Links and Resources

Purchase from Amazon
(Paperback and Kindle Edition available)

Download a sample chapter
(Chapter 3, Writing your First App)

Official page on Packt Publishing website

Frequently Asked Questions

Additional Material / Tutorials

Known Issues / Errata

Frequently Asked Question

1. Is there a sample chapter available?
Chapter 3, Writing your first app is available from the Packt Publishing website.

2. I’m using Flash Professional CS5, will I be able to attempt all the material covered in the book?
Flash iOS Apps Cookbook does not cover how to overlay the latest AIR SDK onto Flash Professional CS5. Flash CS5 only supports AIR 2.0 by default but you will still be able to attempt all but the following 16 recipes.

If you’d like to try overlaying the latest AIR SDK onto Flash CS5 then try following the instructions provided on the Prevail – Flash Experiments blog. The article requires you to download and copy files from a trial version of CS5.5 into your CS5 installation.

3. I’m using Flash Professional CS5.5. Do I really need to overlay the most recent version of the AIR SDK?
No. The majority of the book’s recipes are compatible with AIR 2.6. If you don’t want to overlay the latest SDK then you can attempt all but the following 5 recipes:

  • Using native iOS text controls, Chapter 7, Page 214
  • Playing local H.264 video, Chapter 12, Page 330
  • Using a native extensions, Chapter 14 (Provided online)
  • Packaging a native extension, Chapter 14 (Provided online)
  • Enabling Interpreter Mode, Chapter 14 (Provided online)

4. I don’t own Flash Professional, can I use the Flex compiler instead?
Yes you can. Although the book is aimed at Flash Professional developers, AIR for iOS apps can be written and compiled using a text editor, the free Flex command line compiler, and the latest version of the AIR SDK. Additionally, IDEs such as Flash Builder, Flash Develop and FDT can also be used.

5. Can I publish the book’s accompanying code bundle with the Flex compiler?
No. The book’s code samples were written using Flash Professional and can only be published from the Flash IDE. However, any of the ActionScript outlined within this book is transferrable to pure ActionScript projects and can be compiled with the Flex compiler.

Additional Material / Tutorials

1. Geolocation and Accelerometer APIs (article based on material from Chapter 9)
2. ActionScript Optimization (excerpt taken from Chapter 15)
3. Using Native Extensions and ADT (Chapter 14 in its entirety)
4. ActionScript Optimization (Chapter 15 in its entirety)
5. Overlaying the AIR SDK for Flash Professional CS5.5
6. ActionScript to JavaScript communication
7. JavaScript to ActionScript communication
8. Playing Remote Video
9. Understanding Pixel Density
10. Creating a Custom Virtual Keyboard

Known Issues

1. My apps’ Home screen name is not being set after overlaying latest AIR SDK.
2. The code bundle’s FLAs don’t automatically use my default P12 certificate and provisioning profile.

Errata

Chapter 1, Generating a Certificate Signing Request using Windows, step 3

In preparation (step 3 of the Getting ready section) for this recipe’s task you’re asked to download Win32 OpenSSL v1.0.0e Light from the OpenSSL download page. However, it has been replaced with a more recent version of OpenSSL, which should be downloaded from this page instead. Presently, the most recent version is Win32 OpenSSL v1.0.0h Light.

Chapter 1, Obtaining your development certificate, step 9

Step 9 assumes that the certificate you downloaded from the iOS Provisioning Portal is named developer_identity.cer. However, Apple has changed the name of this file to ios_development.cer.

In order to successfully complete the steps detailed in the Creating a P12 certificate using Windows and Creating a P12 certificate using Mac OS X recipes, please rename the certificate file from ios_development.cer to developer_identity.cer.

Chapter 1, Creating a P12 certificate using Windows, step 3

The command specified in step 3 assumes that the certificate you downloaded from the iOS Provisioning Portal is named developer_identity.cer. However, Apple has changed the name of this file to ios_development.cer.

Before executing the command line statement, rename your certificate from ios_development.cer to developer_identity.cer.

Chapter 1, Creating a P12 certificate using Mac OS X, step 2

Step 2 assumes that the certificate you downloaded from the iOS Provisioning Portal is named developer_identity.cer. However, Apple has changed the name of this file to ios_development.cer.

Chapter 12, Controlling video, step 13

If you attempt to test this recipe’s code example from the desktop using the AIR Debug Launcher (ADL) you will receive the following runtime error:

RangeError: Error #1125: The index 0 is out of range 0.
at Main()[/Users/username/Desktop/Flash iOS Apps Cookbook - Code Downloads/cs5.5/chapter12/recipe3-mp4-final/Main.as:31]

It should be noted that the AIR Debug Launcher (ADL) does not currently support H.264 video playback. Instead, simply publish your FLA using File | Publish, and deploy the resultant IPA to your iOS device for testing.