- 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
How to Use Dreamweaver CS3 for AIR Development
If you are an HTML, JavaScript, or AJAX developer, the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3 allows you to develop, test, and package your AIR applications directly within Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. The Adobe AIR extension is an MXP file and you use the Adobe Extension Manager to install it. The MXP file is available at www.adobe.com/products/air/tools/ajax/.
Installing the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3 is not covered in this book. Please consult the Adobe website for information if you have questions about the installation. You can access documentation for this extension at www.adobe.com/go/learn_dw_air.
As with the two previous sections, the purpose for this section is to discuss the AIR-related features that are enabled with this extension. With the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3, you can perform all of the following:
Automatically create the AIR application descriptor, an 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, hello_world-app.xml), as shown in Listing 4.2.
Listing 4.2. The hello_world-app.xml Created by Dreamweaver CS3
1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 2: <application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5"> 3: <filename>testSite</filename> 4: <copyright>2008</copyright> 5: <description>Hello World from DW CS3</description> 6: <customUpdateUI>false</customUpdateUI> 7: <name>Hello World</name> 8: <id>testSite</id> 9: <version>3</version> 10: <initialWindow> 11: <content>hello_world.html</content> 12: <height>600</height> 13: <width>800</width> 14: <systemChrome>standard</systemChrome> 15: <transparent>false</transparent> 16: <visible>true</visible> 17: </initialWindow> 18: <icon> 19: <image128x128>01fig10.png</image128x128> 20: </icon> 21: </application>
- Access two new Site menu options, AIR Application Settings (used to make changes to the AIR application descriptor file via a GUI and Create AIR File (used to physically create the .air file for your AIR application).
- Choose a new preview by clicking the Preview toolbar icon and selecting Preview in Adobe AIR. This allows you to test your AIR application from within Dreamweaver CS3.
Access help within the Dreamweaver CS3 application. Figure 4.10 shows an example.
Figure 4.10 Help for developing an AIR application with Dreamweaver CS3.
As you have seen, if you plan to develop AIR applications with HTML and JavaScript or AJAX and are currently using Dreamweaver CS3, the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3 might just be a perfect match for you.
Another busy hour and you saw three of the IDEs for leveraging your current skills to build AIR applications. Other choices are available in this arena, but with Flex Builder 3, Flash CS3 Pro, and Dreamweaver CS3, you will be using the tools that the creator of the AIR runtime, Adobe, built precisely for you to create AIR applications.
Before starting the next chapter, you should review what you have learned in the following workshop.