Release Notes | Flash Player® 11.5 AIR® 3.5

February 7th, 2013. This is the security update to the Flash Player 11.5 and AIR 3.5 originally released on November 6th, 2012. This release contains security enhancements & bug fixes.

• A Windows ActiveX exploit that tricks users into opening a Microsoft Word document delivered as an email attachment which contains malicious Flash (SWF) content(3492336)
• Firefox & Safari crash reported(3493470)

N/A

The following features were released on November 6th, 2012 

Invoke Event Enhancement 

1) OpenURL
A new reason string, InvokeEventReason.OPEN_URL has been added to InvokeEvent.reason for mobile devices only. The InvokeEvent.reason will now return “openUrl” to indicate that the InvokeEvent occured because the application was invoked by another application or the system. The first element of the argument array will continue to contain the URL with which the application was invoked. If additional parameters are passed to the application by the system, they should be passed on to the actionscript developer in the InvokeEvent.arguments array.

The arguments property of the InvokeEvent class will contain the array of options with which the application was launched. The list of arguments for iOS are:

2) Push Notifications
A user can also launch an application (not running in background) on receiving a push notification by clicking on the launch button or banner shown on iOS. For such cases, a new reason string, InvokeEventReason.NOTIFICATION has been added to InvokeEvent.reason. The arguments property of the InvokeEvent class will contain the Object that specifies the notification payload received after which the application was launched. This is supported only on iOS. Since arguments is an array of Strings, it is expected from the application developer to typecast it into Object type

Packaging multiple libraries in an ANE

This feature will allow developers to reuse the static libraries they created or received in their ANE, without having to copy the source into the ANE. For using this feature, it is required to use the platform descriptor namespace 3.5 with a new tag, packagedDependencies. This feature can be used on both iOS device as well as iOS Simulator. The linking of libraries will be handled by the runtime, at the time of packaging the IPA.The developer needs to use a platform descriptor file, with namespace 3.5 and include the following tag as a child element of the <platform> tag:

A developer can specify the name or relative path of any packaged dependencies he wishes to include in the ANE. A packaged dependency should be a static library having the extension, .a, .framework, or .o. The packaged dependency should support the architecture, armv7 for device and i386 for the iOS Simulator. The dependency can be used by the main library file(specified in the <nativeLibrary> tag in the extension descriptor) simply by declaring the functions etc. from the packagedDependency in the header files or anywhere before usage.At the time of packaging the ANE, the packaged dependencies specified in the platform.xml file should be provided anywhere after the -platform iPhone-ARM switch and before the next -platform switch in case of device and after the --platform iPhone-x86 switch and before the next -platform switch in case of iOS Simulator. For example, for the above specification in platform.xml file for ios device, the packaging command would be something like:

Note: In case the packagedDependency is not added in the platform descriptor file, but is specified in the packaging command, it will be packaged as a normal resource, and will not be treated as a dependency in the final IPA.

iPhone 5 Support

To be able to create a full-screen application for iPhone 5, it is necessary that a launch image of size 640x1136 (portrait only) be packaged with the application. If the name of the image is Default-568h@2x.png, it needs to be packaged with the application as an asset in the top level directory. An ADT command line for the same will look like:

If using Flash Builder,include the PNG in the src folder, and if using Flash Professional, include it in the AIR for iOS Settings>Included Files.

However, if you wish to name the png to something else, replace “Default” with the name you desire, eg.  myLaunchImage-568h@2x.png (note that the -568h@2x needs to be included in to support a full screen application on iPhone 5 device). In this case, you will also have to edit the application.xml of your application to include this launch image:

Authoring for Flash Player 11.5

To use the new Flash Player, you will need to target SWF version 18 by passing in an extra compiler argument to the Flex compiler: -swf-version=18. Directions are below. If you are using the Adobe Flex SDK:

• Download the new playerglobal.swc for Flash Player 11.5
• Download Flex 4.5.1 SDK (4.5.1.21328) from the Flex 4.5 SDK table.
• Install the build in your development environment
• In Flash Builder, create a new ActionScript project: File -> New -> ActionScript project.
• Open the project Properties panel (right-click and chose 'Properties'). Select ActionScript Compiler from the list on the left.
• Use the 'Configure Flex SDK's' option in the upper right hand corner to point the project to Flex build 21328. Click ok.
• Configure your project to target SWF version 18
• Open the project Properties panel (right-click and chose 'Properties'). Select ActionScript Compiler from the list on the left.
• Add to the 'Additional compiler arguments' input: -swf-version=18. This ensures the outputted SWF targets SWF version 18. If you compile on the command-line and not in Flash Builder, you need to add the same compiler argument.
• Ensure you have installed the new Flash Player 11.5 build in your browser.

Authoring for AIR 3.5 Update to the AIR 3.5 namespace

You must update your application descriptor file to the 3.5 namespace in order to access the new AIR 3.5 APIs and behavior. If your application does not require the new AIR 3.5 APIs and behavior, you are not required to update the namespace. However, we recommend all users start using the AIR 3.5 namespace even if you are not yet taking advantage of the new 3.5 capabilities. To update the namespace, change the xmlns attribute in your application descriptor to: <application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/3.5">

Found a bug? Please submit a bug to the Flash Player and Adobe AIR bug database.

Flash Player and AIR may leverage your graphics hardware to decode and play H.264 video. There may be video issues that can only be reproduced with your particular graphics hardware and driver. When reporting an issue involving video, it is essential to note your graphics hardware and driver, along with your operating system and browser (when using Flash Player), so that we can reproduce and investigate issues. Please be sure to include this information as described in Instructions for Reporting Video Playback Issues. Note: Due to the high volume of email we receive, we are unable to respond to every request.

Thank you for using Adobe® Flash Player® and AIR® and for taking the time to send us your feedback!

For the latest Flash Player system requirements please review the document here

For the latest AIR system requirements please review the document here