The title says it all. Here’s some links to the bits.
Flex Builder 3.0
http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/
Flex SDK 3.0
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Flex+SDK
AIR 1.0
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/
Edit: In a comment below Ted Patrick confirmed that Adobe has indeed already changed the licensing to allow for a virtualized Win/Mac combination. Fantastic News! One more reason to develop on a Mac! (02/08/08 11:42 PST)
I develop Flex and AIR applications in Flex Builder on my Macbook Pro notebook and I keep a copy of VMWare Fusion and Window XP on standby for testing.
Last week while debugging an AIR application I came across a NativeMenu problem that required me to set breakpoints inside the Windows specific section of the NativeMenu code. No problem, I fired up VMWare Fusion, started Windows XP, installed Flex Builder 3 beta 3 and imported the project from my Mac partition. It all worked very slick and I was able to debug the problem and code a solution from within Windows, all without making a copy of the code base.
It all sounds so good and efficient right?
But later as I was basking in the glory of my victory, I got to thinking…this won’t be possible once Flex Builder 3 is released because I won’t have a Windows license key for Flex Builder 3. Will I need to spend hundreds of dollars for a Windows license key just so I can debug the occasional AIR application? What about when Linux support is a reality? Hundreds more?
The short answer may be “Yes”, pony up the cash and move on ya whiner!
But there’s a larger question at the root of this issue. Does Adobe as the provider of a freely available cross-platform runtime have an obligation to it’s developers to provide an equivalent platform for developing and debugging across all the supported platforms? In my opinion they do, it’s in Adobe’s best interest long term. Being able to debug AIR applications on Windows, Mac and (looking forward) Linux will only improve the quality of AIR applications and that in-turn should promote adoption of the platorm.
Let me be clear, I’m not suggesting that Adobe give away the IDE farm, I am suggesting that Adobe needs to consider the developer faced with challenges of cross-platform debugging in AIR. How does the developer who cannot afford a Windows, Mac & Linux IDE affect the platform as a whole? In my opinion the AIR applications we create (free or not) are public ambassadors for the platform, as such we need them to be stable and performant across every platform the AIR runtime supports. To accomplish this we need reasonable access to tools for each platorm.
So here’s my suggestion Adobe, it’s simple. Make the Flex Builder Professional license cross-platform. Let your developers make a choice for cross-platform debugging.
We knew it was coming but we didn’t know when or in what form. Adam Flater just posted that the Artemis project has officially been reborn as the Merapi project. The list of contributors looks impressive, including both developers and designers.
For those of you not familiar with Artemis Merapi, it’s a framework for connecting Adobe AIR applications to the desktop using Java technology. Merapi picks-up where the AIR 1.0 runtime drops off, in that while AIR can read and write from the native file system it cannot launch native applications or interact with the shell.
Merapi has huge potential and I’m looking forward discovering what’s possible when we can combine the power of Java with the richness and ubiquity of Adobe AIR. These are exciting times indeed!
By the way…looks like the namesake might be a mountain in Java Indonesia
Edit:
Andrew Powell has also posted a few words about Merapi and a few more about why they chose the name. (02/05/08 09:37am PST)
Ted Patrick, during the 360 Flex keynote, announced that the next Flex 3.0 beta will be available in October. While he didn’t go so far as to specify when in October I’m hopeful that the timing will coincide with MAX. In addition Ted announced that Flex 3 and AIR will ship in parallel sometime “very early in 2008″.
Creating an AIR express install badge is relatively simple. Adobe has done all the heavy lifting for us, our part consists of a little prep work and configuring some Flashvars. It is our part that I want to focus on in this tutorial.
What you will need to create a badge:
If your web server refuses to serve-up your shiny new AIR app, the problem just might be the MIME type or lack there of. Mike Chambers posted on this topic awhile back and I bumped into it again yesterday (how quickly we forget!) so I thought I’d blog it for my own sake and yours.
The correct MIME type for AIR apps is:
application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip (sheew that’s a mouthful!)
Consult the documentation of your preffered web server for instructions on setting MIME types.
For those of you that have been suffering night terrors ever since you passed on the opportunity to attend Apollo Camp San Francisco, redemption is at hand.
Mike Chambers just twittered/announced the onAIR Summer Bus Tour. Looks like a motley crew of Flex, AIR and Javascript developers are going to pile into a 12 person Prevhost bus and travel to 18 cities over July, August and September. They’ll be hosting free developer conferences for anyone interested in learning more about Adobe AIR.
Checkout the onAIR Tour web site, it has quite a bit of info even at this early date. They’ll have a “Live From the Bus” feed (oh that should produce some interesting entertainment!) and there’s even an API for the Tour.
I’m excited to see that my nearest “big” city of Portland Oregon is on the tour schedule. Hopefully some of my peeps from COWPU will join me on a trip over the mountain in July.
Adobe Apollo AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) Beta and Flex 3 Beta have hit the labs homepage. In addition there’s a Flash Player 9 update beta. Oh it’s going to be a late night, better put on a pot of coffee.
I’m more than impressed with the Apollo Camp schwag bag. First of all I wasn’t expecting anything other then Apollo Alpha 1. Here’s what we received:
On the way into the Adobe offices they asked us Windows or Mac and handed us our copy of FB. The guy in front of me said “This is a demo right”. When the gal said no, I was blown away. Thanks Adobe! I’m deeply impressed. Gotta go the keynote is about to start. More later.
