Is Flash Builder a viable development tool for browser-based, software simulators used for training?

[xchapman]

I have used other development tools in the past to create browser-based, software simulators.  I have always loved the way Flash has strong graphical capabilities and runs on a wide range of platforms.  Also, correctly designed, Flash is extremely bandwith friendly.  The software simulations must run full screen, kiosk mode. 

I have looked for examples of others using Flex/Flash builder for this task and have not found anything impressive.  This leads me think that this tool may not be well suited for the task.  Someone please show me examples that prove this idea incorrect.

John Chapman

jchapman@onlinecbt.com

[Guest]

Adobe Captivate is probably what you are looking for.

[xchapman]

I have captivate and used it.  It is not up to the task of a highly realistic simulations.  By trying to appeal to a mass market they have made performance and realism compromises.  Is there noone who has tried to harness Flash or Flash Builder to create software simulations?

[Anirudh Sasikumar]

Could you elaborate your use-case a bit more?

Also, have you tried taking a look at http://flex.org/showcase and http://flex.org/showcase-all ?

[xchapman]

The simulation environments that I have created in the past look and perform almost identically to the actual application.  The purpose is for training, and realism is of great importance.  During the simulation the browser must switch to kiosk mode (full screen with no border, no menu, and no caption bar).  Full screen images from the actual application are used. 

Menus with working submenus must work and perform realistically.  That includes enables and disabled options set programmatically, and functioning popup menus.  At any given point in a simulation the software must be able to detect the point where the mouse clicks and/or text that is typed into a field(s).

Error handling must support (1) text prompts, (2) text and graphics, and (3) text, graphics and animation.  Optionally, data displayed for any given screen should be dynamically definable.

I appreciate the links you provided and will check them out. 

My limited experience with Flash tells me it can do the job.  I have been told by others that Flash Builder is the smarter way to accomplish complex tasks like I defined above.

[TomBurgundy]

I believe all Flash based applications running in full-screen mode do not allow text input.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/full_screen_mode.html

"Users cannot enter text in text input fields while in full-screen mode. All keyboard input and key-related ActionScript is disabled while in full-screen mode, with the exception of the keyboard shortcuts that take the viewer out of full-screen mode."

[xchapman]

Wow!  That is a deal killer for my purposes.  If Flash does not support text entry in full screen (kiosk) mode then a realistic simulator in Flash is not possible.

[xchapman]

I received an email from a friend who stated that there may be a way around the problem of not being able to edit text in full-screen, kiosk mode.  He stated, “It seems like you could maximize the Flash application rather than going into full-screen mode”.  Does anyone have any experience with this approach?

[TomBurgundy]

Well I guess you could maximize a browser (F11 in chrome), looks pretty good.

Or have a borderless AIR application that is maximized.

[xchapman]

The 1^st option might work, especially if in code the user’s browser can be maximized when the simulation begins and in code the browser can be returned to the default state when the simulation concludes.  Is that doable?

The 2^nd option “borderless AIR application that is maximized” is something I not familiar with.  Can anyone send me a link to an example of this?

[One_Life]

Not sure of the Adobe Catalyst product would help, but in my mind it is for building rich UIs more quickly and also for building prototype UIs.  I think Adobe has some (video?) tutorials on it as well -- note my Catalyst knowledge is quite shallow, just wanted to include it in the list.