everynerd.net

Exploring Adobe AIR

// September 23rd, 2009 // Actionscript, Computer Software, Flex, Web Development

Recently, I’ve begun developing a Flex application for the desktop using Adobe’s Integrated Runtime (AIR), which is a local library for running Flex applications. One of the most enticing features of AIR applications is the ability to deploy them cross platform with little to no machine-specific code (except perhaps special keystrokes on Mac).  As well, the ability to store data on the client machine is also extremely convenient.  Gone is the worry of keeping a web interface tuned to the application, which can assist in streamlining development into a more user-friendly product.

The only downside to the desktop application is the lack of custom data that would have previously been delivered through the web interface. At least, that’s what I thought.

My exploration into the AIR libraries and many tutorials on the web is that AIR has built-in, for free, SQLite that will allow an application to store and manage data persistently for the lifetime of the application’s existence on the client machine.  There are some minor limitations from a backend development standpoint (like lack of stored procedures), but nothing that should be a surprise to users familiar with ‘lite’ databases.

One of the difficulties with local storage like this is the fact that sensitive data stored through SQLite is not necessarily secure, since it exists on the user’s machine unencrypted. If this were a regular Flex application, all of the data would reside on a database server we own. However, since this on the client’s side, Adobe has a featured called encrypted local store.  The usage and explanation of this feature is out of the scope of this article, but it’s simply a class with static methods that can “get” and “set” values of any kind into encrypted storage. Perfect for storing authentication tokens, and other similar pieces of data.

With data taken care of entirely through AIR, it leaves the developer available to focus to on the user experience with their application. Which for me, has always been a very difficult part to nail down. I’ve written about GUI design previously, and still learn new things everyday either from coworkers, or my own personal experience with software I use frequently.

Hopefully by year end, Flash Builder 4 (the successor to Flex Builder 3) will be released, but more importantly, a program called Flash Catalyst will also be released (likely in tandem). Judging by the demo videos of designer and developer working together to build a Flex interface, mocking up a realistic interface can include physically converting the items in the mockup into flash style definitions.

The more I watch the demonstrations of this technology, the more tempted I am to put my pet project on hold and wait for these to be released.  The trial download for Flash Builder 4 is available from Adobe Labs, though I challenge anyone to use it for the full 30 days and try to return to the previous version. Luckily, my last install of the trial was interrupted by a failed hard drive – I was subsequently saved from the spoils.

Future posts will explain my experiences with my pet project in AIR, which I hope to release to public use as soon as it’s near stable, likely sometime in the new year.