Adobe AIR

Last updated

Adobe AIR
Original author(s) Adobe Inc.
Developer(s)
Initial releaseFebruary 25, 2008;16 years ago (2008-02-25)
Stable release
51.1.1.3 [1] [2] / August 15, 2024;55 days ago (2024-08-15)
Preview release
33.1.1.932 / N/A
Operating system
Platform IA-32, x86-64, ARM, and MIPS
Available inChinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish [6]
Type Runtime environment
License Proprietary [7]
Website airsdk.harman.com

Adobe AIR (also known as Adobe Integrated Runtime and codenamed Apollo) is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop applications and mobile applications, programmed using Adobe Animate, ActionScript, and optionally Apache Flex. It was originally released in 2008. The runtime supports installable applications on Windows, macOS, and mobile operating systems, including Android, iOS, and BlackBerry Tablet OS.

Contents

AIR is a runtime environment that allows Adobe Animate content and ActionScript 3.0 coders to construct applications and video games that run as a stand-alone executable and behave similarly to a native application on supported platforms. An HTML5 application used in a browser does not require installation, while AIR applications require installation from an installer file (Windows and OS X) or the appropriate App Store (iOS and Android). AIR applications have unrestricted access to local storage and file systems, while browser-based applications only have access to individual files selected by users. [8]

AIR internally uses a shared codebase with the Flash Player rendering engine and ActionScript 3.0 as the primary programming language. Applications must specifically be built for AIR to use additional features provided, such as multi-touch, file system integration, native client extensions, integration with Taskbar or Dock, and access to accelerometer and GPS devices. [9] HTML5 applications may run on the WebKit engine included in AIR.

Notable applications built with Adobe AIR include eBay Desktop, Pandora One desktop, [10] [11] TweetDeck, [12] the former Adobe Media Player, [12] Angry Birds, [13] and Machinarium, [14] among other multimedia and task management applications. [15] According to Adobe, over 100,000 unique applications have been built on AIR, and over 1 billion installations of the same were logged from users across the world, as of May 2014. [16] [17] Adobe AIR was voted as the Best Mobile Application Development product at the Consumer Electronics Show for two consecutive years (CES 2014 and CES 2015). [18] [19]

In June 2019, Adobe announced it would begin transitioning ongoing support and development of Adobe AIR to Harman. Adobe will continue to provide support for versions 32 and earlier until the end of 2020, as support will be managed by Harman. [20]

Features

Using AIR, developers can access functionality including text, vector graphics, raster graphics, video, audio, camera, and microphone capability. AIR also includes additional features such as file system integration, native client extensions, desktop integration and access to connected devices. AIR enables applications to work with data in different ways, including using local files, local SQLite databases (for which AIR has built-in support), a database server, or the encrypted local store included with AIR.

Developers can access additional functionality by building AIR Native Extensions, which can access full device functionality being programmed in the native language. [21]

Desktop features

On desktop platforms, AIR supports:

Mobile features

On mobile platforms, AIR supports many mobile hardware features:

3D graphics

In 2011, the addition of Stage3D allowed AIR apps access to GPUs for hardware acceleration. Several third-party frameworks have been developed to build upon the functionality of Stage3D, including the Starling Framework and Away3D. These frameworks are also compatible with AIR, and provide vital performance improvements to AIR apps published for mobile devices.

AIR Native Extensions

AIR apps can be augmented in functionality with the usage of AIR Native Extensions (ANEs). Native extensions are plug-in code libraries that contain native code wrapped with an ActionScript API, [34] allowing developers to access native features not otherwise usable in AIR, such as Apple Game Center or Google Cloud Messaging.

Native extensions may be developed by anyone using publicly available tools; [35] some are distributed for free or even as open source, while others are sold commercially. [36]

Native extensions may be programmed in the native language on each platform, allowing access to the full set of platform APIs provided by the developer. (C++ for Windows, Java and C++ for Android, Objective-C for iOS). [21]

Availability

AIR is a cross-platform technology and AIR applications can be repackaged with few or no changes for many popular desktop and mobile platforms. Different installation options exist for each platform.

AIR applications may be published with or without the AIR runtime. Applications packaged with the AIR runtime are larger in file size, and are known as "captive runtime" applications. [37] If the runtime is not embedded in the app, it must be installed separately.

In January 2009, Adobe claimed that there were over 100 million installations of Adobe AIR worldwide, and that "the majority of AIR runtime installations occur at the time the first AIR application is installed by a user". [38] In May 2014, Adobe claimed that over 100,000 unique applications were built on AIR, and over 1 billion installations of the same were logged from users across the world. [16] [17]

Platforms

Adobe AIR, version 32, contains Adobe Flash Player 32, and is available for Windows 7 and later, as well as OS X 10.9 and later. [6] Desktop Linux distributions were available until June 2011 with version 2.6, which ended Linux support. [39]

Adobe AIR applications can be published as native phone applications on certain mobile operating systems, such as Android (ARM Cortex-A8 and above [40] ) and Apple iOS. [41] In May 2017, Adobe stopped releasing AIR for Android, and the app was eventually removed from the Play Store in September 2018, but it can still be downloaded through their website. [42] After Adobe's transition of AIR to Harman, they resumed support for Android and the latest version is only available there. [3]

PlatformInstaller file supportApp store support
Windows .air , .exe and .msi [37] [43] None
macOS .air and .dmg [43] App Store (with captive runtime) [44]
Android .apk [45] Google Play [45]
iOS .ipa [46] App Store [46]
Playbook .bar [47] App World [47]

The following table explains to what extent Adobe AIR can run on various mobile operating systems:

Operating systemPrerequisitesLatest Adobe Flash PlayerAIR Framework
Android Android 2.3+, ARM Cortex-A8+ [48] or Android x86 [49] AIR 3.6.0.597 (uses Flash Player 11.6) [50] Option 1: The AIR player can be embedded as a 'captive' runtime, which increases APK size but makes the application standalone. [51]

Option 2: The runtime is not included with the app, and must installed as a separate app from the app market. [52]

Apple iOS iOS 4.3 or laterAIR 3.6.0.597 (uses Flash Player 11.6) [50] Not applicable: each app includes its own 'captive' runtime. [53]
BlackBerry Tablet OS NoneAIR 3.1 (uses Flash Player 11.1) [54] [55] Already pre-installed on each device. [53]
BlackBerry 10 Blackberry 10.2 and lower (no longer supported from 10.3) [56] AIR 3.5 (uses Flash Player 11.1)[ citation needed ]Already pre-installed on each device.

Application development

AIR runs applications within a contained Flash Player instance. It runs web applications via WebKit rendering engine. Multiple instances of the browser can be started within a single AIR application, but JavaScript content executes with some security limitations.

AIR does not provide direct access to native GUI elements such as navigation bars or controls. Native extensions can be used to access additional native resources.

Development tools

SDK

The AIR SDK is available as a free standalone download for software developers to make AIR applications. [57] SDK users do not need to install any commercial software to use the SDK, although several options are available. AIR apps can be compiled from the command line using the AIR compiler included in the SDK; the compiler can also be called from an IDE to eliminate the need for the command line.

AIR can also be used with Adobe Flex. [58] Flex is an integrated collection of stylable graphical user interface, data manipulation and networking components, and applications built upon it are known as "Flex" applications. Flex GUIs are defined in MXML, similar to how Android and Microsoft Visual Studio define GUIs; however, Flex does not give access to native GUI components.

AIR applications built without the Flex framework allow greater flexibility and performance, and are known as "pure ActionScript" applications. [59] [60] [61] Video games built on the AIR platform are typically pure-Actionscript projects. Various open-source component frameworks are available for pure ActionScript projects, such as MadComponents, that provide UI Components at significantly smaller SWF file sizes. [62] [63]

Software

Adobe distributes three commercial software products for developing of AIR applications in ActionScript:

Third-party development environments that target the AIR runtime are also available, including:

  • Moonshine IDE, a free IDE built with Apache Flex and Adobe Air. It can be used to create ActionScript 3, Apache Flex, Apache Royale and Feathers projects from Moonshine. It also provides cloud support.
  • FlashDevelop, an open-source Flash ActionScript IDE, which includes a debugger for AIR applications
  • Powerflasher FDT, a commercial ActionScript IDE
  • CodeDrive, an extension to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for ActionScript 3 development and debugging
  • IntelliJ IDEA, a commercial IDE supporting ActionScript 3 development and debugging
  • AS3 & MXML for VSCode, a powerful extension capable to turn the popular Microsoft free editor Visual Studio Code in a complete AIR IDE

Adobe Flash Builder is the premium tool for Flex application development, since it includes an integrated drag-and-drop user interface builder, not found in competing tools like FlashDevelop. [64]

JavaScript applications

Adobe provides for AIR, HTML5 and JavaScript development with Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, although any other HTML editor or text editor can be used. [65]

AIR can run a subset of JavaScript, with no ability to dynamically execute code when running in the application sandbox. According to Adobe, this restriction is designed to prevent malicious remote content from attacking a user's system. [66] Because of this restriction, JavaScript frameworks that make use of dynamic JavaScript functions like eval() were not initially compatible with AIR. However, several frameworks including Dojo Toolkit,[ citation needed ] jQuery,[ citation needed ] and ExtJS [ citation needed ] were updated to run in AIR's application sandbox. Some frameworks like MooTools were already compatible.[ citation needed ]

Dreamweaver CS4/CS3 requires an additional extension to compile AIR applications, [67] as does Flash CS3 in the form of an update. [68]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Flash</span> Discontinued multimedia platform used to add animation and interactivity to websites

Adobe Flash is a discontinued multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich internet applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players.

In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ActionScript</span> Object-oriented programming language created for the Flash multimedia platform

ActionScript is an object-oriented programming language originally developed by Macromedia Inc.. It is influenced by HyperTalk, the scripting language for HyperCard. It is now an implementation of ECMAScript, though it originally arose as a sibling, both being influenced by HyperTalk. ActionScript code is usually converted to bytecode format by a compiler.

A Rich Internet Application is a web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop application software. The concept is closely related to a single-page application, and may allow the user interactive features such as drag and drop, background menu, WYSIWYG editing, etc. The concept was first introduced in 2002 by Macromedia to describe Macromedia Flash MX product. Throughout the 2000s, the term was generalized to describe browser-based applications developed with other competing browser plugin technologies including Java applets, Microsoft Silverlight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apache Flex</span> Software development kit (SDK) for the development and deployment of rich web applications

Apache Flex, formerly Adobe Flex, is a software development kit (SDK) for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich web applications based on the Adobe Flash platform. Initially developed by Macromedia and then acquired by Adobe Systems, Adobe donated Flex to the Apache Software Foundation in 2011 and it was promoted to a top-level project in December 2012.

A user interface markup language is a markup language that renders and describes graphical user interfaces and controls. Many of these markup languages are dialects of XML and are dependent upon a pre-existing scripting language engine, usually a JavaScript engine, for rendering of controls and extra scriptability.

Adobe Flash Player is a discontinued computer program for viewing multimedia content, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the Adobe Flash platform. It can run from a web browser as a browser plug-in or independently on supported devices. Originally created by FutureWave under the name FutureSplash Player, it was renamed to Macromedia Flash Player after Macromedia acquired FutureWave in 1996. After Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, it was developed and distributed by Adobe as Adobe Flash Player. It is currently developed and distributed by Zhongcheng for users in China, and by Harman International for enterprise users outside of China, in collaboration with Adobe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JavaFX</span> Java software platform for GUI

JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering desktop applications, as well as rich web applications that can run across a wide variety of devices. JavaFX has support for desktop computers and web browsers on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, as well as mobile devices running iOS and Android, through Gluon Mobile.

iOS SDK Software development kit for iOS

The iOS SDK, formerly the iPhone SDK, is a software development kit (SDK) developed by Apple Inc. The kit allows for the development of mobile apps on Apple's iOS and iPadOS operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Flash Builder</span> Integrated development environment

Adobe Flash Builder is an integrated development environment (IDE) built on the Eclipse platform that speeds development of rich Internet applications (RIAs) and cross-platform desktop applications, particularly for the Adobe AIR platform. Adobe Flash Builder 4 is available in two editions: Standard and Premium.

NS Basic is a family of development tools developed and commercially marketed by NSB Corporation in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, BlackBerry OS, WebOS, Newton OS, Palm OS, Windows CE and Windows Mobile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Android SDK</span> Software development kit

The Android SDK is a software development kit for the Android software ecosystem that includes a comprehensive set of development tools. These include a debugger, libraries, a handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. The SDK is part of the official Android Studio IDE but its various tools and resources can be used independently.

A mobile development framework is a software framework that is designed to support mobile app development. It is a software library that provides a fundamental structure to support the development of applications for a specific environment.

Titanium SDK is an open-source framework that allows the creation of native mobile applications on platforms iOS and Android from a single JavaScript codebase. It is presently developed by non-profit software foundation TiDev, Inc.

Dart is a programming language designed by Lars Bak and Kasper Lund and developed by Google. It can be used to develop web and mobile apps as well as server and desktop applications.

Codename One is an open-source cross-platform framework aiming to provide write once, run anywhere code for various mobile and desktop operating systems. It was created by the co-founders of the Lightweight User Interface Toolkit (LWUIT) project, Chen Fishbein and Shai Almog, and was first announced on January 13, 2012.

Crosswalk Project was an open-source web app runtime built with the latest releases of Chromium and Blink from Google. The project was founded by Intel's Open Source Technology Center in September 2013.

References

  1. ↑ "Adobe Partnership". Harman. Harman International . Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Download Adobe AIR SDK 51.1". Harman. Harman International . Retrieved August 14, 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Harman - Adobe Partnership - HARMAN". services.harman.com. Retrieved April 10, 2020. AIR 33 is now released on a commercial basis, and supports 64-bit Android devices and the latest Play Store requirements.
  4. ↑ "End of Support Notice". BlackBerry Ltd. April 15, 2014. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Adobe AIR and Linux: Increasing Distribution on Devices". Adobe Blog website. Adobe Inc. Retrieved June 14, 2011. We will no longer be releasing our own versions of Adobe AIR and the AIR SDK for desktop Linux, but expect that one or more of our partners will do so. The last Adobe release of AIR for desktop Linux is AIR 2.6. By focusing on the porting kit and support of partner implementations, we expect to provide broader support for AIR across Linux-based PCs and devices, whereas our own desktop Linux releases have accounted for less than 0.5% of lifetime AIR downloads.
  6. 1 2 "Tech specs and system requirements | Adobe AIR". Adobe Systems . Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Adobe AIR 1.1 EULA" (PDF). Adobe Systems. February 4, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Adobe AIR: Browser vs. Desktop". Adobe Systems. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  9. ↑ Adobe AIR 3, Adobe
  10. ↑ "Upgrade Pandora Subscription to Plus or Premium". www.pandora.com.
  11. ↑ Top 10 Apps Worth Installing Adobe AIR For, LifeHacker
  12. 1 2 10 impressive Adobe AIR apps, CNET
  13. ↑ Flash Games Showcased at Adobe MAX- Rovio’s Angry Birds & Epic Games, Adobe Digital Media Blog
  14. ↑ Adobe AIR showcase apps for mobile developers, Adobe Developer Connection
  15. ↑ 60+ Useful Adobe AIR Applications You Should Know, HongKiat.com
  16. 1 2 AIR app installs cross a billion, Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player Team Blog
  17. 1 2 1 Billion AIR Installations, Ben Forta
  18. ↑ Compass Intelligence Announces Winners of the 2014 Mobility Awards, Compass Intelligence
  19. ↑ Compass Intelligence Announces Winners of the 2015 Mobility Awards, Compass Intelligence
  20. ↑ "The Future of Adobe AIR". Adobe Blog. May 30, 2019. Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  21. 1 2 Using native extensions for Adobe AIR, Adobe Help Center
  22. ↑ Basics of native windows in AIR, Adobe Help Center
  23. ↑ Creating native menus (AIR), Adobe Help Center
  24. ↑ Working with files, Adobe Help Center
  25. ↑ Communicating with native processes in AIR, Adobe Help Center
  26. ↑ Using workers for concurrency, Adobe Help Center
  27. ↑ Creating your first HTML-based AIR application with the AIR SDK, Adobe Help Center
  28. ↑ Copy and paste, Adobe Help Center
  29. ↑ Drag and drop in AIR, Adobe Help Center
  30. ↑ Touch, multitouch and gesture input, ActionScript 3.0 Developer's Guide, Adobe
  31. ↑ Accelerometer input, ActionScript 3.0 Developer’s Guide, Adobe
  32. ↑ Using the Adobe AIR Geolocation APIs on Android, Adobe Developer Connection
  33. ↑ "Adobe Flash Runtimes | Documentation archives and downloads". helpx.adobe.com.
  34. ↑ Native extensions for Adobe AIR, AIR Devnet
  35. ↑ "Developing Native Extensions for ADOBE® AIR" (PDF). help.adobe.com.
  36. ↑ "Adobe Flash Runtimes | Documentation archives and downloads". helpx.adobe.com.
  37. 1 2 Generating a Windows installer for your AIR captive runtime application, Adobe Developer Connection
  38. ↑ Ludwig, Adrian (January 28, 2009). "AIR passes 100 million installations". Adobe AIR Team Blog. Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  39. ↑ "How to install Adobe AIR 2 for 64-bit Linux systems". helpx.adobe.com.
  40. ↑ "Flash Player 10.1 – Installations and updates". Archived from the original on October 8, 2010. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
  41. ↑ iOS features in Adobe AIR 2.6 Archived September 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , Adobe Devnet
  42. ↑ "Re: Adobe air not found on google play for some android users". Adobe . September 17, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  43. 1 2 Packaging a desktop native installer, Adobe Help Center
  44. ↑ "Post an Adobe AIR app to Mac App Store". helpx.adobe.com.
  45. 1 2 Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for Google Android devices, Adobe Developer Connection
  46. 1 2 Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for Apple iOS devices, Adobe Developer Connection
  47. 1 2 Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for BlackBerry Tablet OS devices, Adobe Developer Connection
  48. ↑ "Adobe AIR – Tech specs – Adobe AIR – System requirements" . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  49. ↑ "Adobe AIR now supports x86 Android" . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  50. 1 2 "Release Notes – Flash Player® 11.6 AIR® 3.6" . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  51. ↑ "java – Install Air Application in Android without Adobe Air – Stack Overflow" . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  52. ↑ "Android – must install adobe air?" . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  53. 1 2 "How are Adobe AIR applications packaged and dep... – Adobe Community" . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  54. ↑ Announcing Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 Archived May 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , Adobe Flash Platform Blog
  55. ↑ Archived July 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on September 19, 2011.
  56. ↑ BlackBerry. "End of Support – BlackBerry SDK for Adobe AIR – BlackBerry Developer" . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  57. ↑ Adobe AIR - Runtimes for end user download, airsdk.harman.com
  58. ↑ Adobe Flex SDK Download Page, Adobe.com
  59. ↑ Optimizing performance of applications for connected TVs, Adobe Developer Connection
  60. ↑ Top 10 Performance Killers in your AIR Application Archived October 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine , FlexWiz
  61. ↑ Flex versus ActionScript – the debate gets new life Archived December 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine , Greg's Ramblings
  62. ↑ Pure ActionScript + MadComponents vs. Flash Builder 4.5, MobileAppDev
  63. ↑ Flex 4.5 vs Pure AS3 Archived October 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Michael Crosby
  64. ↑ "Creating an application user interface", Adobe Developer Connection
  65. ↑ "Getting started with Adobe AIR for HTML/JavaScript developers". Adobe Systems. August 24, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  66. ↑ "ADOBE® AIR™ 1.5 Security White Paper" (PDF). Adobe Systems. 2008. p. 6. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
  67. ↑ "Adobe - AIR: Tools for Ajax". Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on April 14, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  68. ↑ "Adobe Flash - Downloads". Adobe Systems. November 17, 2008. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011. Adobe AIR 1.5 Update for Flash CS4 Professional
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.