Using an Enterprise Ajax framework with Adobe Air (Sergey Ilinsky)

Come see the demonstration of a sample application using the Backbase Enterprise Ajax framework in combination with Adobe Air. Learn the lessons, issues and best practices developed from integrating Enterprise Ajax applications with Adobe Air.

This one I skipped, sorry Sergey, as I don't see the need for a large framework like Backbase (or dojo for that matter) to use with air.

HTML / JavaScript desktop applications on Adobe AIR. (Chris Brichford)

Learn how add desktop functionality to an HTML application running on Adobe AIR on the desktop. Learn about using the drag and drop API, the file system API, and other Adobe AIR APIs from HTML.

Another mac, the only presenter without one I walked out. Chris talks more about the security sandbox aspects of air. They build two sandboxes that have different priveleges and that can talk to each other, to do this they use iframes.

He shows a nice demo in html and how to enhance it with air. Adding state and stuff like an application menu and how to do that cross platform.

He also stresses to close your connection after you are done with that. I wonder if that is what causes the memory leak of air?

Chris had a nice talk but the overall impression still stands, nothing to hardcore today and all of the stuff is available online...

Using JavaScript Frameworks in AIR Applications (Andre Charland)

Learn how to leverage JavaScript libraries and Frameworks to build HTML and JavaScript-based AIR applications.

Author of enterprise ajax, blogger on inside ria and entrepreneur.

He talks about frameworks that work with air, not all of them work well so be warned. Air's strong point is that it works across platforms and it uses html, so that the ui is consistent in air and html parts of the app. You can use javascript to further enhance this experience, by using the same shortcuts for instance.

He shows us snitter as a demo and a more serious application called salesforce, that syncs data online and offline for instance and shows you your network status.

He is working on sh.air, a really cool file manager which lets you sync all kind of files across multiple computers (maybe users too). One thing that bugs me, but is his good right, is that his products are not open source but closed and you have to pay for that. Maybe strange but I expect javascript stuff to be free, maybe it is just me being dutch...

He has a ton of stuff online

AIR Conditioning (Lee Brimelow)

Join Lee Brimelow as he shares his experiences developing a wide range of AIR projects, from simple widgets to larger applications that enable users to interact with software on a more intimate level on the desktop. Lots of prototypes and code will be shown to help get you up to speed with AIR development.

He writes on two websites doing video tutorials and the flash blog, the slides are on the second one.

Deploying and Updating AIR Applications (Serge Jespers)

Packaging, deploying and updating your application are probably the most important basics you'll need to know about. Serge will show you how to use Flex Builder 3 and the command line tools to sign and package your application, how to use the install badge, create custom install badges and how to keep your application up to date.

serge demostrates the world smallest video player, it plays hd in 16 by 16 pixels.

He then goes on with the presentation.

1. step 1, get a certificate

   From thawte.com for 299 $ for one year with firefox. This to get a green (thrustworthy) icon in your installer.

2. step 2 deploying your app

   using the standard install badge is one way.

   Another way is to use the beta install badge, looks nicer and has extra features. You can get it here

   The third way is to use a custom install badge, something you can build your self, so looks and functionality is up to you.

3. step 3 Update your application

   He gives us 5 steps to do this, these I will hope to link to later, he will post them on his site. He explains how this is easy with flex in contrast with flash. As it already has a lot of stuff in it, to make development easier.

Adobe AIR API Overview (Daniel Dura)

Receive an overview of the new APIs that Adobe makes available to applications. Both and JavaScript examples will be shown.

Daniel Dura gives an overview of the most used api's, like window a subject you could spend a full day on covering it. He just covers the basics, normal window, lightweight window and utility window. Startmove() function is one of the reasons that I see myself writing air applications, it gives you so much extra functions...

After the html api, he goes to the File I/O api. This is the one that gives air so much extra over web applications. With this you have the possibility to read or write stuff to you computer. Make sure to close your filestream though, otherwise you will lock your computer..

Drag and drop / clipboard is another powerfull api to enhance the users experience. It enables the user to interact with your application in a normal manner, something that cost so much more trouble with just javascript.

For more info look at his site, which has the slides.

Data Intensive Enterprise AIR Applications (Enrique Duvos)

The need to optimize data handling and transfers in RIAs has become increasingly important in Enterprise applications. During this session Enrique will take a look at how the combination of Adobe AIR's offline local caches via SQLite, and its native connectivity to Adobe Livecycle Data Services data management services, gives developers a powerful framework to deliver data intensive RIAs outside the browser.

The first one which tell anything about preformance. Heard nothing about air's memory leak though. Explains the way that you can build flex and air apps with the same code base that talk to a java backend, very nice...

He shows a way to synchronize the data between client and server, in a nice way. You can check the connection and see if it's up or down, furthermore it can see if data is the same on or offline. Not sure if you have to use adobe's lifecycle though...

Maybe you can read about it on his site

Introduction to SQLite in Adobe AIR (Peter Elst)

Learn all about local database support with SQLite in Adobe AIR, how the use the available API's and build a complete data driven application from scratch. This session will help you get started with several tips and tricks on how to work with data in your desktop RIA's.

This is the one I hope to learn a lot from, if only pointers to where to start. It looks really easy, minimum amounts of code to do cool stuff. Paging is build in in a nice (not new) way, almost equal to mySql. Transactions look like a nice way to do lots of stuff in a fast and secure way.

I still don't know how the html is rendered in the air client, which is webkit and how it can or will affect performance... This will not be a problem with flex, which creates flash (imho).

Drag and drop is a part of flex/air that they are proud of showing, it is super easy and being shown now for the third time. Peter is using a trial version of flex builder, apparently all the money went to our lunch. Still this is by far the most interesting presentation so far, very good. The level is right for me, a bit over my head so I learn something but not too much.

He has a site, which has the slides on it.

this is a quick write up of the first part of the onair tour, I will clean this up later...

keynote Ryan stewart

Ryan Stewart, a Platform Evangelist at Adobe, provides an introduction to Adobe AIR and how it fits into the Adobe technology platform, and the larger RIA landscape.

marketing talk, adobe rules and stuff

focuses on the cross platform strength of air
talks about 'cocomo' and 'pacifica' server side stuff. nice, but still closed source...
air wants to bring the web developers to the desktop, by bringing the good parts of the web there.

shows a air app called uvlayer. Looks nice but still too much eye candy to me.
google analytics app is cool, adds animation in a nice unobtrusive way...
uses flash with html on one screen. pdf is used well, to render a print view.
mapcache is a cool app

why ria on the desktop?
branding, extended functionality. data access. you can use the flash player to access the same information on different platforms (web mobile desktop wii).

how
using existing tools like textmate or aptana.

new
1.1 more languages
post 1.1 three platforms the same...
max 2008 dec 1-4 2008 milan italy

Building your first Adobe AIR application with Adobe Flex (Mike Chambers)

Learn how to setup your development environment and build your first AIR application using Flex 3 and Flex Builder 3.

flexbuilder based on eclipse

configuration in xml looks easy.

flex looks nasty, absolute positioning and stuff

good warning on certification, get a good one if you go commercial

Building your first AIR application with HTML and JavaScript (Kevin Hoyt)

After this session you will know how to setup the Adobe AIR SDK to allow you to develop and package AIR applications from the command line. You will also be able to leverage the Adobe AIR command line tools to enable development of HTML and JavaScript based applications. Finally, the session will demonstrate built in support for AIR development from Adobe Dreamweaver and the Eclipse based Aptana.

shows how to build air apps with textmate and terminal. explains how app development is different than web development. app development has many things in common with java development

application sandbox? javascript is more insecure on the desktop, there is where the sandbox comes in. script injection and eval should be in the non-application sandbox and the application sandbox has the more advanced air js stuff.
html rules

Leveraging HTML and JavaScript within Adobe AIR (Kevin Hoyt)

Gain a better understanding of the HTML and JavaScript environments within Adobe AIR, and explore how these technologies can be leveraged in both Flash / Flex and HTML / JavaScript-based applications. JavaScript and ActionScript script bridging will be covered, as well as how to use AIR, Flash Player and ActionScript Library APIs directly from JavaScript.

even flex developers have the java bug, putting presentation in the structure, boe..
maybe it is for demo purposes, but the stupid thing is that tons of people will copy/paste this. so that is why it is important to build your demo's as clean as possible.

Kevin's site