Packaging a mobile AIR application

Use the ADT -package command to create the application package for an AIR application intended for a mobile device. The -target parameter specifies the mobile platform for which the package is created.

Android packages

AIR applications on Android use the Android application package format (APK), rather than the AIR package format.

Packages produced by ADT using the APK target type are in a format that can be submitted to the Android Market. The Android Market does have requirements that submitted apps must meet to be accepted. You should review the latest requirements before creating your final package. See Android Developers: Publishing on the Market.

Unlike iOS applications, you can use a normal AIR code signing certificate to sign your Android application; however, to submit an app to the Android Market, the certificate must conform to the Market rules, which require the certificate to be valid until at least 2033. You can create such a certificate using the ADT -certificate command.

To submit an app to an alternate market that does not allow your app to require an AIR download from the Google market, you can specify an alternate download URL using the -airDownloadURL parameter of ADT. When a user who does not have the required version of the AIR runtime launches your app, they are directed to the specified URL. See ADT package command for more information.

By default, ADT packages Android application with shared runtime. So to run the application, user should install separate AIR runtime on the device.

Note: To force ADT to create an APK that uses captive runtime, use target apk-captive-runtime.

iOS packages

AIR applications on iOS use the iOS package format (IPA), rather than the native AIR format.

Packages produced by ADT using the ipa-app-store target type and the correct code signing certificate and provisioning profile are in the format that can be submitted to the Apple App Store. Use the ipa-ad-hoc target type to package an application for ad hoc distribution.

You must use the correct Apple-issued developer certificate to sign your application. Different certificates are used for creating test builds than are used for the final packaging prior to application submission.

For an example of how to package an iOS application using Ant, see Piotr Walczyszyn: Packaging AIR application for iOS devices with ADT command and ANT script

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