Important notes about Adobe AIR

Yesterday, Adobe officially launched version 1.0 of the Adobe Integrated Runtime or AIR. As anticipated, the press have given it justice however there are a few facts that need to be illustrated to help developers who want to give it a try.

What I encourage developers to do.

Download both the latest version of Adobe AIR and the latest version of Flex Builder from Adobe labs to ensure you are up to date.


Why AIR code samples might not work.

All AIR applications use a descriptor XML file to describe the application and link resources. During the last few beta drops of AIR, the schema for this file changed a bit. If you try to build someone's code samples with a newer version, the project might not actually build. In fact, the observed behavior is that nothing happens.

What can you do?

To mitigate this, in Flex Builder (available for free trial 60 day download on Adobe labs), simply set up a new project by clicking "File -> New -> Flex Project". To make an AIR project, make sure you select the correct type of project by selecting the AIR option in the second screen. Make sure you are on the latest builds.

Open up the source code of the project you want to try in an ordinary text editor and cut and paste the code into your MXML base document for the project. Be sure not to write over the top level XML element until you are sure that the project is using the same namespace value and root element consistent with your version of Flex Builder. Pay close attention to the root element. In most up to date (1.0) AIR applications, it should look like this:


<mx:windowedapplication mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" applicationcomplete="init()" backgroundcolor="0x003030" focusrect="false">
<mx:script>
</mx:script>
</mx:windowedapplication>

Once this is done, try saving your project and eliminate any duplicate root elements etc until all errors go away.

Note: for pure AS3, HTML and other projects the process is a bit more complicated. Consult the documentation.

Alternatively:

If the project you want to install is a zip archive, try importing it by using the "File -> Import -> Flex Project". This should allow you to import the project and FB3 should correct.