Hacking your first Air application

An article by Glen    1 Comment

I’ve recently been developing some concepts for a client that needed to be a cross-platform rich client app. By nature I’m a Java guy, but because of the target environment, getting a JRE on the target platform was going to be problematic. So we were looking into other cross-platform alternatives, and the install/update experience with Air seemed to fit the bill (I would *love* to be doing it in Griffon, but the JRE install experience is just too clumsy for our target – hopefully Oracle will fix that in v7!).

The platform is really easy to get productive on. You can write Air apps in Flash or Flex or just plain old HTML/CSS/Javascript/jQuery. If you choose the html route, there’s very few new skills to learn and you’ll have bundled up your first app within a few minutes of getting started.

You have a known Webkit engine bundled with Air, so there’s no special html/css/js hackarounds required – and you can just use good old jQuery for your interaction magic. Even the install badge generation and automated update experience is super easy to get going. The developer experience is fantastic. They’ve really done some good thinking here.

So how do you get started with Air? Here’s a few jump points that I’ve collected to get you started:

• Download the free Aptana Studio Eclipse plugin (or standalone app if you’re not an Eclipse kinda guy).
• Checkout the Create an AIR TODO list in 5 minutes tutorial over on Sitepoint.
• Have a look around the Adobe AIR with Javascript site for the API refs

I’ve found Aptana studio to be a fantastic way to which up and run prototypes from directly within the IDE. The plugin also gives you a new /Export/AIR Application option from Eclipse which makes the bundling of your .air file very straightforward

As for supporting books? I bought the ebook for Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook and it has been a fantastic resource. It gives almost all the cookbook examples in both Flex and Javascript so you can quickly take advantage of lots of the common operations (tray integration, start on logon, custom window shapes, etc). I’ve really enjoyed it and found it an awesome reference.

You can also download an older title which is completely free called Adobe Air for Javascript Developers Pocket Guide. A much smaller title which gives you a good taste for the platform none-the-less.

Anyways, I’m having a fantastic time with Air and have found the learning curve (using the HTML/Javascript model) to be extremely straightforward – productive from day one. I’ll report back on the Air front once our app actually goes live for the client. It’s a Government initiative, so there’ll be lots of press when the launch happens!

Can’t wait to play with some options for a Grails backend that fronts an Air client. It’s definitely on my list!