The fastest, easiest way to test and debug most mobile
application features is to run your application on your development
computer using the Adobe Debug Launcher (ADL) utility. ADL uses
the supportedProfiles element in the application
descriptor to determine which profile to use. If more than one profile is
listed, ADL uses the first one in the list. You can also use the -profile parameter
of ADL to select one of the other profiles in the supportedProfiles list.
(If you do not include a supportedProfiles element
in the application descriptor, then any profile can be specified
for the -profile argument.) For example, use the
following command to launch an application to simulate the mobile
device profile:
adl -profile mobileDevice myApp-app.xml
When simulating the mobile profile on the desktop like this,
the application runs in an environment that more closely matches
a target mobile device. ActionScript APIs that are not part of the
mobile profile are not available. However, ADL does not distinguish
between the capabilities of different mobile devices. For example,
you can send simulated soft-key presses to your app, even though
your actual target device does not utilize soft keys.
ADL support simulations of device orientation changes and soft
key input through menu commands. When you run ADL in the mobile
device profile, the ADL displays a menu (in either the application
window or the desktop menu bar) that allows you to enter device
rotation or soft key input.
Soft key input
ADL simulates the soft
key buttons for Back, Menu, and Search buttons on a mobile device.
You can send these keys to the simulated device using the menu displayed
when ADL is launched using the mobile profile.
Device rotation
ADL lets you simulate
device rotation through the menu displayed when ADL is launched
using the mobile profile. You can rotate the simulated device to
the right or the left.
The rotation simulation only affects
an application that enables auto-orientation. You can enable this
feature by setting the autoOrients element to true in the
application descriptor.
Screen size
You can test your application
on different size screens by setting the ADL ‑screensize parameter.
You can pass in the code for one of the predefined screen types
or a string containing the four values representing the pixel dimensions
of the normal and maximized screens.
Always specify the pixel
dimensions for portrait layout, meaning specify the width as a value
smaller than the value for height. For example, the following command
would open ADL to simulate the screen used on the Motorola Droid:
adl -screensize 480x816:480x854 myApp-app.xml
For
a list of the predefined screen types, see ADL usage.
Limitations
Some APIs that are not supported
on the desktop profile cannot be simulated by ADL. The APIs that
are not simulated include:
If your application uses these
classes, you should test the features on an actual device or emulator.
Similarly,
there are APIs that work when running under ADL on the desktop,
but which do not work on all types of mobile devices. These include:
Speex and AAC audio codec
Accessibility and screen reader support
RTMPE
Loading SWF files containing ActionScript bytecode
PixelBender shaders
Be sure to test applications
that use these features on the target devices since ADL does not
entirely replicate the execution environment.
