff? I’ve been reading for a couple of days different information about this and I’ve found people saying it is posible.. others say Apple just won’t support FLEX-based-AIR apps; I would really appreciate some “official info” or status about this matter.

    Thanks for the great demo!

  • Carlos Martins

    Can someone please tell me if Air 2.6 allows to run applications on background on iOS? Does the Air 2.6 allows the app tu push itselft an alert message running in background?
    Many Thanks

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  • Dude !!!!!!! ;-) After developing a Flex app for a couple of years and my sponsor asking me if its gonna run on the iPad … I’m sooooo happy to see this video !!! Wuhooo !!

    Thanks a lot, I’ll get playing ….

    Shaun

  • Babak

    Hi Christophe

    I was wondering if you had any experience with developing a Flex application for IOS that records voice and plays it on Ipad 2 ?

    If any one else have any idea about how to do this please give me a hint.

    many thanks in advance.

    Cheers

  • I heard about a fight between adobe an apple, so I wass asuming Flex didn’t run on apple products. Is thata AIR?

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  • Rafael

    Hi, is possible put video on app?
    how to do this?

  • Rafael

    Hi, is possible put video on app ipad?
    how to do this?

  • Dave G

    What is the top level class you use for Flex apps that run on iPad? I’m trying mx.core.WindowedApplication (Flex 3.3) and I get errors when I start it with adl -screensize iPhone. It throws a null object exception in WindowedApplication.styleChanged() during initialization because the nativeWindow property is null.

  • Ajay

    Hi Chris,

    The video seems to be xcellent & I am amazed to get all the functionality using Flex. I am experienced iOS developer using iPhoneSDK, but now certainly I need to develop the apps using Flex 4. I am the very beginner for this SDK. So, you please suggest me some better examples for calling the SOAP/XML services within iOS app.

  • Excellent article, thank you very much from Italy!

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  • How to build group swf file single project thats run ipad any one help me

  • flex is suitable to develop ios apps

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  • Deepak

    Hello,
    What did you use as a table in 2nd view(‘Watch’) in that video example? Is it DataGrid? While I try to develop mobile application, I get a message saying DataGrid is not optimized for mobiles. If it is not DataGrid, can you kindly let me know what component you have used?

  • Grogeek

    @CHRISTOPHE

    Beautiful demo ! Can we have the source code please ?

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  • Great Example and Proof of Concept.

    Thanks

  • good news ^^

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