Transcript Dirk van Schalkwyk Supervisor: Prof Greg Foster Co-Supervisor: Mrs Madeleine Wright Project Title: A Comparative Study of JME and Flash Lite for Mobile Data Services.

Dirk van Schalkwyk
Supervisor: Prof Greg Foster
Co-Supervisor: Mrs Madeleine Wright
Project Title:
A Comparative Study of JME and Flash Lite
for Mobile Data Services
Presentation Outline
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Problem Statement
Project Objective
Approach
Analysis and Results
Conclusion
Questions
Problem Statement
• High investment in mobile technologies
• In 2006, voice calls declined by 28% for
prepaid and 22% for postpay customers (UK)
• Mobility companies turn to mobile data services
• Need the right development tools to ensure the
rapid and efficient creation, deployment, and
management of custom content on mobile
phones
Definitions
• Mobile data service:
 any service on a mobile phone other than voice e.g.
SMS (Short Message Service), Mobile Chats, Number
Portability [Vodacom, 2007]
• Flash Lite
 a version of Adobe Flash Player designed for mobile
phones
• JME (formerly J2ME)
 a Java Platform consisting of a set of technologies and
specifications developed for mobile phones
Project Objective
• Develop a prototype incorporating selected
APIs developed under Flash Lite and JME.
• Test effectiveness of competing standards.
• Conclusions drawn will enable a trade-off
decision as to which platform to use for a
particular mobile data service.
Approach
Flash Lite
Client/Server
communication
across a
wireless
network
JME
XML server
response
Web Server
SQL commands
Database
Demo
Analysis and Results
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Foundation Language
Available IDEs
Emulator platforms
Dynamic XML handling
GUI designing
Multimedia capabilities
Persistent Storage
Packaging and Deploying
Mobile device diversity
Foundation Language
Flash Lite
JME
ActionScript 2.0
Java
Comparison and Evaluation:
• Both languages allow platform independence.
• Java is more robust and secure as JME applications
never escape from the confines of the JVM and
therefore will not write to device memory that does not
belong to the JVM.
Available IDEs
Flash Lite
JME
Adobe Flash Authoring IDE
NetBeans, SunOne Studio,
Eclipse
Proprietary
Open Source
Features include:
•code auto-complete
•debugging
•powerful GUI designer
Features include:
•code auto-complete
•syntax highlighting
•refactoring
•extensive debugging
•obfuscator
Comparison and Evaluation:
• Various IDE options are available for JME each providing better
features for writing code whereas Flash Lite offers a powerful GUI
designer not available in JME.
• Adobe Flash Authoring IDE is an expensive proprietary software
and therefore JME is recommended if financial resources are
limited.
Emulator Platforms
Flash Lite
JME
Adobe Device Central
(bundled with IDE)
Sun Wireless Toolkit, S60
SDE for MIDP
Comparison and Evaluation:
• Key features are provided by both platforms including
memory analysis, network management and monitoring,
object creation (JME only) and persistent storage
monitoring.
• JME provides a more comprehensive feedback in the
form of graphs and tables allowing for better application
testing.
Dynamic XML handling
Flash Lite
JME
Automatically parses the
XML document
Programmatically parse the
XML using SAX, XmlPull or
DOM
Write code to access
specific nodes within the
XML tree
Manipulates data in the
XML tree using a set of API
methods
Required 11 lines of code
Required 29 lines of code
Dynamic XML handling cont…
12000
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Time
(milliseconds)8000
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2000
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Flash Lite
JME
Comparison and Evaluation:
• Flash Lite is recommended as it parses the XML faster
and requires less coding, reducing possible errors,
application size as well as the time to create the
application.
GUI Designing
Flash Lite
JME
Flash Authoring toolkit
No graphical designer
‘drag and drop’ graphical
components
Programmatically create
graphical components
Comparison and Evaluation:
• Flash Lite provides fast, easy and efficient creation of
rich GUIs not possible with JME.
• Flash Lite’s stronghold in the mobile industry.
Multimedia Capabilities
Flash Lite
JME
Depends on the Device
video player for video
playback
The JVM handles video
playback
Methods include play,
pause, resume and stop
Available methods control
features such as volume,
rotation, scaling and screen
size
Only streaming possible on
Nokia devices
Mainly http download
possible though streaming
also possible
Multimedia Capabilities cont…
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Time
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(milliseconds)
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Flash Lite
JME
Comparison and Evaluation:
• JME allows greater portability and video control compared to Flash
Lite which relies on the capability of the device.
• Flash Lite video streaming is recommended when dealing with
large video files as play starts quicker and they do not take up a lot
of device memory.
• Caution required when opting to stream video as it may be blocked
by firewalls.
Persistent Storage
Flash Lite
JME
Storage size determined by
the device
Specifies a minimum of 8KB
and a maximum of 30KB
Does not support sharing of
stored data with other
applications files
Other JME applications can
access stored data
Required 7 lines of code
Required 27 lines of code
Comparison and Evaluation:
• JME is recommended if other applications are required
to access stored data.
• Flash Lite is an advantage if considering the lines of
code required and this could also reduce error
occurrences and speed up application development.
Packaging and Deploying
Flash Lite
JME
.swf (Flash file), .sis
(Symbian installer), .cab
(Windows installer)
JAD and JAR files
File size of 355KB (.sis)
File size of 209KB
Comparison and Evaluation:
• Both platforms produce small packaged file sizes and
deploy them through USB, Bluetooth and OTA.
Mobile device diversity
Flash Lite
JME
Defines different versions of
Adobe Flash Lite runtime
engines for specific groups
of mobile devices
Divided into configurations,
profiles and optional APIs
standardized through JSR
185
Comparison and Evaluation:
• Both platforms provide effective features to address
device diversity.
Conclusion
• Analysis and tests showed various strengths and
weaknesses of the JME and Flash Lite platforms
enabling trade-offs to be made when developing
specific mobile data services.
• Generally, JME provides more control and functionality
through its numerous APIs whereas Flash Lite allows
for the rapid creation of applications with rich GUIs.
Questions?