Adobe AIR

Adobe AIR
Developer(s) Adobe Systems
Initial release February 25, 2008 (2008-02-25)
Stable release
26.0.0.127 / 11 July 2017 (2017-07-11)
Preview release
27.0.0.95[1] / 2 August 2017 (2017-08-02)
Development status Active
Operating system Microsoft Windows
macOS
Android[2]
iOS[3]
BlackBerry Tablet OS
BlackBerry 10 (Discontinued since OS 10.3.1)[4]
Linux (Discontinued since v2.6)[5]
Platform IA-32, x86-64, ARM, and MIPS
Available in Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish[6]
Type Runtime environment
License Proprietary[7]
Website www.adobe.com/products/air/

Adobe AIR (formerly Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a cross-platform runtime system developed by Adobe Systems for building desktop applications and mobile applications, programmed using Adobe Flash, ActionScript and optionally Apache Flex. The runtime supports installable applications on Windows, OS X and mobile operating systems including Android, iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS. It also originally ran on Linux, but support was discontinued as of version 2.6 in 2011.

Adobe AIR is a runtime environment that allows Adobe Flash content and ActionScript 3.0 coders to construct applications and video games that run outside a web browser, and behave as a native application on supported platforms. An application developed for Flash Player or HTML5 and deployed in a browser does not require installation, while AIR applications require installation from an installer file (Windows and OS X) or the appropriate App Store (iOS and Android). AIR applications have unrestricted access to local storage and file systems, while browser-based applications only have access to individual files selected by users.[8]

Adobe AIR internally uses the Flash Player rendering engine and ActionScript 3.0 as the primary programming language. Flash applications must specifically be built for Adobe AIR to use additional features provided, such as multi-touch, file system integration, native client extensions, integration with Taskbar or Dock, and access to accelerometer and GPS devices.[9] HTML5 applications may run on the WebKit engine included in AIR.

Notable applications built with Adobe AIR include eBay Desktop, Pandora One desktop,[10][11] TweetDeck,[12] the former Adobe Media Player,[12] Angry Birds,[13] and Machinarium,[14] among other multimedia and task management applications.[15] According to Adobe, over 100,000 unique applications were built on AIR, and over 1 billion installations of the same were logged from users across the world, as of May 2014.[16][17] Adobe AIR was voted as the Best Mobile Application Development product at the Consumer Electronics Show for two consecutive years (CES 2014 and CES 2015).[18][19]

Features

Using AIR, developers can access the full Adobe Flash functionality, including text, vector graphics, raster graphics, video, audio, camera, and microphone capability. Adobe AIR also includes additional features such as file system integration, native client extensions, desktop integration and access to connected devices. AIR enables applications to work with data in different ways, including using local files, local SQLite databases (for which AIR has built-in support), a database server, or the encrypted local store included with AIR.

Developers can access additional functionality by building AIR Native Extensions, which can access full device functionality being programmed in the native language.[20]

Desktop features

On desktop platforms, AIR supports:

Mobile features

On mobile platforms, AIR supports many mobile hardware features:

3D Graphics

In 2011, the addition of Stage3D to the Flash Player allowed Flash and AIR apps access to GPUs for hardware acceleration. Several third-party frameworks have been developed to build upon the functionality of Stage3D, including the Starling Framework and Away3D. These frameworks are also compatible with AIR, and provide vital performance improvements to AIR apps published for mobile devices.

AIR Native Extensions

AIR apps can be augmented in functionality with the usage of AIR Native Extensions (ANEs). Native extensions are plug-in code libraries that contain native code wrapped with an ActionScript API,[33] allowing developers to access native features not otherwise usable in AIR, such as Apple Game Center or Google Cloud Messaging.

Native extensions may be developed by anyone using publicly available tools;[34] some are distributed for free or even as open source, while others are sold commercially.[35]

Native extensions may be programmed in the native language on each platform, allowing access to the full set of platform APIs provided by the developer. (C++ for Windows, Java for Android, Objective-C for iOS).[20]

Availability

AIR is a cross-platform technology and AIR applications can be repackaged with few or no changes for many popular desktop and mobile platforms. Different installation options exist for each platform.

AIR applications may be published with or without the AIR runtime. Applications packaged with the AIR runtime are larger in file size, and are known as "captive runtime" applications.[36] If the runtime is not embedded in the app, it must be installed separately.

In January 2009, Adobe claimed that there were over 100 million installations of Adobe AIR worldwide, and that "the majority of AIR runtime installations occur at the time the first AIR application is installed by a user".[37] In May 2014, Adobe claimed that over 100,000 unique applications were built on AIR, and over 1 billion installations of the same were logged from users across the world.[16][17]

Desktop platforms

The latest version of Adobe AIR, version 24, contains Adobe Flash Player 24, and is available for Windows 7 and later, as well as OS X 10.7.[6] Official support for desktop Linux distributions ceased in June 2011 with version 2.6.[38]

Platform Installer file support App Store support
Windows .air, .exe and .msi[36][39] None
OS X .air and .dmg[39] With captive runtime[40]
Android .apk[41] Google Play[41]
iOS .ipa[42] iTunes Store[42]
PlayBook .bar[43] BlackBerry App World[43]

Mobile platforms

Adobe AIR applications can be published as native phone applications on certain mobile operating systems, such as Android (ARM Cortex-A8 and above[44]) and Apple iOS.[45]

Application development

Adobe AIR runs Flash applications within a contained Flash Player instance. It runs web applications via WebKit rendering engine. Multiple instances of the browser can be started within a single AIR application, but JavaScript content executes with some security limitations.

AIR does not provide direct access to native GUI elements such as navigation bars or controls. Native extensions can be used to access additional native resources.

Development tools

SDKs

The AIR SDK is available as a free standalone download for software developers to make AIR applications.[46] SDK users do not need to install any commercial software to use the SDK, although several options are available. AIR apps can be compiled from the command line using the AIR compiler included in the SDK; the compiler can also be called from an IDE to eliminate the need for the command line.

AIR can also be used with Adobe Flex.[47] Flex is an integrated collection of stylable graphical user interface, data manipulation and networking components, and applications built upon it are known as "Flex" applications. Flex GUIs are defined in MXML, similar to how Android and Microsoft Visual Studio define GUIs; however, Flex does not give access to native GUI components.

AIR applications built without the Flex framework allow greater flexibility and performance, and are known as "pure ActionScript" applications.[48][49][50] Video games built on the AIR platform are typically pure-Actionscript projects. Various open-source component frameworks are available for pure ActionScript projects, such as MadComponents, that provide UI Components at significantly smaller SWF file sizes.[51][52]

Software

Adobe distributes three commercial software products for developing of AIR applications in ActionScript:

Third-party development environments that target the AIR runtime are also available, including:

Adobe Flash Builder is the premium tool for Flex application development, since it includes an integrated drag-and-drop user interface builder, not found in competing tools like FlashDevelop.[53]

JavaScript applications

Adobe provides for AIR HTML5 and JavaScript development with Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, although any other HTML editor or text editor can be used.[54]

Adobe AIR can run a subset of JavaScript, with no ability to dynamically execute code when running in the application sandbox. According to Adobe, this restriction is designed to prevent malicious remote content from attacking a user's system.[55] Because of this restriction, JavaScript frameworks that make use of dynamic JavaScript functions like eval() were not initially compatible with Adobe AIR. However, several frameworks including Dojo Toolkit, jQuery, and ExtJS were updated to run in Adobe AIR's application sandbox. Some frameworks like MooTools were already compatible.

Dreamweaver CS4/CS3 requires an additional extension to compile AIR applications,[56] as does Flash CS3 in the form of an update.[57]

Release history

"Apollo" 1.0 betas

Adobe made a public preview release of AIR (then called Apollo) along with a software development kit (SDK) and extension for developing Apollo applications with the Flex framework, on March 19, 2007.

On June 10, 2007, Apollo was renamed to AIR and a public beta release of the runtime was launched. Public beta 2 of AIR SDK was released on October 1, 2007. Public beta 3, was released on December 12, 2007.

1.x

Adobe AIR 1.0

Version 1.0 of the Adobe AIR runtime and SDK was released on February 25, 2008.

Adobe AIR 1.1

Version 1.1 of Adobe AIR was released on June 16, 2008. This release included a number of new features including:

In addition, version 1.1 works on Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise.[58]

Adobe AIR 1.5

Adobe AIR 1.5 was released on November 17, 2008. New capabilities included:

Adobe AIR 1.5.1

Released on February 24, 2009, AIR 1.5.1 was primarily a compatibility update that includes bug fixes and security updates.

Adobe AIR 1.5.2

Released on July 30, 2009, AIR 1.5.2 introduced a number of minor new features and compatibility issues. Some of the important fixes included:

Adobe AIR 1.5.3

Adobe AIR 1.5.3 was released on December 8, 2009. It included fixes for a number of compatibility and security related issues. The BBC iPlayer Desktop manager v1.5.15695.18135 is the first version to use AIR 1.5.3.

2.x

AIR 2.0

The Adobe AIR 2 public beta was released on November 16, 2009 followed by the beta 2 on February 2, 2010 and the release candidate on May 11, 2010. In addition, Adobe AIR for Android was announced on February 12, 2010. AIR 2 was officially released for Windows, Mac OS and Linux on June 10, 2010 and Android on October 8, 2010. It dropped the ability to run on PowerPC Macs.

AIR 2.5

Adobe AIR 2.5 was released on October 24, 2010 at the Adobe MAX 2010 conference.[61]

AIR 2.6

Adobe AIR 2.6 was released on February 24, 2011 for Android devices.[62] Another update was released on March 22, 2011 for updated iOS interoperability.[63]

AIR 2.7

Adobe AIR 2.7 was released on June 14, 2011.[64] Ability to run on Linux was dropped.[65]

3.x

AIR 3.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.0 on October 3, 2011.[66] AIR 3.0 added the ability to run on native 64-bit CPU architecture and use hardware accelerated graphics rendering, captive runtime, native extensions, JPEG-XR image format, LZMA compression for SWF files, and H.264 encoding.[67]

AIR 3.1

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.1 on November 11, 2011.

AIR 3.2

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.2 on March 28, 2012.[68]

AIR 3.3

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.3 on June 8, 2012.[68]

AIR 3.4

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.4 on August 21, 2012.[68]

AIR 3.5

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.5 on November 6, 2012.[68]

AIR 3.6

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.6 on February 12, 2013.[68]

AIR 3.7

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.7 on April 9, 2013.[68]

AIR 3.8

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.8 on July 24, 2013.[68]

AIR 3.9

Adobe released Adobe AIR 3.9 on October 8, 2013.[68]

AIR 4.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 4.0 on January 14, 2014. It was released to beta on October 30, 2013, code named Jones.[68]

Synchronized version numbers with Flash Player

Adobe applied a new numbering scheme for the Flash products versions to synchronize them with the version numbering of the Flash Player, starting from Flash Player 13.[69]

AIR 13.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 13.0 on April 8, 2014.[68] It was numbered 13 to synchronize itself with the version numbering of Flash Player.[70]

AIR 14.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 14.0 on June 10, 2014.[68]

AIR 15.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 15.0 on September 9, 2014.[68] It includes improvements to Stage3D technology, AIR Gamepad enhancements, and a new packaging engine for iOS apps that reduces compile times from minutes to seconds.[71]

AIR 16.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 16.0 on January 13, 2015.[68]

AIR 17.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 17.0 on March 12, 2015.[68]

AIR 18.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 18.0 on June 9, 2015.[68]

AIR 19.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 19.0 on September 21, 2015.[68]

AIR 20.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 20.0 on December 08, 2015.[68] Android SDK (API Level 21) has been upgraded in the AIR Runtime, applications built using this AIR SDK and later will only support Android OS 4.0 or greater.

AIR 21.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 21.0 on March 10, 2016.[68]

AIR 22.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 22.0 on June 16, 2016.[68]

AIR 23.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 23.0 on September 13, 2016.[68]

AIR 24.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 24.0 on December 13, 2016.[68]

AIR 25.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 25.0 on March 14, 2017.[68]

AIR 26.0

Adobe released Adobe AIR 26.0 on June 13, 2017.[68]

References

  1. ↑ "Download Adobe AIR 27 Beta". Adobe. Adobe Systems. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  2. ↑ "Adobe AIR for Android".
  3. ↑ "Adobe AIR for iOS".
  4. ↑ "End of Support Notice". BlackBerry Ltd. April 15, 2014. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Adobe AIR and Linux: Increasing Distribution on Devices". Adobe Blog website. Adobe Inc. Retrieved June 14, 2011. We will no longer be releasing our own versions of Adobe AIR and the AIR SDK for desktop Linux, but expect that one or more of our partners will do so. The last Adobe release of AIR for desktop Linux is AIR 2.6. By focusing on the porting kit and support of partner implementations, we expect to provide broader support for AIR across Linux-based PCs and devices, whereas our own desktop Linux releases have accounted for less than 0.5% of lifetime AIR downloads.
  6. 1 2 "Tech specs and system requirements | Adobe AIR". Adobe Systems. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Adobe AIR 1.1 EULA" (PDF). Adobe Systems. February 4, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Adobe AIR: Browser vs. Desktop". Adobe Systems. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  9. ↑ Adobe AIR 3, Adobe
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ Top 10 Apps Worth Installing Adobe AIR For, LifeHacker
  12. 1 2 10 impressive Adobe AIR apps, CNET
  13. ↑ Flash Games Showcased at Adobe MAX- Rovio’s Angry Birds & Epic Games, Adobe Digital Media Blog
  14. ↑ Adobe AIR showcase apps for mobile developers, Adobe Developer Connection
  15. ↑ 60+ Useful Adobe AIR Applications You Should Know, HongKiat.com
  16. 1 2 AIR app installs cross a billion, Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player Team Blog
  17. 1 2 1 Billion AIR Installations, Ben Forta
  18. ↑ Compass Intelligence Announces Winners of the 2014 Mobility Awards, Compass Intelligence
  19. ↑ Compass Intelligence Announces Winners of the 2015 Mobility Awards, Compass Intelligence
  20. 1 2 Using native extensions for Adobe AIR, Adobe Help Center
  21. ↑ Basics of native windows in AIR, Adobe Help Center
  22. ↑ Creating native menus (AIR), Adobe Help Center
  23. ↑ Working with files, Adobe Help Center
  24. ↑ Communicating with native processes in AIR, Adobe Help Center
  25. ↑ Using workers for concurrency, Adobe Help Center
  26. ↑ Creating your first HTML-based AIR application with the AIR SDK, Adobe Help Center
  27. ↑ Copy and paste, Adobe Help Center
  28. ↑ Drag and drop in AIR, Adobe Help Center
  29. ↑ Touch, multitouch and gesture input, ActionScript 3.0 Developer's Guide, Adobe
  30. ↑ Accelerometer input, ActionScript 3.0 Developer’s Guide, Adobe
  31. ↑ Using the Adobe AIR Geolocation APIs on Android, Adobe Developer Connection
  32. ↑ https://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/android-air-devices-as-gamepads.html
  33. ↑ Native extensions for Adobe AIR, AIR Devnet
  34. ↑ help.adobe.com/en_US/air/extensions/air_extensions.pdf
  35. ↑ https://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/native-extensions-for-air.html?PID=3662453
  36. 1 2 Generating a Windows installer for your AIR captive runtime application, Adobe Developer Connection
  37. ↑ Ludwig, Adrian (January 28, 2009). "AIR passes 100 million installations". Adobe AIR Team Blog. Adobe Systems. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  38. ↑ http://helpx.adobe.com/air/kb/install-air-2-64-bit.html
  39. 1 2 Packaging a desktop native installer, Adobe Help Center
  40. ↑ "Post Adobe AIR app to Mac app store".
  41. 1 2 Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for Google Android devices, Adobe Developer Connection
  42. 1 2 Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for Apple iOS devices, Adobe Developer Connection
  43. 1 2 Using Flash Builder 4.5 to package applications for BlackBerry Tablet OS devices, Adobe Developer Connection
  44. ↑ "Flash Player 10.1 – Installations and updates". Archived from the original on October 8, 2010. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
  45. ↑ iOS features in Adobe AIR 2.6, Adobe Devnet
  46. ↑ Adobe AIR SDK Download Page, Adobe.com
  47. ↑ Adobe Flex SDK Download Page, Adobe.com
  48. ↑ Optimizing performance of applications for connected TVs, Adobe Developer Connection
  49. ↑ Top 10 Performance Killers in your AIR Application, FlexWiz
  50. ↑ Flex versus ActionScript – the debate gets new life, Greg's Ramblings
  51. ↑ Pure ActionScript + MadComponents vs. Flash Builder 4.5, MobileAppDev
  52. ↑ Flex 4.5 vs Pure AS3, Michael Crosby
  53. ↑ Creating an application user interface, Adobe Developer Connection
  54. ↑ "Getting started with Adobe AIR for HTML/JavaScript developers". Adobe Systems. August 24, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  55. ↑ "ADOBE® AIR™ 1.5 Security White Paper" (PDF). Adobe Systems. 2008. p. 6. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
  56. ↑ "Adobe - AIR: Tools for Ajax". Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on April 14, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  57. ↑ "Adobe Flash - Downloads". Adobe Systems. November 17, 2008. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011. Adobe AIR 1.5 Update for Flash CS4 Professional
  58. ↑ "Adobe AIR 1.1 FAQ" (PDF). Adobe Systems. June 16, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  59. ↑ "Adobe release AIR for Linux". Heinz Heise. December 18, 2008. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  60. ↑ "AIR for Linux:Release Notes". Adobe Systems. March 31, 2008. Archived from the original on May 27, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  61. ↑ Hu, Michael (October 24, 2010). "Adobe AIR 2.5 is Now Available!". Adobe AIR Team Blog. Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  62. ↑ "Adobe AIR Team Blog". Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on May 13, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
  63. ↑ "Adobe AIR Team Blog". Adobe Systems. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
  64. ↑ "Adobe AIR Team Blog". Adobe Systems. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  65. ↑ "Adobe AIR Team Blog". Adobe Systems. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  66. ↑ "Adobe AIR Team Blog". Adobe Systems. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
  67. ↑ "Adobe AIR 3 Features". Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
  68. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 "Flash Player and Adobe AIR feature list". Adobe Systems. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  69. ↑ "Jones Beta Release Notes" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  70. ↑ "Jones Beta Release Notes" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  71. ↑ http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/release-note/fp_15_air_15_release_notes.html#new_features
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