| It is fair to say that one of the fastest-moving areas in technology, in terms of innovation and “coolness,” is the Web. In the space of ten years, it has gone from being a near text-only medium to a platform upon which developers can create immersive and highly interactive experiences. The impacts on business, entertainment, and everyday tasks have been huge.
And just when a lot of people were thinking we had reached a peak, along came the concept of mashups, applications that combine information from more than one source into a single application. They empower users to view data in new and infinitely more useful ways, and they empower developers to push the limits of their imagination.
Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR provide a solid platform that enables developers to quickly and easily build mashup applications with proven toolsets and knowledge already in use. The Adobe Flash platform allows these applications to be deployed to an audience that has widely accepted Flash as a safe and powerful delivery platform.
I first started playing with AIR back when it was still referred to by the code name Apollo at the end of 2006. Having experimented with many cross-platform desktop technologies in the past, I was a bit skeptical as to whether AIR would really be any good. Usually a lot of compromises are made, or developers still need to produce lots of platform-specific code.
Pretty much the same day I got my hands on the SDK, I had to fly from Phoenix to London Heathrow. Having watched all of the decent movies on the outward flight, I was glad to have something to occupy myself, so I opened my laptop and fired up Flex Builder. By the time I had arrived in London, I had converted several widgets and web applications to run as AIR applications, and I was well on my way to creating some other dashboard applications.
What struck me almost immediately was that this was no different from building a web application using Flex, Flash, or even JavaScript. Applications were still written in a similar way, and even the additional AIR APIs available were straightforward and intuitive to use. Suddenly I realized that I could add “cross-platform desktop application development” to my list of skills.
AIR is a technology that has massive implications for developers. It has the potential to empower developers to create integrated experiences, taking interaction beyond the browser, and also to be a catalyst for innovation. As a result, this book is about exploring both the technological and creative sides of developing mashups; it provides inspiration about what is possible and is backed up by technical tips and guidance when working with Adobe Flex and AIR. |
