MonoTouch / Mono for Android (MonoDroid) links

My increasing list of links for learning and using monotouch / mono for android:

Libraries

• Mediator pattern / Messenger :  https://github.com/grumpydev/TinyMessenger
• Inversion of Control / IOC:  https://github.com/grumpydev/TinyIoC
• Cross platform MVC pattern (most commonly used) :  http://code.google.com/p/monocross/
• Cross platform MVVM pattern :  https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross 
• Cross platform gaming (Use same XNA code for mono platforms as for windows phone!) :  http://monogame.codeplex.com/

Video Tutorials

From xamarin. New videos every week! http://www.youtube.com/xamarinhq

Android / iOS native marketplace / appstore applications with Flash / Flex Captive Runtime and Native Extensions

I am overjoyed to hear this news! The new version of flex SDK has just been released and now you can bundle AIR runtime WITH your android application. This new feature is called Captive Runtime support.

Press release : http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/whats-new-flex-flash-builder-46.html

This has always been the way with iOS applications. i.e. you just compile your application and it runs straight from app store with no external dependency required. Previously the user needed to install adobe air separately on his android device similiar to how the user needs to install the adobe air runtime on the desktop.

A walkthrough for the Captive Runtime can be found here : http://www.tricedesigns.com/2011/08/10/air-3-0-captive-runtime/

This will be a huge win for flash / flex that are now fully native on iPad / iPhone / Android markets.

Also now on these devices you have the support to call native apis (similar to PInvoke in .NET). This feature is called Native extensions. A detailed description of how to do this can be found here : http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/extending-air.html

This really means that there is no boundary you cannot cross now with flash / flex on these devices.

Enjoy the new possibilities! 

Using advertisements in android with flex

It is really easy to setup admob with a flash / flex android application. The primary objective is to make free applications for the android marketplace and make revenue with advertisements.

Basically:

• You need to setup a website with admob. 
• Use the javascript that admob gives you and host it in an html file on your own site (or google appspot!).
• Test your website html page in your phone's browser to make sure it displays the way you want
• Simply use StageWebView (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/media/StageWebView.html) to host the html web content in your application 
• Wait for the money to roll in :) 

Source : http://blog.dreamflashstudio.com/2011/02/admob-in-flash-with-adobe-air-for-android/

Enjoy!

Actionscript Creme :1

There is a lot of great actionscript content being generated by the community. I thought I'd start a series of blog post about these so here goes.

Handling Orientation in Flash CS5.5 for Android
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKtMEzzzf4I

Basically you create two keyframes with different orientations of the stage and toggle them using actionscript on the resize event by comparing the device height with device width.

Flash Typing text effect 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjCo0w3u2cg
This was super neat and easy to do. I wonder why I didn't think of it. You just split the string you want to type on the screen and store it in an array. Then in the ENTER_FRAME event you simply shift the array appending the shifted character to a textfield on the screen making sure you remove the event listener after all characters in the array have been printed to screen.

Creating Paypal buttons in Flash 
http://tutfree.com/active/quick-guide-creating-paypal-buttons-with-actionscript-3-0.html
Really simple to do really :)

A simple lottery application
http://www.ilike2flash.com/2011/06/lottery-app-in-actionscript-3.html
An easy to follow tutorial that actually makes a somewhat useful application :)

Creating a Picture gallery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5pVocHKcS8&feature=player_embedded
A simple tutorial. More about a simple gallery banner rather than a Gallery. Just useful to get the creative juices flowing for a newbie.


Now for a book I would like to read about actionscript :















Enjoy!