I use FlashDevelop as my code editor and the Flash CS4 IDE for publishing my AIR files (as well as asset control, animation creation etc…). The bonus of this is the Flash IDE handles all the crap of creating certificates and whatnot very easily as well.
Flash CS4 uses Adobe AIR 1.5, which is very old and I am wanting to update it to AIR 2.6, which as of current writing, is the latest version of AIR. Also, I don’t know if this is of any significance, but I would like to publish AIR apps for Android now. I’ve successfully made an AIR app for PC in the past, using AIR 1.5.
I downloaded the AIR 2.6 SDK from the Adobe website and replaced all the files inside the “AIK1.5” folder of my Flash installation (the folder being still named 1.5 inherently annoys me).
Is there any other steps I must take? Because I’m not convinced I’m publishing AIR 2.6 apps as the application.xml file in my AIR project still reads:
<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5">
If I change the version in the .xml, Flash explodes (doesn’t compile, gives me an error).
Furthermore, if I go File > Publish Settings, then the Flash tab, the player field reads as “Adobe AIR 1.5”. Is this right? I’m assuming this will always be this way, even if you do successfully update the AIR version, since apparently Adobe is too lazy to update CS4 so that it can logically figure out it has the new version of AIR.
Also, if AIR is free, why the hell does Adobe not at the very least, release updates to CS4 that update the version of AIR it uses. This seems to be fully within their power, and it seems incredibly negligent that they don’t do this for people who have bought their software.
Please, if you could provide clear step by step help, because I’m very ignorant when it comes to development configurations and stuff. I just want to write code and be off.
UPDATE
Once you’ve updated Flash’s AIR library with AIR 2.6, and have compiled your AIR project, make sure you use the new application descriptor template from the AIR SDK. I originally thought it just required changing the version number from 1.5 to 2.6 or whatever new version you’re using. As seen below.
<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5">
But the format as changed, and you really need to use the new template, otherwise it won’t work. And when you compile you won’t automatically get a preview of your compiled .swf. This will happen in FlashDevelop too if you’ve set-up your descriptor file incorrectly.
Bzzzzzzt wrong you can hack apart your CS IDE and get it working follow the concepts in this tutorial, they should get you going and you should be able to piece it together from there.
http://swfhead.com/blog/?p=16
If you have any problems just post a comment I’ll help you sort it.