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If dropped wireless connections, wifi blackholes and other connection woes are stiffling your love of web-based apps, brace yourself.
The offline functionality of your favorite web apps just got a boost from Adobe's new AIR platform.
The new Adobe Integrated Runtime or AIR, the successor to what was previous code-named Apollo, now features support for HTML/Javascript applications in addition to the company's proprietary Flash technology.
Adobe AIR, (née Apollo), will pit the company against Microsoft's Silverlight platform, Java's JavaFX development tools, Google's recent Google Gears and even perhaps even Firefox in the race to bridge the divide between browser and desktop applications.
While the field seemed to be shaping up along the classic battle lines of programming frameworks -- Flash developers favoring AIR, .NET coders embracing Silverlight and open source fans following Firefox's lead -- Adobe is hoping to widen Apollo's impact by opening the doors to users who may not actually own any Adobe products.
"We're really excited by the level of interest that we've seen amongst the developer community," says Pam Hkalsdfj Director of Product Management for Adobe's Platform Unit. "I expect to see our Alpha applications updated shorty as well as, now that AIR has enhanced Ajax support, to see that huge community begin to experiment with AIR as well."
Jesse James Garrett, president of Adaptive Path, who coined the phrase AJAX, believes that AIR may end up freeing AJAX from the contraints of the browser. Historically the problem for HTML developers has been the fact that there's no way to port their code to the desktop environment.
"I think that AJAX developers have kind of been running up against the constrainst of the browser for a while now -- there's a lot of code from your browser application that you'd have to throw out for the offline portion of your app." Says Garrett.
More code means more work for developers, but AIR is changing that by offering a platform which allows programmers to reuse their AJAX code. "The advantage of AIR is the reusability of that code outside the browser."
Hedlund says that Flash and AJAX both have strengths and weaknesses. "Why wasn't Google Maps done in Flash? Because Javascript was free and they could get it to do what they wanted." Conversely Hedland Conversely, why was YouTube developed in Flash? Because there's no way to get Javascript to do video, and Flash is the most widely-adopted technology that also fulfills the need."
But for many the debate comes down to open source. Hedland's company
"
The appeal of AJAX historically has been the wide level of browser compatibility
If you want an application that works both in the browser and somewhere else, generally you'd have to rewrite a lot of your interface code because historically the browser is the only place AJAX code worked, but that's starting to change now with things like AIR.
work elsewhere
says that the AJAX/HTMl has been "part of the overall scheme and intention from the beginning," but concedes that it took longer to add the functionality because of cross platform issues.
"it wasn't that it was never considered [HTML] to be a first class citizen"
"but we had additional work to on the HTML and Javascript side."
"What we expect to see developer's targeting...
Especially data-intensive or multimedia applications stand to benefit in situations where local wireless connections fail, for example, Turner said. These capabilities allow programmers to create simple-to-use "drag-and-drop" software that runs both online and offline.
Silverlight is fundamentally an environment for browser-based applications
Obviously, I think the individual technologies will start from their respective ecosystems. Apollo will appeal to Flash/etc developers, JavaFX to Swing/etc devs, Silverlight to .NET folks, and so on. And to be clear, those respective ecosystems are nothing to sneeze at; they’re very sizable in their own right. Each technology, in effect, has a built in opportunity in front of it to leverage.
The question will be, in my mind, to what extent each can grow beyond its own developer base. Can they, in other words, begin to poach some of the developers that today are developing pure web applications. Can they persuade these independent developers that a.) there’s a volume audience waiting for the type of internet application that cannot be delivered using today’s pure web technologies, and b.) that their respective infrastructures are the right path now and going forward.
and will include a beta version of this runtime along with Ajax and HTML support. Previously, you could only build an Apollo application using Flash, but Adobe is now making it more appealing to a wider range of HTML developers - who may not use Adobe Flash. So included in this announcement is an extension that allows Apollo apps to be created directly from Dreamweaver, and PDF support to leverage the PDF platform in Apollo applications. The release also includes a SQLite database, just like Google Gears, so developers can go between the two easily.
has revealed the true name of its Apollo project, which up until now has been the code name for Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). See here for initial review of Apollo launch.
The cross-operating runtime developed by Adobe enables developers to create rich interface applications for users’ desktops, but even this key aspect of AIR has been improved upon for this latest update: AIR can now be utilized by HTML developers, meaning that Flash is no longer a necessity for using the platform. This broadens the scope for what AIR can be used for, and the range of developers that can use it, as AIR applications can be created directly from Dreamweaver and PDF. This new development benefits end users and developers alike, and further integrates AIR with Adobe’s other products.
AIR is expected to be released sometime towards the end of the year, and a free AIR software development kit is expected to be released Monday, giving developers a head start on creating new apps. Adobe is also expected to release the beta for its Flex 3 software development tool for creating AIR applications. In related news, Adobe is working to some extent with Google on Gears, and Adobe’s recent acquisition of Scene7 will be integrated with Apollo as well.
Adobe Systems Inc. is releasing new design tools that further blur the divide between software that runs offline on computer desktops and programs that work on the Web, the company said on Sunday.
Adobe, a leading independent maker of software programming tools, is allowing the newest generation of Internet software, nicknamed "Web 2.0," to run both online, in Web browsers, and offline, on desktop computers, without rewriting the code.
On Monday, the company is introducing a public test version of its software, code-named Apollo, that helps programmers to write advanced programs called Rich Internet Applications (RIA) for desktop computers, even when not connected to the Web.
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"Apollo is for when developers want to take online applications and make them work offline on a computer," Michele Turner, Adobe's vice president of platforms, said in a phone interview. "We don't think the browser is going to go away."
Consumers stand to benefit from a more flexible generation of Web software that works both online and offline and comes from a wide range of independent software makers.
Especially data-intensive or multimedia applications stand to benefit in situations where local wireless connections fail, for example, Turner said. These capabilities allow programmers to create simple-to-use "drag-and-drop" software that runs both online and offline.
Among the early customers is online auction giant eBay Inc., which plans to announce this week at a conference in Boston that it is using the Apollo programming language to create notification services for its sellers to manage auctions outside of an Internet browser. Sellers also can upload photos or pricing data without constantly being connected to the Web.
Adobe is working with financial-services companies seeking to make it easier for clients to fill out mortgage loan forms when only periodic Web access is available, and with Finetune, an online music store that works offline, too, Turner sai
Adobe Systems Inc. released beta versions today of its Apollo application runtime to allow developers to build rich Internet applications that run on the desktop and its Flex 3 technology aimed at building RIAs for the Web.
The beta version of the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), formerly called Apollo, is a cross-operating system runtime to allow developers to use HTML, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), Adobe Flash or Adobe Flex to build RIAs for the desktop. Adobe is part of a growing group of vendors, including Google Inc., that has announced plans to take RIAs back to the desktop. They were originally aimed at infusing the rich, interactive features of a desktop application to the Web.
"This is the first major public release of the AIR runtime," said Mike Downey, Adobe's group manager for evangelism of platform technologies. "This one is very close to having all the features enabled in it. We've focused on a variety of feature areas and very heavily on improvements to the HTML engine."
In addition, this release will be major for AJAX developers, he said, noting that the alpha code released in March "was fairly incomplete if you were doing a purely AJAX implementation." Developers building AIR applications now can use any AJAX framework, he added.
Additional new features in the Adobe Air beta include an embedded SQLite open-source local database, support for PDF and deeper integration with Flex, Adobe said. Users will be able to view and interact with PDF documents within Adobe Air applications similar to how they interact with a PDF in the browser, the company added.
Meanwhile, eBay Inc. is scheduled to unveil today an Adobe AIR application project called San Dimas, which can deliver notifications and updates in real time to eBay users' desktops without them having to open a browser.
A final version of AIR is slated to ship before the end of the year.
Adobe also announced the beta release of its Adobe Flex 3 software, its free open-source tool for building RIAs. The beta versions of the Flex Builder 3 and the Flex 3 SDK will be available for download today.
Adobe has just unveiled the official name of its much talked about Adobe Apollo product: Adobe Integrated Runtime, or Adobe AIR for short. Adobe is also announcing a beta version of the runtime, which will include Ajax and HTML support. This means developers can create an Apollo application entirely based on HTML, without using Flash at all.
For those who may not know, Adobe Apollo was the code name for the cross-operating runtime developed by Adobe that allows developers to create Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. There's a myriad of possible use cases for this technology, from productivity applications that work both online and offline, to music players such as Finetune that can be accessed via the desktop.
Adobe AIR is expected to be released at the end of the year, and will include a beta version of this runtime along with Ajax and HTML support. Previously, you could only build an Apollo application using Flash, but Adobe is now making it more appealing to a wider range of HTML developers - who may not use Adobe Flash. So included in this announcement is an extension that allows Apollo apps to be created directly from Dreamweaver, and PDF support to leverage the PDF platform in Apollo applications. The release also includes a SQLite database, just like Google Gears, so developers can go between the two easily.
Adobe is attempting to streamline the process of building Apollo applications, in the hope it increases adoption rates. The challenge in introducing a web development platform is making it simple enough for developers to test drive, yet valuable enough for the end user. Adobe competitor Dekoh (see our profile here), is using an open-source model and community to increase adoption. In many ways, the Adobe strategy is similar to that of Facebook, which recently opened up the Facebook platform. Most web teams can easily develop a Facebook app in a weekend, as it is simple for the development team to create apps for that platform. In turn, the Facebook team hopes that it's valuable enough to the end user, which then encourages more application building and innovation from developers at other websites.
Although not exactly identical situations, Adobe is making it easier for all the developers out there to play around with the platform - and opening it up to HTML developers seems like a smart move. Backed by a $100 million venture fund and tons of corporate investment, Adobe needs to also do a better job of showcasing successful implementations of Apollo; and convince end users why they need to have online and offline support. That is probably the major goal behind the Adobe Bus Tour, also announced today, in which Adobe is traveling to 18 cities to perform demos and spread the word on the platform.
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