FlexDaddy » Web

Building desktop applications with HTML and JavaScript

Andrew Spaulding — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:10:12 +0000

This session at Adobe AIR Camp introduced traditional HTML and JavaScript developers to the AIR SDK and how to use the the various binaries (ADL and ADT) to develop, test, and package desktop applications. The session included a basic introduction to the AIRAliases.js file and it’s importance when coding against the AIR runtime with JS.

What I find really helpful is the Adobe AIR Language Reference for JavaScript developers. This is a subset of the ActionScript 3.0 Language Reference and includes all the AIR specific features that you as a JavaScript developer can access within the AIR runtime.

For the basic application seen below you can develop using your favorite text editor and the Adobe AIR SDK, download the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3, or even try developing with Aptana. I really like Aptana as it can be installed as a plugin for Eclipse and sit right beside my Flex development perspective.

For other AIR development tools click here.

Download the source code for the application below.

Your first desktop application with HTML and JavaScript

<html>
 
<head>
<title>Our first HTML AIR application</title>
 
<script src="AIRAliases.js" ></script>
<script>
   function doLoad()
   {
      alert("Simple alert to show we can include regular JS scripting");
   }
 
   function writeFile()
   {
      var file = air.File.desktopDirectory.resolvePath("sample.txt");
	  var stream = new air.FileStream();
 
	  stream.open( file, air.FileMode.WRITE );
	  stream.writeMultiByte( document.getElementById('textInput').value , air.File.systemCharset );
	  stream.close();   
   }
 
</script>
 
</head>
 
<body onLoad="doLoad()">
   <h2>AIR HTML/JavaScript Sample</h2>
   <p>This sample application will take a simple text input entry and write this out to the contents of a file on the users desktop</p>
   <input type="text" id="textInput" value="www.flexdaddy.info"/>
   <input type="button" onClick="writeFile()" value="Save to desktop" />
</body>
 
</html>

And the application descriptor/manifest file

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.0">
    >com.flexdaddy.samples.htmlair>
    >v1>
    >aircamp_sample>
    >
        >airsample.html>
        >true>
        >400>
        >350>
    >
>

Download the source code for this application.

AIR Camp keynote slides

Andrew Spaulding — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:05:07 +0000

Below are the keynote slides from the recent Adobe AIR Camps throughout Australia and New Zealand. Thanks to everyone who attended, and a special thanks to both Mark Blair and Matt Voerman who presented at the events as well, and to Mike Downey for presenting the keynote in Sydney while on his visit to WebDU 2008.

Over the next few days I’ll post slides and references to the rest of the content we covered at the AIR Camps.

Building desktop applications with Adobe Flex
Building desktop applications with HTML/JavaScript
Deploying and updating your AIR applications
Data intensive AIR applications

Be sure to take a look at the following links to some great applications. A real nice showcase of what’s possible!

Adobe AIR Showcase
Adobe AIR Marketplace

Adobe removes all restrictions on SWF and FLV specs

Andrew Spaulding — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:16:38 +0000

Adobe has announced the Open Screen Project http://www.openscreenproject.org/, an initiative dedicated to driving consistent experiences across all devices including mobile phones, personal computers, consumer devices and more

Specifically, this work will include:

Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
Publishing the Adobe FlashÂ® Castâ„¢ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
Removing licensing fees â€“ making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

I wonder how long it will take to see various open source flash players?!

More info here http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/

Slides and demos from my presentations

Andrew Spaulding — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:51:28 +0000

Slowly but surely I’ll release a series of posts covering content from presentations I’ve given online and at Adobe events during the past few months.

Some of the content includes:

Using Flex with PHP
Branded applications with AIR
Showcasing local industry applications (customer presentations)
Using ColdFusion messaging gateways with Flex
Integrating MS Exchange with ColdFusion and Flex

We’ve also just finished a 4 city tour around Australia with CFCAMP where I introduced Microsoft Exchange server integration and how to bring this into Flex and AIR.

Slides and demo files for everything over the past month and more will come shortly.

Enjoy!

EDIT (12/12/07) – I’m currently traveling in the US so there’s been some delays in tidying up the demos… but they’ll be ready in time for Christmas!

CFCAMP Australia is more than just ColdFusion

Andrew Spaulding — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:17:24 +0000

In the coming weeks get set for a FREE mini-conference for ColdFusion developers by ColdFusion developers. And better yet we’ll have renowned ColdFusion expert Ben Forta joining us along side long time CF’ers Mark Blair, Nick Watson (UK) and the many community experts here in Oz.

Here you’ll see more than just ColdFusion. How about powering your Flex applications and targeting desktop applications with ColdFusion? I think it’s sounds like a winning combination! And that’s exactly what i’ll be presenting on.

Interested in learning more? You’ll want to be there – REGISTER NOW!

Event dates:

November 20th: Sydney
November 21st: Brisbane
November 22nd: Melbourne
November 27th: Perth

Check out the wiki, vote for the community driven sessions, and come along and network with other developers interested in the latest for the Web, RIAs and desktop apps with AIR.

Hope to see you there (whether that’s in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne or Perth)!

Adobe Refresh Australia, learn about MAX 2007

Andrew Spaulding — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:24:35 +0000

Adobe Australia are holding a “Refresh” event for the local developer communities. This is your chance to hear first hand the latest news and announcements surrounding Adobe’s developer technologies! I promise you will not be disappointed! So come and spend an afternoon with your local Adobe crew including myself, Matt Voerman, Mark Blair, Mark Szulc and many others.

Click here to register.

Details:

Join us for an opportunity to connect with the local developer community, whilst refreshing your knowledge on the latest from Adobe at Adobe Refresh 2007.

Over the course of an afternoon, you will hear from the local Adobe team as they present on whatâ€™s new and whatâ€™s happening in AIR, Flash Professional, Flex, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and ColdFusion.

Thereâ€™ll be summaries from the Keynote Presentations at Adobe Max 2007, as well as Community Expert Tables and plenty of time to socialise.

When:

Tue 30 Oct 07
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour
13:30 – 17:00

Wed 31 Oct 07
Telstra Dome, Melbourne
13:30 – 17:00

Hope to see you there!

Barely out of Beta – New RIA comic!

Andrew Spaulding — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:17:40 +0000

The dudes over at Nectarine have released the first of a short series of comic strips around RIA. The first story comes from the recent happenings at Web on the Piste where Adobe and Microsoft had a friendly showdown at the speaker round table.

This comic strip is going to make me famous!!! “Internet” baby yeah!

“Barely Out Of Beta”

Check out many of the other awesome animations at animation.nectarine.com.au

Nectarine keynote animations are online

Andrew Spaulding — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:17:21 +0000

Grant has blogged the Web on the Piste keynote intro animations made by the team at Nectarine. Some of you may recognize the style, and that’s coz these guys also do the animations for WebDU (and the speaker face on this blog).

Check them out at the Web on the Piste Blog

Great work guys!

Web on the Piste, a successful conference!

Andrew Spaulding — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:11:56 +0000

I’m sitting in the lounge at Sydney International Airport, the morning after returning from Queenstown New Zealand from the Web on the Piste conference. Approx 100 attendees made it to this “vendor neutral” event, with a myriad of speakers including those from Adobe and Microsoft, to the team at Universal Mind and Smartmail. The location was amazing and I’m sure there’ll be punches thrown as people fight to decide who will be heading back there next year. Matt Voerman and I hope to be back there soon!

Kudos to Todd @ Gruden and Grant @ Straker and both their teams for hosting the conference.

I took plenty of photos, and will have to fire up my flickr or picasa account and put some up. And for those facebook users out there, search for Web on the Piste and take a look at the photos.

But now it’s on to Tokyo for some corporate training and to catch up with Chris Marmo from Information Architects Japan.

Adobe announces Developer Fridays

Andrew Spaulding — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:13:35 +0000

Here at Adobe Australia we’ve announced a series of live sessions for developers, introducing new technologies, ideas, and concepts, in an open forum using Acrobat Connect. What’s great about it is the time slot! Perfect for developers living in Australia and New Zealand (but not limited to people from these audiences, so if you find yourself unable to sleep feel free to join us!)

Both myself, Mark Szulc, and Brian Chau will host the presentations, with the first session on July 6 at 2pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) discussing what’s new in Flex 3.

Topics include:

What’s new in Flex 3?
Introduction to LiveCycle Designer
Web applications and AJAX using Dreamweaver
ColdFusion 8 – Working with PDF forms and documents
Maximising the User Experience with AIR
Improve the performance of your applications with ActionScript in Flash CS3
LiveCycle Data Services – Combining PDF documents into your Flex applications
Take your applications off-line with AIR
Develop custom components for Flex with Flash CS3

For more information visit the registration page and sign up for any or all of the sessions.