New AIR version (21.0.0.176) - still no Windows fix?

[Lars Laborious]

A new non-beta version of AIR was released yesterday, but in the release notes it still says we can't package IPA on a Windows machine for release.

Adobe, is this for  real? It's been a while since AIR 19.

[Anki_AG_]

Hi,

Yes, we certainly understand the inconvenience you might be facing because of this. However, I am sorry to inform that we're still investigating this issue, and there hasn't been any significant progress on it. The problems that we're facing is that things have changed from Apple verification side, and it isn't looking straight forward to port these new changes on signing process for a Windows system. I would want to re-iterate that the issue comes into picture only while uploading the final IPA, and it shouldn't hinder any development or testing phases. So, you may still continue all your development on a Windows system, the final IPA build however should be packaged on a Mac for a successful upload to iTunes store.

Thanks,

Adobe AIR Team

[Lars Laborious]

Thanks for answering.

Good to know you are still actively trying to solve it.

The problem for indie developers like me, is that we don't have unlimited access to equipments. Meaning, in my case, while we do have a simple Macbook for uploading IPAs through Application Loader, packaging is normally done on Windows where all the files reside. So there's no quick fix using the Mac for packaging - since we would have to install Adobe Animate CC on the Mac and move all files to generate the swf for packaging + creating the keychain there (instead of using openSSL on Windows). Or am I missing something?

We might be better off giving up Windows.

[Anki_AG_]

Hi,

You just need Mac machine for packaging the final ipa. Please use this adt command on Mac

adt -package -target ipa -storetype pkcs12 -keystore <certificate> -storepass <password> <ipa name> <xml> -C <swf> -C <assets>

Before that please make sure that certifcate has been added to the keychain of Mac machine. If possible, please try this out.

Thanks,

Adobe Air Team

[fhfghgfh434]

> You just need Mac machine for packaging the final ipa.

This is NOT true. You can not create any kind of binary that works in Windows. It returns the very descriptive ApplicationVerifiedError when you try to install it.

After looking at logs you will see something like  

__MobileInstallationInstallForLaunchServices_block_invoke222: Returned error Error Domain=MIInstallerErrorDomain Code=13

"Failed to verify code signature of /private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installd.staging/temp.QPqyl7/extracted/Payload/myApp_DEV.app : 0xe8008017 (A signed resource has been added, modified, or deleted.)"

UserInfo={LibMISErrorNumber=-402620393,

LegacyErrorString=ApplicationVerificationFailed,

FunctionName=+[MICodeSigningVerifier _validateSignatureAndCopyInfoForURL:withOptions:error:],

NSLocalizedDescription=Failed to verify code signature of /private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installd.staging/temp.QPqyl7/extracted/Payload/myApp_DEV.app : 0xe8008017 (A signed resource has been added, modified, or deleted.),

SourceFileLine=142}

[phonefusionryan]

Hi are you absolutely sure? Maybe I've a lack of context but I am able to build an IPA on windows 10 with AIR 20 and  install and debug on devices correctly. From my understanding it really is just the final package. You may have some other error

Regardless this is ridiculous bug and should have been fixed/prioritized over EVERY SINGLE OTHER feature that just came out with AIR 21.

[fhfghgfh434]

Yes, Im sure.

Maybe its only happening if you use ANEs (or certain ANEs)? We've found that usgin ANEs that include the Google services SDK tend to break AIR.

Sadly this is not a part of our game that we can omit, since we're using it to persist player's progress across devices.

Also we are a small shop and can not afford the time and costs to buy a few Macs, move all our build pipeline and config to them. This would take for us weeks and we can not afford the lots productivity and expeneses

[phonefusionryan]

Well maybe it is specifically the Google services ANEs your using.

For my app I'm able to compile on iOS correctly including all the following ANEs in 1 single app with AIR 20:

Distriqt's Application

Distriqt's NetworkInfo

Distriqt's ForceTouch

Distriqt's Camera

Distriqt's Core

Milkman Game's EasyPush Notifications

Milkman Game's Google Analytics

MyFlashLab's GPS

MyFlashLab's commonDependences

FreshPlanet's KeyboardSize

Caffaware's Touch ID

Katopz' Device-Info-Util

not saying I don't believe you, just trying to help narrow what it could be.

I 100% agree with the statment about Mac option being a pain and they are definitely way overpriced...though unless your using a build server to compile i've been able to move my project I mentioned above to a mac in about 30 minutes or so. But yeah a build server that s a diff story.

also another project I'm doing in AIR 20 as well only has Distriqt's Adverts ANE that requires you to also use their GooglePlayServices ANE and it also compiles correctly. Maybe you could try them.

[Guest]

>Regardless this is ridiculous bug and should have been fixed/prioritized over EVERY SINGLE OTHER feature that just came out with AIR 21.

I'd agree with this - it's beyond a joke now and hardly the first time we've been waiting months for solutions - looking @ the latest web bumf for 'Animate' - it's pretty clear Adobe's priorities are elsewhere. 

>>Maybe its only happening if you use ANEs (or certain ANEs)?

FWIW I'm on Win10/FB4.7 and can debug/run on devices using this week's 21.176 -  I'm using MMG's GameCenter and rebuild of Meller's NativeUtils ANEs which are functioning.

>>Also we are a small shop and can not afford the time and costs to buy a few Macs, move all our build pipeline and config to them. This would take for us weeks and we can not afford the lots productivity and expenses

Same here - but the best alternatives for iOS development are all OSX reliant so the move looks inevitable to me. You're a braver man than I if you're prepared to bet your business that Adobe won't draw a line under AIR this year.

[Roshan Chhetri]

Hi fhfghgfh434‌,

Regarding "You can not create any kind of binary that works in Windows. It returns the very descriptive ApplicationVerifiedError when you try to install it."

This issue is also related to the way the ipa is signed. The issue occures when the app has Info.plist file in the asset/ANE. We are working to fix these issues.

-Roshan

[fhfghgfh434]

Thanks for the info!

Anything we can do in our side to circumvent this? Like removing all info.plist files from the ANEs?

Also do you have any ETA for this partial fix? (we could live with the fact that we cant submit a build created on Windows) A rough time (days? weeks? months?) would be fine too.

[Lars Laborious]

So I can publish the swf from Adobe Animate on my Windows and use it when compiling on the Mac?

[Flipline]

I'm also disappointed to see this is still an issue with Windows, though I've heard packaging still works fine on AIR 18 and AIR 19, is this correct?  It's surprising that the older versions can still package correctly, and it's just newer versions of AIR that are unable to do so.  Is this related to AIR 20 and 21 using a newer iOS SDK?

By the way, thank you for shedding some light a little on what's happening regarding Apple verification changes -- up until now Adobe hasn't been very forthcoming about this issue's cause, so we haven't even known why this became an issue.  I think for a lot of us, being able to publish on Windows is a critical issue to our workflow, and the only feedback we've seen is it being noted inconsequentially in release notes as a "known issue" along with minor things and never actually addressed.

[Colin Holgate]

I'm partly guessing about this, but previously you could somehow make a P12 on Windows that would work, but recently Apple's own certificate expired. We Mac users had to recreate our P12s too. My suspicion is that there is a slight change that makes the creating of a P12 on Windows more challenging. But, it could be that nobody has tried! If you remember how you made a P12, have you done that recently? Could you try again, only starting from the point after where Apple had to renew their own certificate?

[Julien26]

Hi guys,

Just a question : I'm using Air 20, and I just tried to package the new version of my app for the App Store using Animate CC on Windows, and that worked pretty well, as usual. I have been able to send the binary with Application Loader, select the binary in itunesconnect and submit the new version for verification.

Will the bug appear later in the process, or didn't I encounter the bug ? Because I don't want to wait 6-10 days to finally have the app rejected because of that bug.

Thanks in advance

[Lars Laborious]

Hi Julien26,

Last time I tried submitting an app - with version 20 - it failed when trying to upload through Application Loader, so I'd say it does look promising if you got it passed that point.

Two questions: Have you heard anything from Apple yet? And are you using new p12 / certificates (ref. what Colin is talking about)?

[Julien26]

My app is still waiting verification ! I'll let you know when the status changes.

And yes I created a new certificate for that upload on my mac, because my previous certificate expired. I followed the steps on developer.apple.com to create the new certificate, and I exported the .p12 file directly from the Mac Keychain. I could use it on Windows without problem.

Like Colin said, I see in the mac keychain that Apple's certificate expired because I have a warning that my certificate isn't valid, even if I installed Apple's latest version. But I'm pretty sure that if the certificate wasn't OK the Application Loader would have told me something, so I hope that my app will be accepted !

[Colin Holgate]

You using a Mac to make the P12 is a different combination to others who are doing all stages on Windows.

BTW, you should delete the expired certificate from Keychain Access. Until I did that I couldn't even install onto my own devices.

[Julien26]

If the problem is for creating the P12 on Windows, the label in the release note should be changed ! It says the following :

[iOS][Win] IPA packaged on Windows machine cannot be submitted to the Apple App store. Error "This build is invalid" occurs in iTunes connect.

I think that a lot of developers have a mac for the Application Loader, so they should know that if the certificate is created on a mac they will be able to upload the IPA ! I was ready to spend my afternoon configuring the mac to build the application with command lines and adt, luckily for me I decided to take 15 minutes to test the build with Windows !

[Colin Holgate]

The part you quote is in the list of things that were fixed. That is, you can now submit to the Mac App Store. This discussion is about submitting to the iOS store, as mentioned in the known issues list:

[iOS][Win] IPA packaged on Windows machine cannot be submitted to the Apple App store. Error "This build is invalid" occurs in iTunes connect.

The problem may not be to do with the P12, but if Mac users cannot submit without updating the P12, I would expect Windows users to also have to update the P12. Julien26 did make a new P12, and seems to have got past the Application Loader stage.

[Julien26]

Yeah I saw after sending my post that I didn't quote the correct line. I edited my post but the modification doesn't appear (but it's still there if I try to re-edit my post... it's strange).

[Julien26]

For information, my app got accepted and is now live ! So the final IPA was built with Air 20 on Windows (with Animate CC), and the P12 certificate was exported from Keychain on the mac ! And of course I had to use Application Loader to send the IPA.

[Lars Laborious]

That's good news!

Makes you wonder if you can actually export the P12 on Windows as well (with OpenSSL) as long as you create a new certificate.

[Guest]

>Makes you wonder if you can actually export the P12 on Windows as well (with OpenSSL) as long as you create a new certificate.

Doesn't help with ANEs - our Windows build was rejected although we could test and debug on devices. Wasting a lot of time now as FB4.7 no longer works consistently under El Capitan either  - have had to uninstall/reinstall a couple of times this week already as it keeps corrupting itself. We're ditching AIR for new work but have several apps to maintain - Animate doesn't cut it - is there a good run down pro/cons page on 3rd party IDEs for OSX anyone can recommend.

[fhfghgfh434]

IntelliJ ultimate is the best AS3 IDE currently. But for building project I recommend to have a proper tool that can make reproducable build via command line. Either write Ant scripts or use GradleFx for this.