Linux support
APM Now Supports Linux: Expanded Capabilities and Key Updates
Great news for developers! APM has been updated to fully support Linux operating systems. This means you can now use APM to install and manage libraries, extensions, and application descriptors in Linux-based development environments. This long-awaited feature enhances APM’s versatility and makes it even more accessible to a broader range of developers.
A Major Upgrade for AIR Extensions! New Payment System and Custom Development Work
Over the past six months, we’ve been working closely with Harman to bring a smarter, more efficient dependency system to AIR. Our new approach replaces embedded dependencies with Gradle dependencies, making extension management easier, faster, and more resilient.
What this means for you:
These improvements happen behind the scenes, making everything more stable and maintainable. But you’ll definitely notice the difference with smaller files, fewer manifest changes, and much faster builds. 🚀
Notifications, Game Services, InAppBilling, Firebase Dynamic Links, Adverts, ironSource
Recently we have released updates to several of our main extensions, key updates include:
Lots of Android and specifically Google related updates ensuring your applications can meet the latest requirements for the Play Store.
As always, if you have any development needs for AIR, Unity, Flutter or Haxe, please feel free to contact us at airnativeextensions@distriqt.com.
BugSnag, Android Splash Screens, Firebase, Facebook, Adverts
Over the past few months, we have been diligently updating our extensions. We are currently undertaking major rewrites of some of our oldest extensions, which were initially developed over a decade ago. By rebuilding these extensions from the ground up, we aim to integrate the latest functionalities and advancements into AIR.
It has been truly exciting to witness Harman's development of the AIR SDK. We've been actively supporting their efforts by providing insights, identifying and debugging issues, and offering feedback to enhance the development process. The collaboration with Harman has been incredibly productive, and it's fantastic to see such responsiveness and dedication from their team. Their willingness to address our concerns and implement suggestions has significantly contributed to the progress and refinement of the AIR SDK.
We hope all AIR developers are excited by the continuing development of the platform!
As always, if you have any development needs for AIR, Unity, Flutter or Haxe, please feel free to contact us at airnativeextensions@distriqt.com.
Startup time of an application is often key in retaining your users so it can be critical to make start time as short as possible.
One factor that can contribute to the startup time of an AIR application is loading the definitions for the functionality in native extensions. This is normally done by AIR automatically however with the latest AIR release you can now specify an option on an extension in your application to delay load the extension functionality.
ANE updates, AIR SDK Manager
This year has been remarkably busy and unfortunately news updates were pushed down the list, but as the year comes to a close I'd like to update on what we see as the major native extension news over the past months.
Major changes across all our extensions include:
We have several major projects in the works including:
Some of the key recent changes are listed below.
Looking forward to another year of amazing AIR development!
If you are publishing games to the AppStore for iOS you may have recently received an notification along the following lines:
Starting August 16, 2023, new apps and app updates that offer Game Center features need to include the Game Center entitlement and have Game Center features configured in App Store Connect before you can submit them to the App Store. Existing apps on the App Store are not affected by this new requirement.
We noticed that although the apps listed below have Game Center features configured in App Store Connect, their latest binary delivery doesn’t include the Game Center entitlement. In your next app update, please update your binary to include the entitlement.
There are two important things you need to do to your application in order to meet this new requirement.
Firstly, make sure the capability is enabled in "Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles" for your application in the developer portal. Then update and download your provisioning profiles to ensure they are updated with the new capability.
Then in your application descriptor you will need to add the entitlement. If you are using apm just ensure you are using the latest version and then generate your app descriiptor, apm will ensure the entitlement is correctly added.
If you are manually managing your app descriptor additions then you will need to add the following to the Entitlements node under iPhone:
<iPhone>
<Entitlements><![CDATA[
<key>com.apple.developer.game-center</key>
<true/>
]]></Entitlements>
</iPhone>
Once you have followed these steps your application will support this new requirement and you will be able to submit your application to the AppStore.
AIR SDK Manager, Adverts, Application Rater
As the end of the year approaches we have been cleaning up a lot of the work we have done this year and starting to set out development goals for the first half of next year. As we enter into the final weeks of the year if there is anything in our extensions that you believe should have priority please let us know and we will be sure to schedule it for the beginning of the year.
Importantly this month Harman have released a beta of the new AIR SDK Manager.
AIR SDK Manager, Adverts, Application Rater
As the end of the year approaches we have been cleaning up a lot of the work we have done this year and starting to set out development goals for the first half of next year. As we enter into the final weeks of the year if there is anything in our extensions that you believe should have priority please let us know and we will be sure to schedule it for the beginning of the year.
Importantly this month Harman have released a beta of the new AIR SDK Manager.
Play Billing v5 release, IronSource updates
This last month has seen the release of the major update for our InAppBilling extension to support the latest version of the play billing library from Google for the Play Store. This update brings a major change to the way subscriptions are handled and is critical for any updates or new applications released to the Play Store.
Additionally we have released several updates and new mediation networks for the ironSource extension.