Peter Elst is a freelance Flash Platform consultant who gave a presentation on getting creative with Adobe AIR. He discussed how AIR allows developers to build applications that can run across Windows, Mac and Linux using existing web development skills. Elst provided examples of creative uses of AIR beyond traditional apps like Twitter clients, including a New York Times reader, a desktop version of a live streaming show, and a screensaver application. He encouraged developers to experiment with AIR's features and not be limited by perceptions of the desktop and web as separate environments.

1. Getting Creative with Adobe AIR
Peter Elst - The ActionScript Conference 2009

2. Who is Peter?
✤ Freelance Flash Platform Consultant
✤ Adobe Community Expert for RIA
✤ Adobe Certified Instructor
✤ Author to a number of ActionScript books including
“Object-Oriented ActionScript 3.0”

3. This was last year...

4. RIA meets Desktop
✤ Introduction to Adobe AIR
✤ How to build AIR applications
✤ Network, Windowing, HTML, FileSystem, SQLite,
Drag ‘n Drop, Clipboard access, Update API’s,...
What else could I possibly talk about?

5. Thinking outside the box

6. Creative uses of the technology

7. AIR is more than Twitter clients

8. New York TimesReader

9. TWiT Live Desktop

10. web + desktop = ?

11. a new paradigm to be explored

12. What makes Adobe AIR so special
✤ Allows you to use your existing web development skills
✤ Free tools, no costs involved to develop apps
✤ Cross platform (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) and support
for mobile and devices is on the roadmap
✤ Bridges web and desktop environments in a secure way
Its fun to play around with!

14. HelloWorld in AIR

15. Detecting if AIR is installed

16. Launching apps from the browser

17. Record streaming audio

18. Screensaver

19. Screensaver (Windows only)
✤ Inspired by Keith Peters
✤ Make a full screen AIR application
✤ Export the AIR application and install
✤ Rename the .exe to .scr and distribute
Note: bypassing the AIR installer is not recommended
practice (but works most of the time) ;)

20. SQLite wrapper

21. SQLite wrapper (top secret)
✤ To be announced at Flash on the Beach later this month
✤ Make it (very) easy to work with local databases
✤ Features so far included setting up and querying databases
✤ New release will have support for basic online/offline
synchronization

22. Conclusion
✤ Don’t let technology limit your imagination
✤ Don’t see desktop and web as separate environments
✤ Do experiment with features and hack around
✤ Do things you love and share them with the community

23. Q&A
✤ Have you played with Adobe AIR?
✤ What do you like about it?
✤ How do you see the web and desktop converging?

24. Thank you!
Feel free to get in touch with questions,
feedback or ideas for projects!
blog: www.peterelst.com
email: info@peterelst.com
twitter: @peterelst