If you want to take advantage of the new features in AIR 1.5 – Flash Player 10, encrypted databases, etc. – then you’ll have to update your Flex Projects, or create new ones, to work with the new framework. Here are the steps that I went through. Actually, these are the abbreviated steps that don’t include all of the wrong ways that I did it first. :)
I have already updated to Flex Builder 3.0.2 and the Flex SDK 3.2 so that’s where I’m starting here. If you haven’t yet updated then you may need to backtrack and take care of that first. Here are a few useful links to take care of that:
- Introducing Flex SDK 3.2 and Flex Builder 3.0.2, by Matt Chotin
- Sim Bateman has a screencast for setting up Flex Builder to create Gumbo apps which is pretty much what you need for going to AIR 1.5.
Create/Update a project
Right-click on your project and select properties -> Flex Compiler. Make sure you are using the 3.2 SDK.
Line 2 of you’re Adobe AIR Application Descriptor File Template – usually appName-app.xml – should read:
<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5">
That should cover it.
Quick 3D test
If you would like to take it for a quick test drive then try something simple like transforming a component in 3D like such:
// runs on creationComplete
private function init():void {
var m3D:Matrix3D = new Matrix3D();
m3D.appendRotation( -10, Vector3D.Z_AXIS );
m3D.appendRotation( 15, Vector3D.Y_AXIS );
panel.transform.matrix3D = m3D; // ID of some 'panel' you created
}
AIR 1.5 specific
If you would like to try out one of the new AIR 1.5 specific features then try H. Paul Robertson’s Working with the encrypted local SQLite database. All you have to do is copy/paste his code – and don’t forget to add the EncryptionKeyGenerator.as file. His example won’t work without AIR 1.5. If you try it in AIR 1.0 you’ll get an error: Incorrect number of arguments. Expected no more than 5. line 55.
You can also add minimumPatchLevel="7220" in the application descriptor as an attribute to the <application> tag to force the runtime to update before installing/updating the application.
@Greg, thanks for sharing. I saw somewhere that and had no idea what it meant. Way to be descriptive, eh?
very confused. i've tried this with 3.2 and all I get is "Variable Matrix3D is not defined."
I've tried to then import flash.geom.Matrix3D, but its not listed.
Thoughts?
@ben are you sure you're targetting the new player? Make sure the 3.2 compiler is set in the "Flex Compiler" section of flex builder. If you're running this just as Flash and not AIR I believe you also have to add
-target-player=10
as an additional arg to specify it's for Flash Player 10.
@ben, are you using the code that I wrote above? Just guessing but if you have a variable named 'Matrix3D' you're going to have a problem because that's the name of the package.
Have you updated to Flex Builder 3.0.2? Before I did I was missing a lot of code hinting for things like the BitmapData and Graphics when working with the 3.2 SDK.
@Greg, thanks for pointing out the command line instruction.
@All…
Yup.. that was it. -target-player=10. I had set the target player in the flex config file, but evidently you also have to set it in the compiler arguments. I thought I had read it was an either/or situation. It appears not.
@Greg, I haven't noticed the code hinting (yet), but truly my goal was to take advantage of Sound.extract for the project I am on, for which I haven't noticed any issues.
Thanks for your help!
Do you have an update for this tutorial or is it still relevant? I’m a noob and still learning
@Renda The steps are still relevant. Just use the latest SDKs.