Digitally signing Adobe AIR applications

Signing an AIR application with Flex Builder 3

Signing your AIR applications with Flex Builder is a simple process. After you've acquired your certificate from the CA, store it in a known directory. In this example, my certificate is stored in c:\mydev\certificates\. Don't forget the password that you used to export your certificate from Firefox—you'll need it to sign your application.

Whenever you export your Adobe AIR application from Flex Builder 3, code signing will be an integrated step. You can't export your application without signing it. The export wizard provides the option of creating a self-signed certificate for testing purposes, or using the certificate you acquired above from Thawte (or any registered certificate authority).

To sign your AIR application in Flex Builder 3:

1. Select Project > Export Release build. This opens the Export Release build dialog box shown in Figure 6.

   

   Figure 6. The AIR project export release wizard.

2. Select the Application entry point which is the main MXML file that will start when a user starts your application. Name the Adobe AIR package that you want to export. In this example, I used AirProject.air. This will be the name of the file that people download from your website, so be sure to choose a meaningful name for your product.

3. Click Next to open the Export Release Build dialog box (see Figure 7). Here you can either browse for an exiting digital certificate like the one you acquired from Thawte above, or you can create a self-signed developer certificate by pressing the Create button to the far right.

   

   Figure 7. The Digital Signature signing step of the Export AIR application wizard.

4. If you don't have a certificate, click the Create button to generate a self-signed developer certificate. You'll be shown a new dialog box where you actually create a self-signed developer certificate. This window collects much of the same information that either VeriSign or Thawte will ask for when purchasing your certificate. In Figure 8, I'm filling out the publisher name (the name of your company), country, type, and password that I use to protect your certificate. Click OK to create the certificate and continue the Adobe AIR application export process. Don't forget the password, as you'll need this in the next step.

   

   Figure 8. Creating a self-signed (developer) certificate for testing purposes.

5. Enter the password of the developer certificate you either created in Step 4 above or when you exported the certificate from Firefox in the previous section.
6. Click Finish.
7. You should now have a signed .air file sitting in your project directory.

Now it's time to install the application to your machine just like a user would if they downloaded your AIR file from your website. If you're not interested in reading about the signing process in any of the other tools, skip ahead to Testing the AIR installation.

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