Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a cross-operating system runtime developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills, such as Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript and Ajax, to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

Adobe AIR applications have all the advantages of web applications, including speed of development, ease of use, and access from anywhere. They also have the power of the desktop. For example, Adobe AIR applications can read and write local files, collaborate with local applications, combine data from multiple network resources, and maintain local data on the desktop.

For web developers, Adobe AIR introduces a lucrative new marketplace for their current skill set. Plugged In asked Andrew Spaulding, Systems Engineer at Adobe, about the finer points of developing on AIR.

What type of applications does Adobe AIR target?

Adobe AIR is targeted at allowing web developers to build and deploy desktop applications using web technologies. Those developers who are currently leveraging web technologies such as Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, and Ajax techniques to build and deploy rich Internet applications will be able to deploy desktop applications without having to learn another development language.

Is Adobe AIR free?

Yes. Adobe AIR is free, similar to Flash Player and Adobe Reader.

Is the Adobe AIR SDK free?

Yes. The Adobe AIR SDK is free for developers to download and use, similar to the Flex SDK. For Flex based AIR development, the AIR SDK ships as part of the Flex 3 SDK.

What are the supported operating systems for Adobe AIR?

Adobe AIR supports:

• Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, and Windows Vista Home and Ultimate Edition
• Mac OS 10.4.7 and above (Intel and PowerPC).

What technologies can developers leverage within an Adobe AIR application?

Adobe AIR allows applications to be built using Flash, Flex, and HTML/JavaScript or a combination of both.

Flash based applications will be able to include HTML based content and HTML based applications can contain Flash based content.

In addition, Adobe AIR applications can integrate closely with PDF documents.

Can developers use just HTML and JavaScript to build an Adobe AIR application?

Yes, and we even have a plug-in available for Dreamweaver CS3.

What IDE is used to develop Adobe AIR applications?

Developers can leverage any existing IDE already being used for Flash, Flex, or HTML/JavaScript development such as Flex Builder, Eclipse, vim, etc. Adobe AIR does not require a specific IDE.

We will be releasing a set of command line tools for Adobe AIR that will make it easy for developers to do Adobe AIR application packaging and development via their favorite IDE or editor. You can download a Beta version of these tools in the Adobe AIR SDK.

Basically, you can use any tool that outputs SWF or HTML files.

Will developers be able to create Adobe AIR applications with Flash Authoring?

Yes. The beta version of the AIR update for Flash CS3 Professional allows users to package and preview AIR applications. More information is available here: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki
/index.php/AIR:Flash_CS3_Professional_Update

Will developers be able to create Adobe AIR applications with Dreamweaver?

Yes. The Adobe AIR Extension for Dreamweaver Beta 3 is available for download.

Will developers be able to create Adobe AIR applications with Flex Builder?

Yes. The Flex 3 SDK included with Flex Builder contains everything you need to create and develop Flex based AIR applications, and better yet you can leverage the same assets and components that you would deploy to the Flash Player in the browser and AIR on the desktop. For more information, see the Develop on Adobe AIR with Flex and Flash page on Adobe Labs.

Are there Flex-based sample applications available?

There is a range of sample applications, including both Flex and HTML based samples. Kevin Hoyt, an Adobe Platform Evangelist, has at least 40 sample applications available to download that are also updated to support the latest AIR beta 3 release. http://blog.kevinhoyt.org/2007/12
/18/samples-updated-for-air-beta-3/

How will the Adobe AIR runtime be distributed?

Adobe AIR will be distributed in a number of ways, including, but not limited to, being installed along with the AIR application (in case the user does not have Adobe AIR installed) via the seamless install process; or as a download from the Adobe website as a standalone installer.

Will developers be able to distribute the Adobe AIR installer with their applications?

Yes, in addition to creating and distributing cross-platform Adobe AIR application installer files, it will be possible for developers to write their own custom native installers that install Adobe AIR and the Adobe AIR application.

How are Adobe AIR applications installed?

Adobe AIR applications are installed like any other application on a user's computer. The user downloads a cross-platform installation file and double clicks it to start the install process.

The experience for the end user depends on which operating system they are running on, as Adobe AIR will provide an installation mechanism consistent with that of the current operating system.

What HTML and JavaScript engine is used within Adobe AIR?

HTML and JavaScript within Adobe AIR are handled by the WebKit HTML/JavaScript engine.

Is this the same WebKit project that the Safari browser on Mac OS X and the KHTML Browser in KDE use?

Yes.

Why did Adobe choose WebKit?

We spent a considerable amount of time researching a number of HTML rendering engines for use in Adobe AIR. We had four main criteria, all of which WebKit met:

• Open project that we could contribute to
• Proven technology, that web developers and end users are familiar with
• Minimum effect on Adobe AIR runtime size
• Proven ability to run on mobile devices

While the final decision was difficult, we feel WebKit is the best match for Adobe AIR at this time.

Will Adobe AIR's use of WebKit result in a new HTML engine that developers have to account for?

No. Our goal is to maintain complete compatibility with existing WebKit implementations. This will help ensure that content that runs in WebKit based browsers, such as Apple's Safari, will also run within Adobe AIR applications.

Does Adobe plan to submit changes back to the WebKit project?

Yes. Our goal is to become an active member of the WebKit community and actively submit fixes and changes to the WebKit project for consideration.

Will Adobe AIR Applications be able to communicate with other Adobe AIR applications?

Yes. Adobe AIR applications will be able to communicate with each other via the use of the LocalConnection ActionScript API.

Will Adobe AIR applications be able to communicate directly with databases?

Adobe AIR 1.0 will not have built-in support for communicating directly with databases. However, it will be possible to write database drivers in ActionScript (leveraging binary or XML sockets), which would allow Adobe AIR applications to communicate directly with a database (both local and remote).

Will Adobe AIR include an embedded database that applications can access?

Yes. The Adobe AIR beta includes the SQLite embedded database for use by Adobe AIR applications.

How much control will developers/designers have over their application appearance?

Developers and designers will have 100% control over their application's appearance.

Can I reuse existing Flex 2 code in an Adobe AIR application?

Yes. In fact, you should not need to re-write any code to have an existing Flex application run within Adobe AIR, although you may need to write additional code to take advantage of Adobe AIR specific APIs and controls.

What are some of the APIs that Adobe AIR will expose to developers?

Some of the APIs that have been publicly discussed are: File I/O, Online / Offline, Windowing, Clipboard, System Drag and Drop, Full Network API support, and Local Storage / Settings

Will Adobe AIR applications be able to work offline?

Yes. Adobe AIR will provide a set of APIs to make it easy to develop connected applications that work while offline.

Does Adobe AIR provide an application update mechanism?

Yes. Adobe AIR provides a mechanism to make it easy to update applications. Many community members are also working on application update frameworks.

Is Adobe AIR an .exe /projector creator?

No. Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that runs on the user's system. One of the advantages of this is that Adobe AIR application installation files can be much smaller, as it does not require that the entire runtime engine be distributed with each and every copy of the application. It also allows us to integrate the technologies together (Flash, HTML, PDF) on a much lower level than may otherwise be feasible. Finally, it allows us to provide a more standardised and consistent security model for Adobe AIR applications and users.

What security model does the Adobe AIR runtime provide?

Our goal is to provide the functionality that developers need and want, while also allowing them to create secure applications. Adobe AIR applications are downloaded to, installed, and run from the user's desktop. Therefore, they run in a different security context than applications that run in the browser, and will have a security model closer to that of a desktop application. To learn more about security in AIR, please read the Adobe AIR Security White Paper (.pdf). This document will be updated over time.

Does the Adobe AIR runtime require administrative privileges for installation?

Yes, the runtime requires an administrator privileges to be installed. On Windows XP the minimum requirement is for user to be a "power user".

Do Adobe AIR applications require administrative privileges for installation?

Yes. Applications require admin privileges to install just like other native desktop applications. If a sufficient user privilege is unavailable, the application will present the user with a "run as" dialog box. The end user can then enter the details of an administrator account.

Do Adobe AIR applications run with administrative privileges?

Adobe AIR applications run with the privileges of the user who starts the application. When the operating system applies security restrictions to applications (such as UAC in Windows Vista) those restrictions will be enforced on Adobe AIR applications.

Will Flash version 8 and below SWF files run in Adobe AIR?

Yes. However, the Adobe AIR APIs are only exposed to Flash content via ActionScript 3 / AVM2, and thus Flash 8 / AVM1 SWFs will be able to run, but they will not have direct access to the Adobe AIR APIs.

Does the Adobe AIR runtime have an expiration date or timeout?

Adobe AIR 1.0 does not have an expiration date, however prerelease versions of Adobe AIR do. The Apollo Alpha and Adobe AIR Beta 1 are no longer functional. Adobe AIR Beta 2 will not operate after June 1, 2008. The Adobe AIR Beta3 will not operate after October 1, 2008. We highly recommend that you always update your applications to the latest version of AIR.

What is the purpose of the Browser API?

The new Browser API provides a more secure way to install both the AIR runtime and applications, and the ability to detect and launch AIR applications from the web.

Why is the browser API hosted on Adobe.com?

To facilitate providing improvements in detection logic (such as providing additional OS support, fixing reported detection issues, etc), without requiring developers to modify the badges on their websites. If you do not want to use the hosted version of the browser API, you can always use the browser API swf (air.swf).

Does this mean that a developer's install badge has to be hosted on Adobe.com?

No, the install badge itself is hosted on their website. However, the detection logic which is part of the browser API is hosted on Adobe.com in the form of a SWF that developers include in their badge.

The developer has total control over the look and feel of the badge on their site. Our SDK includes samples such as a badge (badge.swf) and a badge.fla file that developers can tailor to suit their needs.

Can the Browser API's only be used in badges, or can they also be used from AIR applications?

The Browser API's can also be used within an AIR application to detect, launch, and install other AIR applications. Please note that AIR applications must opt-in to be detected and launched. The browser API's cannot be used to detect, launch, or install non-AIR applications.

How does detecting and launching an AIR application from the browser work?

AIR applications must opt-in to be detected and launched from a browser. Through the use of the browser API, a badge can detect if a specific AIR application is installed, launch it, and pass parameters to it.

Where can developers see an example of a badge that demonstrates the seamless install feature?

Currently, all of the Adobe AIR sample applications demonstrate the seamless install experience. When a user clicks the Install Now button, the badge checks to see whether Adobe AIR is installed on the current machine. If Adobe AIR is not installed, it will install the runtime and then the application. If it is already installed, it will just install the application.