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.

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

As I am to busy to concentrate on some real writing on stuff that I am working on, such as jQeury plugins, adobe air and stuff.

• a good float article, as it can't be explained enough
• a nice and long list on microformats, as a reference.
• jQuery plugin developement by snook, he is the man.
• jQuery plugin patterns, usefull.
• More jQuery plugins, also.
• Air for ajax developers, that is for me.
• Air by snook, a nice demo app with source code.
• Air by google, search results..
• Air in Amsterdam, I will be there, will you?

I will try to make some time to write some good stuff, as the things I am working on are quite nice (oo javascript anyone?), but first I have two real world deadlines this month. Both on the same day, so I will have to do with less sleep the coming three weeks.

On the other hand, I will be going to adobe onair in amsterdam this friday and a nice short vacation beginning of may sure looks possible. So all things considered, stuff are looking good, deadlines and all considered. After all, if I didn't like deadlines I should not be working on the web, right?

Technorati Tags:browsers, css, html, microformats, web, adobe air

After long consideration, about 5 minutes that is, I booked for @media 2008, I even got the super early bird discount. After being there for 3 times, including last November's @media ajax, I look forward to attending my 4th @media in a row.

It promises the same conflict the other two (normal) @media's had, two tracks presenting you with the choice which one you will follow. Often the two are equally interesting and offer something for everyone.

I do hope though that the presentations will be more challenging than last years, I had a blast but didn't learn all that much that summer. No offence to the fine people from vivabit though, more a confirmation that I am on the right track maybe...

@media ajax was different though, a very focused two days which left me with my head spinning at times and not just from the beer. The presentations there varied from extremely challenging (Brendan Eich) to hilarious (Stuart Langridge).

Enough said, hope to see you all there, maybe for a few Fronteers beers....

Update, flight and hotel booked. more than 3 months in advance, a record for me...

So I finally gave up hope on having internet on the train. Unlike in scandinavia, that will not happen in the netherlands for quite some time. Still I spend more than 2 hours in a train each day, time I want to use to work.

So in order to connect to the outside world I went with the solution from Vodafone. A solution which did not, to my surprise, comes with mac support. Yes, still in this day and age, we mac users represent a minority and are very scary. Knowing that I had no support I still took the gamble as I had the right to return everything within 48 hours. Something that gave me the freedom to try and make it work.

My first attempts were not working and even a bit frustrating. I followed the instructions and they only resulted in a blue and a red flashing light, but no connection. A situation which was not that common to me as I expect things to work. I have a mac and truly expect things to work when I plug them in...

So, as I didn't figure it out in time, I turned to the Vodafone helpdesk, fully expected to be confirmed in my bad expectations. What was my surprise, they (or the one guy I talked to Mark B.) actually helped me.

They were very honest about not supporting leopard but still had a few pointers for me. Those turned out to be very helpfull, so I will repeat them here for you in the hope that I can help someone else...

The solution

It turns out that leopard comes with a few drivers that conflict with the vodafone ones. So if you simple erase those and than install the vodafone software, all is well.

So if you want stuff to work, go to systeem/bibliotheek/extensions/IOSerialfamily.kext/contents/plugins/, look for packages like: AppleWWANSupport1.kext, AppleWWANVerizon.kext erase those, restart and install the vodafone stuff you're done.

So to conclude, some helpdesk people actually help you and here is a way to use the vodafone stuff on leopard. I hope that this helps someone...

Technorati Tags:web, umts