Flash CS6: The Missing Manual

Chapter 22. Making iPhone Apps

In spite of some well-publicized squabbling between Apple and Adobe, it is possible to use your Flash tools and know-how to create apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. You can use either the Mac or Windows version of Flash CS6 to create and package apps that use iOS (Apple’s operating system) for Apple handhelds. The iOS packager that’s built into Flash Professional CS6 translates your animation and ActionScript code into a language that Apple devices understand. Once your app is converted to the right file format, you can test it on Apple gadgets. When it’s perfected, you can submit your masterpiece to the App Store. (Then all you have to do is play Angry Birds while you wait for the big checks to roll in.)

In this chapter, you’ll start off with a simple “Hello iPad” app and test it in the AIR Debug Launcher (Mobile). If you want to test your app on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you have to become a registered developer ($99) and jump through some of Apple’s security-related hoops. Those details take up a substantial chunk of this chapter, but once they’re out of the way, you can create and test iOS apps that include iPad/iPhone gestures and touchscreen behaviors.

Note

There’s a difference between the AIR apps created with the techniques described in this chapter and Flash content embedded in a web page. Your AIR for iOS apps are actually translated into the language iDevices understand. Flash content on websites requires a browser with a Flash ...