I need to create directories in the local machine, can i do this with FLEX with AIR support
Air gives you reasonable file access. Creating directories shouldn't be a problem.
See the docs for more info:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AIR/1.5/devappsflex/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118666ade46-7d8e.html#WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118666ade46-7d9a
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I have been throught a lot of reading and the whole thing is becoming only more confusing so I decided to ask you some stuff about Flex.
So, Flex can run in a webpage if you have Flash plugin in your browser, in an AIR container (on pc/android/IOS, but on OSX ?) and also can compile to Native IOS/Android app.
I am not sure about the last point.
If it is possible, how can I build a flex app that would run in browser with flash plugin and also be compiled to Android and IOS (and maybe Windows RT) ?
Adobe gives you Flash builder, do you also need the Flex SDK ? Is it doable with the Eclipse Flex plugin ?
Thank you for your help and sorry if it is a bit messed up.
So, Flex can run in a webpage if you have Flash plugin in your
browser, in an AIR container (on pc/android/IOS, but on OSX ?) and
also can compile to Native IOS/Android app. I am not sure about the
last point.
This is mostly correct. Flex can run in a web page using the Flash Plugin, which is widely available on desktop browsers. For all intents and purposes, you should assume your mobile users do not have a Flash Plugin installed on their mobile browsers.
It is true using AIR you can create desktop applications for PC and Mac; OSx is indeed supported. You can also use AIR to create Mobile applications on Android, iOS, and Blackberry Playbook. So, iOS is indeed supported. Windows 8 UI/Metro support for AIR is expected 1st quarter of this year. I suspect we'll also see AIR support for Blackberry 10; but nothing has been formally announced that I'm aware of.
Update: 3/2014
Adobe has abandoned plans for Windows 8 UI / Metro support. Windows Phone 8 support is a very common feature request, though, so vote for it if you want it.
BlackBerry 10 does indeed support Adobe AIR. Here is a link to the SDK.
If it is possible, how can I build a flex app that would run in
browser with flash plugin and also be compiled to Android and IOS (and
maybe Windows RT) ?
Flex is primarily a framework for creating business applications. A slightly different component set is offered for desktop applications and mobile applications. Part of this is due to screen size; and part due to performance. A big DataGrid with dozens of columns, for example, is not conducive to the screen size of your mobile phone.
Update 3/2014:
A mobile optimized DataGrid was donated to the Apache Flex Team, and it should be available in current versions of the SDK.
In the end; you should not plan on using the same exact application for both your Desktop/browser app and the mobile app. But, you can share some amount of code. I would target to share 80% of the code. Move the shared code into a library project; which you can then use on both your mobile application, your desktop application, and your browser based application.
Adobe gives you Flash builder, do you also need the Flex SDK ? Is it
doable with the Eclipse Flex plugin ?
Flash Builder is shipped with the Flex SDK. And Adobe Flex ships with the AIR SDK [Note: Apache Flex does not ship w/ the AIR SDK due to licensing differences; but there is a handy installer]. Flash Builder, also, is an Eclipse plugin and can be installed into any eclipse instance you wish.
You do not need Flash Builder to create a Flex Application. You can use command line tools and other IDEs, such as IntelliJ, if you prefer.
Using Flash Professional, you can package and export to a number of platforms using AIR. You can port to both Android or iOS (as a native app), in addition to creating a .swf file that can be embedded onto a webpage - all using the one application (go 'File' > 'Publish Settings' then change the player target).
I'm not sure whether the same options are available in Flash Builder, (appears to be possible -
adobe website) but not other IDE (such as Eclipse) or framework should be needed.
You may want to consider an alternative development and deployment strategy depending on your requirements, e.g. PhoneGap which should offer support for a greater number of devices.
I have AIR application that i have created. One of my customers wants me to give him a CD that will automatically install the application with computer that has no AIR runtime installed.
How can i create an automatic installer that can install the AIR runtime and my AIR application easily?
Thanks in advance,
Lior
With AIR 3 you can create an installer using Captive Runtime, which makes it so that your app no longer has a dependency to the AIR runtime. That will probable be your easiest best option. More info
Additionally, you could sign up for a redistribution license of Adobe AIR which gives you permission to do that. Along with that, I believe they offer instructions on how do a headless/invisible install of the AIR runtime. Then you'll have to create your own installer which will perform the headless AIR install along with your own AIR app.
Recently, i have faced an issue of caching of my flex swf file on client's ie-explorer machine and i could not tell him every time, delete all your cache data and reopen the browser.
so, finally, i have think to make the different version of swf file for each release build and give it to client while production release.
Could you please have any idea about handling/maintain version of release swf file in flash builder.
i am using the flash builder 4.0 and using flex 4 in my application.
I think you should do this versioning in the deployment process, ie when you upload the new SWF to your webserver, as the HTML / JS embedding needs to be updated too anyway.
Hello StackOverflow community,
Is there any way to package the installer for an Adobe AIR application using Adobe AIR 1.5 as an executable (.EXE) file?
I found that this is possible for Adobe AIR 2.0, but it requires an upgrade to Adobe AIR 2.0 runtime. Are there any other options using the Adobe AIR 1.5 runtime?
Thanks,
Mauricio
You can join the program to redistribute the AIR Runtime.
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_agreement.html
I believe joining the program also provides you additional information about installing the AIR app and possibly the AIR runtime silently.
I think if you execute an AIR program with the '-silent' attribute you will get a silent install. Something similar at one point worked, at least, and I'm not sure of the exact command line argument.
Once you have those to things in place, it should be easy to launch the AIR runtime and/or AIR App installer from your own executable installer. There should be plenty of programs for creating the installer.
I think this could be done with the silent install method and a bit of scripting. If you needed to install the runtime at the same time you would need to sign up for the AIR Runtime Distribution agreement. I'm not sure what benefit you would gain over the normal AIR installation tho.
Nope, AIR 2.0 only.
No. There is no known way to package an Adobe AIR application as a native executable installer. You would have to do it with the .air package installation only, if you want AIR 1.5.
I am writing a program that has an AIR front-end, but a back-end written in another language (Python, in this case). Since AIR can't invoke other executables, the relationship has to be the other way around, with Python running an AIR subprocess. How can I locate the user's AIR runtime? I'd like to be able to do this on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
(Ironically, this would be super easy if I could package the AIR debug runtime, but the licensing agreement requires that the user download the regular runtime themselves and run the installer.)
First, you can get a (free) licenses to redistribute the AIR runtime installed:
See:
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/04/07/redistributing-the-adobe-air-runtime-installer/
and
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution1.html#license
As far as launching an AIR application, you can launch it like any other native applications (since the AIR app is just a native app once it is installed).
As far as finding where the user installed the app, at least on Windows, I believe you can get the info programatically from the registry, based on on the appid of the AIR app you want to launch.
Finally, you can find a proof of concept on this here:
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/01/17/commandproxy-net-air-integration-proof-of-concept/
and
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/01/22/commandproxy-its-cool-but-is-it-a-good-idea/
mike