The source can be downloaded here.

If you are looking for the compiled ANE instead, click here

The contents of the zip archive are,

• Android Native Project
• Actionscript Library Project
• Files required for compilation

The Library is responsible for creating a bridge between Actionscript and Native code. The code written here is also the entry point for APIs exposed by the ANE. Library and Native Projects are fairly descriptive and appropriately commented. I will just go through things that need to be in place to get this compiled.

If you just want to go ahead and try compilation, skip to the 5th step

• Import project listed under Android Native Project into a preferred IDE and export a JAR
• Import project listed under Actionscript Library Project into Flash Builder and export a SWC
• Notice the organization of files in the Files required for compilation directory. Replace JAR, SWC and extension.xml files in the appropriate directories with the one’s you just exported
• Without disturbing what you have already done, rename SpeechLibrary.swc to SpeechLibrary.zip and extract the library.swf file. Replace the one in Files required for compilation/NativeAndroid, with this.
• Open Files required for compilation/compile.bat in your favorite text editor. Going forward, I will be referring only to the Windows platform. For MAC, please read this document
• Customize attributes for 'root_directory' and 'signing_options' (Namely, CERTIFICATE_PATH - a P12 file and CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD)
• Exit editor, and run the compile.bat file to generate an ANE file !

That is as easy as it gets to generate an ANE file !

Feel free to make changes to the source and experiment. If you do extend the source, say make it iOS compatible, I'd be happy to link up here!

Here is another great resource you must have a look at before building native extensions, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/developing-native-extensions-air.html

Here is what the ANE does,

• Provide an API to check if the feature is supported.
• Provide an API to launch the default speech recognition UI and capture voice input.
• Trigger events based on the success or failure of the above call.
• In case of success, the appropriate event has information of the best match !
• In case of failure, the appropriate event is fired.

Here are the steps required to include the ANE in your Android Project,

• Download the ANE from here
• In Flash Builder 4.6, open the Properties dialogue of the Project you want to include speech support in.
• Select Build Path > Native Extensions
• Add ANE – Select the location of the downloaded Speech.ane file
• Navigate to Flex Build Packaging > Google Android > Native Extensions
• Check the Package checkbox next to Speech.ane (This ANE supports only the Android Platform at the moment)
• Apply and Close
• Open the <ProjectName>-app.xml file
• Scroll down until you find the Android manifest statements
• Add the  below code just before </manifest>
  (i.e., inside the <manifest></manifest>tags)

  <application>
       <activity android:name="com.inoel.ane.speech.extensions.SpeechHandler">
       </activity>
  </application>
  

You will now be able to access the below APIs,

Initializing and specifying prompt text

//Creating and initializing a Speech Object
//Parameter - Prompt displayed on the Native Speech Recognition UI
var speech:Speech = new Speech("Please speak something !");

Check if speech input is supported

// Returns a Boolean value
trace("Speech Supported: " + speech.isSupported);

Accept Speech Input

//Calls the method which in turn fire's the Native Speech UI for accepting speech input
speech.listen();

Listen for the following events

• speechToTextEvent.VOICE_RECOGNIZED – Fired on successful voice recognition. Recognized String resides in the event.data attribute.
• speechToTextEvent.VOICE_NOT_RECOGNIZED - Fired on unsuccessful attempt. A common cause for failure could be network (data) unavailability. I believe this is overcome in new Ice Cream Sandwich which does not require a network connection to recognize speech ! Includes the error string in the event.data attribute.

Download the sample project from here. Please ensure you manually add the ANE with the steps above, or you get a ‘Class not found Exception’.

If you are interested in understanding how ANEs are used in Flash Builder 4.6, have a look at the recording in my previous post, http://blog.immanuelnoel.com/2011/10/20/native-extensions-flash-builder-webinar/

I also plan to post the entire source for the ANE itself. Watch out for that !

—– UPDATE 19/02/2012 —-
Source for the ANE is posted below,
http://blog.immanuelnoel.com/2012/02/19/speech-recognition-ane-source/

I will now be moving on to the Flash Runtime team within Adobe. What this means is, I will not appear on stage at the frequency I was, but work more on the background with the teams that enable you build all those awesome interactive experiences! I also plan to keep my blog and twitter stream flowing, so don’t drop your bookmarks yet

Looking for exciting opportunities ahead!

For those of you who haven’t had the chance to attend,

Here is the link to the Recording,
View Recording

Here are the Slides,

Keep yourself updated on the other webinars we do.
Follow us on Twitter : @ImmanuelNoel

As part of my demo at AFPS, I wrote the RealTime Locator, a simple app that shares its location with every peer in a group over the RTMFP protocol. Basically, I do a Lat/Long multicast on receiving the coordinates via GPS. The other interesting aspect is the same app, with ZERO code change is deployed on 3 different platforms, Android, Blackberry Playbook, and the iOS.

Here is a video showing the app running on the three devices, HTC Desire HD, Blackberry Playbook, and an iPod Touch,
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFF4tx82se0

I made use of the freely available non-commercial service, Adobe Cirrus, for initiating P2P connections, and the awesome MapQuest Flex library for displaying and plotting location on the map. The GPS location is represented in Red, and the shared locations in Green.

The FXP has been online for a while now, and here is the link again,
Download Source

Here is what you need to modify to get it working,

• Views/MapView.mxml – Replace the value for ‘MAP_KEY’ with your MapQuest API key. Get your key at, http://developer.mapquest.com/
• Controller/p2p.as – Replace the value for ‘DEVELOPER_KEY’ with your Cirrus Key. Register for a Cirrus Key here, http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cirrus/
NOTE : To facilitate P2P connections over the LAN only, replace the value for ‘SERVER_ADDRESS’ with ‘rtmfp://’ and leave the value for ‘DEVELOPER_KEY’ blank (‘ ’).  Optionally also edit the P2P Group Name.

This application only demonstrates one of the capabilities of P2P with Flex. Feel free to get the code and build on it for greater possibilities.

RealTime Locator for Android,

Download Android Installer (.APK)
The above app uses a different P2P Group than what is seen in the shared FXP file. The two will not work in conjunction.

*The Blackberry and iOS apps are not hosted due to licencing and distribution constraints. Feel free to download the source and deploy on the two devices.

I will be speaking on the 28th July. Here is an abstract of my session,

Building P2P Apps for Mobile Devices
Duration: 50 mins
This session is an insight into the Peer-To-Peer capabilities of AIR for Mobile. Bring about a better user experience and improve efficiency with your apps communicating with each other over the RTMFP protocol, without the need for a server. Take advantage of this capability supported across Playbook, Android and iOS devices, Cloud Sourcing information across varied platforms. Understand Peers, Multicasts, Groups, Directed Routing, et al. The session gives you a kick start in creating Video Chat apps, Multi-Player Games, Data sharing apps and more.

Got a host of demo’s lined up, so expect something more than just file sharing in this session.

In case you haven’t registered yet, don’t risk missing all the excitement ! REGISTER NOW
See you all there !

I plan to use iNoel.in as,

• An alternate URL for my website / blog. The new (other) URL for my blog is, Blog.iNoel.in
• A URL shortening service for my own needs.

My existing domain, immanuelnoel.com is still going to be the primary domain. Your old bookmarks should not be affected.

What is it ?
If you have been longing to get your app onto the Blackberry Playbook, have a cool app idea, if you are a enthusiastic Flex / Actionscript developer, or never had an opportunity to try out the new Flex 4.5 SDK or the new Flash Builder 4.5.1, Blackberry Playbook App Clinic’s are for you !
The clinic kick-starts with a presentation on building Flex/Air Apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Experts from Adobe India and RIM will be present for the rest of the event at the venue to drive out your doubts and help you build apps seamlessly.

Just drop in with your laptop at any of the venues at Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai or Noida, and here is what you get !

Find more information on registration here,
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187827427940852

I will be speaking at the Great Indian Developer Summit 2011, at J N Tata Auditorium, IISC, Bangalore on the 21st and 22nd April 2011.

Here are the abstracts for my sessions,

Developing Apps for Mobile Platforms with Adobe AIR 2.6 (link)
April 21, 2011. Thursday
Adobe® AIR® is a runtime that enables developers to build standalone RIA applications on all the popular desktop platforms as well as mobile platforms like Android phones and tablets, RIM Playbook and Apple iOS devices. With Adobe AIR, it is extremely easy to create, distribute and also monetize your apps. You can develop these apps using Adobe Flex/Flash and your app can consume data/services from your existing enterprise back ends or public web API. This session is specifically aimed at introducing the capabilities of Adobe AIR to Java developers.

Developing Mobile Applications for Multiple Platform (link)
April 22, 2011. Friday
The Adobe® AIR® 2.5 runtime enables developers to use ActionScript® to build web applications that run as standalone client applications without the constraints of a browser. A key component of the Flash Platform, AIR unleashes the creativity of designers and developers by providing a consistent and flexible development environment for the delivery of applications across devices and platforms. In this tutorial, you will learn how to build AIR applications for BlackBerry Playbook, Android and other supported devices and platforms using the Adobe Flex framework.

For those of you who don’t know, Toast is the small transparent alert that pop’s up (and doesn’t block your UI) when u set an alarm on Android phones !

Toast on AIR for Android

In the pic above, the text ‘Enter Required Fields’ appears in a ‘Toast’

The Toast, is a ‘component’ of your application, and not a feature integrated into AIR (for Android), which makes the toast persistent only across your own application unlike the ‘Toast’ found under the Android native application development environment.

Usage :

// Toast Usage
new Toast(this, "Enter Required Fields", 3000);
/*
Parameters used,
Context (Parent) : this
Text to display : "Enter Required Fields"
TimeOut : 3000
*/

Optional parameters include,
timeOut -> Display Duration in milliseconds; Type:Number; Default:3000
width -> Toast Width; Type:Number; Default:290
height -> Toast Height; Type:Number; Default:40
color -> Toast background color; Type:String; Default:’#454545′
x -> X Position. Auto-calculated if not specified; Type:Number; Default:NaN
y -> Y Position. Auto-calculated if not specified; Type:Number; Default:NaN

Source :

package immy
{
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import flash.utils.Timer;

	import spark.components.BorderContainer;
	import spark.components.Label;
	import spark.components.View;
	import spark.layouts.VerticalLayout;

	public class Toast extends BorderContainer
	{
		/**
		 *  CONSTRUCTER
		 */
		public function Toast(context:View, textToDisplay:String, timeOut:Number = 3000, width:Number = 290, height:Number = 40, color:String = '#454545', x:Number = NaN, y:Number = NaN):void
		{
			super();

			// TIMER TO 'REMOVE' TOAST AFTER THE SPECIFIED 'TIMEOUT'
			var timer:Timer = new Timer(timeOut, 1);
			timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, function(event:TimerEvent):void{
				context.removeElementAt(context.numElements - 1);
			});
			timer.start();

			createUI(textToDisplay, color, width, height);

			// TOAST POSITION
			positionToast(context);
		}

		/**
		 *  CREATE TOAST UI COMPONENTS
		 */
		private function createUI(textToDisplay:String, color:String, width:Number, height:Number):void
		{
			selfProperties(color, width, height);
			addText(textToDisplay);
		}

		/**
		 * ASSIGNING ATTRIBUTES TO THE BASE CONTAINER
		 */
		private function selfProperties(color:String, width:Number, height:Number):void
		{
			this.width=width;
			this.height=height;
			this.setStyle('backgroundAlpha','0.75');
			this.setStyle('backgroundColor',color);
			this.setStyle('borderColor','#242424');
			this.setStyle('borderWeight','2');
			this.setStyle('cornerRadius','7');

			var vl:VerticalLayout = new VerticalLayout();
			vl.horizontalAlign = "center";
			vl.verticalAlign = "middle";
			this.layout = vl;
		}

		/**
		 *  CREATE LABEL
		 */
		private function addText(textToDisplay:String):void
		{
			var lbl:Label = new Label();
			lbl.setStyle('color','#EDEDED');
			lbl.setStyle('fontSize','18');
			lbl.text = textToDisplay;
			lbl.setStyle('textAlign', 'center');
			lbl.width = this.width;

			this.addElement(lbl);
		}

		/**
		 *  POSITIONING THE TOAST
		 */
		private function positionToast(context:View):void
		{
			// POSITION TOAST
			if(Number(x) && Number(y))
			{
				this.x = x;
				this.y = y;
			}
			else
			{
				if(Number(x) && !Number(y))
				{
					throw new Error("Toast : 'Y' attribute also needs to be specified");
				}

				this.x = (context.width / 2) - (this.width / 2);
				this.y = (context.height * 3 / 4) - (this.height / 2);
			}

			// IF PREVIOUSLY ADDED COMPONENT IS A TOAST, RE-ORDER TO MANAGE TIMER
			if(context.getElementAt(context.numElements - 1) is Toast)
				context.addElementAt(this, context.numElements - 1);
			else
				context.addElement(this);
		}
	}
}

Download

A future release of AIR for Android will probably bring in a ‘Toast’ to substitute the one made available by the Android SDK. Until then, here’s something to make use of !