MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-DEVELOPING FLASH LITE 2.X User manual

Developing Flash Lite 2.x Applications

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Acknowledgments
Project Management: Mary Leigh Burke
Writing: Tim Statler
Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato
Editing: Linda Adler, Geta Carson, Mary Ferguson, Mary Kraemer
Production Management: Adam Barnett, Kristin Conradi
Localization: Luciano Arruda and Masayo Noda
Media Design and Production: Yuriko Ando, Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman. John Francis, Geeta Karmarkar, Paul Rangel,
Arena Reed, Mario Reynoso
Special thanks to Lisa Friendly, Bonnie Loo, Erick Vera, the beta testers, and the entire Flash Lite engineering and QA teams.
First Edition: January 2006
Adobe Systems Incorporated
601 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

3
Contents
Chapter 1: Flash Lite 2.x Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
About Flash Lite 2.0 features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Flash Lite 2.0 new features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
About components in Flash Lite 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Chapter 2: Creating Interactivity and Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
About user interaction in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Keys supported by Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Using default navigation in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Handling key and button events (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 3: Working with Text and Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
About text in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Creating and formatting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using input text fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Font rendering methods in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Text field example application (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . 42
Creating scrolling text (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chapter 4: Working with Sound, Video, and Images . . . . . . . . . .47
About sound in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Using device sound (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Using native Flash sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Using device video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Loading external images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Chapter 5: Optimizing Content for Performance and Memory . . 71
Performance optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Device speed and frames per second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Optimizing ActionScript performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

4Contents
Chapter 6: Testing Flash Lite Content
(Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Overview of Flash Lite testing features (Flash Professional only) . . . 81
Testing features not supported by the Flash Lite emulator . . . . . . . . . 84
Using the Flash Lite emulator (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Flash Lite error and warning messages (Flash Professional only) . . . 92
Selecting test devices and Flash Lite content type
(Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Flash Lite content types (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Flash Lite platform capabilities (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . .101
About playing a device video in the emulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Appendix A: Warning and Error Messages
(Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Flash Lite emulator error and information messages (Flash Professional
only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

5
1
CHAPTER 1
Flash Lite 2.x Overview
Macromedia Flash Lite 2.0 is a version of Flash Player designed for devices. Flash Lite 2.0 is
based on Flash Player 7 and supports most—but not all—features in Flash Player 7. Flash Lite
2.0 also includes features specific to mobile development that are not available in Flash Player
7. For example, in Flash Lite 2.0 you can load device-specific media types (images, sounds,
video) that aren’t natively supported by Flash Lite. Flash Lite 2.0 also features device
integration features, such as the ability to make phone calls and send text messages, among
others. This chapter provides an overview of the new features in Flash Lite 2.0, and also
discusses those features in Flash Player 7 that Flash Lite 2.0 doesn’t support.
This chapter contains the following topics:
About Flash Lite 2.0 features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Flash Lite 2.0 new features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
About components in Flash Lite 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
About Flash Lite 2.0 features
This section lists new features in Flash Lite 2.0, as well as those features available in Flash
Player 7 that are not supported by Flash Lite 2.0.
Flash Lite 2.0 includes the following new features, which are described more fully under
“Flash Lite 2.0 new features” on page 6.
■ActionScript 2.0
■Device video playback
■Local, persistent data storage (Flash Lite shared objects)
■Support for loading device-specific sound and image formats
■New system capabilities information
■Support for additional device keys, including QWERTY keyboard support and support
for up to 11 soft keys
■Rich text formatting (partial support)

6FlashLite2.xOverview
■Ability to control backlight duration and set custom focus rectangle color
■Support for ActionScript 2.0, which lets you use advanced programming techniques
including classes, interfaces, and strict data typing
■Synchronized device sound
■XML processing support
The following features in Flash Player 7 are not available in Flash Lite 2.0:
■Several ActionScript classes available in Flash Player 7 are unsupported or partially
supported in Flash Lite 2.0. For more information about available ActionScript, see
Introduction to Flash Lite ActionScript 2.x.
■Socket communication using the XMLSocket class
■Support for communication with Macromedia Flash Media Server
■Remote shared objects (local shared objects are partially supported)
■Native support for Flash Video (FLV) playback
■Support for Flash Application Protocol (the binary data communication protocol used by
Flash Remoting)
■Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) formatting with text fields
■Masking with device fonts
■Bitmap smoothing while rendering at high-quality
Flash Lite 2.0 new features
The previous versions of Flash Lite (Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1) are based on Flash
Player 4. Flash Lite 2.0 is based on Flash Player 7 and supports most of the features available
in that version of Flash Player—including XML processing and ActionScript 2.0. Flash Lite
2.0 also provides several features not available in Flash Player 7 that are designed for mobile
applications. The rest of this section describes the new features in Flash Lite 2.0.
Flash Lite 2.0 ActionScript
Flash Lite 2.0 ActionScript is the scripting language used in Flash Lite 2.0 applications. It
shares some, but not all, of the ActionScript used in Flash Player 7. Flash Lite 2.0 also
includes several ActionScript additions and extensions that let you, for example, get
information about the device, make phone calls, or control the backlight duration.

Flash Lite 2.0 new features 7
You can use ActionScript 2.0 or ActionScript 1.0 syntax when you develop applications for
Flash Lite 2.0. ActionScript 2.0 provides authoring support for classes, interfaces, and strict
data typing. Using ActionScript 2.0 syntax lets the ActionScript compiler provide better
debugging information, and also encourages better program design.
For more information about learning Flash Lite 2.0 ActionScript, see the following books and
topics:
■Introduction to Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript
■Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript Language Reference
■Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Using Flash
Device video playback
Flash Lite 2.0 can play video in any format that’s supported natively by the target device. For
example, some devices record and playback video in the 3GP video format. Others support
AVI or MPEG video. During playback, Flash Lite passes the original video data to the device
to decode and render the data directly to the screen. You can incorporate video in your
application in any of the following ways:
■Bundle the original video data in the SWF file.
■Load an external video file from the device’s memory card, or over the network.
To control video playback in Flash Lite 2.0 you use the ActionScript Video object. First
available in Flash Player 6, the Video object in Flash Lite 2.0 has additional methods for
controlling video, as the Video.play() and Video.pause() methods. You can also use the
System.capabilities.videoMIMETypes array to determine what video formats a device
supports.
For more information about the Video object and using video in Flash Lite, see “Using device
video” on page 58.
Loading device-specific sound and image formats
In Flash Lite 2.0, you can load any image or sound file that’s in a format supported by the
device. To load external images, you use the loadMovie() global function, or the
MovieClip.loadMovie() method. For example, if the device supports the PNG file format,
then you could use the following code to load a PNG file from a web server into the movie
clip instance image_mc:
image_mc.loadMovie("http://www.macromedia.com/images/mobile.png");

8FlashLite2.xOverview
To load external sounds, you use the Sound.loadSound() method. In Flash Lite 2.0, you can
use this method to load any sound format that the device supports (for example, MIDI or
SMAF). External device sounds must fully load into memory before they can play.
As in Flash Lite 1.x, in Flash Lite 2.0 you can also play device sound that’s bundled in the
SWF file. For more information, see “Using bundled device sound” on page 48.
For more information about loading external images and sounds, see the following topics:
■“Loading external images” on page 68
■“Playing external device sounds” on page 53
Flash Lite shared objects
Flash Lite shared objects lets you save data persistently to the user’s device. For example, you
might use a shared object to save information between application sessions, such as user
preferences or game scores. You use the SharedObject class to read and write Flash Lite shared
objects. For more information about using Flash Lite shared objects, see the SharedObject
class in the Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript Language Reference.
Synchronized device sound
In previous versions of Flash Lite you could only synchronize native Flash sound to animation
in the timeline. But this was not possible with device sounds, which are played directly by the
device, rather than natively by Flash Lite. In Flash Lite 2.0, you can synchronize device sound
with the timeline using the new _forceframerate property. When this property is set to
true, Flash Lite drops frames as necessary from animation to maintain the frame rate
specified in the SWF file. For more information, see “About synchronizing device sounds with
animation” on page 54 and the _forceframerate property.
NOTE
The Flash Lite 2.0 implementation of shared objects does not allow multiple SWF files
to share the same data. Also, Flash Lite 2.0 does not support remote shared objects
with Macromedia Flash Media Server.

About components in Flash Lite 2.0 9
New text features
The following features related to text handling are new in Flash Lite 2.0:
■All text in Flash Lite 2.0 is Unicode based.
■Flash Lite 2.0 provides partial support for HTML formatting and the TextFormat
ActionScript class.
For more information about working with text fields in Flash Lite 2.0, see “Working with
Text and Fonts” on page 33.
Additional key support
Flash Lite 2.0 provides additional support for device keys, including support for QWERTY
keyboards, and up to 12 soft keys (including the standard left and right soft keys).
About components in Flash Lite 2.0
The components that install with Flash 8 and Flash Professional 8 (for example, DataGrid
and Accordion) were designed for use in Flash desktop applications. The memory
requirements and processing power that they require typically prohibit their use in Flash Lite
2.0 applications. Macromedia recommends that you don’t use the standard user interface
components in your Flash Lite applications.

10 Flash Lite 2.x Overview

11
2
CHAPTER 2
Creating Interactivity and
Navigation
To interact with your Macromedia Flash Lite application, a user must be able to determine
which object on the screen currently has focus, navigate among objects, and initiate an action
by selecting an object or another key. While these basic principles are the same as for desktop
applications, some of the functionality varies for mobile devices.
This chapter contains the following topics:
About user interaction in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Keys supported by Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Using default navigation in Flash Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Handling key and button events (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
About user interaction in Flash Lite
Flash Lite supports navigation and user interaction through the device’s keypad, or through a
stylus or touch-screen interface on devices that provide one. The options available to your
application vary depending on the target device and content type. For more information
about content types, see “About Flash Lite content types” in Getting Started with Flash Lite
2.x.
The simplest way to add key-based interactivity to a Flash Lite application is default
navigation, which uses the device’s four-way keypad like the arrow keys or the Tab and
Shift+Tab keys in a desktop application. The user moves the focus to the desired object and
then presses the select key. The application includes event handler code to respond to these
button events. Default navigation in Flash Lite works with buttons, input text fields, and,
optionally, movie clips; it is typically best for simple user interactions such as menus. For more
information about default navigation, see “Using default navigation in Flash Lite” on page 13.
Applications can also respond to arbitrary key press events that Flash Lite generates when a
user presses a particular key. Event-based navigation allows you to create Flash Lite
applications like games that have a complex user interaction model. For more information
about events, see “Handling key and button events (Flash Professional only)” on page 20.

12 Creating Interactivity and Navigation
Keys supported by Flash Lite
In addition to the alphanumeric keys available on standard telephones, most mobile devices
feature a navigation keypad, which let users navigate and select items on the device screen,
and two (or more) soft keys. A device’s soft keys are multifunctional keys that use the screen to
identify their purpose at any moment.
A typical navigation keypad has four navigation keys (up, down, left, and right) and a select
key (typically located at the center of the keypad). Different applications can use these keys in
different ways. For example, a game might use the navigation keys to let the user move a
character on the screen, and then use the select key to perform another action, such as make
the character jump.
The following images show the most common keys on a generic keypad and on an actual
device:
Not all devices and Flash Lite content types support all these keys. For example, devices that
support two-way navigation don’t support the left and right navigation keys (see “Default
navigation modes” on page 14). Also, not all devices have access to the device’s soft keys.
Flash Lite supports the following keys on mobile devices:
Description Keys Availability
Numeric, *, # 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, *, # All devices
Five-way keypad Select, up, and down All devices
Left and right Devices that support four-way
navigation only (see “Default navigation
modes” on page 14)
Soft keys Left and right Devices that support the SetSoftKeys
command
L
e
ft
an
d
r
i
g
ht
so
ft
keys
Navigation
keypad
Numeric, *, and
# keys

Using default navigation in Flash Lite 13
The following System.Capabilities properties allow you to determine the navigation and
selection options available on a device:
■hasMappableSoftKeys
■softKeyCount
■has4WayKeyAS
■hasQWERTYKeyboard
■hasStylus
■hasMouse
For more information about the System.Capabilites class, see the Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript
Language Reference.
Using default navigation in Flash Lite
On desktop Flash applications, the Tab and Shift+Tab keys let users switch focus among
objects on the screen. The arrow keys function in a similar way in some other applications. In
Flash Lite, the navigation keys on the device’s navigation keypad serve the same purpose as the
arrow or Tab and Shift+Tab keys in a Flash desktop application. After the desired object has
focus, the user can press the select key to trigger an action in the application. You define event
handlers to respond when a button or movie clip is selected; for more information, see
“Handling button events (Flash Professional only)” on page 21.
Default navigation in Flash Lite works with buttons and input text fields. Movie clips are also
included if their tabEnabled property is set to true, or if they have event handlers associated
with them and their tabEnabled property is not set to false.
When an input text field has focus and the user presses the select key, Flash Lite opens the
device’s generic text input dialog box, in which the user can enter text.
For an example of using default navigation, see “Creating a simple menu using buttons and
default navigation (Flash Professional only)” on page 23.
SOFT3 - SOFT12 keys Devices that have more than two soft
keys
Keyboard keys !, “, #, $, %, &, ‘, (, ), *, +, ,, -, .,
/, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, :, ;,
<, +, >, ?, @, A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R,
S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, [, \, ], ^,
_, ‘, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l,
m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y,
z, {, |, }, ~, Backspace
Devices that have a QWERTY
keyboard
Description Keys Availability

14 Creating Interactivity and Navigation
Default navigation modes
Flash Lite supports three modes of default navigation: two-way, four-way, and four-way with
wraparound. Different devices and Flash Lite content types support different navigation
modes. For information on determining the navigation mode for a specific device and content
type, see “Flash Lite platform capabilities (Flash Professional only)” on page 101.
Two-way navigation in Flash Lite is analogous to tab navigation in Flash desktop
applications, where the Tab and Shift+Tab keys navigate among objects on the screen. The
down navigation key on the device corresponds to the Tab key, and the up navigation key
corresponds to the Shift+Tab key.
The default tab order in two-way navigation is generally left-to-right and top-to-bottom. For
example, the following image shows a three-by-three grid of Button objects in a Flash Lite
application. The numbers above each button indicate the order in which each button’s will get
keypad focus as the user presses their device’s down navigation key repeatedly. After the
button in the bottom-right corner has received keypad focus, the focus “wraps around” to the
top-left button the next time the user presses the down navigation key.
Example tab order in two-way navigation
You can customize the tab order in two-way navigation using the tabIndex property of the
Button, MovieClip, and TextField objects. For more information, see “About controlling tab
order in two-way navigation” on page 20.
For an example of two-way navigation, see the sample file named 2_way_nav.fla, located in
the Samples and Tutorials/Samples/Flash Lite 2.0/ folder in the Flash installation folder on
your computer.

Using default navigation in Flash Lite 15
Four-way navigation in Flash Lite is similar to using the arrow keys on a desktop computer’s
keyboard to navigate among objects on the screen. The device’s up, down, left, and right
navigation keys correspond to the four arrow keys on a computer’s keyboard. Pressing a
navigation key moves the keypad focus to the object located in that direction, if one exists. If
no object exists in that direction, then the keypad focus does not change from the current
object.
For an example that uses four-way navigation, see the sample file named 4_way_nav.fla
located in the Samples and Tutorials/Samples/Flash Lite 2.0/ folder in the Flash installation
folder on your computer.
Four-way navigation with wraparound functions like a combination of standard four-way
navigation and two-way navigation. Like standard four-way navigation described previously,
users change keypad focus using the device’s four-way navigation keys. The difference is that,
similar to two-way navigation, keypad focus “wraps around” to the object on the opposite side
of the screen. For example, in the image below, the button with the current keypad focus is
located at the bottom-right corner of the screen. If the user presses the down navigation key,
the next button to receive focus is located in the middle of the top row of buttons.
You can test the behavior of two-way and four-way navigation modes in the Flash Lite
emulator using the samples file named 2-way.fla and 4-way.fla located in the /Samples and
Tutorials/Samples/Flash Lite 2.0/ folder in the Flash installation folder on your computer.
Each sample file consists of the same three-by-three grid of buttons, as discussed previously.
The only difference between the sample files is that each FLA file is configured to target a
combination of device and Flash Lite content type that supports the navigation mode (two-
way or four-way).
NOTE
The tabIndex property is not supported on devices that support four-way navigation, but
tabEnabled and tabChildren are, which is different from how these properties work in
Flash desktop applications.
Button with current focus
Next button to receive focus after
user presses down navigation key

16 Creating Interactivity and Navigation
To use each sample file, open it in Flash and test it in the emulator (select Control > Test
Movie). Click the arrow keys on the emulator’s keypad (or press the arrow keys on your
keyboard) to see how each navigation mode affects user navigation.
f
About the focus rectangle
By default, Flash Lite draws a yellow rectangle around the button or input text field that has
focus. Movie clips are also included if their tabEnabled property is set to true, or if they have
event handlers associated with them and their tabEnabled property is not set to false.
The focus rectangle lets the user know which object on the screen will respond when the user
presses the device’s select key. For example, the following image shows the focus rectangle
drawn around a button that has the current keypad focus:
For buttons and movie clips, the focus rectangle’s bounding box is determined by the object’s
hit area—the invisible region that (in Flash desktop applications) defines the part of the
button or movie clip that responds to mouse clicks. For input text fields, the focus rectangle’s
bounding box is determined by the text field’s dimensions.
You can customize the color of the focus rectangle or disable it. For more information, see
“Customizing the focus rectangle” on page 18.
Array of buttons in sample file
Button with current focus and
default focus rectangle

Using default navigation in Flash Lite 17
Guidelines for using default navigation
The following are guidelines and considerations for using default navigation in your Flash
Lite applications.
■If you disable the default focus rectangle by setting _focusRect to false, be sure to
provide an alternative focus indicator for your buttons, input text fields, and tab-enabled
movie clips. For buttons, you can do this by adding a visual element to the button’s “over”
state—the part of a button object’s timeline that’s displayed when the button has focus.
For an example of this technique, see the sample application discussed in “Creating a
simple menu using buttons and default navigation (Flash Professional only)” on page 23.
For input text fields, you can use the Selection object to determine when the text field has
received focus and display the desired focus indicator. For an example of this, see the
sample application discussed in “Controlling focus with ActionScript” on page 18.
■Have at least two objects (input text fields, buttons, tab-enabled movie clips, or a
combination) on the screen at the same time. If the screen contains only one input text
field, button, or tab-enabled movie clip, the user can’t change the focus and may feel stuck
in the user interface.
If a screen in your application contains only a single button for user interaction, consider
detecting a keypress event rather than using button events. For more information, see
“Handling key and button events (Flash Professional only)” on page 20.
■When appropriate, consider using the Selection.setFocus() method to set the initial
focus to a specific object on the screen. This can help guide the user through the interface
and reduce the amount of key navigation they must perform. For example, suppose that a
screen in your application contains an input text field. Normally, for the user to enter a
value in the text field, they would first press a navigation key to give the text field focus,
and then press the select key to open the text input dialog box. You could use the
following ActionScript to automatically set the keypad focus to the input text field:
Selection.setFocus(inputTxt);
For more information about controlling focus with ActionScript, see “Controlling focus
with ActionScript” on page 18.
■The alignment of objects on the screen is important with default navigation. When
objects are offset from each other on the screen, the sequence in which they get focus may
not be intuitive for your users. (You can prevent this by making objects consistent in size
and aligning them vertically and horizontally as much as possible. With two-way
navigation, you can also control the sequence using the tabIndex property; for more
information, see “About controlling tab order in two-way navigation” on page 20.

18 Creating Interactivity and Navigation
Customizing the focus rectangle
The focus rectangle is a default yellow highlight that indicates which button or input text box
is currently selected. Movie clips are also included if their tabEnabled property is set to true,
or if they have event handlers associated with them and their tabEnabled property is not set
to false. For more information, see “About the focus rectangle” on page 16.
You can disable the default focus rectangle behavior by setting the global _focusRect
property to false. You can also disable the focus rectangle for specific buttons or movie clips
(see _focusrect (Button._focusrect property) and _focusrect
(MovieClip._focusrect property)) in the Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript Language Reference.
You can also change the color of the focus rectangle from the default yellow to any other color.
To do this you use the SetFocusRectColor command, which takes RGB values as
parameters. For example, the following code changes the color of the focus rectangle to red:
fscommand2("SetFocusRectColor", 255, 0, 0);
Controlling focus with ActionScript
You can use the Selection ActionScript object to get and set the current keypad focus, or to be
notified when an object receives or loses keypad focus. This is useful, for example, if you want
to automatically set the focus to a specific button when your application first loads. Or you
may want to be notified when a specific object on the screen has received (or lost) keypad
focus so that you can update the screen accordingly.
For example, the following code uses the Selection.setFocus() method to set focus to the
button instance named login_btn:
Selection.setFocus(login_btn);
The Selection.onSetFocus event listener lets you determine when the keypad focus has
changed. You can use this event listener, for example, to create a custom focus manager for
input text fields, rather than use the default focus rectangle. The following procedure shows
how to create a custom focus manager that changes the border color of the TextField object
with focus. A completed version of this application named custom_input_focus.fla is located
in the /Sample and Tutorials/Samples/Flash Lite 2.0/ folder in the Flash Professional 8
installation folder on your computer.
To create a custom text input focus manager:
1. Create a new document from the Flash Lite 2.0 Generic document template that you
created in “Creating a Flash Lite document template (Flash Professional only)” in Getting
Started with Flash Lite 2.x, and save it as custom_input_focus.fla.
2. Using the Text tool, create a text field on the Stage.

Using default navigation in Flash Lite 19
3. With the text field still selected, in the Property inspector, select Input Text from the Text
Type pop-up menu, type inputTxt_1 in the Instance Name text box, and select the Show
Border Around Text option.
4. In the same manner, create another input text field below the first one with the instance
name of inputTxt_2 and select the Show Border Around Text option for the second text
field.
5. In the Timeline, select Frame 1 in the layer named ActionScript.
6. Open the Actions panel (Window > Actions) and enter (or copy and paste) the following
code:
// Disable focus rect globally:
_focusrect = false;
// Create Selection listener object:
var focusListener:Object = new Object ();
// Define onSetFocus method:
focusListener.onSetFocus = function (oldFocus, newFocus) {
// Enable/disable selection indicator:
if (newFocus instanceof TextField) {
// Set border color of text field with new focus to red:
newFocus.borderColor = 0xFF0000;
}
if (oldFocus != undefined && oldFocus instanceof TextField) {
// Set border color of text field with old focus to black:
oldFocus.borderColor = 0x000000;
}
};
// Add listener to Selection object:
Selection.addListener (focusListener);
// Set initial focus when application loads:
Selection.setFocus (inputTxt_1);
// Enable full-screen mode:
fscommand2 ("FullScreen", true);
7. Save your changes and test the application in the emulator.
8. Press the emulator’s the down and up arrow keys to switch keypad focus between the two
text fields. The text field with focus should have a red border, and the text field without
focus should have a black border. Press the select key when a text field has focus to make
the text input dialog box appear.

20 Creating Interactivity and Navigation
About controlling tab order in two-way navigation
Two-way navigation in Flash Lite is analogous to tab navigation in Flash, and therefore
supports the tabIndex property that allows you to specifically set the tab order of buttons,
movie clips, and input text fields. On devices that support four-way navigation, the tabIndex
property is not supported, so it’s not possible to set tab order using the tabIndex property for
four-way navigation.
To control tab order in two-way navigation, you assign each object’s tabIndex property a
number that specifies the object’s order in the default navigation. For example, suppose that
an application contains a button (my_button), a movie clip (my_movieclip), and an input
text field (my_inputTxt). The following code establishes the tab order so that the button gets
focus first, then the movie clip, and finally the input text field.
my_button.tabIndex = 1;
my_movieclip.tabEnabled = true;
my_movieclip.tabIndex = 2;
my_inputTxt.tabIndex = 3;
Handling key and button events
(Flash Professional only)
Event handlers and event listeners specify how the application will respond to user- and
system-generated occurrences. For example, when a button has focus and the user presses the
select key, an onPress event is generated. In addition to using default navigation and
responding to related events, a Flash Lite application can listen for and respond to keypress
events.
Not all devices and content types support all device keys. For example, on a device that
supports two-way navigation (see “Default navigation modes” on page 14) Flash Lite doesn’t
generate keypress events for the left and right arrow keys. For a list of keys and description of
their availability, see “Keys supported by Flash Lite” on page 12.
This section contains the following topics:
■“Handling button events (Flash Professional only)” on page 21
■“Creating a simple menu using buttons and default navigation (Flash Professional only)”
on page 23
■“Using a key listener to handle keypress events (Flash Professional only)” on page 28
■“Using the soft keys (Flash Professional only)” on page 29