DEPLOYING CONTENT

This section describes issues to consider when deploying Flash content on the Nokia Communicator.

Standalone Player

The Flash Player for the Nokia 9200 Communicator series is a standalone player. Therefore, Flash movies embedded within HTML pages are not accessible to the Flash Player. Any Flash movies within an HTML page will be ignored by the browser and will not be displayed. No visual indication of the movie will be displayed within the HTML page.

Synching or Playing Content

Once the Flash Player has been installed on the Nokia 9200 Communicator, the player can be used to view local or network files. To view local files, the files must first be transferred to the Nokia 9200 Communicator before being viewed.

To sync Flash movies to the Nokia 9200 Communicator:

1. Download the SWF files to your Windows computer.

2. Connect the Nokia 9200 Communicator to your Windows computer.

3. Double-click the Nokia 9200 Communicator icon on your desktop.

4. Transfer the files to your Nokia 9200 Communicator by dragging them to the directory of your choice in the Nokia 9200 Communicator window.

Occasionally, you may need to transfer a Flash movie that requires other files, such as text files containing data for the movie, in order to function properly. However, the Nokia 9200 Communicator software automatically converts many types of files to a different format when copying them to the device. These files include TXT and XML, among others.

In order to prevent the Nokia 9200 Communicator software from altering the file extensions of files needed by a Flash movie, drag the files to the Nokia 9200 Communicator directory of your choice. When you release the right mouse button to place the files in the Nokia 9200 Communicator directory, choose Copy Here from the context menu that appears. Do not choose Copy and Convert. The files will be copied to the new directory without alteration.

Two ways exist to open local SWF files for viewing within the Flash Player:

• Using the Nokia File Manager, navigate to the Flash movie file that you want to display. Select the File button on the right of the screen and press Enter. The Flash Player automatically opens and begins to play the movie.

• With the Flash Player already running, press the Open File key, or the Menu key and then File, Open File. In the dialog box that opens, either enter the path to the Flash movie that you would like to run or press the Browse button and then browse to the location of the Flash movie (see Figure A.13).

  Figure A.13. Flash Player Open File browse dialogue..

  

You may also enter a file or URL path pointing to a Flash movie to play. If you enter a URL and the Nokia 9200 Communicator is not currently connected, a dialog box will appear asking if you want to connect to the Internet to retrieve the URL (user-defined).

Once you have entered the path to the Flash movie, press OK. If the Flash movie is local, it should play immediately. If it is from a URL, a status message will appear while the movie is loading. The movie will stream in the same manner that movies stream into web browsers on desktops.

Controlling Playback

The Flash Player allows you to control and adjust the playback of the Flash movie through a menu accessible via hardware keys to the right of the Flash Player (see Figure A.14).

Figure A.14. Flash Player with hardware buttons.

The options in the menu are as follows:

• Open File This allows you to open a Flash movie to play in the Flash Player. See the preceding section for information on how to use this function.

• Pause/Play The Pause button pauses all elements of the current Flash movie, as well as prevents any user from inputting to it while it's paused. Once the pause button is pressed, it will change to a Resume button. To continue playing the movie, simply press the Resume button.

• Volume The Volume button opens a dialog box that allows you to adjust the volume of the currently playing movie (it does not adjust the system volume for the entire device). Once the dialog box opens, you may raise and lower the volume level by using the plus (+) or ( ) keys that appear on the right of the screen, as well as the up and down arrows on the keypad. Once you have set the volume to the desired level, press the OK button on the right of the screen or the Enter key on the keyboard (see Figure A.15).

  Figure A.15. Flash Player volume dialogue.

  

  The Volume button will be unavailable if the current phone profile has Sound Notification set to Off.

• Close This button closes the player as well as any movies that are currently running.

Adjusting the Flash Player Properties Through the Menu

No right-click menu exists on the Flash Player for Nokia 9200 Communicator. Most of the functions and information that would normally be contained on the right-click menu are available from the Flash menu, accessible by pressing the Menu key on the Nokia 9200 Communicator.

The following menu entries are not supported in the standalone Flash Player for the Nokia 9200 Communicator:

• Forward

• Backward

• Loop

• Print

• Close (the Close in Nokia is really Exit)

• Undo

By pressing the Menu key on the Nokia 9200 Communicator keyboard, you can access an additional set of menus that allow you to adjust the playback and settings of the Flash Player (see Figure A.16). When the menu is open, the Flash movie pauses. Once the menu is closed, the Flash movie automatically plays again.

Figure A.16. Flash Player menu.

The menu has the following options:

• File, Open File This function allows you to open a Flash movie to deploy in the Flash Player. See earlier in this chapter for more information.

• File, Disconnect This function disconnects any network connections that the Flash Player opens.

• File, Close This function closes the Flash Player as well as any movies currently running.

• Edit, Cut This function copies and removes the currently selected content. To retrieve the content once it has been cut, select Edit, Paste.

• Edit, Copy This setting copies the currently selected content to the Clipboard. You may paste the information into another area by selecting Edit, Paste.

• Edit, Paste This function pastes any content copied using Edit, Copy or Edit, Paste to the currently selected field.

• Edit, Delete This function deletes the currently selected text content.

• Edit, Select All This option selects and highlights all the content in the text field that has focus.

• View, Cursor This setting toggles to see if the cursor is available.

• View, Full Screen This function toggles the Full Screen mode for the Flash movie on and off.

• View, 100% When set to 100%, the Flash movie automatically scales to fit the entire available stage.

• View, Show All When selected, this function fits the current movie within the available player screen space while maintaining the original aspect ratio of the movie.

• View, Zoom, Zoom In This setting zooms in on the movie. To zoom out to the original size, select View, Show All.

• View, Zoom, Zoom Out This setting zooms out on the movie. To zoom in to the original size, select View, Show All.

When zoomed into a movie, scroll bars may appear, indicating that the current Flash movie is zoomed in and some of it is not visible on the screen. However, the scroll bars cannot be used to actually scroll the movie to a different section. To scroll the movie, press Chr in combination with the arrow keypad that indicates the direction that you would like to scroll.

You may also zoom in and out of the current movie using the hardware Chr key in combination with the less than (<) and greater than (>) keys.

• View, Quality, Low This function sets the Flash movie playback quality to low.

• View, Quality, Medium This function sets the Flash movie playback quality to medium.

• View, Quality, High This function sets the Flash movie playback quality to high.

• Control, Play This setting plays the movie if it is currently paused or stopped.

• Control, Pause This setting pauses all elements within the currently playing movie. When the device is shut or a phone call is received, Pause is automatically called on the Flash movie.

• Control, Stop This setting stops the currently playing Flash movie.

• Control, Rewind This function rewinds the Flash movie to the first frame, and then pauses the movie. To begin playing again, you must select Control, Play.

• Control, Volume + This setting increases the volume of sound playback within the Flash Player. It does not affect system volume.

• Control, Volume This function decreases the volume of sound playback within the Flash Player. It does not affect the system volume.

• Tools, About This setting displays information, including player version number, about the current Flash Player (see Figure A.17).

  Figure A.17. Flash Player About dialogue box.

  

• Tools, Receive via infrared This function toggles the infrared port on and off.

File Size and Memory Limitations

The actual RAM available for the operating systems and applications on the Nokia 9200 Communicator Series is only 8MB. Assuming that no other applications are running, there is approximately, 2.3MB of RAM available to the Flash Player. This amount is less if other applications are running. The limited amount of RAM available needs to be taken into consideration when creating content.

The largest file that the player can open is approximately 800K to 900K; however, this file size may vary slightly depending on the current state of the operating system. Again, it is very important to thoroughly test the movie.

If the Player runs out of memory, the user will be presented with an out or error message, and the Flash movie is stopped (including all scripts). The user will need to press any key to remove the message.

Due to the limited amount of RAM available, we recommend releasing resources within your Flash movie that are no longer in use. This step can be done in a variety of ways, including using ActionScript commands such as removeMovieClip, unloadMovie, or Delete.

You can check how much memory is currently available while the Flash Player is running by pressing Ctrl+Shift+M (see Figure A.18).

Figure A.18. Memory status window.