How to Make Android Apps in Adobe

Adobe AIR allows you to develop your apps in Adobe Flash and publish them directly to your Android phone.

Android is a versatile operating system designed for mobile devices. It is somewhat similar to Linux and is built around an application framework. There are thousands of free and paid apps that add functionality to the operating system and new apps are being released every day. Android applications can be created in Adobe Flash CS5 if you have the Android Source Development Kit installed on your Linux machine and use Adobe AIR on your Android device. If you are a developer, you can make, build and publish a new app using only Adobe Flash.

Things You'll Need

• Linux with Android Source Development Kit
• Adobe Flash Professional, at least version CS5.5
• Android phone
• USB cable

Instructions

1. Open your favorite Web browser and navigate to the Android Developers website to download the latest Android SDK package. Click on the "android-sdk_r15-linux.tgz" link to start the download. Save the archive on your desktop.

2. Extract the archive on your desktop. Verify if the resulting folder has a sub-folder named "Tools."

3. Go to the "Settings" menu on your Android phone, select "Applications," go to "Development" and enable "USB Debugging." Connect the phone to your computer using the USB cable.

4. Open the Terminal on your computer. Type "./adb devices" without the quotes and press "Enter" to run the command. Linux searches for the Android phone and displays it in the Terminal.

5. Use the Web browser to navigate to Google's Code page and click on the "Runtime_Device_Froyo_20100930.apk" link to download the runtime. Save it in the Android SDK's Tools folder.

6. Type "/adb install Runtime_Device_Froyo_20100930.apk" without the quotes in the Terminal to install the runtime on your Android device. You will see a "Success" message in the Terminal if the runtime is successfully installed.

7. Double-click on the Adobe Flash CS5.5 icon on your desktop to start the software. Select the "AIR for Android" application type in the Create From Template window and a new project is created. Notice the "AIR for Android Settings" button in the application's Properties panel.

8. Use the Adobe Flash tool-set and built-in ActionScript scripting language to code your app. Now, all you have to do is build the project and test it on your Android device.

9. Go to the "Properties" panel and click on the "Edit" button next to the AIR for Android settings. Go to the "Deployment" tab.

10. Select "Device Debugging" in the Android development type section and select to install and launch the Android application on the connected Android device. Press the small "Browse" icon in the "Path to adb executable" section. Use the resulting file browser to open the "adb" executable found in the Android SDK Tools folder.

11. Click on the "Publish" button to build the app and publish it to the Android device. The app automatically starts on the device.

Tips & Warnings

• Adobe Flash CS5.5 integrates Adobe AIR, so you don't need to install it.

References

• Adobe: Getting Started With Adobe AIR for Android

Resources

• Android Developers: Download the Android SDK
• Google Code: gt-cs4261
• Adobe: ActionScript 3.0 Overview