[...]... for use with mobile devices Android runs applications developed using the Java programming language and packaged as an Android Package (APK) file 1 Adobe adapted AIR as a tool for ActionScript programmers to make Android applications HTML/Ajax mobile development is not available for AIR for Android The purpose of this book is to teach you everything you need to know—and more— to develop AIR applications. .. on the Adobe site for specific questions regarding AIR for Android: http://forums .adobe. com/community /air/ development /android 19 Figure 3-1 The Android logo Android Software Development Kit Android provides great mobile tooling for Java developers to use along with Eclipse or similar editors to write native applications We will go over some of the tools and how you may want to use them as an AIR developer... Android contact list, creating Android intents, messaging to the status/notification bar, enabling one AIR application to open another, and creating widgets If you would like a specific feature added to AIR, send a request to Adobe at https:// www .adobe. com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform AIR on the Desktop Versus AIR on Android If you want to convert an existing AIR desktop application to Android, ... an Android device, the AIR runtime is packaged as an APK file If you do not have Adobe AIR yet, search for it in the Android Market application on your device, download it, and install it You will need it in the next chapter Future AIR updates will also be deployed via the Android Market to adapt to Android evolution For instance, the AIR 2.6 runtime became available in February 2011 to run on Android. .. (Froyo), Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), and Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) It provides new features and performance improvements Using AIR on Android creates an additional layer on top of the platform, and communicates with it You do not need to know the inner workings of this process, but being familiar with the Android system may be helpful Chapter 3 will go over some of that What Is in the AIR SDK The AIR SDK... classes which an Android application can reference It is invoked by your application when it launches It only needs to be installed on the device once and is shared by all AIR applications 2 | Chapter 1: AIR The AIR runtime is the C/C++ implementation of the Flash engine, rendering engine, and virtual machine The AIR runtime comes installed on some new Android devices, but not all As with all applications. .. an AIR application on your device, the Adobe AIR license agreement will appear You only need to agree to the terms once If you are familiar with developing AIR applications on the desktop, you may have noticed a difference here The warning dialog does not appear on the device upon installation Instead, Android displays the list of permissions your application subscribed to Testing and Debugging The Adobe. .. Me The Android SDK is used to install the application on the device Refer to Chapter 3 for further instructions The AIR 2.6 SDK is used to package and deploy AIR applications for Android For more information, go to http://www .adobe. com/products /air/ sdk/ In all of the following development environments, you need to “overlay” the AIR SDK Links are provided for instructions: • The free Flex and AIR SDK... development and distribution of applications across platforms and browsers Installing the Adobe Development Tools The Adobe development tools come in several forms: Flash Professional CS5.5 and Flash Builder 4.5 They support Android OS 2.2 (named Froyo) and later, as well as devices with an ARMv7 or higher processor AIR for Android does not work with earlier versions of the Android system Flash Professional... from the Adobe Labs website at http://labs adobe. com/technologies/flashbuilder_burrito/ Burrito has templates for Flex Mobile and ActionScript Mobile projects Both products, Flash Professional and Flash Builder, include the AIR SDK and tools to automate deployment to devices We will build our first AIR for Android application in Chapter 2 Installing the AIR Runtime on an Android Device The AIR runtime .