Synopses & Reviews
With the introduction of Adobe AIR, Flex developers have more capability than ever before. Now you can build dynamic applications that combine the rich experience of a traditional desktop application with the power of the Internet. Leveraging your existing knowledge of Adobe Flex and Flash, Breaking out of the Web Browser with Adobe AIR will help you build well-architected desktop applications. Flex and Flash experts Jeff Tapper and Michael Labriola will teach you techniques to create truly custom interfaces by leading you through exercises with a real world time-tracking application. The book’s abundance of examples will help you become adept at interacting with the end user’s underlying operating system and teach you the most important concepts for using AIR.
Synopsis
Up till now there have been two main types of applications: desktop applications such as Microsoft Word and Internet applications. Adobe adds a hybrid model with Adobe AIR that combines the rich experience of a traditional desktop application with the power and reach of the Internet. Breaking out of the Web Browser with Adobe AIR provides information necessary to build well-architected Desktop applications using this new technology. AIR builds on the tremendous success of the Adobe flash platform and includes a series of Application Programming Interfaces that allow Adobe Flex and Flash developers to leverage their exiting knowledge to generate desktop applications that harness the tremendous power of the Internet.
About the Author
Jeff Tapper has developed Internet-based applications since 1995 for a myriad of clients including Morgan Stanley, Conde Nast, Toys R Us, IBM, Dow Jones, American Express, M&T Bank, and Verizon. He has developed Flex applications since the earliest days of Flex 1. As an Instructor, Jeff is certified to teach Adobe’s courses on AIR, Flex, ColdFusion, and Flash. He is a senior consultant at Digital Primates IT Consulting Group, which provides expert guidance on rich Internet application development.
Michael Labriola is a Senior Consultant at Digital Primates IT Consulting Group. He has developed Internet applications since 1995 and has worked with Flex since its 1.0 beta program. Michael is an Adobe Flex Developer Champion, Certified Instructor, Community Expert, and international speaker on Flex and AIR topics who has consulted for three of the world’s ten most recognized brands.
Table of Contents
The Genesis of AIR
Chapter 1: Building Your First AIR Application
Chapter 2: Working with the Time Tracker Application
Chapter 3: Interacting with the Clipboard
Chapter 4: Implementing Drag and Drop Between the OS and AIR
Chapter 5: Reading and Writing to a SQLite Database
Chapter 6: Interacting with the File System
Chapter 7: Customizing the Look and Feel of an Application
Chapter 8: Working with the Presence API
Chapter 9: Using HTML Content in a Flex/AIR Application
Chapter 10: Understanding the Need for Remote Data
Chapter 11: Communicating with Adobe BlazeDS
Chapter 12: Testing AIR Applications with Fluint
Chapter 13: Deploying AIR Applications
Chapter 14: Understanding AIR Security
Appendix A: Getting Started with AIR
Appendix B: Considerations for Working with AIR 1.1
Index