Digitally signing Adobe AIR applications

Signing an AIR application with Flash CS3 Professional

Flash developers can generate AIR files using the Adobe AIR update for Flash CS3 Professional. You should have already read Creating your first AIR application using Flash CS3 from Adobe LiveDocs, and installed Flash CS3 AIR Update, and created your Flash based AIR application. Along with the ability to package your Flash application for the desktop is the ability to sign your AIR applications.

You need to first acquire your certificate from a Certificate Authority as explained above (you'll also have the opportunity to create your own self-signed developer test certificate, just like in Flex Builder CS3, from within Flash CS3 AIR Update).

To sign your Adobe AIR application in Flash CS3 Professional:

1. Change the extension of the .p12 file you exported from Firefox to .pfx; this is a necessary step.

2. From the main Flash toolbar, select the Command > AIR – Application and Installer to display the dialog box shown in Figure 9.

   

   Figure 9. The main AIR Application & Installation Settings window.

   This dialog box should look familiar to you—you've used it to configure your AIR runtime parameters, including default chrome, version, id and AIR package name. Halfway down there's a section called Installer Settings with an item called Digital Signature. There's a label there that describes the status of the certificate you're using, or in the case of the first time you configure the application, it'll say select a certificate to sign an AIR file. Since all AIR files must be signed, whether you use a self-signed certificate for testing or a fully qualified Thawte certificate for production, you can't create an AIR file without choosing a certificate.

3. Press the Set button to open the Digital Certificate window (see Figure 10). From this window, you can either choose the PFX file you exported from Firefox earlier (which you renamed in Step 1), or choose to create a self-signed developer certificate.

   

   Figure 10. Browse for your existing certificate or create a developer self-signed certificate.

4. If you want to create your own, self-signed certificate, click the Create button to open the Create Self-Signed Digital Certificate window and fill out the form (see Figure 11). It doesn't matter what you fill out in the form because it's going to show to the registered user as UNVERIFIED. Remember the password, as you'll need that when packaging the application.

   

   Figure 11. Create a self-signed certificate.

5. Click OK to create the certificate and return to the Digital Signature configuration screen.
6. Click the Browse button to choose either the digital signature that you exported from Firefox above when you purchased it from Thawte, or the self-signed certificate created in step 4.
7. Enter the password. (It's the password you created when you exported the certificate from Firefox, or the password from when you created the self-signed certificate.)
8. Select the Remember password for this session check box so you don't have to keep entering the password every time you build the AIR package.
9. Press the OK button to finalize your settings and return to the main AIR Settings & Installation window.
10. Now you're ready to publish your signed AIR application. Press the Publish AIR File and an AIR file will be generated for you, ready to install to a user's machine.

That's it, you're done. Test the installation by double-clicking the AIR file and watch the Adobe AIR installer do it's magic. Reward yourself with a coffee break, then continue reading Testing the AIR installation.

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