Customize launch parameters

Flash Builder lets you view and edit launch parameters before you launch, debug, or export an application.

Flash Builder calculates the launch parameter values internally, and lets you add, delete, or modify the values, as required, using the Customize Launch Parameters dialog.

Flash Builder also lets you view the command details for the launch parameters for mobile application packaging by clicking Show Command in the Customize Launch Parameters dialog.

You can access the Customize Launch Parameters dialog from the Run/Debug Configurations dialog, Export Release Build dialog, or the Build Packaging Properties dialog.

Note: In the Build Packaging Properties dialog, you can only view the parameters but not its values. You can, however, edit the parameter values.

Customize ADL and ADT parameter values

You can customize parameter values before packaging the application using the AIR Developer Tool (ADT) and before launching the application using the AIR Debug Launcher (ADL).

When you launch or debug an application, you can:

  • edit customizable parameter values,

  • add new packaging content,

  • add a parameter, or,

  • delete an existing parameter by providing an empty value.

Customizable parameter values are values that you have configured or values that Flash Builder calculates internally.

Note: For ADL and export release of non-mobile package types, adding of new parameters is not supported.

To edit a parameter value, follow these steps:

  1. Click Customize Launch in the Run/Debug configurations dialog box.

  2. Click Edit in the Customize Launch Parameters dialog box.

  3. Select the parameter values that you want to edit. You can choose to add the customized value at the end of or before a particular argument. Flash Builder accepts the customized values only after validating it. For example, Flash Builder does not allow an empty parameter value.

It is recommended that you create separate build targets for launching on the desktop and device, and edit the parameters appropriately. The customized values are persisted for the selected build target and build name.

Example

<buildTarget airDownloadURL="" androidSettingsVersion="2" 
    buildTargetName="device" isCurrent="true" 
    platformId="com.adobe.flexide.multiplatform.android.platform"> 
    <newPackagingParams> 
        <Parameter location="placeAtEnd" name="-sfsfgfd" value="sdfdgdg"/> 
    </newPackagingParams>. 
</buildTarget>
Note: When a project is created, these values are not specified in the project settings. These values are added to the project settings only if they are applicable.

There are various scenarios, like the following, where you can customize the launch parameter values:

Enabling profiling with Adobe Scout for iOS packages

To configure your IPA package for profiling using Adobe® Scout (formerly codenamed Project "Monocle"), specify a new ADT parameter while creating the IPA file.

To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Click Customize Launch in the Run/Debug configurations dialog box or Export Release Build dialog box.
    Note: While launching or debugging the application, ensure that you select the launch method as "on device".

  2. Click Add Parameter in the Customize Launch Parameters dialog box.

  3. Specify the parameter name as -sampler. and the location as Place Before -provisioning-profile.

The values that you specify for a build target are used across different packaging scenarios. If you, however, want to specify different parameter values for the Run/Debug Configurations dialog and for the Export Release Build dialog, create multiple build targets. For more information, see Support for multiple mobile targets.

Launching ANEs with Symlink using ADL

When you use the AIR Debug Launcher (ADL) to launch an application with ANEs, Flash Builder automatically extracts the ANEs to a directory using the -extDir command; Flash Builder does the extraction in the background.

If the ANE, however, contains symlinks, Flash Builder cannot extract the ANEs automatically, and hence the ADL launch fails. To avoid the ADL launch failure, manually extract the ANE files to a folder on your computer and specify the fully qualified path to the folder as the value for the -extDir parameter.

For example, if you extract the ANE files to /User/myname/myanepath, edit the --extDir parameter as follows:

  1. Click Customize Launch in the Run/Debug configurations dialog box.

  2. Click Edit in the Customize Launch Parameters dialog box.

  3. Select -extDir and specify the parameter value with the fully qualified path to the folder: /User/myname/myanepath.

The value that you specify for -extDir overwrites any value that Flash Builder calculates internally.

Add new packaging content

While exporting an application package, you can add a file to the package by following these steps:

  1. Click Customize Launch in the Package Settings section of the Export Release Build dialog box.

  2. Click Add File To Package, and specify the fully qualified path to the file that you want to add to the package.