Filed under: Developer, Internet, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Adobe, DLS Interviews
Interview with Adobe AIR Evangelist Ryan Stewart
by Ian Smith Jul 9th 2007
Ryan Stewart, Evangelist for Adobe's Integrated Runtime project (AIR), takes a few minutes to tell us what all the fuss is about. Ryan taking part in Adobe's live cross-country bus tour to promote AIR. The tour kicks July 10th at the Elysian Brewing Company in downtown Seattle.DS: Can you briefly describe Adobe AIR?
Ryan: Adobe AIR is a cross-platform runtime that allows you to build desktop applications with web technologies. It runs on top of your operating system so that developers can build applications in AIR that take advantage of OS features without having to develop the application for a specific operating system. And instead of needing to learn desktop languages like C or Coco, you can take Ajax or Flash and build desktop apps with them.
DS: Why should consumers and average computers users be excited about Adobe AIR?
Ryan: I think the biggest reason that users should be excited is because they'll have a lot more applications to choose from. Web apps have become all the rage and part of the reason is that they're easy to build and people can jump in quickly. We wanted to capture some of that with AIR and bring it to the desktop. Hopefully users will see more apps like the Pownce desktop client, Finetune and Tweetr.
DS: Can you give an example of how an Adobe AIR application could use a web service and a person¹s computer hard drive to build something that isn¹t possible with the web alone?
Ryan: Being able to read and write to the hard drive gives you a lot of storage options and also lets you hook into parts of native applications. For instance the Finetune desktop client looks at your iTunes.xml file and figures out which artists you might like. It then allows you to listen to a radio station based on those artists. With AIR you can also associate files with your application, so you can create your own new file format or write a viewer for other file types.
DS: What is the coolest AIR application you¹ve seen so far?
Ryan: I really like the way Finetune integrates with their website, but I just got to check out Pownce, Kevin Rose's new project, and their desktop client is pretty cool. For pure silliness Dryerfox is classic. There are a ton of AIR applications at AirApps.net and ApolloHunter.com for people to try.
DS: What type of services or assists can Adobe AIR applications connect to?
Ryan: Adobe AIR can connect to anything on the web. It fully supports HTTP Services and Web Services. But because it's a desktop runtime you can also store and access things on the user's hard drive. Finally, we've included a SQLite with Adobe AIR so that you can create a local database on the users machine and access it like you would any other database.
DS: Will consumers be forced to download the runtime before using any Adobe AIR applications?
Ryan: Yes and no. Users will have to have the runtime installed before they can run any AIR applications. But we're making it very easy for developers to deploy applications alongside the runtime. Using the badges available on the showcase site (and included in the SDK) you can make it so that if the user doesn't have the runtime it will be automatically downloaded and installed when they click on the badge, then they'll be prompted to install your application. If they already have the runtime, the badge detects that and skips right to downloading your app and prompting the user to install it.
DS: Is Adobe AIR really just a Desktop environment for Flash or can non-Flash developers get anything out of it?
Ryan: Adobe AIR fully supports HTML/Ajax. In fact you can build an AIR app without using Flash at all, which is part of the beauty. We've created JavaScript APIs for all of the desktop calls to make sure that JavaScript developers can build apps for the runtime. Dreamweaver will fully support AIR and we're also working with Aptana to include support for AIR in their editor.
DS: Will developers or consumers need to buy anything to take advantage of AIR?
Ryan: Nope, not at all. Consumers will never have to buy anything, we'll always give the runtime away as a free download. Developers can use our free SDK to build Air apps with their favorite editor. We offer AIR extensions for Flex Builder, Dreamweaver and (eventually) Flash, so if you use those IDEs, you'll be able to quickly and easily build AIR applications without having to worry about command line tools.
DS: What sets Adobe AIR apart from Google Gears or other competitors?
Ryan: Google gears is a browser plugin that lets you take web apps offline. Adobe AIR is more about taking those web apps and giving you the option to totally remove the browser. Once you do that, you get access to the local file system,you can pop up notifications and create custom window chrome so your application looks the way you want it to. Google Gears is great for pure web apps, but Adobe AIR really tries to make desktop applications accessible to web developers.
DS: What is the timeline for rolling out Adobe AIR to the public?
Ryan: We haven't set a firm date yet, but we're hoping for a release by the end of the year.
DS: Will consumers be forced to download the runtime before using any Adobe AIR applications?
Ryan: Yes and no. Users will have to have the runtime installed before they can run any AIR applications. But we're making it very easy for developers to deploy applications alongside the runtime. Using the badges available on the showcase site (and included in the SDK) you can make it so that if the user doesn't have the runtime it will be automatically downloaded and installed when they click on the badge, then they'll be prompted to install your application. If they already have the runtime, the badge detects that and skips right to downloading your app and prompting the user to install it.
DS: Is Adobe AIR really just a Desktop environment for Flash or can non-Flash developers get anything out of it?
Ryan: Adobe AIR fully supports HTML/Ajax. In fact you can build an AIR app without using Flash at all, which is part of the beauty. We've created JavaScript APIs for all of the desktop calls to make sure that JavaScript developers can build apps for the runtime. Dreamweaver will fully support AIR and we're also working with Aptana to include support for AIR in their editor.
DS: Will developers or consumers need to buy anything to take advantage of AIR?
Ryan: Nope, not at all. Consumers will never have to buy anything, we'll always give the runtime away as a free download. Developers can use our free SDK to build Air apps with their favorite editor. We offer AIR extensions for Flex Builder, Dreamweaver and (eventually) Flash, so if you use those IDEs, you'll be able to quickly and easily build AIR applications without having to worry about command line tools.
DS: What sets Adobe AIR apart from Google Gears or other competitors?
Ryan: Google gears is a browser plugin that lets you take web apps offline. Adobe AIR is more about taking those web apps and giving you the option to totally remove the browser. Once you do that, you get access to the local file system,you can pop up notifications and create custom window chrome so your application looks the way you want it to. Google Gears is great for pure web apps, but Adobe AIR really tries to make desktop applications accessible to web developers.
DS: What is the timeline for rolling out Adobe AIR to the public?
Ryan: We haven't set a firm date yet, but we're hoping for a release by the end of the year.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James said 4:29PM on 7-09-2007
" Adobe AIR is more about taking those web apps and giving you the option to totally remove the browser. Once you do that, you get access to the local file system... "
Great, so it's basically another walled-garden Java alternative, and another attempt at not totally hosing security. Gotta say "you get access to the local file system" is precisely why I *don't* want to run random apps I find online.
Am I alone here?
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hazard said 7:55AM on 7-10-2007
It's quite interesting that Adobe is so intent on declaring that AIR is a cross-platform runtime and that it "runs outside of the browser" when it's rendering engine is WebKit an "open source web browser engine"!??
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mattjpoole said 8:58AM on 7-10-2007
@James Yes, as always you should only download applications from companies/developers you trust.
@hazard It only uses webkit to render html, so for swf's its not using webkit at all unless you use the HTML control inside a swf. Though to be honest you point seems a little spurious. The real point is that AIR is trying to remove the limitations of having web applications that run in a browser.
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WrongWay said 1:07PM on 7-10-2007
Any timeline on when this will be avail for users who refuse to pay Steve Jobs or Bill Gates OS taxes???
It comes down to the point when adobe says crossplatform. I just laugh... casue it never means linux. even though its implied by the word, crossplatform.
I guess when adobe says crossplatform, they really mean win/osx. linux 1-5 years later....maybe...
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hazard said 7:38AM on 7-11-2007
@mattjpoole .. yes but swf's will be rendered within a WebKit wrapper just as flash renderers itself in Firefox the main difference being that the Flash sandbox has a number of holes in it to access the filesystem and so forth.
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