Flash Pro / AIR 20 currently can't be used for iOS apps? :(

[BorisHansen]

So, two days before needing to upload an app to the App Store, I found out that due to some bugs and flaws in AIR 20 (both the released version and the beta), there's currently no workflow that allows you to create and distribute an iOS app made in Flash Pro. At least I can't figure out the workarond.

The problems seem to be as follows:

1. AIR 20 doesn't add Flash Pro support for the now required 167x167 app icon for iPad Pro. At least I don't see it in my AIR > Icons dialog. This means we don't pass the Application Loader's requiremments anymore. I guess there's a way to get the icon filename into the descriptor XML file manually, but I still haven't figured out what that is. Whenever I open the AIR dialog and whenever I publish from it, the XML file is overwritten, so even if I add the new icon file manually, it'll disappear from the XML when I publish the actual app from Flash Pro.
2. Even if it this wasn't an issue, publishing with AIR 20 currently causes a publishing error regarding an "unexpected element" in the descriptor XML file. This is detailed in Air 20 app.xml versionNumber issue and seems related to AIR 20 writing a <version> node into the XML file rather than using <versionNumber>.

I don't understand why I'm not seeing more threads about this as Flash Pro apparently hasn't had a functioning workflow for creating valid iOS apps since AIR 20 and the new icon requirements from Apple. Am I the only one who still develops with AIR + Flash Pro, or is there something really obvious I'm missing?

[Colin Holgate]

The 167x167 alert from Apple is just a warning, the app should be accepted (I've had several apps just go through the system ok). As an aside, if you are claiming iPad Pro support, which AIR does, you will need to upload screenshots for iPad Pro into iTunesConnect. I just took the iPad Retina screenshots and scaled them up!

You may be able to work around both the issues by adding and removing the bits missing/wrong in the XML, and then do a Publish from the File menu, instead of going back into the publishing settings.

[Pahup]

Hi Boris,

We're aware of these two issues, we checked with Animate CC (Formerly Flash Pro) team, and they expect these bug fixes to go live in their upcoming release in 2016.

-Thanks

Pahup

Adobe AIR

[Lars Laborious · Accepted solution]

Boris, regarding the second issue: For now you can just leave the version field inside Flash CC empty (then it will not add a <version> node). And manually set the <versinNumber> in the XML.

Also, I just tested adding a 167 image node in the xml, like so <image167x167>icons/ikon167.png</image167x167>, and it wasn't overwritten when I published it from the publish settings in Flash. Note, I'm using AIR version 20.0.0215.

[BorisHansen]

Thanks, it's heartening to know that there are some workarounds (although having to use the Publish menu in order to keep the manual XML changes isn't exactly intuitive). I'll try going with this solution and hope that Application Loader lets me through.

[Lars Laborious]

Sorry, I meant the AIR for IOS settings. It didn't get overwritten when publishing from there.

[FingersCrossed]

Hello - so is this the recommended current workaround ... did you have success Boris?

[BorisHansen]

jotstudio - I have succesfully exported and uploaded a new app through Application Loader today, so yes - although review is of course still pending. As suggested above, I

1. set up my desired settings in the AIR dialog using AIR 19.x (forget which one)
2. published the app to get a working descriptor file without the <version> node that causes the error
3. added the <image167x167> tag in a text editor
4. switched to AIR 20 in Flash Pro (NOT the current beta SDK, btw, as that one apparently adds a signature that will cause an 'invalid bundle' in iTunes Connect - this is a separate issue that Adobe seems to be aware of). Instead use the non-beta 20.0.0.204 which signs the ipa file correctly.
5. used the Publish command straight from the File menu to publish the app with AIR 20 without changing the descriptor file

[FingersCrossed]

Well I submitted a version using the same technique - no problems during upload. So hopefully all will be OK. Thanks for the help guys!

[Roshan Chhetri]

Hi All,

The issue of invalid build has been fixed on both Win and Mac AIR SDK's.

Please find the fix here: Download Adobe AIR 22 Beta - Adobe Labs

Thanks for your patience. Kindly let us know if you have any queries.

-Roshan

Adobe Air