Developing AIR Apps in Linux
This post is specifically for those who wish to develop Adobe AIR Applications on Linux.After spending half a day in searching in forums and support for solutions to the problems it was felt that documenting this would definitely help others in this area.
<disclaimer> Linux Distro -Debian based Linux Mint </disclaimer>
Installing the Runtime and SDK
Adobe AIR Runtime for Linux is primarily in Alpha stage and apart from certain select features it will suffice for a beginner programmer who wishes to develop standard apps. The Runtime and the SDK can be found here, with installation procedures being self-explanatory. The notes, Issues and FAQ can be read here.
Choosing an IDE
Although the SDK can be effectively used to develop the AIR apps I felt that use of an IDE would help in other things like, code assist, syntax error highlights and other stuff . I have chosen Aptana IDE for development. It can be downloaded here . The AIR development environment is available as a Plugin for Aptana. For those behind the Firewall the plugins can be obtained here
Once the IDE has been installed and all the plugins enabled it is difficult to deploy and run AIR apps as in Windows.
Make it Work
Following the steps does not a app work, there some minor issues that needs additional hacks and in other cases outright pain to complete.This is encountered only because I chose to use an IDE to develop my applications.
- On Installing the AIR runtime most of the ZIP files in Linux will be associated to the AIR Installer and hence the mime type might change.Changing the File allocation can be moderately difficult . The solution will be found here. http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forum id=72&catid=677&threadid=1350697&enterthread=y
- Deploying the AIR Application built in the Aptana IDE will not occur as adding the SDK root directory is no enabling Apatana to discover it. { Additionally it can also be that one has to restart Aptana on configuring the SDK root directory . }, the solution can be found here http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview. cfm?forumid=72&catid=677&threadid=1350697&enterthread=y
so to run the developed app it has to be compiled manually from the location of the SDK locations
-Go the bin folder in the SDK installation
-Open in Terminal
-Within the Terminal type the following
./adl -nodebug [ Path to the Application XML in the root of the Application]
ex
satts@01HW126313:~/Desktop/adobeair_linux_sdk_a1_033108/bin$ ./adl -nodebug /opt/lampp/htdocs/aircodex/application.xml
Filed under: Techki | 1 Comment
Tags: adobe, adobe air, aptana, linux, web app, web-development
A common attack, link piracy..