Announcing Blog Series – AIR Tips
August 20th, 2007
If you haven’t started working with the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) – you need to. For web developers it opens up the whole world of the desktop – using only the tools that you are already familiar with (Flash/Flex or HTML/Javascript). The AIR Tips Series will deliver quick examples of specific AIR functionality. You should be able to take 5 minutes and read through the entire tip. For most topics, we will cover both HTML / Javascript and Flex examples. I will also intersperse some applications that I am currently working on. I will post roughly 5 tips a week for the next several weeks.
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5 comments on “Announcing Blog Series – AIR Tips”
01
“For web developers it opens up the whole world of the desktop”
I have been vaguely following Air ever since it was announced, and I am still asking myself this question, “Why do I want to develop for the Desktop?” I realize that there are some web apps that would benefit from offline capabilities, but in my opinion those type of apps are few and far between. It seems to me that most apps can (and do) work perfectly well on the web. Look at all the Google apps, for example. More and more these days, we are seeing apps move the /other/ direction, /towards/ the web, not away from it (towards the desktop).
I have seen a lot of cool demo Air apps, but that’s just it. They are “cool”. They give you that “Gee whiz, ain’t that neat” feeling. But are they really useful? Can you do the same things in the web browser, without accessing the desktop? Does the average user really /care/ if their application is on the web, or on the desktop?
So I am waiting for that “Aha!” moment, where I finally understand why Air should be important to me, as a developer. I am still unconvinced, though, either way.
02
Jake, I totally understand your line of thinking. Because AIR is in Beta, any of the applications that have been developed have been more “Proof of Concept” rather than actual implementation. This leads to a bunch of applications that are more “widgets” than “applications”. However, that is not true for all of them.
All of that said, let’s be honest - these days, we are “stretching” the browser to do what is wasn’t created to do. We have improved the end-user experience quite a bit, but we are still limited in many areas, especially web application / native operating system interaction.
For example, let’s say a user wants to sell an item on Ebay. He would have to log in to Ebay, upload all of his pictures, edit his description in a scaled-down web text editor, and then submit it all. What if he could drag all of his pictures and description onto an application and have it read in all of the information and upload it directly to Ebay? That is just one sample. I plan to cover this issue in an upcoming post, “Why AIR?”. Please check back in a week or so for the article. Sorry for the “book length” response.
03
“let’s be honest - these days, we are ’stretching’ the browser to do what is wasn’t created to do.”
I agree, but that is changing more and more as time goes on. The W3C is expanding the body of standards that /should/ define how web browsers work (however, not all of them support the standards, unfortunately). So I wonder if the best answer is to make a new platform to fill in this “gap” (this new platform being Air).
When it comes down to it, I guess it doesn’t matter what you and I think, because the market will decide if Air succeeds or not. I have seen a lot of hype around the impending launch of Air, so I am inclined to think that a lot of web developers are going to embrace Air. But I wonder if it will ever be as ubiquitous as the Flash Player…
04
You should consider posting these tips on the Adobe developer center pages for AIR. If you need a contact, let me know and I’ll get you in touch with the right team.
Mike
05
Hello, i want to note that your question is typical
accounts. Marcus
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