The Code

• – Full source code and Flash Builder “Burrito” project files

The Overview

I mentioned this week that if you hustle you can still get yourself a free Blackberry Playbook.  Just follow my procrastinator’s guide and you could very well still have enough time to make it.  I also made posted a while ago the incredibly simple process of porting Repper, my fitness calculator mobile app written with Flex “Hero”, to the Playbook.  If that wasn’t enough for you, here’s one more bit of charity to motivate to try and beat that March 31st, 2011 deadline to submit an app for a free Playbook.

In the at the top I’ve included the full source and project files for Flash Builder “Burrito” for Repper.  Yep, everything it took to make a Playbook app that was submitted and approved is included within.  Take a look, pull it down, load it up, and see how a simple, functional app can get you a free tablet.  If you are wondering what your time is worth in comparison to the effort necessary, the model that developers are likely to receive (16 GB) is being priced at $500.  Seems a fair trade for a few hours of your time.

Repper on Github

Guide to a Free Playbook

So now you have a guide to getting a Blackberry Playbook app submitted as quickly as possible and full source code for a project that has already been approved. Pair that with the fact that I’ve not heard of one functional app not being approved, you are completely out of excuses to not cash in on this offer. Dig in and get it done.

Get Repper

→ Download Repper from its Android Market page → Full project source code available at → Follow the conversation on → Scan the QR code below to download from your mobile device

Overview

Repper is an Adobe Flex “Hero” based Android app that calculates your 1-10 rep max on any lift in the gym. For example, you might have a workout that requires you to know your 5 rep max on the bench press, but you you only know that you can lift 275 for 1 rep. Using Repper you can get a very close approximation based on estimation methods developed by fitness specialists. Just punch in 275 for the weight and 1 for your reps and Repper will return your 2-10 rep weight estimations.

The application itself isn’t that exciting, I know. The idea here was to see what the entire development and deployment cycle was like for Air for Android development. What’s easy with Flex/AS3/Air? What’s hard? What are the limitations? What are the annoyances? Where does it excel? Where is native development or even another mobile framework better suited? As it turns out, I generated a lot of answers to those questions. So many so as to merit their own blog post in the near future.

The other concept I was testing here was multi-screen development (inspired by Christian Cantrell’s work). If you peruse the source code you’ll notice that all layout and skinning was done with a liquid layout in mind. This means once I get the chance, Repper should be able to be deployed to other mobile devices like iPhone, iPads, Android tablets, or the Blackberry Playbook without much additional effort.

It was an interesting project and one from which I learned a great deal. in addition to the blog post on the ups and downs of Flex “Hero” that I alluded to earlier, I plan at least a handful of smaller instructional posts on some of the technique I picked up in this experiment. Topics will include handling portrait and landscape orientations with states, AS3 and MXML skinning, and liquid design for multiscreen projects. There’s more to share, but that seems more than enough to start.

All in all, this backend developer had a great time creating something visual and usable in the mobile environment. It won’t be long be another one of these app blog posts shows up!

Screenshots