NPE in ADTOutputStream.addApplicationDescriptor() line 330 when migrating from AIR 2.6 to AIR 3.5

Question

I have a working maven pom which builds my AIR app using AIR 2.6 and I am trying to migrate it to use the new AIR 3.5 SDK.  According to the official release notes here : http://helpx.adobe.com/en/flash-player/release-note/fp_115_air_35_release_notes.html I need to firstly need to point to the new 3.5 schema in my air-app.xml file as follows: <application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/3.5"> 
I also change my swfVersion and targetPlayer attributes as follows:
<swfVersion>18</swfVersion>
<targetPlayer>11.5</targetPlayer>
I also changed the system Path environment variable on my machine to point the to the bin directory of the new AIR 3.5 sdk, so that when I type adl on the command line it reports back:
Adobe (R) AIR (R) Developer Tool (ADT)
Version 3.5.0.1060
So when flexmojos launches ADL, it is launching the correct version.
However I don't change my flex version which is set to <flex.version>4.5.1.21328</flex.version>, and my flexmojos version which is 4.2-beta.
When I then try and build my project I get the following error:
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.sonatype.flexmojos:flexmojos-maven-plugin:4.2-beta:sign-air (default-sign-air) on pro
ject indigo-air: Error invoking AIR api: NullPointerException -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.sonatype.flexmojos:flexmojos-maven-pl
ugin:4.2-beta:sign-air (default-sign-air) on project indigo-air: Error invoking AIR api
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:217)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBu ilder.java:84)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBu ilder.java:59)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.singleThreadedBuild(LifecycleStarter .java:183)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:161)
        at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:319)
        at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:156)
        at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:537)
        at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:196)
        at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:141)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:290)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:230)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:409)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:352)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException: Error invoking AIR api
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.SignAirMojo.doPackage(SignAirMojo.java:337)
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.SignAirMojo.execute_aroundBody0(SignAirMojo.java:348)
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.SignAirMojo.execute_aroundBody1$advice(SignAirMojo.java :24)
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.SignAirMojo.execute_aroundBody2(SignAirMojo.java:348)
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.SignAirMojo.execute_aroundBody3$advice(SignAirMojo.java :17)
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.SignAirMojo.execute(SignAirMojo.java:1)
        at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.j ava:101)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:209)
        ... 19 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.adobe.air.ADTOutputStream.addApplicationDescriptor(ADTOutputStream.java:330)
        at com.adobe.air.AIROutputStream.addApplicationDescriptor(AIROutputStream.java:63)
        at com.adobe.air.ApplicationPackager.addSpecialFiles(ApplicationPackager.java:242)
        at com.adobe.air.AIRPackager.addSpecialFiles(AIRPackager.java:172)
        at com.adobe.air.ApplicationPackager.createPackage(ApplicationPackager.java:63)
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.packager.FlexmojosAIRPackager.createPackage(FlexmojosAI RPackager.java:42)
        at org.sonatype.flexmojos.plugin.air.SignAirMojo.doPackage(SignAirMojo.java:310)
        ... 26 more
If I try adding explicitly adding the AIR dependencies as follows:
         <dependency>
            <groupId>${flex.groupId}.framework</groupId>
            <artifactId>airframework</artifactId>
            <version>${flex.version}</version>
            <type>pom</type>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>${flex.groupId}.compiler</groupId>
            <artifactId>adt</artifactId>
            <version>${flex.version}</version>
            <scope>compile</scope>
        </dependency>
this has no effect and I still get the NPE error.
Here's the relevant fragment from my pom.xml which configures the flexmojos plugin to build the AIR app:
<plugin>
     <groupId>${flexmojos.groupId}</groupId>
    <artifactId>flexmojos-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>${flexmojos.version}</version>
    <extensions>true</extensions>
    <configuration>
     <testTimeout>100000</testTimeout>
     <fonts>
      <managers>
       <manager>flash.fonts.JREFontManager</manager>
       <manager>flash.fonts.AFEFontManager</manager>
       <manager>flash.fonts.CFFFontManager</manager>
      </managers>
     </fonts>
     <sourceFile>IndigoAir.mxml</sourceFile>
     <flexBuilderCompatibility>true</flexBuilderCompatibility>
     <keystore>${basedir}/src/sign.p12</keystore>
     <storepass>flexmojos</storepass>
     <descriptorTemplate>${basedir}/src/IndigoAir-app.xml</descriptorTemplate>
     <ignoreVersionIssues>false</ignoreVersionIssues>
     <coverage>true</coverage>
     <coverageProvider>cobertura</coverageProvider>
     <coverageReportFormat>
      <format>xml</format>
      <format>html</format>
     </coverageReportFormat>
     <useNetwork>true</useNetwork>
     <themes>
      <theme>${project.build.directory}/themes/spark.swc</theme>
     </themes>
     <includeTypes>swc,css</includeTypes>
     <overWriteIfNewer>true</overWriteIfNewer>
     <targetJdk>1.6</targetJdk>
     <timestampURL>none</timestampURL>
     <optimize>true</optimize>
     <framework>spark</framework>
     <dumpConfigAttach>true</dumpConfigAttach>
     <keepGeneratedActionscript>false</keepGeneratedActionscript>
     <keepAs3Metadatas append="true">
      <keepAs3Metadata>Mock</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>BeforeClass</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>AfterClass</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Before</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>After</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Rule</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Suite</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>RunWith</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Ignore</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Test</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>DataPoint</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>DataPoints</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Parameters</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Theory</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>ArrayElementType</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Log</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Transient</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Inject</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>EventHandler</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>ManagedEvent</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Dispatcher</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>PostConstruct</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Mediate</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>Autowire</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>PreDestroy</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>ViewAdded</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>ViewRemoved</keepAs3Metadata>
      <keepAs3Metadata>ViewNavigator</keepAs3Metadata>
     </keepAs3Metadatas>
    </configuration>
   </plugin>
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?  What is happening at line 330 in ADTOutputStream.addApplicationDescriptor()? This code isn't open sourced so the error message is plain unhelpful! If I use the same AIR sdk but back out the changes for 3.5, then it builds fine with the 2.6 schema. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hi,
I'm kind of replying to my own post here. I have been doing some further development with iOS on AIR 2.6 and I think that unfortunately the new GPU rendering IS actually just a lot slower than it was on the Packager for iPhone.
I know that a lot of people say that Air 2.6 has made their app run 2x faster and a lot of people say the opposite - that moving to 2.6 has made it run 2x slower- I think the difference there is probably that if you had your code properly optimized for GPU under PFI (which took a lot of work) then you will notice a big slowdown.
For example, under PFI, on the iPad at 1024x768 I could have at least 50 large moving sprites on the screen at once running at full 60fps - I dont think that Air 2.6 could even manage that at 30fps (I have taken to lowering my fps to 30 in Air 2.6).
Saying that Air 2.6 does make it a lot easier to port, especially if you are just using bitmaps as dont really have to do anything (unless they scale/rotate), it's more likely to "just work". Also, PFI had a lot of little bugs in it, like certain blending modes only working half the time, and sometimes the framerate would just bomb if you used too much memory.
So I guess bottom line is that Air 2.6 feels a lot more stable and is easier to use, however if you are just purely using the GPU it will be less than half the speed of the old PFI, which is a massive shame.
However I could be missing something here?