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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.

Install​

info

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.Health

If you are looking to use Google Fitness use the com.distriqt.Health-Fitness variant to ensure the dependencies for Google Fitness are installed.

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.Health.ane     # Health 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.
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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.

  • You will need to set the configuration values for usage in the extension. Call the following to step through the configuration values for this extension:
apm project config set com.distriqt.Health

Google Fitness​

If you are using Google Fitness, you will need to install the com.distriqt.Health-Fitness variant of the extension. This will ensure that the required dependencies for Google Fitness are installed.

The default com.distriqt.Health variant does not include the Google Fitness dependencies.

apm install com.distriqt.Health-Fitness
caution

You must only install one of the variants, either com.distriqt.Health or com.distriqt.Health-Fitness, not both.

Application Descriptor​

Android Gradle Version​

We have updated the required gradle version used to build your application to be higher than the default AIR currently uses (April 2025).

To specify a higher version add the following to your android node in your application descriptor:

<android>
    <gradleVersion>8.9</gradleVersion>
    <androidGradlePluginVersion>8.7.3</androidGradlePluginVersion>

  ...
</android>

If you don't do this you will see the following error when building your application:

Unexpected failure: Unable to run java: com.adobe.air.ADTException: gradle tool failed: 
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

...

   > BUG! exception in phase 'semantic analysis' in source unit '_BuildScript_' Unsupported class file major version 65
note

June 2025: This is not currently automatically handled by apm so you will need to add this manually to your application descriptor.

We are working on an update to handle this.

Add Android Permissions​

You will need to add the Android permissions to your android manifest for the health data you require access to.

Firstly, generate an apm config for android:

apm generate config android

Then edit the file created at config/android/AndroidManifest.xml and add in the required permissions, for example, to read and write the step data you need the following permissions:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="26" android:targetSdkVersion="34" />

    <!-- Health Connect Permissions -->
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.health.READ_STEPS"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.health.WRITE_STEPS"/>


    <!-- Google Fitness Permissions -->
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION"/>

    
</manifest>

Create Application Descriptor​

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.

caution

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

Checking for Support​

You can use the isSupported flag to determine if this extension is supported on the current platform and device.

This allows you to react to whether the functionality is available on the device and provide an alternative solution if not.

if (Health.isSupported)
{
    // Functionality here
}