A FREE and always updated Admob ANE

Good News!

To all the Adobe AIR developers (both iOS and Android), here's a FREE and always updated Admob Native Extension (ANE) by Code Alchemy.

In fact, I have a post previously that talks about how to import the Admob ANE into the Flash Builder 4.7 properly. But the thing is, this time, at the time of writing, the Open Source Codes of the Admob ANE provided by the Code Alchemy has indeed included everything you need - Sample Project + Native Source Code! Pretty Cool huh?

Basically, you just have to import the Sample Project and start getting your hands wet in testing out all the available features. There is one impressive thing to mention here - the author has made everything so intuitive! Change Banner position, Banner Type, Interstitial Ads and etc. Customize the Admob to suit your app!

Apart from the full-fledged Adobe ANE that works perfectly both in iOS and Android, the author is always available for feedback and future enhancement. Drop him a message and he will respond with useful answers and help.

I wish there are more generous people like him to make our lives easier, as an Adobe AIR app developer. :)

Google Play "Security Alert: You are using a highly vulnerable version of OpenSSL"!

Seriously, the Gmail message with this title "Security Alert: You are using a highly vulnerable version of OpenSSL" freaked me out yesterday. Below shows the details of the message:

Hello,
One or more of your apps is running an outdated version of OpenSSL, which has multiple security vulnerabilities. You should update OpenSSL as soon as possible. For more information about the most recent security vulnerability in OpenSSL, please see http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140605.txt.
Please note, while it's unclear whether these specific issues affect your application, applications with vulnerabilities that expose users to risk of compromise may be considered “dangerous products” and subject to removal from Google Play.
Regards,
Google Play Team

I am sure I am not the only one suffering from this 'threatening' message. A quick search brings me to this Adobe AIR forum thread. From my understanding of the discussion in the forum, it is the inconsistency of the OpenSSL version in the apps that triggers this unfavorable announcement. As noticed,

OpenSSL 1.0.1 SSL/TLS users (client and/or server) should upgrade to 1.0.1h.

However, at the time of writing, the Adobe AIR 14 only deploys the OpenSSL 1.0.1g, which is still potentially not the qualifying version. Meaning? Most of the Adobe AIR developers are affected.

What is worse is that, Google Play doesn't provide any timeline info about how long the buffer is before taking any action. Meanwhile, the Adobe AIR staffs couldn't promise an exact date for another stable and problem-free release. THAT MAKES THE CHAOS!

We realize the potential harms due to the outdated OpenSSL applied, and the urgency to update the apps as soon as possible. However, at the same time, we hope the Google Play could be more polite and transparent in conveying the message to us. For example, which apps are affected? And what is more disturbing is that, we have no idea whether the OpenSSL issue could be be caused by other dependencies such as the third-party Adobe ANE.

What to do now? Let's keep our finger crossed and hope the Adobe AIR could update us as soon as possible...

Update on 2014-06-20 
The latest Adobe AIR 14.0.0.125 with the updated OpenSSL 1.0.1h is available NOW. Although it is a beta version, it has at least solved the "Security Alert" issue.

How to add Admob ANE into the Flash Builder project?

If you are first time integrating Adobe Native Extension (ANE) into the Flash Builder project (here, i demo an Andoid project), I bet you would have encountered some issues during debugging.

In this post, particularly, I would like to talk about adding Admob into the Flash Builder project. Since the Admob doesn't officially provide the ANE, here I am using the third-party one in the demo.

 If you have come across the error message such as:

VerifyError: Error #1014: Class so.cuo.anes.admob::Admob could not be found.

OR the error pop up similar to:

Error: Requested extension so.cuo.ane.Admob could not be found.

 then this is the right place to look for.


To revise, there are 2 steps to properly add an Adobe ANE into the Flash Builder (here, it is Admob ANE):

Step 1:

Go to Project Tab -> Properties -> Actionscript Build Path -> Native Extensions -> Add ANE

Step 2: (Which is most of the time overlooked by the beginner)

Go to Project Tab -> Properties -> Actionscript Build Packaging -> Google Android -> Tick the Checkbox of the Package

If you miss the step 2, you will face the errors mentioned.

One more thing, unlike using the Admob jar library in the Java project, the one provided by the third-party doesn't support Admob Ads in the debugging mode. You could only 'see' the Ads coming out if you "Export Release Build".

***Updated***
Following the link provided by Mike Monti, I am also able to display the Admob Ads.
One thing to remind is that, remember to add the following in your xml tags:

<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.gms.version" android:value="4323000"/>
<activity android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.AdActivity" android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenLayout|uiMode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize" />

To produce the Banner ads, you can simply follow the code below:

var adMobManager:AdMobManager = AdMobManager.manager;
if(adMobManager.isSupported)
     {
          adMobManager.bannersAdMobId = "ca-app-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxx";
          adMobManager.createBanner(AdMobSize.SMART_BANNER,    AdMobPosition.BOTTOM_CENTER,"BottomBanner",null,true);
          adMobManager.showAllBanner();
      }

Hope this helps.

Where to download the free Ratebox Adobe ANE for Android?

When you reach this post, let me guess, you must have been spending the last few hours hunting for something like free "Rate My App" Adobe ANE to be used in the Android (with Adobe AIR actionscript).

At the same time, you have pretended not noticing the RateBox Mobile Extension ANE due to the obvious price tag $19.99. Furthermore, you may have temporarily overlooked the Rate App Air Native Extension as you wish you might get one with a much lower price or even a FREE Adobe ANE for the feature of "Rate My App" or "Rate this App". And finally, you could have been strongly determined that getting one that works in Android shouldn't charge any as there is one open source iRate that performs greatly in iOS.

HOWEVER, be ready to brace yourself... There ISN'T any free "Rate this App" Adobe ANE for
Android, at least at the time of writing.

Upset? You are not alone. As mentioned in my previous post, developing Android games with the Adobe AIR is sometimes frustrating.

Solution? I will update the post as soon as I found out the treasure. In the meantime, you are encouraged to create the feature of "Rate this app" by yourselves, since it isn't a very tough one.

Where to download the free Twitter Adobe ANE for Android?

One of the problems faced when developing Android Games with the Adobe AIR AS3 is that, most of the useful Social Networks and the Mobile Ads Networks companies do not officially release the framework or the libraries that integrate into the Adobe AIR. More often than not, the developers could either refer to the Adobe official sites which categorizes the Adobe Native Extension (ANE) into the commercial and the non-commercial group. In some cases, you may need to send a 'special request' to the customer support (eg: Vungle, Startapp) in order to get one.

In terms of the Facebook ANE, we are lucky that someone has produced a free and working one in github. But how about Twitter? Where to look for a Free yet working Twitter ANE for Android?

To our dismay, at least at the time of writing, there isn't any free Twitter ANE around from the search engine.

HOWEVER, there is a working Twitter API for Adobe AIR Flex Mobile project. Right, it is only for the Flex Mobile project, but not the Actionscript Mobile project. (T.T)

Anyway, I will update this post once I come across a working one. Stay tuned.