Steve On Java

This is the first in a 3 part blog series I am doing on Flash Mobile technology. With the release of Flash Builder 4.5, Flash and Flex now have support for building mobile applications that target Android and, with an update coming out on 6/20, also iPhone and Blackberry devices. In my opinion, this is now the best platform for building cross-platform mobile applications available today.

When targeting applications for mobile development you both have different constraints due to screen size and limited CPU/memory, as well as additional opportunities for enhancing your application by taking advantage of features like multitouch, the accelerometer, and the GPS. In this blog I chose to focus on multitouch, because it is something that every application should take advantage of.

Flash supports 5 different multitouch gestures. The following table describes the gestures and includes a figure demonstrating the multitouch action needed to trigger it.

Gesture	Name	Event	Description
	Pan	gesturePan	Place two fingers on the screen, and drag left or right; commonly used for scrolling the contents of the whole screen
	Rotate	gestureRotate	Touch the screen with two fingers, and move them in an arc. This is an interactive gesture that will often be used to perform arbitrary rotation of objects.
	Zoom	gestureZoom	Place two fingers on the screen, and move them apart or together along a single line. Moving the fingers apart indicates zooming in, and moving the fingers together indicates zooming out.
	Swipe	gestureSwipe	Place one finger on the screen, and quickly swipe it in a single line of travel. Swipes are commonly used to change the screen contents or take an alternate action, such as deleting an item from a list.
	Two-Finger Tap	gestureTwoFingerTap	Lightly tap the screen with two fingers, making only brief contact. This can be used as an alternative or secondary click where more than one action is required.

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