What is Adobe Air
Adobe launched their latest technology called Adobe AIR at the beginning of 2008. It’s an exciting technology that lets web developers to use their skills to build applications for virtually any desktop environment.
What Exactly Is Adobe Air?
AIR stands for, the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and is one of the latest interesting development from Adobe.
AIR runs on Windows, Mac OS X and a very usable Beta version for Linux. A version for mobile devices is on the roadmap and should be announced in the second half of 2008. It installs the first time you download and run an AIR application, much in the same way that Flash is installed on a computer if the user visits a web site using Flash and they don’t already have it installed.
Air applications run on the desktop and are half way between web based applications (which run in a browser) and full blown desktop applications such as Word or Photoshop.
Developers can create AIR applications using the HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash, Flex (A flash framework) and PDF knowledge they already have and AIR acts as a wrapper that allows them to run on the desktop and go beyond the limitations they would normally have if they were running in a web browser.
Is It A Web or a Desktop Application?
Neither, it’s a kind of hybrid.
AIR applications differ from current web applications because AIR applications do not run in your web browser and therefore are able to use desktop features such as full drag and drop between applications, save files to the local hard drive or network and store data locally in a database.
When compared to traditional desktop applications, AIR applications are simple to deploy, easy and cost-effective to build, have better web integration and will run on all three of the major operating systems.
AIR finds the best of both worlds. It can interact with online resources if connected or use local storage (via the included SQLite database) and synchronise data when an online source when next connected.
AIR is also smart enought to know when it is and isn’t connected so you can create programmes that work with online data and use the local database as a fallback if the connection to the internet is dropped.
So Is AIR a Web Browser?
No. AIR uses HTML and Flash it needs browser technology to work. AIR uses the WebKit rendering engine (used in Safari) to display the HTML and/or Flash and process the JavaScript.
So your appplication will render predictably using the most advanced rendering engine available at the moment, but look like a traditional desktop programme. If you open an AIR application, you’ll be able to work with that application, but you won’t be able to then use the application as a regular browser to visit other web sites.
Why Does Adobe Air Matter?
The reason that AIR is significant is not so much for what can be created, but for how those applications are created and who can create them.
There’s not really that much new in AIR from a technology perspective. Its strength is that web developers can use existing web technologies, (X)HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash and PDF to create applications that run on the desktop. AIR can work in tandem with your existing web sites and web applications and can be built by web developers using the skills they already have. In the cases where AIR will be working in tandem with an existing web site you have much of the code that you need developed already.
AIR also matters because it gives companies that only have a web presence the ability to have a presence on the user desktop as well. AIR interrupts the process of opening a browser and searching for a service. Companies that provide successful AIR applications stand to benefit from higher customer retention.
Who Is Using Air?
AIR acceptance has been rapid and already, some high profile companies such as eBay and PayPal are developing AIR applications and whole range of smaller companies are investing resources in AIR applications.
January 11th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Dreadful. Usurps storage and computing resources on a naive website visitor’s computer. Circumvents the security measures implemented by developers. A new way to deliver virus, spyware, and other malware. Will be rapidly exploited to cause all sorts of havoc
January 14th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Thank you so much for your Web Glossary. I recently had a problem printing a US Post Office “Click and Ship” label. The label would not display in Adobe Reader, hence it would not print. They told me to uninstall Adobe Air, which I’m hesitant to do since I don’t know what implication that would have. Is there a known issue with Air interrupting other web applications, including Adobe Reader?
January 20th, 2010 at 12:10 am
Sue, uninstalling AIR would mean that any AIR based programmes would stop working.
As AIR is not installed as standard on computers then it implies that if AIR is on your computer then you also have some programmes which use AIR.
I’ve not seen any other reports of the two products causing a problem for each other and as they are both made by Adobe then is seems less likely.
Try updating to the latest version of Acrobat Reader at http://www.adobe.com/go/getreader/
Also, there’s a handy little programme called File Hippo which you can use which will periodically check to make sure that you always have the most up to date versions of most of the software on your computer. You can get that at http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/
January 20th, 2010 at 12:13 am
@jj just like native apps and the web do then. Let’s not make any more applications then shall we. I’ll disconnect after I hit submit…
January 31st, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Very nice, I was really needing to know EXACTLY what is AIR and it seems to be very exciting. Thanks for the article!
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
So I still don’t understand. Why is it a good thing for me to click “I agree” and have it on my computer? What is it for? In reeeeeeeally simple terms, please…
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:33 pm
@June No problem. All of the programmes that run on your computer e.g. Excel or iTunes are created using a programming languages.
Because most programmes on your computer share a lot of common tasks e.g opening and saving files, printing and searching then people create things called frameworks that help programmers perform these common tasks very easily and quickly without having to reinvent the wheel every time.
For a programme created in Adobe AIR to run on a computer, that computer has to have the Adobe AIR framework installed. You only have to do this one. If you then install another programme that requires AIR then it will already know that you installed AIR previously.
So when AIR launched a couple of years ago, it was exciting for some developers because it meant that they could write a programme once and it would run on a Windows, Apple Mac or Linux computer. It also meant that people who had good web programming skills (people that used HTML, JavaScript or Flash) could also start to use those skills to make programmes that would run on a desktop computer, not just make web sites.
A couple of examples of AIR programmes are :
Of course, you should be making the choice to install AIR based on the fact that you need a particular programme that runs on AIR , not just because AIR exists.
Hope that helps.
February 4th, 2010 at 5:10 am
Gil, thanks a lot for your time!
March 5th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Can anyone tell me if jj has a valid point (Jan 11 2010). Air is on my computer and I didn’t know it till just now.
March 8th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Hi Brian, I think the key thing is why is AIR on your computer? What did you install that required AIR and is it still useful to you? E.g. if you use Twitter, you may have installed Tweetdeck.
AIR only installs with your permission or by you installing a programme that requires it.
This post shows screenshots of the install process which may help trigger your memory as to which programme caused AIR to install http://www.ashorten.com/2009/08/03/air-1-5-2-offers-improved-application-install-process/