Adobe AIR Overview

Slide 1: AIR 101 Web Directions North 08 Andre Charland, Nitobi andre@nitobi.com Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 2: About Me Andre Charland Co-Founder/CE0 @ Nitobi Usability & RIA Focus Author, Blogger, Skier Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 3: About Nitobi Ajax and Flex Components and Services Founded in 1998 Revenue funded Over 1000+ customers worldwide 12 Employees Vancouver, BC Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 4: Customers Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 5: AIR? Cross OS Runtime Web developers can build desktop apps Supports: Flash, Flex, HTML, PDF, JavaScript Totally Free OS Level APIs Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 6: AIR APIs and Features File I/O Local Storage Native Windowing System Notifications Menuing Auto Updates Online/Offline SQL Lite Database Detection Background Chrome Control Processes Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 7: Neat Things... Call ActionScript directly from JavaScript HTML content in Flash Badge Install Air Aliases.js Use ActionScript Libraries Keyboard Shortcuts Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 8: Technicalities Flash 9 WebKit (Safari) - Not a Browser Windows, Mac (Linux Coming Soon!) Not a Plug-In AIR is not Flex, Ajax, Flash...it’s a run-time Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 9: How To’s Flex Builder 3 HTML/Ajax Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 10: Application Descriptor File <?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?> <application xmlns=\"http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.0.M6\"> <id>samples.flex.HelloWorld</id> <version>0.1</version> <filename>HelloWorld</filename> <initialWindow> <content>HelloWorld.swf</content> <visible>true</visible> <systemChrome>none</systemChrome> <transparent>true</transparent> <width>400</width> <height>200</height> </initialWindow> </application> Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 11: File I/O • Setup a File object var myFile:File = File.appStorageDirectory; myFile = myFile.resolve( “contacts.xml” ); • Instantiate and FileStream object var myStream:FileStream = new FileStream(); • Setup the appropriate event listeners myStream.addEventListener( Event.COMPLETE, doReadData ); • Call FileStream.open() or FileStream.openAsync() with the appropriate m myStream.openAsync( myFile, FileMode.READ ); • Call the appropriate read and write methods • Close the file using FileStream.close() myStream.close(); Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 12: Windowing Create a new Native Window var options:NativeWindowInitOptions = new NativeWindowInitOptions(); options.systemChrome = NativeWindowSystemChrome.STANDARD; options.transparent = false; var newWin:NativeWindow = new NativeWindow(options); Window Size: var maxOSSize:Point = NativeWindow.systemMaxSize; var minOSSize:Point = NativeWindow.systemMinSize; Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 13: Service Monitor Include the external SWF Library <script type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"servicemonitor.swf\"></script> Check for the availability of a particular URL var monitor; function checkURLStatus(url) { ! var req = new air.URLRequest(url); ! monitor = new window.runtime.air.net.URLMonitor(req); ! monitor.pollInterval = 5000; ! monitor.addEventListener(air.StatusEvent.STATUS, showStatus); ! monitor.start(); Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 14: Snitter http://snook.ca/snitter/ Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 15: Scrutinizer http://about.stompernet.com/scrutinizer Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 16: Analytics Reporting http://analytics.boulevart.be/ http://analytics.boulevart.be/ Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 17: Opportunities Companion Applications API Libraries File Libraries Advanced features – syncing, etc.. Casual games Downloadable games Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 18: Usability Gotchas Keyboard shortcuts (tab, enter…) Throbbers / Activity indicators – no spinner Allow text to be copied Add functions for minimize, move, resize, close when ‘chromeless’ Mouse hints, invitations, tool tips Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 19: Limitations in 1.0 No support for hardware acceleration (3D games, video compositing tools, video encoders, etc) No access to native libraries (DLLs, etc) Cannot connect to devices (other than web cams and microphones) Accessibility support is limited Printing support is limited Limited localization in 1.0 Monday, February 4, 2008

Slide 20: Questions:) andre@nitobi.com http://blogs.nitobi.com/andre http://www.nitobi.com Monday, February 4, 2008