Dynamically compiling AIR apps - air

Question

I've been searching for a way to dynamically compile AIR apps on the go.
Specifically, I'd need the title of the program and a couple variables changed on compile. I'll be creating hundreds, if not thousands, of versions of what is essentially the same program so I'd like to avoid doing it by hand :)
Is this possible with AIR? If not, could I do it with something like Java?

Answer 1

Yes, this is possible using the mxml compiler in the Flex sdk. It requires some knowledge of a build tool like ant or maven.
Automate the build process with apache ant or maven.
Use Actionscript compiler directives to define place holders for your variable data in your code.
Modify the build scripts to compile the build, and pass in the variable data as compiler arguments
I've done this with ant build scripts to include a timestamp and other info in the app's version string. Here's example with a timestamp...
1. Define variables in the compiler argument options for your project
The syntax is:
-define=NAMESPACE::VARIABLE_NAME,'variableValue'
For example:
-define=APPDATA::TIMESTAMP,"xxx"
This is what a developer would put in their IDE. When they compile their apps, the version string will have "xxx" in it. When the automated build script compiles the app, it passes in an actual timestamp using a similar argument.
2. Reference the variable in your code.
I'm using it as a String, but you can do Boolean and I assume the other primitive types.
public var appVersion:String = "MyApp " + APPDATA::TIMESTAMP;
You can conditionally compile code into the SWF with booleans:
-define=CONFIG::DEBUG,true
Now wrap code blocks with this compiler directive, and if true it will be compiled into the swf:
public function something():int
{
var a:int = 1;
CONFIG::DEBUG
{
a=2;
}
return a;
}
While this is pretty handy, I recommend only using compiler directives for things you really need to do at compile time, and not for general configuration :)
Resources:
Using conditional compilation
mxmlc compiler options
flex ant tasks
flex mojos maven plugins