Alexei@Nitobi

Ok I know I’ve said a lot about Adobe’s AIR framework lately.. but Im still at the AIRCamp Vancouver event and really digging what I’m hearing. Thought I’d distill down a few cool AIR features. Call this my “Why I should care” blog.

Preface:

All this can be done with HTML/JavaScript with a server-side back-end (if you want). Also from Flex/Flash:

• Windowing – True cross-window support, Z-ORDER support for windows.. AlwaysOnTop Support. Utility Windows. Transparent windoes. Chrome/Chromeless control – Works from JavaScript, not just Flex. AGAIN works cross platform, wikid.
• File IO – Read and write files from JavaScript, Flex. Don’t worry, it doesn’t subvert the security settings the user has set for an application. Includes control over different kinds of built in dialogues.. eg: Saving, browsing, etc.
• Script Bridging – Very _easy_ communication between HTML/JavaScript and Flash.. so no more external interface.. you can essentially crawl the dom directly from flash.. Big time saver.
• History management
• Drag and drop clipboard support. Dragging things between AIR applications, or from the desktop (files) to AIR apps, or from AIR to the desktop.. true desktop integration.. associate a particular file type to open IN air if you want.
• Rich clipboard support. More than you can do in the browser. Richer types of data parsing are possible.
• Service Monitoring. Know when the user is working online or offline and seamlessly switch to offline mode. Eg: if the user goes on a plane.. he can work offline.. the app can detect this and store everything in SQLLite or on the OS. When he’s connected again, you can detect this and sync-up.
• SQLLite. Built-in support for a basic SQL database as part of your application.
• Installer Update API’s. Update your apps easily.
• Badge-based Install.

Again, http://labs.adobe.com for more info.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 11:55 pm and is filed under air, onairbustour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.