Since I develop with multiple IDEs, I maintain the latest releases of the Flex and AIR SDKs in a centralized location outside of their default install locations. This made enabling the AIR 2.0 SDK simple for me as all I had to do was the following:
1. Duplicate my Flex 3 SDK path
2. Rename the duplicate to flex_sdk_3.x_air_sdk_2.x
3. Download the latest AIR 2.0 SDK (currently AIR20_mac_sdk_120209.tbz2)
4. Place the AIR SDK zip in the root of the new Flex SDK directory
/flex_sdk_3.x_air_sdk_2.x/AIR20_mac_sdk_120209.tbz2
5. Open up Terminal in the new Flex SDK directory and execute the following command:
tar -xjf AIR20_mac_sdk_120209.tbz2
6. Open Flex Builder and add the new SDK -> Flex Builder > Preferences > Installed Flex SDKs > Add
Now, when I want to create an AIR app that targets the 2.0 SDK all I have to do is
1. Update the project compiler settings to use the new SDK -> Project > Properties > Flex Compiler > Use a Specific SDK
2. Update the application descriptor file to use the AIR 2.0 namespace
<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/2.0beta">All of the above steps can be repeated for the Flex 4 SDK as well.
For those interested, these are the items that were updated and added to the SDK for 2.0:
/bin/adl
/bin/adt
/frameworks/libs/air
/frameworks/projects/air
/lib/nai
/lib/adt.jar
/runtimes/air
/samples
/templates/air
/AIR SDK Readme.txt
/SDK license.pdf
CAVEATS:
- There’s a new certificate process started in AIR 1.5.3 that may disrupt your workflow if you’re creating signed applications.
- If you want to utilize the new native process features, you’ll have to implement multi-platform builds (native installers for Win, Mac and Linux) and these must occur on the target platform (ie, can only create DMGs on Mac, etc)
