AIR Cookbook Cook-off

Well I’ve submitted 5 articles to the online AIR Cookbook, hoping to get at least one in the paper book.

Today however Adobe disappoints me again:

What :

Adobe AIR Cookbook Cook-off

Who : RIA developers who are legal residents only of the United States

Well congrats to our US RESIDENT colleagues, the rest of us can just code for fun.

Marin

Initially very excited about the change to get in the O’Reilly AIR Cookbook, I sat down and came up with few nice samples of different uses of the AIR APIs.

However … when I check the option that gives the article the chance to be considered for the hardcopy book I am actually taken to this page:

http://www.oreillynet.com/adobeflex/?publish=yes&flexUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2Fcfusion%2Fcommunityengine%2Findex.cfm%3Fevent%3Dshowdetails%26productId%3D4%26postId%3D9463

which turns out to be a submission form for the FLEX Cookbook …

I really wonder what’s going to happen with my submissions and why there is this problem at all ?

The Online AIR Cookbook is looking for submissions, which may as well be pulished in the hard copy.

I decided to go and publish couple of examples bundled in an article here :

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communityengine/index.cfm?event=showdetails&postId=9406&productId=4&loc=en_US

However writing was nice it remainded me about the nice time I had preparing my book about perl long time ago :)

But, Adobe should certainly take a look at their horrible text editor where the authors are supposed to enter the articles - believe it or not, it took me more than 2 hours only to format my (already formatted ) text in their online text editor. It’s outrages to have half- working rich text editor, if you are Adobe and you want people to submit content to your site. I started to post at home, then couldn’t make it on time, I gave up went to work, and finished it from there …

Anyways … hoping to get in the hard copy of the book :) thinking positive  … :)

Marin

And Adobe decided to wrap up the update capabilities of Adobe AIR in a nice framework.
This far it looks good, still didn’t have the time to test it mysel, but the samples look interesting

The framework is configured via a simple XML file :

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<configuration xmlns=”http://ns.adobe.com/air/framework/update/configuration/1.0″ >
<url>app:/server/update.xml</url>
<delay>1</delay>
<defaultUI>
<dialog name=”checkForUpdate” visible=”true” />
<dialog name=”downloadUpdate” visible=”true” />
<dialog name=”downloadProgress” visible=”true” />
<dialog name=”installUpdate” visible=”true” />
</defaultUI>
</configuration>

And the code in JavaScript looks like this :

var application;
function initialize(){
application = new Application();
}

function Application(){
this.initializeUpdater();
}

Application.prototype = {

initializeUpdater: function(){
var that = this;
var appUpdater = this.appUpdater = new runtime.air.update.ApplicationUpdaterUI();

appUpdater.configurationFile = new air.File(”app:/config/update.xml”);
appUpdater.addEventListener( runtime.air.update.events.UpdateEvent.INITIALIZED, function(ev){ that.onUpdaterInitialized() } );
appUpdater.initialize();

},

onUpdaterInitialized: function(){

},

checkForUpdates: function(){
this.appUpdater.checkNow();
},

load: function(){
document.getElementById(’version’).innerHTML = this.appUpdater.currentVersion;
}

}

initialize();

Now … yes that looks ok, I have to try it and see .. maybe the Updater class I wrote for backit might be useless :) lol

Good job anyway - cheers for Adobe

Marin

Adobe AIR 1.1 was released and that’s great :) ! yupeeee

Altough I think everyone was looking for new APIs since there are already a load of things the developers were requesting it turnes out the update bring only two new API (2 properties .. seems) and loads of internationalization … hmm m

• Installation and other runtime dialog boxes have been translated
• Support for building internationalized applications
• Support for certificate migration from a self-signed application to one that chains to a certificate of authority
• Support for Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and support for 64-bit editions of Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise
• Addition of File.spaceAvailable
• Addition of NativeWindow.supportsTransparency
•  Bug fixes

Well … good job Adobe AIR Team - the 1.1 update definitely puts AIR to the table when comes to developing localized applications now …

Congrats :)
Marin

Adobe AIR 1.1 was released and that’s great :) ! yupeeee

Altough I think everyone was looking for new APIs since there are already a load of things the developers were requesting it turnes out the update bring only two new API (2 properties .. seems) and loads of internationalization … hmm m

• Installation and other runtime dialog boxes have been translated
• Support for building internationalized applications
• Support for certificate migration from a self-signed application to one that chains to a certificate of authority
• Support for Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and support for 64-bit editions of Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise
• Addition of File.spaceAvailable
• Addition of NativeWindow.supportsTransparency
•  Bug fixes

The program is ready for download at Google code : http://code.google.com/p/backit/  NB - this URL provides you with .air file, which means you have to install Adobe AIR yourself, before installing BackIt !

For one click install - install directly from Adobe AIR Marketplace - at this address : https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1574518 -just click Install now and let Adobe worry to setup everything

Said that, I think I’m done - all feedback will be greatly appreciated :)

Marin

Download URL : http://code.google.com/p/backit/

Backit runs on Adobe AIR and is a simple archiving/batch copy solution.

If you backup every now and then some folders from your computer to a USB drive or a CD or simply on any location around your computer, that’s the application you need. 

Here’s a short (~ 2min ) quick showcase video I recorded :

Quick list of features :

• drag and drop from the desktop or file browser
• stores your settings and remembers current selections
• small, fast, and has nice and clean interface
• custom growl like notifications
• auto updates from internet
• etc. :)

I wrote few handy classes while putting backit together and I’ll be posting showcases of those too for the ones interested to see some AIR code.

Download it and let me know your toughts :  http://code.google.com/p/backit/

Marin

I come this morning to the office and I find that every Adobe AIR .air gives me the same message : The version this software was written for is not supported yet please contact the software author. Hmmm … @#%#@&

The thing is I get this error for apps written for the 1.0 as well … That’s strange since I spoke with the Adobe people yesterday at the Adobe AIR conference in Prague and they said they don’t have any plans for version 2.0 yet.

I can’t remove the current installation from the so called “Add and remove programs” blah ! It’s so much easier in the mac you just drag to the trash bin … anyways.

Here is how to uninstall a messed Adobe AIR installation :

1. Download the latest installation from adobe : http://get.adobe.com/air/

2.  Go to the command prompt (by typing “cmd” in the run dialogue, for the ones who don’t know)

3. Start the Adobe AIR Runtime installation  with parameter “-uninstall” eg. “AdobeAIRInstaller.exe -uninstall”

Now the app does some magic in the console but eventually finds all versions you have and sweeps them away, cool no ?

Marin !

I just found this great list of really neat tools for mac osx ! Man that’s a lifesaver !!!