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Sams Teach Yourself Adobe® AIR™ Programming in 24 Hours
Michael Givens
Covers version 1.5 of Adobe AIR
In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you will be up and running with Adobe AIR 1.5. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds upon a real-world foundation allowing you to learn the essentials of Adobe AIR from the ground up.
Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Adobe AIR 1.5 tasks.
Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge of Adobe AIR 1.5.
By the Way notes present interesting information related to the discussion.
Did You Know? tips offer advice or show you alternative ways to do something.
Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.
Learn how to…
Michael Givens is the CTO of U Saw It Enterprises, a Web technology consulting firm based in Spring, Texas. He is an Adobe Community Expert and an Adobe Corporate Champion known to share his experience and evangelism of all things Adobe. Certified in ColdFusion 5 and as an Advanced CFMX Developer, he has been using ColdFusion since the days of Allaire Spectra and Flex since it was known as Royale. He is the coauthor of Adobe AIR Programming Unleashed (Sams Publishing) and has written articles for the ColdFusion Developer’s Journal and the Flex Developer’s Journal. He also wrote a digital Short Cut titled Apollo in Flight for Sams Publishing. Michael blogs regularly at www.flexination.info.
Category: Programming/Application Development
Covers: Adobe AIR
User Level: Beginning–Intermediate
Preparing to Build Your First AIR Application
Introduction
Part I: Getting Started with AIR
HOUR 1: Taking in a Deep Breath of AIR
What Is the Adobe Integrated Runtime?
Who Benefits from AIR?
A Short History Lesson—From the Adobe Apollo Camp to AIR 1.5
Just How Big Is AIR Going To Be?
Workshop
Q&A
Exercises
HOUR 2: Ready to Install AIR
Safety Considerations for the AIR Runtime
Differences for Your Operating System: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
Installing the AIR Runtime
AIR Runtime Installation for Windows
AIR Runtime Installation for Mac OS X
AIR Runtime Installation for Linux
Installing the AIR SDK
AIR SDK Installation for Windows
AIR SDK Installation for Mac OS X
AIR SDK Installation for Linux
Components of the AIR SDK
Finishing the Job
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 3: Harnessing the AIR SDK
Using the Adobe AIR Debug Launcher
Using the Adobe AIR Developer Tool
Creating a Badge (Seamless) Installer
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 4: Preparing to Build Your First AIR Application
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
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 5: Writing Your First AIR Application with Flex 3
Creating the Flex Project—Desktop AIR Application
Meet the AIR Application Descriptor
Assigning the Basic Application Descriptor Information
Assigning the Properties of the Initial AIR Application Window
Assigning the Installation Folder and Program Menu Folder
Defining a Custom User Interface for Application Updates
Toggling the Browser Invocation of the AIR Application
Registering New File Type Associations for Your AIR Application
The Code, Test, and Repeat Process
Meet the WindowedApplication Tag
Meet the Script Tag: Imports and Declarations
Meet the initApp() Function
Summing Up the initApp() Function
Meet the Timer Functions
Meet the startHelloTimer() Function
Finishing Up with the Script Tag
Meet the ConnectionStatus and BridgeSound Classes
Completing the UI Picture
Packaging a Release Build
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 6: Writing an AIR Application with HTML
Creating a Desktop AIR Application with HTML
Accessing the AIR Classes with JavaScript
A Few Cautionary Words About Security
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 7: Writing an AIR Application with Flash CS3 or Dreamweaver CS3
Choosing the Right IDE for the Job
Creating a Desktop AIR Application with Flash CS3
Creating a Desktop AIR Application with Dreamweaver CS3
Creating a Site with Dreamweaver CS3
Creating the Main Application with Dreamweaver CS3
Modifying the Application Descriptor
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 8: Writing an AIR Application with PDF Integration
PDF Capability Detection in an AIR Application
Loading PDF Content into an AIR Application
Limitations for PDF Content in an AIR Application
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 9: Debugging AIR Applications
Using the Adobe Flex Builder Debugger
Using the Adobe AIR Debug Launcher to Debug
Using Third-Party Tools to Debug
Using the Adobe AIR HTML Introspector
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 10: Distributing Your AIR Application
Installing an AIR Application in a One-Off Approach
Installing AIR Applications Seamlessly from a Web Page
Digitally Signing and Creating an AIR Installation File
Packaging a Release Build in Flex Builder 3
Packaging a Release Build with Dreamweaver CS3
Packaging a Release Build with Flash CS3 Professional
Packaging a Release Build with the AIR SDK and the ADT
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
Part II: Using the AIR APIs
HOUR 11: Opening Doors with AIR
Creating Windows Using the NativeWindow Class
Creating Windows Using the mx.core.Window Class
Creating Custom Windows
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 12: Screening an AIR Application
Introduction to Working with Screens
Determining Screen Resolution
Positioning Screens Programmatically
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 13: File This API with AIR
Introduction to the AIR File API
Meet the File Class
Meet Some Other Class Members
Working with Directories
Reading and Writing Files
Reading Files from the File System
Writing Files to the File System
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 14: Drag and Drop, Copy and Paste in AIR
Introduction to the Drag-and-Drop API
Meet the Drag Event
Leveraging the nativeDragStart Event
Leveraging the nativeDragUpdate Event
Leveraging the nativeDragComplete Event
Meet the Drop Event
Introduction to the Copy-and-Paste API
Meet the Copy Event
Deferring Creation or Rendering of the Clipboard Data
Meet the Paste Event
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 15: AIR and the Natives
Introduction to the NativeMenu Class
Meet the FlexNativeMenu Class
Working with Application Menus
Working with Window Menus
Creating Dock Icon Menus
Creating System Tray Icon Menus
Creating Context Menus
Creating Pop-up Menus
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 16: Connectivity with AIR Networking
Introduction to Connectivity
Meet the HTTPStatusEvent Class
Meet the NetStatusEvent Class
Meet the Loader Class
Meet the ServiceMonitor Class
Meet the URLMonitor Class
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 17: Local Data in an AIR Application
Introduction to Local Data Concepts
Writing Data to the File System
Meet the Local Shared Object
Meet the Local SQL Database
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 18: Encryption and Security in AIR
Storing Encrypted Data
Getting Started
Logging In
Clearing the Username Credential
Signing Your AIR Code
Timestamping Your AIR Code
Signing with a Digital Certificate
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 19: AIR and User Notifications
Creating Status Bar Notifications
Creating Taskbar Highlighting
Creating Toast Messages
Creating a System Tray Icon
Bouncing the Mac OS Dock Icon
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
Part III: Developing AIR Applications
HOUR 20: Leveraging Server-Side Features for AIR
Leveraging Remoting
Leveraging Web Services
Leveraging HTTP Communication
Leveraging Messaging
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz.
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 21: Building an AIR Application
Deciding on an Application
Selecting Application Features
Architecting Your Application
Coding Your Application
Initializing the Application
Searching for a Flight
Displaying the Flight Information
Displaying the Archived Flight Information
Replaying an Archived Flight
Displaying a PDF in an HTML Control
Monitoring the Internet Connection
Retrieving the Server-Side Data
Workshop
Exercises
HOUR 22: Signing AIR Applications
Meet the Certificate Authorities
Obtaining a Certificate
Leveraging a Publisher Identifier
Using a Timestamping Server
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 23: Updating AIR Applications After Deployment
Using the Updater Class
Updating an AIR application
Updating AIR Applications Remotely
Workshop
Q&A
Quiz.
Answers
Exercises
HOUR 24: Where Do I Go from Here?
Using the AIR Documentation
Meet the Adobe Developer Connection
Home
Getting Started
Samples
Downloads
Community
Cookbook (Beta)
Meet the Adobe XML News Aggregator for AIR
Meet the Adobe AIR Marketplace
Workshop
Exercises
Part IV: Appendixes
APPENDIX A: AIR and Flex 3 API Reference 395
APPENDIX B: Additional Resources for AIR Developers 397
067233030x TOC 10/21/2008