Nostalgic about 'apk-debug'

[MrStrawberry]

Although it was probably a wise move to remove support for shared runtime deployment in the 3.7 SDK it would still be handy to have the old 'apk-debug' mode around for testing purposes.

Building an app with the captive runtime increases both build and install times quite substantially so if there's any chance to bring back some sort of lightweight test mode that would be great.

[krgupta]

Hi,

Could you please let us know if there are any problems that you are facing with apk-debug target?

[MrStrawberry]

Sure, when I use ADT with "-target apk-debug" I get the following message:

NOTE: The AIR SDK no longer supports packaging android applications for use with the shared Runtime.

The application has been packaged with a captive Runtime.

So from what I can tell building with apk-debug is no different from building with apk-captive-runtime. Another thing I just noticed in 3.7 is that a file named adobeair.vch is now added to the build. Is this required and what does it do?

Thanks,

Lars

[krgupta]

Yes, with AIR 3.7 all the Android applications will be captive. So, application packaged with apk-debug target will also have runtime embedded.

Please let us know if you are facing any issues with the application packaged with apk-debug target?

Also let us know the location of the file adobeair.vch file that you can see added to the build?

Thanks,

Krati

[MrStrawberry]

Well, everything still works, but as I said before: adding the complete runtime to every build greatly increases the build time which is not very practical.

I think using the captive runtime as default for publishing AIR apps is a good idea and I certainly don't mind waiting when building the final APK, but during development the extra build time does make things less pleasant.

If possible, please reenable support for shared runtime deployment for testing and debugging purposes only. Add some sort of warning if you want to discourage people from using it in the final product. 

The adobeair.vch file is added to the assets folder in the APK.

Cheers,

Lars

[krgupta]

adobeair.vch file was introduced in AIR 3.6 for captive applications.

Regarding the time issue, please let us know what was the size of your application when runtime was shared, and size of application now with captive runtime?

Also, please mention the build time difference in captive and shared runtimes.

Thanks,

Krati