- How to Use Flex Builder 3 for AIR Development
- How to Use Flash CS3 Pro for AIR Development
- How to Use Dreamweaver CS3 for AIR Development
- Workshop
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
How to Use Flash CS3 Pro for AIR Development
If you are a Flash developer and would like to continue building AIR applications in the familiar Flash IDE, you might best be served by downloading and installing the Adobe AIR update for Flash CS3 Professional. Versions for Flash CS3 Professional for Windows and for Flash CS3 Professional for Macintosh are currently available. You can find either version at www.adobe.com/support/flash/downloads.html.
Installing the AIR update for Flash CS3 Professional is not covered in this book. Please consult the Adobe website for information about the installation steps. As with the Flex Builder 3 discussion in the previous section, the purpose for this section is to discuss the AIR-related features that are enabled with this update. So what does this Flash update provide you? With the AIR update for Flash CS3 Professional you can perform all of the following:
When you first start Flash CS3 Professional, you can now choose the Flash File (Adobe AIR) option (see Figure 4.6).
Figure 4.6 The new Flash File (Adobe AIR) choice.
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Figure 4.7 shows an introductory screen about authoring AIR applications with Flash CS3 Professional. It tells you where the AIR-specific menus are located, how to test and debug your AIR applications, and where you can find more help about authoring for an AIR application.
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Figure 4.7 Screen splash about authoring for Adobe AIR.
Automatically create the AIR application descriptor, an Extensible Markup Language (XML)–based file that contains metadata information about how the AIR application is handled. This file is automatically generated and named according to the following convention: the AIR main application filename (sans the .mxml extension) plus -app.xml (for example, HelloWorld-app.xml), as shown in Listing 4.1.
Listing 4.1. The HelloWorld-app.xml Created by Flash CS3 Pro
1: <?xml version ="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 2: <application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5"> 3: <id>com.adobe.example.HelloWorld</id> 4: <version>1.0</version> 5: <filename>HelloWorld</filename> 6: <description></description> 7: <name>HelloWorld</name> 8: <copyright></copyright> 9: <initialWindow> 10: <content>HelloWorld.swf</content> 11: <systemChrome>standard</systemChrome> 12: <transparent>false</transparent> 13: <visible>true</visible> 14: </initialWindow> 15: <icon></icon> 16: <customUpdateUI>false</customUpdateUI> 17: <allowBrowserInvocation>false</allowBrowserInvocation> 18: </application>
- Two new menu choices are available from the Commands menu: AIR - Application and Installer Settings, which is used to make changes to the AIR application descriptor file via a graphical user interface [GUI] and AIR - Create AIR File, which is used to physically create the .air file for your AIR application. The use of these menu choices is discussed fully in Hour 7, “Writing an AIR Application with Flash CS3 or Dreamweaver CS3.”
Access a new publish profile, Adobe AIR 1.5. This profile is found by selecting Publish Settings within the File menu, or by using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+F12, and then choosing the Flash tab, as depicted in Figure 4.8.
Figure 4.8 Adobe AIR 1.0 publish profile.
Receive abundant help within the Flash CS3 Pro application. Figure 4.9 shows an example of searching for help for the topic, CS3 for Adobe AIR.
Figure 4.9 Help for developing an AIR application from Flash CS3 Pro.
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As you can tell, if you are going to use the Flash IDE to build your AIR applications, the Adobe AIR update for CS3 Professional is an excellent tool for the job.