Core - Add the extension
The simplest way to install and manage your AIR native extensions and libraries is to use the AIR Package Manager (apm
). We highly recommend using apm
, as it will handle downloading all required dependencies and manage your application descriptor (Android manifest additions, iOS info additions etc).
However you can choose to install it manually, as you would have done in the past.
Add the Extension
- APM
- Manual
Note: All of the commands below should be run in a terminal / command prompt in the root directory of your application, generally the level above your source directory.
If you don't have an APM project setup, expand the guide below to setup an APM project before installing the extension.
Setup APM
Install APM
If you haven't installed apm
follow the install guide on airsdk.dev.
Setup an APM project
You will need an APM project for your application.
There are many ways to do this and for more options see the APM documentation. Here we will just initialise a new empty project:
apm init
Check your github token
We use github to secure our extensions so you must have created a github personal access token and configured apm
to use it.
To do this create a token using this guide from github and then set it in your apm config using:
apm config set github_token ghp_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
If you don't do this correctly you may find the install will fail.
Install the extension
Install the extension by running:
apm install com.distriqt.Firebase
This will download and install the extension, required assets, and all dependencies.
Once complete apm
will have created something like the following file structure:
.
|____ ane
| |____ com.distriqt.Firebase.ane # Firebase extension
| |____ [dependencies]
|____ apm_packages # cache directory - ignore
|____ project.apm # apm project file
- Add the
ane
directory to your IDE. See the tutorials located here on adding an extension to your IDE.
We suggest you use the locations directly in your builds rather than copying the files elsewhere. The reason for this is if you ever go to update the extensions using apm
that these updates will be pulled into your build automatically.
The following guide is used to manually install the extension, download dependencies and update the application descriptor. We highly recommend installing extensions using apm
. Using apm
will automate the installation and automatically handle updates and dependencies along with greatly simplifying the application descriptor generation.
First step is always to add the extension to your development environment.
Download the extension from the repository and then follow the tutorial located here to add the extension to your development environment.
You can access all the Firebase extensions here: https://github.com/distriqt/ANE-Firebase
Dependencies
Many of our extensions use some common libraries, for example, the Android Support libraries.
We have to separate these libraries into separate extensions in order to avoid multiple versions of the libraries being included in your application and causing packaging conflicts. This means that you need to include some additional extensions in your application along with the main extension file.
You will add these extensions as you do with any other extension, and you need to ensure it is packaged with your application.
Each of the separate components of Firebase will require additional ANEs which will be identified in the individual sections however the following list will be required by any AIR application using Firebase.
Core
The Core extension is required by this extension. You must include and package this extension in your application.
The Core extension doesn't provide any functionality in itself but provides support libraries and frameworks used by our extensions. It also includes some centralised code for some common actions that can cause issues if they are implemented in each individual extension.
You can access this extension here: https://github.com/distriqt/ANE-Core.
Android Support
The Android Support libraries encompass the Android Support, Android X and common Google libraries.
These libraries are specific to Android. There are no issues including these on all platforms, they are just required for Android.
This extension requires the following extensions:
You can access these extensions here: https://github.com/distriqt/ANE-AndroidSupport.
Google Play Services
This ANE requires usage of certain aspects of the Google Play Services client library. The client library is available as a series of ANEs that you add into your applications packaging options. Each separate ANE provides a component from the Play Services client library and are used by different ANEs. These client libraries aren't packaged with this ANE as they are used by multiple ANEs and separating them will avoid conflicts, allowing you to use multiple ANEs in the one application.
This ANE requires the following Google Play Services:
com.distriqt.playservices.AdsIdentifier
com.distriqt.playservices.Base
com.distriqt.playservices.CloudMessaging
You must include the above native extensions in your application along with this extension, and you need to ensure they are packaged with your application.
You can access the Google Play Services client library extensions here: https://github.com/distriqt/ANE-GooglePlayServices.
Note: The Google Play Services and Android Support ANEs are only required on Android devices. There is no problem packaging these ANEs with all platforms as there are default implementations available which will allow your code to package without errors however if you are only building an iOS application feel free to remove the Google Play Services ANEs from your application.
Firebase Core
To use any Firebase functionality you must include the core Firebase libraries and configure your Firebase application. The core libraries are available in the com.google.firebase.core
extension alongside the Google Play Services:
This extension is located separately due to several of our other extensions relying on the Firebase core libraries.
Application Descriptor
- APM
- Manual
Updating your application descriptor will insert the required extensionID
's and generate the manifest and info additions for your application.
You update your application descriptor by running:
apm generate app-descriptor src/MyApp-app.xml
Change the path (src/MyApp-app.xml
) to point to your application descriptor.
This will modify your application descriptor replacing the manifest additions and info additions with the ones generated from apm
.
You should backup your application descriptor before running this command to ensure you don't lose any information.
If you need to insert custom data into these sections see the guides for Android and iOS
Extension IDs
The following should be added to your extensions
node in your application descriptor to identify all the required ANEs in your application:
<extensions>
<extensionID>androidx.core</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.distriqt.Core</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.distriqt.Firebase</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.distriqt.playservices.AdsIdentifier</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.distriqt.playservices.Base</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.distriqt.playservices.CloudMessaging</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.google.android.datatransport</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.google.firebase.core</extensionID>
<extensionID>com.jetbrains.kotlin</extensionID>
</extensions>
Android
Manifest Additions
Add the following to your manifest additions.
Ensure you:
- replace
APPLICATION_PACKAGE
with your AIR application's Java package name, something likeair.com.distriqt.test
. Generally this is your AIR application id prefixed byair.
unless you have specified no air flair in your build options; - you only have one
<application>
node in your manifest additions combining them if you have ones from other extensions;
<manifest android:installLocation="auto" >
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="23" android:targetSdkVersion="34"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
<application>
<meta-data android:name="google_analytics_automatic_screen_reporting_enabled" android:value="false" />
<activity android:name="com.distriqt.core.auth.AuthorisationActivity" android:exported="false" android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar"/>
</application>
</manifest>
iOS
Info Additions
In order for the Firebase system to work well with AIR and other extensions we need to disable the automatic delegate proxy that Firebase implements on iOS. To do so you must add the following to your InfoAdditions:
<key>FirebaseAppDelegateProxyEnabled</key>
<false/>
<key>FirebaseAutomaticScreenReportingEnabled</key>
<false/>
Eg:
<iPhone>
<InfoAdditions><![CDATA[
<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
<array>
<string>1</string>
<string>2</string>
</array>
<key>FirebaseAppDelegateProxyEnabled</key>
<false/>
<key>FirebaseAutomaticScreenReportingEnabled</key>
<false/>
<key>MinimumOSVersion</key>
<string>12.0</string>
]]></InfoAdditions>
<requestedDisplayResolution>high</requestedDisplayResolution>
<Entitlements>
<![CDATA[
]]>
</Entitlements>
</iPhone>
You may wish to add a minimum iOS version to restrict your application to the minimum Firebase version.