AIR for Android Captive Runtime

Question

Is it possible to package android apps with AIR (or will it be) using Flash CS5.5? I don't see anything on the web about. Just how to do it with Flex and ADT etc...

Answer 1

Hi,
I've made a complete working example for publishing an application with captive runtime, assets and native extensions starting from Flash CS5.5
I was able to make it thanks to hints and suggestions I found in this thread.
Note: english is not my native tongue so I hope you understand what I've written also if sometime it sounds "engrish".
Here it is the link to the zip file:
    http://www.genereavventura.com/hosted/Air3NativeExtensions/AirVibrate.zip
Requirements:
- You must have Flash cs5.5 pro (obviously)
- You must have installed the overlay for Air3.0 sdk on your Flash cs5.5 pro
Here it is a link that explain how to accomplish it: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3939712
Here the steps I made.
1) Open Flash CS5.5 and create a new AIR for Android application
2) Add the swc to the libraries used by your FLA (open Actionscript 3.0 settings and add "VibrationActionScriptLibrary.swc")
   Btw, you can find this "ready to use" native extension inside the zipfile that you can download from here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/native-extensions-for-air/extensions/vibration.html
   However in my example you will find also a directory named "extension" that contains it.
3) Open and then close the "air for android settings": by doing this Flash will create yourapp-app.xml file in the directory where your FLA resides.
   For example my fla is named "vibrate.fla" so Flash created for me a "vibrate-app.xml" file.
4) Make a copy of this "vibrate-app.xml" file by naming it "real-vibrate-app.xml" (or choose whatever name you want)
   I've done this because after modyfing the original one by adding the <extension> tag (see below) I wasn't able to test my app from within Flash IDE (when I compile it it simply doesn't start)
   Instead by doing this all worked fine.
5) Edit the "real-vibrate-app.xml" file by adding somewhere these lines (I added it just before the <initialWindow> tag)
    <extensions>
      <extensionID>com.adobe.Vibration</extensionID>
    </extensions>
6) Add <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE"/> in the <android> <manifestAdditions> part in "real-vibrate-app.xml" file.
   You should do something like this:
   <android>
      <manifestAdditions>
        <![CDATA[<manifest>
          <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE"/>
        </manifest>]]>
      </manifestAdditions>
   </android>
7) Develop your application
   I made a simple one that loads an external jpg and shows it on the stage: then the user can tap on it to make the phone vibrate.
   The function "doVibration" is called only when the app is running on Android Device so I do not get any executions error when I run the app from within Flash Ide
8) Publish and test it to your USB connected device by launching the "publish.bat" file I have created
   Open a dos prompt and move to your project directory then type publish.bat and press enter.
   Note: it can be that you have to edit the bat file in order to change the path to the ADT tool that comes with Air3.0 sdk
   It should be in [your adobe flash cs5.5 directory]\AIR2.6\bin\adt (rememeber, you must have installed the Air3.0 sdk overlying the old Air2.6/2.7 in the AIR2.6 directory)
   Inside the bat file you can change easily the target type (captive or not) simply by commenting/decommenting the right line.
   Captive version is about 8Mb more than the normal one but the big deal is that the user that installs it do not need the air runtime installed on his phone!
   The "big line" that creates the package is the following one:
   call %ADT_LINK% -package -target %TARGET_TYPE% -storetype pkcs12 -keystore certificate/vibrate.p12 -storepass android AirVibrate.apk real-vibrate-app.xml -extdir extensions vibrate.swf icons assets
   where:
   call %ADT_LINK%          it's just the path to the ADT tool
   -package                 it's the command that we want ADT to execute
   -target %TARGET_TYPE%    captive/non captive version
   -storetype pkcs12        certificate related
   -keystore certificate/vibrate.p12  path to your self signed certificate
   -storepass android       certificate related, I created the example certificate with "android" password and this parameters tell ADT to always use it without prompting
   AirVibrate.apk           the name of the Apk
   real-vibrate-app.xml     the apk-xml to use that is the one we modified manually above
   -extdir extensions       it's the path to the directory that contains the native extension
   vibrate.swf              the main swf
   icons                    the icons directory
   assets                   the assets directory (where I put the external jpg)
That's all.
If everything is correct, the batch file creates the AirVibrate.apk then installs it on your attached usb device and run it.
When you tap over the Android image that will appear, your phone should vibrate.
Now.. does someone wants to develop a Native Extension to show Admob banners in our Android Air Applications?
If I missed something, please let me know.
Thanks