Encouraged by FB 4.6 builds for iOS/Android working nice

[Alan_Gruskoff]

Like lots of Flex/Flash developers, I was disheartened to hear that Adobe was abandoning Flash mobile, thinking that left me in a diminished place. Yet my new Kindle Fire (Android 2.3) device came with Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7 installed, so it seems rumors of Flash's demise are premature.

In wanting the Adobe promoted "One Code Base" and not wanting to deal with 99 new languages, I spent some time seeing if I could make a trivial App on both iOS and Android. Since I do have an App in iTunes and in the Android Store, I have the requisite certifications which on iOS is half the battle.  I found it amusing that my Apple Developer cert worked fine to sign my Android App.

I was rather pleasantly suprised to see FB build an .ipa file that went right into iTunes, then right onto my iPad and my iPod Touch 4. Cool.

I thought I would have no trouble with porting to Android. Initially, the Kindle Fire was a liitle snot in that while it had AIR 2.7 from the factory, it would not install the provided upgrade to the REQUIRED AIR 3.1 that FB builds wants. A little research shows that I need to do an Export Release Build with Packaging Settings / Export Options set to "Export application with captive runtime", which means the FB builds the Android .apk file with the right version of AIR built in. Nice.  My trivial "show 2 photos" App was 9.4 Meg, which seems fine to me since it installed on the Kindle Fire easily.

So the Adobes were right - I can use FB for browser / desktop / iOS / Android devices with code and skills I already have.

Cool. Watch out now...

- Alan Gruskoff

Digital Showcase LLC

[sainicarls]

Hi Alan,

I have developed cross platform mobile application with Adobe Flash 4.5. I am facing issue with uploading the ipa file to my Company's App Central. When i connected with App Central Support, they told me that file is  not properly created by FB. Application is running fine on simulator and iPad. I uploaded to my iPad through iTunes.

The error i get is(during uploading the ipa to appcentral):

"/opt/ac/appcentral-storage/upload.tmp1318965792214/outfile.xml(No such file or directory)" please upload valid file.

Do you have any idea?

[Alan_Gruskoff]

While I am not qualified to debug your app and have no idea what "your Company's App Central" is, please note this fundamental premise of my post:

Encouraged by FB 4.6 builds...

Not Flex 3, 4, 4.5 builds, this testing was done using FB 4.6 which has advanced iOS/Android building built in. That was the nature of my test. Thats why Adobe issues upgrades.  Knowing that, you need to upgrade to FB 4.6, which is no charge and accepts your 4.5 serial number.  Remember to fully de-install FB 4.5, then install FB 4.6.

good luck with that.

[sainicarls]

Alan,

Thanks it works!

one more question, I am able to upload the application to my opad through iTune, but on itune i can only  see the Application name. No icon and description/category like education/health etc if i like to put. Although when i uplaod on ipad it display icon there.

Thanks

[Alan_Gruskoff]

Glad you were able to get things working, it encourages more experimenting when you see some positive results.

My simple tests expectedly did not bring in all the good meta data and icons, since I never defined such. Both iOS and Android have very specific ways to Sign and Package your App. The good meta data and icons are part of each Packaging activity.

[Alan_Gruskoff]

On this Subject:

I just bought this book "Flex Mobile in Action"  which details fine points on this development style.

See http://www.manning.com/campos/

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