Is it still possible to package an AIR 2.0.2 application for iOS?

[margaret_moser]

I am trying to use AIR to package an app for the older iOS hardware  that AIR 2.6 doesn't support. However, I seem to be at a bad place in the product lifecycle and I can't figure out how to get anything onto my device.

The original pipeline for AIR->iOS was to compile a  swf using Flex 4.0.1/AIR 2.0.2 and then use pfi (Packager for iPhone) to  make the app. But Adobe has taken down  the PFI page on Labs, and the archived version of AIR 2.0.2 does not  include pfi. So it looks like the command-line adt from AIR 2.6 is my only option. But I can't get it to make a package that my second-gen iTouch understands.

What I am doing is using mxmlc to compile a swf for Flex 4.1 (which is pointed at AIR 2.0.2) and Flash Player 10. Then I give it to adt with an app descriptor that  specifies 2.0 as the AIR namespace. This produces an ipa  without any errors, but my iPod rejects the app with the same message it  uses when I try to give it a 2.6 app : "This application is not  compatible with this iPod." So it looks like the newer build tool only  wants to make the newer kind of ipa and doesn't respect the specified  namespace.

Am I out of luck here or is there still some way to do this?

[Colin Holgate]

If you still have Flash CS5 installed somewhere (or know anyone who does), the PFI is in there.

[margaret_moser]

That's kind of the problem – I just shelled out for CS5.5, so all I've got is the latest and supposedly greatest. Indeed, packaging things for the newer iOS devices with 2.6 is smooth and painless. But the project requires that we support the older devices.

[TopoBuilder]

I have the same issue. Installing CS5 from the installdisc is not an option, because it didn't ship with the updates PFI-version that Adobe releases somewhere in October 2010.

[sanika_Kulshreshtha]

Check out http://blogs.adobe.com/labs/archives/2010/06/packager_for_ip.html

-Sanika

[margaret_moser]

@Sanika: Alas, the download link from http://blogs.adobe.com/labs/archives/2010/06/packager_for_ip.html goes to http://www.adobe.com/products/air/tools/, which is only the latest versions.

[relaxatraja]

You can download it from here:

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flash/updates/11/ios/win/PFI_WIN_2_0_1_12640.zip

[margaret_moser]

@relaxatraja : thank you, the link works and does have the pfi jar in it. Alas, I am on a Mac, so I can't use the pfi.exe.

But in the course of digging into this issue, I notice that the adt command-line tool is basically just a wrapper for the adt jar. If the pfi tool is set up the same way, maybe I can just call it like this:

java -jar pfi.jar OPTIONS

and I won't need the exe anyway. I'll try that and see what happens.

[TopoBuilder]

You could also download the mac-version at:

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flash/updates/11/ios/mac/PFI_MAC_2_ 0_1_12640.zip

[margaret_moser]

Nice! I swear I tried that URL (substituting "mac" for "win" and "MAC" for "WIN" in the one relaxatraja posted), but I guess I missed something.

Ironically, it doesn't include a binary either, but a simple alias works:

alias pfi='java -jar /path/to/PFI/lib/pfi.jar'

And it did indeed produce an ipa without error. I don't have my hardware with me, but I'll be able to test it tonight. Meanwhile, I think I'm in business. Thank you all!