How hard is it to create Native Extensions?

#1

I know this is a bit subjective, but for my next project I will likely need to integrate various ad network services (such as HeyZap, Vungle, AppLovin, SuperSonic, inMobi), and I need to have a rough idea of how long it would take me to do this with OpenFL native extensions, for Android and iOS.

I am an experienced programmer and am using HaxeFlixel for a few games now, but I haven’t created any extensions and the documentation on them seems a bit sparse. I need to have a rough idea of how difficult this is going to be to do. Should I expect to be able to create an extension in a week’s work on average, for example? Is there the possibility that creating an extension for some libraries is very difficult or near-impossible to do? Thanks.

#2

You can find several in openfl’s github https://github.com/openfl?query=extension which could give you a more precise idea on how to do it.

I’d also recommend reading neko’s documentation on cffi if you’re not already familiar http://nekovm.org/doc/ffi

The time required depends on the size and complexity of the api, but a week should be enough to have it working on most case I’d say.

#3

Ok I will read that, thanks!

#4

Most of these should be similar, so a good template for doing it could (likely) be reproduced. It’s too bad (though) that more of these services don’t provide regular HTTP services, which could be written in Haxe, with no native extension at all :wink:

#5

Ok that’s good to know. I’ll take a look at how other ad extensions were made :smile:

#6

You can read this blog post from labe.me

#7

Thanks, I’ve read that too. Also, in case anyone else is interested, this article is helpful: http://player03.com/2014/08/09/openfl-extensions/