Actionscript 3 AIR Application

11 Jun

I’m toying with the idea of distributing the Space Survivor game as an AIR application rather than embedded in the space survivor site (or concurrently with). Took me a while to find information about how to build an AIR app from just AS3 source, so I thought I’d share. Requires Flex Builder 3:

  • Create a new Flex Project and specify that it is a Desktop application

  • Follow your normal project-creation procedure
  • After the project is created, Make a new Actionscript file – name it whatever you want.  Make sure your Class extends Sprite or MovieClip.
  • Right click the newly created .as file and mark it as your default application:

  • Copy and past this, or write something similar in your main AS file:
package
{
	import flash.display.NativeWindow;
	import flash.display.NativeWindowInitOptions;
	import flash.display.Shape;
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.display.StageScaleMode;

	public class SpaceSurvivor extends Sprite
	{
		public function SpaceSurvivor()
		{
			var options:NativeWindowInitOptions = new NativeWindowInitOptions();
			var mainWindow:NativeWindow = new NativeWindow(options);
			mainWindow.activate();
			mainWindow.title = "Space Survivor v0.0.1";
			mainWindow.width = 1024;
			mainWindow.height = 768;
			mainWindow.stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
			var shp:Shape = new Shape();
			shp.graphics.beginFill(0x0000FF);
			shp.graphics.drawRect(0,0,100,100);
			shp.graphics.endFill();
			mainWindow.stage.addChild(shp);
		}
	}
}
  • Finally, hit the Run or Debug button and voila!  You’re good to go.

Also, look for more information here about petitioning Adobe to make a ‘Run as Desktop App’ an option for new Actionscript projects.

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