Creating Trials for Flash Lite Apps

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Jan 12

Creating Trials for Flash Lite Apps

David Williams on the Flash Lite Yahoo Group asks, how do I make time limited trials in Flash Lite 1.1?

There are a few options to consider:

Time out after a few minutes each time.
Time out after X days and never run again.
Lose functionality after X days or weeks.

Unfortunately it is getting late and I have work to do, so I've only got time to cover the first in that list, but I'm still writing my book on Flash Lite which is due March, and that will have detailed instructions and samples for each - end plug.

So the code for the first example is very simple, and I've included an FLA which contains a movie clip in the library that you can simply drag into your game or app to make sure it exits 3 minutes after starting up.

First up, create a new Flash document using a mobile template, and create a new movie clip, called "TrialMaker". Edit that movie clip and type the following code on frame 1:

timeout = 180;
startTime = getTimer();

Next up, create a keyframe on frame 10, and add the following:

if(getTimer()-startTime > timeout*1000) 
{
    fscommand("quit");
}
	
gotoAndPlay(2);

I chose frame 10, as this creates an automatic loop, a loop that doesn't execute code all that often thus having a negligable impact on your game execution speed whilst remaining fairly accurate (which we all know is essential for Flash Lite games). You can modify the value of timeout to any number of seconds you wish, I chose 3 minutes at Davids request.

Download FLA.

If you are lucky enough to be using Flash Lite 2, you can simply add the following code to frame 1:

setInterval(function() { fscommand("quit"); }, 180000);

12 comments

§ leocrawf said on : 12/01/06 @ 23:07
Thanks a million for this tutorial. I needed something like this also.
§ dave Williams said on : 13/01/06 @ 01:16
Thanks for the code Rich.
I as an artist rather than code head came up with a symbol that has nothing on for 12x60 frames then a stop frame with a message and my company logo and a quit button.

Not elegant, but it got me out of the clag. :)
§ dave Williams said on : 13/01/06 @ 01:20
Oh sorry, and a block to blank out the game of course. I should add its a 12 frame a min app hence 12x60 frames = (720 frames).
This symbol is placed on top level so as when it reaches the stop frame it blocks everything else
§ dave Williams said on : 13/01/06 @ 01:22
(12 frame a second) Sorry its early and I havent had aq coffee yet
§ Richard Leggett® said on : 13/01/06 @ 02:56
An interesting solution Dave! I must admit I wouldn't have even thought of doing that :p
§ martin said on : 13/01/06 @ 06:23
could you write tutorial about 2nd solution (Time out after X days and never run again). i need it.
§ Marco Casario said on : 14/01/06 @ 06:19
great job richard !
thanks for sharing :)
§ Richard Leggett® said on : 16/01/06 @ 15:06
Part II of this tutorial can be found here.
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