Android APK Expansion Files for Apps over 50MB

[kirit_tanna]

Hello Support,

We are building a new version of an app pubished on PlayStore (built with Adobe AIR) and need to embed higher resolution images. This results in my app apk file size which is over 100 MB.

Google allows to upload apks that are <= 50 MB. For apps which require more storage capacity than this limit, expansion files are needed.

Can you please inform us about how to incorporate these expansion files with an AIR app?

Is there a native extension or a built-in feature to prepare the expansion files and surpass the limit?

I've looked in the forums & there is no definite answer or solution.

If this is not possible at present, can you please add it to the wishlist for the next version of Adobe AIR SDK? Or perhaps, release a free/paid native-extension which enables this.

Thanks!

[practical_code1549]

Wolfgang Klopf wrote:

Yes, this extension runs only on Android devices.

For $60, I would expect it includes a 'default' implementation so that we don't constantly need to remove the extension everytime we need to build for iOS or Desktop.

Can you confirm??

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

No default implementation included.

[practical_code1549]

Wolfgang Klopf wrote:

No default implementation included.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Could you add it? It would only take a few minutes to add a default, and would literally be the difference between us buying it or not. It's just so much easier to work with multiple platforms smoothly.

Not having default means constantly having to switch publish settings in FlashBuilder each time we want to debug on device instead of desktop, which adds up to a lot of wasted time. Pretty much all commercially available ANE's include a default implementation.

Cheers,

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

You are right that I should add a default implementation. I hope I can find the time to add it within the next few days. I keep you updated.

[practical_code1549]

Sweet, thanks!

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

The ANE now includes a default implementation.

[practical_code1549]

Perfect, purchasing right now, thanks for the quick update.

[practical_code1549]

I've got everything working except the download process.

No matter what I try and do, the download always fails, and I get a notification "Download failed because the resource can  not be found."

I have added the expansion pack to the APK, I have left the APK in draft mode, and also tried a seperate id using a published 'beta' version, and no matter what I try I can't seem to get this download to kick off.

I've triple-checked the license key and it's definately correct.

Pretty much at a loss... any ideas? From what I can tell, if your app is in "Draft" mode, the expansion should be available for download right away? Or do I need to wait a few hours...

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

The download of your OBB file should cause no problems but after uploading the file it takes some time until it will be available for download.

[practical_code1549]

Thanks Wolfgang, the download is working fine today, I guess it just takes some time.

Now I'm hitting a strange issue, where any files I try and retrieve are always null. The exact same code was working yesterday, I've tried a "-dump" on the OBB, and it's containing all the correct files. Have you ever seen this behavior?

The only change I can think of is that we changed the package name to "com.treefortress.Bardbarian" from "com.treefortress.bardbarian". Is it possible the extension has a bug related to upper-case characters in package ids?

[practical_code1549]

And now I am not getting any events at all after calling files.getStatus(), I make the call, and no event is fired at all into the handler. It's doing this on two different devices...

Man, this just isn't my day, not a single thing has gone right or smoothly... starting to question my sanity over here 😕

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

And now I am not getting any events at all after calling files.getStatus()

Does this happen when you test your app locally?

When you're testing the app with the OBB locally it is important that you first put the OBB on your device and after that install the APK.

Each time you test a new APK version you have to first delete the OBB and put it again on your testing device. After that install the APK.

[practical_code1549]

Just wanted to follow up on this, as I wasn't totally insane.

On some devices, I don't get any progress or error events after calling startDownload(). The exact same code that works on my Nexus 7 never works on the HTC One.

So I just had to add a small timeout, if nothing happens in 10 seconds, it manually dispatches an error event.

I was also able to architect the expansion pack to be optional (HD Textures), so if it can't be downloaded, the game will just boot up with SD textures and still be full playable. Hopefully I don't have to add much more as we're sitting at 49mb

Thanks Wolfgang!

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

Hi Shawn,

I'm sorry that you had problems with the ANE but I'm glad you've found a solution for your app.

I've tested the ANE without any problems on the following devices:

HTC Desire - Android 2.3.3

LG - Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 - Android 4.4.2

Asus - Nexus 7 - Android 4.4.2

Sony Xperia Go - Android 4.1.2

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - Android 4.0.4

Usually during the initial installation the expansion file and the apk are loaded together and automatically. Is it required for the HTC One that startDownload() is called even when the user loads the app from the store?

Best

Wolfgang

[practical_code1549]

No worries, I'm sure it's just some Android stupidness.

Everything does work fine whn downloading the app from the store, so it's just a small edge case.

[practical_code1549]

Hey Wolfgang, some minor polish issues I'm seeing:

1. When loading, I'm see two Android spinners, off centered, and it doesn't look too great.

2. When using in LOW_PROFILE Fullscreen mode (SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LOW_PROFILE), this extension pops me out of LOW_PROFILE and puts me back in normal FULLSCREEN mode. So I need to manually switch back each time a window has closed.

Not sure if these are fixable, and they're not a big deal, but I thought I may as well report them.

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

Hi Shawn,

thanks for your feedback.

Point 1. sounds strange. I'm not setting any spinners and I don't see where the used Google packages would do so.

[practical_code1549]

[EDIT] Sorry Wolfgang, I got my wires crossed with this one. ignore the issues, it's related to something else.

Thank's again for the great plugin

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

Hi Shawn,

thanks, that reliefed me

I was just looking and I had no clue where these spinner would come from.

[practical_code1549]

haha I need sleep man. Sorry again for the false alarm!

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

no worries

[Guest]

Hi! I wanted to ask you if the extension is working with APK files I exported from Adobe Air. I created an app that is over 50MB and now I am thinking of creating a loader app that will be used as the main APK and downloads my "real" app, which will be an obb file. In this case, what will be downloaded will actually be a second APK with my app. Is this what you guys do with the extension or you use it to download and append assets?

Thanks in advance!

[Wolfgang_Klopf]

Hi Shawn,

Is it possible the extension has a bug related to upper-case characters in package ids?

no, there exists no upper case character bug.

It is important when you create your OBB files that the package name matches the app package name.

For example:

<versionNumber>1.1</versionNumber>

<id>com.treefortress.Bardbarian<id>

JOBB command (with Air prefix)

jobb -pn air.com.treefortress.Bardbarian -pv 1 -o directory/main.1001000.air.com.treefortress.Bardbarian.obb.......

When you create a new OBB file and upload it to Google Play it is important that the version number of the obb file (main | patch.1001000) must match app version number.

[John_Locke_2013]

I was testing on an emulator, not the device. I will try device now. Thanks!