Publishing AIR for Android applications

Animate allows you to publish content for Adobe® AIR™ for Android.

This article describes configuring the AIR for Android publish settings in Animate. For complete information about developing Adobe AIR™ applications, see Building Adobe AIR Applications.

For information about hardware and software requirements for desktop and mobile AIR applications, see AIR system requirements.

For complete AIR developer documentation see the Adobe AIR Reference.

 (AIR 3.7 only) Packaging applications with only captive runtime (Android)

With AIR 3.7, packaging of AIR applications for Android in any target will embed the AIR runtime. This would help in improving the user-experience as there would be no need to download the AIR runtime separately. A side-effect would however be that there would be an increase in app size of around 9MB.

Animate displays warnings if an AIR for Android application was packaged using the Shared Runtime option.

You can create Adobe AIR for Android documents in Animate using the File > New command. You can also create an ActionScript® 3.0 FLA file and convert it to an AIR for Android file through the Publish Settings dialog box.

To create an AIR for Android file, do one of the following:

• Choose AIR for Android from the Welcome screen or the New Document dialog box (File > New).

• Open an existing FLA file and convert it to an AIR for Android file. Select AIR for Android from the Target menu in the Publish Settings dialog box (File > Publish Settings).

Preview or publish an AIR for Android application

You can preview a Animate AIR for Android SWF file as it would appear in the AIR application window. Previewing is useful when you want to see what the visible aspects of the application look like without packaging and installing the application.

If you have not set application settings through the Application & Installer Settings dialog box, Animate enerates a default application descriptor file (swfname-app.xml) for you. Animate creates the file in the same folder where the SWF file is written. If you have set application settings using the Application & Installer Settings dialog box, the application descriptor file reflects those settings.

To publish an AIR for Android file, do one of the following:

• Click the Publish button in the Publish Settings dialog box.

• Click the Publish button in the AIR for Android Settings dialog box.

• Choose File > Publish.

• Choose File >Publish Preview.

When you Publish an AIR file, Animate creates a SWF file and XML application descriptor file. Then Animate packages copies of both, along with any other files you have added to your application, into an AIR installer file (swfname.apk).

Creating AIR for Android applications

After you’ve finished developing your application, specify the settings for the AIR for Android application descriptor and installer files required to deploy it. Animate creates the descriptor and installer files along with the SWF file when you publish an AIR for Android file.

You specify the settings for these files in the AIR for Android - Application & Installer Settings dialog box. Once you have created an AIR for Android file, this dialog box can be opened from the document Property inspector. You can also access it from the Player menu Settings button in the Animate tab of the Publish Settings dialog box.

Create the Adobe AIR application file

The AIR for Android Application and Installer Settings dialog box is divided into four tabs: General, Deployment, Icons, and Permissions.

General settings

The General tab of the AIR for Android Application and Installer Settings dialog box contains the following options:

The name and location of the AIR file to create when using the Publish command. The output filename extension is APK.

The name used by the AIR application installer to generate the application filename and the application folder. The name must contain only valid characters for filenames or folder names. Defaults to the name of the SWF file.

Identifies your application with a unique ID. You can change the default ID if you prefer. Do not use spaces or special characters in the ID. The only valid characters are 0-9, a-z, A-Z, and . (dot), from 1 to 212 characters in length. Defaults to com.adobe.example.applicationName.

Optional. Specifies a version number for your application. Defaults to 1.0.

Optional. A string to describe the version.

Allows you to select Portrait, Landscape, or Auto orientation for the application. When Auto is selected along with Auto orientation, the application launches on the device depending on its current orientation.

Sets the application to run in full screen mode. This setting is deselected by default.

Allows the application to switch from portrait to landscape mode, depending on the current orientation of the device. This setting is deselected by default.

Allows you to specify which method the AIR runtime uses to render graphic content. The options include:

• Auto - automatically detect and use the fastest rendering method available on the host device.
  
  
• CPU - Use the CPU.
  
  
• GPU - Use the GPU. If no GPU is available, the CPU is used.
  
  
• Direct - Render using Stage3D. This is the fastest available rendering method.

For a list of processors that do not support Direct mode, see Stage3D unsupported chipsets, drivers | Flash Player 11, AIR 3.

Processor: Allows you to select the processor type of the devices that you are publishing the application for. The supported processor types are ARM and Intel x86. Support for x86 processors is available since the Animate 2014.1 release. 

Specifies which additional files and folders to include in your application package. Click the Plus (+) button to add files, and the folder button to add folders. To delete a file or folder from your list, select the file or folder and click the Minus (-) button.

By default, the application descriptor file and the main SWF file are automatically added to the package list. The package list shows these files even if you have not yet published the Adobe AIR FLA file. The package list displays the files and folders in a flat structure. Files in a folder are not listed, and full paths to files are shown but are truncated if necessary.

If you have added any AIR native extension files to the ActionScript library path, those files will appear in this list as well.

Icon files are not included in the list. When Animate packages the files, it copies the icon files to a temporary folder that is relative to the location of the SWF file. Animate deletes the folder after packaging is complete.

Deployment settings

The Deployment tab of the AIR for Android Application and Installer Settings dialog box lets you specify the following settings.

The digital certificate for the application. You can browse to a certificate or create a new one. Note certificates for Android applications must have a validity period set to at least 25 years.

The password for the selected digital certificate.

Specifies which type of package to create.

• The Device Release setting allows you to create packages for the marketplace or any other distribution medium such as a website.
• The Emulator Release setting allows you to create packages for debugging in the Mobile Device Simulator.
• The Debug setting allows you to do on-device debugging, including setting breakpoints in Animate and remote debugging the application running on the Android device. You can also choose which netwirk interface and IP address to use for debugging sessions.
  

Specifies how the application should behave on devices that do not already have the AIR runtime installed.

• Embed AIR runtime with application adds the runtime to the application installer package so that no additional download will be required. This increases the size of your application package significantly.
  
• Get AIR runtime from makes the installer to download the runtime from Google Playstore or Amazon Appstore.

Allows you to specify whether to install the application on a currently connected Android device, and whether to immediately launch the application after the installation.

Icons settings

The Icons tab of the AIR for Android Application And Installer Settings dialog box lets you specify an icon for the Android application. The icon is shown after you install the application and run it in the AIR for Android runtime. You can specify different sizes for the icon for different views in which the icon appears. The icons you choose for Android do not have to strictly adhere to these sizes.

To specify an icon, click an icon size in the Icons tab and then navigate to the file you want to use for that size. The files must be in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format.

If you do not supply an image for a particular icon size, Adobe AIR scales one of the supplied images to create the missing icon image.

Permissions settings

The Permissions tab allows you to specify which services and data the application has access to on the device.

• To apply a permission, select its checkbox.

• To see a description of a permission, click the permission name. The description appears below the permission list.

• To manually manage permissions instead of using the dialog box, select “Manually manage permissions and manifest additions in the application descriptor file”.

Languages settings

The Languages pane alllows you to select the languages that you want your application to be associated with in the application store or marketplace. By selecting a language, you enable users of the Android operating system in that language to download your application. Note that these language settings do not do anything else to localize your application user interface.

If no languages are selected, the application is published with all languages supported. This prevents you from needing to select every language. The languages listed are those supported by Adobe AIR. Android may support additional languages.

 Air for android supports three new languages: Danish, Hebrew, and Norwegian.