Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Rich Internet Application Developers [Paperback]

David Tucker (Author), Marco Casario (Author), Koen De Weggheleire (Author), Rich Tretola (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2008

Thoroughly vetted by Adobe's AIR development team, Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook addresses fundamentals, best practices, and topics that web developers and application designers inquire about most. The hands-on recipes in this cookbook help you solve a variety of tasks and scenarios you may encounter using Adobe AIR to build Rich Internet Applications for the desktop. It's an ideal way to learn the nuances of Adobe AIR, with practical solutions you can use right away, and detailed explanations of why and how they work. These recipes will help you:

• Build an AIR application with Flex, Flash, or HTML and Ajax
• Create a database and connect it to your application
• Put together native menus for PCs and Macs
• Work with the Service Monitor Framework
• Utilize the Adobe AIR Update Framework
• Create branded desktop experiences with custom chrome and custom application icons
• Distribute your AIR application with the Seamless Install Badge

And more. Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook includes dozens of recipes from rising stars in the AIR development community-David Tucker, Rich Tretola, Marco Casario, and Koen De Weggheleire-along with the best solutions posted by visitors to the Adobe AIR Cookbook community website hosted by Adobe and O'Reilly (www.adobe.com/go/air_cookbook). If you're ready to expand your skill set with Adobe AIR, this is the book you've been waiting for.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Tucker is a web application developer and consultant, formerly at the Savannah campus of one of the nation's premiere educational institutions, Georgia Tech. He is an avid blogger and writes primarily about Adobe AIR, Flash, Flex, and ColdFusion at his blog, davidtucker.netand at InsideRIA.com. David spends the rest of the week planning media strategies for educational institutions and not-for-profit organizations.

Marco Casario has been passionate about informatics since he was little more than a child and used to program games in Basic for Commodore 64 before dedicating himself to innovative projects for the web using Flash and Director (as far back as versions 3 and 5). In 2005, Marco founded Comtaste, a company dedicated to exploring new frontiers in Rich Internet Applications and the convergence between the web and the world of mobile devices -- MobyMobile and YouThru are representative of their recent work.

He is founder of the biggest worldwide Flash Lite User Group and of AUG Italy, a reference point for the Italian community of Adobe users, in which he carries out the role of Channel Manager for the section dedicated to Flex (AUG Italy Flex Gala).

He is author of Flex Solutions: Essential Techniques for Flex 2 and Flex 3 Developers (FriendsofED), and has been Technical Editor for Apress, Friends of ED, and WROX for books such as Essential Flash 8, Professional Flex 2, and Flash Applications for Mobile Devices.

This year he was a featured speaker at the Adobe MAX Conference in Barcellona where he preseted the "Extending Flex Components" session, and at the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Summit, presenting "Choosing the final Rich Internet Application technology path." He'll also be presenting at 360Flex Europe and FITC 2008.

Koen De Weggheleire is a faculty member of the Technical University of West-Flanders (HOWEST), department PIH-Multimedia and Communication Technology (MCT) where he teaches Flash Platform Solutions (Flash, Flex, AIR) with a smile. Koen recently was an author on the book Flex for Developers, Data Driven Applications with PHP, ASP.NET, Koen De Weggheleire is a faculty member of the Technical University of West-Flanders (HOWEST), department PIH-Multimedia and Communication Technology (MCT) where he teaches Flash Platform Solutions (Flash, Flex, AIR) with a smile. Koen recently was author on the book "Flex for developers, data driven applications with PHP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, and LCDS " published by "friendsofED". At the moment he is very busy, writing the book "Advanced AIR applications" which will be also published by friendsofED later this year. As the Adobe User Group Manager for Belgium (http://www.adobeusergroup.be) and Adobe Community Expert, Koen is heavily addicted to the community and inspires the community by his blog at http://www.newmovieclip.com and by speaking at several (inter)national events (Adobe MAX, FITC, Flashbelt, Flash on the beach, MCTKring, usergroups,. ). He coordinates the yearly Belgian multimedia conference "Multi-Mania" (http://www.multi-mania.be) where 800 people come together to learn from industry experts and to share knowledge. When there is still some time left you can find Koen doing freelance Flash Platform consultancy on advanced award-winning Rich Internet Applications. When Koen is not talking Actionscript you can find him producing music, collecting goodies, eating pizza or renovating his 100 year old house.

Rich Tretola currently holds the position of Rich Applications Technical Lead. He is an award-winning Flex developer and was the lead author of Professional Flex 2 (2007 ISBN: 0470102675) and sole author of Beginning AIR (2008 ISBN: 0470229047). Rich has been building Internet applications for over 10 years and has worked with Flex since the original Royale beta version of Flex in 2003. Other than Flex, Rich builds applications using ColdFusion, Flash, and Java. Rich is highly regarded within the Flex community as an expert in RIA and is also an Adobe Community Expert. He runs a popular Flex and AIR blog at Everything Flex, and was also a speaker at the Adobe MAX 2007 conference in Chicago. Read Rich's recent InsideRIA entries.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Adobe Developer Library; 1 edition (November 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596522509
• ISBN-13: 978-0596522506
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Cross-platform Development

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practice and Prepare, November 30, 2008

By 

Brett Merkey (Palm Harbor, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Rich Internet Application Developers (Paperback)

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The competition of application development frameworks is the bane of those of us who have to figure out how to explain inherent potentials to managers tasked with getting new apps out the door. No one knows the future -- but Adobe's Integrated Runtime (AIR) is certainly on everyone's list as a strong contender.

This book has a cookbook format which means it is full of examples that focus on the scenarios that will most likely provoke head-scratching and Googling by programmers tackling basic and not so basic tasks in AIR development. This book is for intermediate developers who already have a good working knowledge of the Flex tool and ActionScript or JavaScript.

Chapters 1-2 impart basic dev environment setup tips.
Chapters 3-15 provide solutions for file system, network, and database scenarios.
Chapters 16-17 focus on distribution and install issues.

There is also a bonus chapter which is online at the O'Reilly publisher site. This bonus chapter does a bit of AIR mashup to integrate some of the individual solutions found in the book.

This is a solid book for keeping up with the times.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walks through the basics to explaining all aspects of AIR, June 12, 2009

By 

J. McClary (Chesapeake, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Rich Internet Application Developers (Paperback)

This is a good starter book on Adobe AIR. It starts at the VERY beginning, explaining every point in the description files and what are their options. It builds precept upon precept. Then it shows you examples of completed code - PLUS the code can be downloaded from their website so you don't have to type it in yourself. Very nice.

I liked the "state the problem, then show the solution" format of the book. It keeps the explanations uncluttered by extraneous details and since I haven't coded since 1986, that's exactly what I needed.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine survey of best practices, basics, and topics for web developers and application designers alike, February 8, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Rich Internet Application Developers (Paperback)

David Tucker, et.al. ADOBE AIR 1.5 COOKBOOK has been bettered by Adobe's AIR development team and offers a fine survey of best practices, basics, and topics for web developers and application designers alike. From building AIR applications with Flex or HTML to working with the Service Monitor Framework and creating branded desktop experiences with customization, ADOBE AIR 1.5 COOKBOOK is a winner.