Adobe AIR Beta Channel Update
This beta release provides access to the latest AIR runtime and SDK (with compiler) for Windows, Mac OS, iOS and Android.
With this release, we are introducing a new numbering scheme for our product versions. Adopting the pattern set by Google with Chrome andMozilla with Firefox, we will simply update the major version number with each subsequent release. In other words, beginning with the release of"Jones", Flash Player will become Flash Player 12. With each new major release, roughly every 3 months, that number will increase by one.
This change will also apply to AIR and the AIR SDK, albeit not right away. Our "Jones" release will be numbered AIR 4 and AIR SDK 4; however,with our "King" (Q2 2014) release, the version number will be synchronized with the Flash Player version at 13.
Below are some of the key features and benefits of AIR 4.0. Please see our release notes for full details.
New Features:
- iOS - Improved Packaging Engine
We're very excited about this new feature. The new packaging engine we're working on can improve iOS packaging time up to 10 times over the current packager! However this feature is still early in development and we'd like to get your feedback. To enable this feature, please use "-useLegacyAOT no" in the ADT command, before the signing options.
- Graphics: Buffer Usage flag for Stage3D
We've added a new enum Class called Context3DBufferUsage which defines two constants, STATIC_DRAW (default) and DYNAMIC_DRAW. These constants specify how buffers will be used in Stage3D. We've also added a new parameter, called "bufferUsage", to the constructors of VertexBuffer and IndexBuffer. This "bufferUsage" parameter uses one of the constants form Context3DBufferUsage, which will allow you to select the appropriate buffer type according to your needs.
Introduced as a beta feature in AIR 3.9, we're continuing to improve this feature based on your feedback in preparation for an official release in AIR 4.
- Android - Support for native resources access by R* mechanism in native extension
Currently, to use the native Android resources in the Android Native Extension one has to use getResourceID() API while typically to access the resource IDs developers use the R.* mechanism. AIR 4.0 onwards, apps developers will be able to access the resources by R.* mechanism. All the dependencies need to be specified in platform.xml as following and all the dependencies and resources to be packaged in the ANE.
- Supplementary Characters Enhancement Support for TextField – EXTENDED BETA
This is a desktop enhancement for supporting surrogate pairs in the TextField control. Now, characters out of the Basic Multilingual Plane(BMP) with Unicode code points between U+10000 and U+10FFFF will work correctly in the TextField control. It greatly enlarges the code point range we support and includes characters like emotion symbols (emoticons) and complex CCJK characters. This feature is being introduced in the AIR 4 beta but will go live in a subsequent release. Due to the sensitive nature of text display, we would like an extended test period to ensure no bugs are introduced.
- Stage3D Creation of Context3D with Profile Array
We've added a new interface to Stage3D.requestContext3DMatchingProfiles(profiles:Vector.<String> ) which will create a Context3D with highest level suitable profile that is in profile array, based on the current hardware. A developer can check the newly added property 'profile' to obtain the current profile that was chosen by the Flash Runtime.
- Support for Android 4.4 (KitKat)
We've completed our support testing with AIR against the latest Android 4.4 release. Please let us know if you encounter any problems.
Fixed Issues:
- [3680824] - Application playing mp3/video crashes after coming to foreground from background.
About the Beta Channel
If you would like real-time notification for announcements related to the AIR Beta Channel, please subscribe to our Twitter feed@FlashPlayerBeta, or follow the Flash Runtime Announcements forums by choosing "Follow this forum" from the right-hand menu on the Forums page.
You can find instructions for getting started with this release here: AIR Labs Page
We encourage you to let us know what you think on our AIR Labs Forum
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