I need to write a desktop application that can run on Mac (Windows and Linux soon) that can get data from MySQL and allow users to transfer files from their desktop to the server.
I know I can write a desktop app in AIR, how would Fireworks play into this?
Can AIR connect to MySQL?
Can one FTP files with AIR?
On a second note, can one write such applications as a ring-tone maker, a disk repair/partitioning utility in AIR? I know AIR uses web technology, but what other thigns are possible?
-Jason
Do you mean Adobe Fireworks? I would use Fireworks for the interface design. It also has some customizable assets.
Here is the product page where they have a lot more info on what it's capable of.
http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/features/?view=topnew
An AIR application is a desktop version of a Flash Application. So anything you can do in a Flash Application you can do in an AIR application. Flash Apps work with MySQL so you should be able to get an AIR app to work with MySQL.
AIR apps can also access the local file system. For instance you can write an AIR file loader application.
Fireworks is my design tool of preference. If you are working with digital graphics there is little need to look beyond FW to things like Photoshop and Illustrator. All of the CS5 software intro screens were designed in Fireworks. It has the best 32 bit PNG output I have seen and the colors are dead on without that issue from PS changing its output from the authoring environment.
From experience, I would not recommend spending time with AIR. Web apps are the way to go and the investment in a desktop or even mobile specific device app is going to be tough to justify because of programming maintenance costs, version releases and the speed new technology is released.
You could use Fireworks for the creation of images for the UI ( User Interface ) for most parts its okay enough, if you need advanced shadowing and color options you can look into photoshop, but fireworks is just great for the basic graphical stuff.
Im not sure if you question was maybe related to the UI since fireworks itself should have nothing to do with building the Air application.
You can use different solutions to build your air application, maybe off topic but if you have not decided how to build the AIR app I would look into Adobe Flash Builder 4,5, flex and the AIR development library's. Flex is also great to easily change the user interface (CSS) where you could create the images with fireworks :)
Related
I'm new to adobe air applications. In WPF and Silverlight I had a tool that would allow me to see components of a view at runtime similar to developer tools in a browser html site. Is anyone aware of something similar for an adobe air application using mxml for views?
Not exactly sure if this is what you're looking for, but look into Monster Debugger
It'll give you a list of all DisplayObjects in your AIR application, as well as traces and other stuff. you can also change values on the fly.
As far as I know TideSDK is what used to be Titanium Desktop, right?
I'd like to ask if somebody has experience in reusing (mostly the business logic and data access) components of Titanium mobile in TideSDK?
Ive developed for both and in my experience Titanium for mobile and TideSDK are fairly incompatible at this point.
This is one of the reasons Appcelerator open sourced the project and stopped working on it. It was diverging so much from their company goal of a robust mobile API that it did not make sense for them to work on it. The API's at this point are very different, as well as the technology and workflow, across the dev stack from UI to business logic, to data access, to backend.
The only parts I was able to reuse were pure JavaScript utility files, and the Titanium local DB access scripts.
You can use most of your javascript code within TideSDK without much modifications. There is fundamental difference between various UI components on Desktop platforms and Mobile platforms. Taking example .. in desktop your application have window..and u can have separate UI Items like system tray, taskbar etc. whereas in mobile you would generally control the entire screen and various UI components are very different than desktop.
This is why you need to implement the native interfaces in desktop and mobile separate way but most of the business logic would remain unchanged.
I'm wondering if it would be useful to switch from developing in Flash IDE to Flash Builder. Still a bit confused if this will mean having to abandon all my previous Flash work, or if it just opens up and plays nicely in FB. I've actually done a fair amount of Flex development, but am having a hard time imagining how the two overlap. I'm curious to hear from people that have made the switch... is it worth it? Or should I just stick to working in the IDE?
Both Flash IDE and Flash Builder have their own importance in the field of design and development. We choose one from both according to our need. Hope the points below i am covering will helpful for choosing the right IDE.
Flash Professional is the software series what continued the Macromedia Flash line of apps. It is used to make interactive Flash content that is based on the timeline. The timeline makes it easy to use for animation and other linear content. With ActionScript programming, though, you can jump in the timeline and, if you wish, stay in one frame. It has extensive set of tools to create, edit and import media and use it in the project. You can do a lot without coding and you can also do a lot with just coding. The code editor itself isn't as feature rich as...
Flash Builder (formerly known as Flex Builder) is, which is Adobe's modified Eclipse IDE made specially for Flex development. Its main focus is to create code, especially in XML-based Flex. Flash Builder is designed for programmers and has the bells and whistles that Eclipse has. This is also better tool to write ActionScript than Flash Professional's script editor, but its main focus is in Flex. There is no timeline as such, and products are usually rich internet applications (RIA) or Adobe AIR -desktop apps. Despite the lack of timeline, you can animate elements.
Summary
Flash Professional
Best tool (of these three) for animation
Has timeline, but can be modified with code
Coding in ActionScript (based on ECMA Script standard)
Create and edit graphical content
Flash Builder
Based on Eclipse IDE
Focus on Flex programming (based on XML), also ActionScript
Has some basic interface design tools
No timeline: non-linear logic
Flash Builder is for programmers.
Flash Professional is a design tool for graphic artists, used in game development etc. Its a mix of designing and coding. But for robust code only stuffs, its Flash Builder.
If still you have any confusion then just checked out these links:
http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/
http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Flash-Professional-CS5-and-Flash-Builder-4
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/as3/learn/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118a9b90204-7fd6.html#WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118a9b90204-7fba
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html refers to the traditional Flash IDE that is a member of the Creative Suite family.
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash-builder.html refers to the actionscript code editor built upon Eclipse.
You will not have to "abandon" all of your flash work. Most serious developers use both programs side by side with Flash Professional being the main animation/ design program and Flash Builder being the main coding editor. You can publish from either program. Personally, I have found that browser swf files are easier published from flash pro, while mobile apps for iOS and android are easier to publish in flash builder (just easier to deal with icon images, xml metadata files, package explorer, etc).
hi
looking into the framework, what do you think about it as development framework for
cross platform desktop apps
from first look , i can see that all your source code are not encrypted
also does not support multi threaded
what else i must consider ?
i think this website gives a good overview about the pros and contras of adobe air:
http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=310
there are already thread here that talk about that issue:
Advantages/disadvantages of writing a web app using Adobe Air/Java as opposed to platform specfic languages?
and if you want to protect your source code, there are some things that will help you:
high performance encryption in adobe air / flash
I may want to create a RIA but am wondering, whether Adobe AIR or Titanium is the way to go.
Do you think the open source version will last longer? Will it be better in anyway?
Just in case anyone comes back to this post, I'll add my 2 cents.
Titanium has come along way in the last few months. It now has support for Ruby and Python. You can code your own modules in C++ (eg, IRC) and compile Titanium to have support for that module (Or you can code modules in Py/Ru/JS).
You can use flex, flash and silverlight all within Titanium. All have been tested and work without a hitch :)
Although AIR isn't open source yet, the technology stack it's on (Flex, Webkit, etc) is open source. Titanium definitely looks promising but has no where near the momentum and support AIR has yet. Until it's been actually released and has several production apps running on it I wouldn't bet too much on it.If you're looking to get involved in an open source project and actually work and help develop it that's something else...
Just to clarify, AIR lets you use HTML/js to build your apps as well.
Neither, as both technologies are for creating desktop applications not RIAs.
Now if you were to ask how should you build your RIA... so that when, if, it comes to a point of you making a desktop version, which technology should you use, Flex or Javascript/HTML?
The answer becomes obvious once you decide between Flex or Javascript/HTML. If you do Flex then your desktop application will be in AIR; If you do Javascript/HTML your Descktop app will be in Titanium.
My suggestion, go with Flex - Air. Both are environments where State is made easy. Flex are written much like client (desktop) applications anyway as they have state.