How To Get Started With Adobe AIR - The Learner’s Toolkit
So you’ve read parts 1 and 2 of this series (What Is Adobe AIR and Some Great Adobe AIR Applications. Already!) and now you’re ready to dive head first into making an AIR application.
This quick reference isn’t a tutorial, it provides you with a complete tool kit of the things you’ll need to start your learning about AIR. I’m not a Flash developer so I’ve focussed on the (X)HTML and JavaScript route to building AIR applications.
There are a lot of link to resources mentioned throughout the post, but don’t worry, you can download the entire text of this article as a PDF using the link at the bottom of the post.
To get started with making AIR applications you’re going to need:
- the AIR SDK
- some free IDE tools
- a free book
- some advice
- some code examples
- a list of answers to question common questions about AIR
- somewhere to ask questions when you get stuck
- some blogs to follow
- another free book!
The AIR SDK
In theory, the only tools you need to create an AIR application is a text editor and the AIR Software Developers Kit (SDK) but that’s not much fun. One thing is for sure though, you can’t create AIR apps without the SDK, so that should be your first port of call.
You can download the SDK from Adobe at labs.adobe.com/downloads/airsdk.html
Some Free Tools For Adobe AIR
If you already have the latest version of Dreamweaver (CS3) , Adobe provide an AIR extension free of charge.
Alternatively, you can use the new IDE called Aptana which is based on Eclipse. It’s available as a free OR a professional version. The main difference between the two is that the professional version has a built in IE debugger and secure FTP capabilities.
You can create HTML, CSS, JavaScript using Aptana and there are also plu- ins for Ruby on Rails, PHP, iPhone development and a whole host of other environments.
To create AIR applications you’ll have to install the AIR plug in, but that’s simple and can be done from the start screen when you open Aptana after installation. I’ve included a screenshot of Aptana so you can get an idea of what you’re downloading. If you’re used to handcoding in Dreamweaver, this will look pretty familiar.
There are also quite a few JavaScript libraries such as JQuery, MochiKit, ExtJS and Prototype bundled with Aptana and a selection of example scripts as well. Remember, an AIR application is just just like a web app running on Webkit on the desktop, so all of the libraries you use to make JavaScript coding on the web easier and quicker are just as applicable in AIR.
You can download the Dreamweaver extension from Adobe at labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:Dreamweaver_CS3_Extension
Aptana is available from www.aptana.com
A Free Book About AIR
Adobe AIR for Javascript Developers was written by Adobe last year and published by O’Reilly. It still sells on Amazon and the O’Reilly site, but the PDF version was set free in to the wild to help spread the word about AIR.
It’s a bit out of date now as it deals with the Beta 1 version of AIR, but it’s still useful for getting a handle of the basic concepts of AIR.
[UPDATE: 23 April 2008 The new version for AIR version 1 can be downloaded here]
Get it, print it and look back on it fondly in a couple of years.
You can download the book here www.codeapollo.com/downloads/AdobeAIR_for_javascript_developers.pdf
Some Advice About AIR
So you’ve got the tools, you’ve got a book that you might even read from time to time, where do you turn for advice on those niggling problems that only experience can solve when learning something new.
Well, for a more up-to-date advice about getting started and writing your first “Hello World” etc I’d advise the following start point livedocs.adobe.com/labs/air/1/devappshtml
For those of you using Aptana, here are a few links about set up and configuration.
aptana.com/docs/index.php/Getting_started_with_AIR_development
aptana.com/docs/index.php/Running_an_AIR_application
And a screen cast which walks through getting started.
aptana.tv/movies/aptana_air/aptana_air.html
That’s all well and good, but you want to get at the real code don’t you?
Some AIR Code Examples
Jonathan Snook wrote an in-depth beginners article for 24 Ways last year which is worth a read and you can download the code examples as well. 24ways.org/2007/christmas-is-in-the-air. Jonathan is currently developing his own real world AIR app for Twitter (called Snitter) so he’s been through that initial learning curve on our behalf. Thank you Mr Snook!
Adobe AIR Developer Center also publish regular tutorials at www.adobe.com/devnet/air/ajax. You can check in there every so often or follow their feed. They also have sections devoted to the Flash/Flex and PDF oriented styles of AIR development.
Answers To Question About AIR
Adobe are maintaining a very comprehensive FAQ not only about the technical aspects of AIR, but the release schedule and what to expect in terms of changes between the releases. labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:Developer_FAQ
You should be able to find answers to most questions there. But if you can’t…
Somewhere To Ask Questions When You Get Stuck
Adobe have their own AIR forum with an RSS feed that you can subscribe to at adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/categories.cfm?forumid=72&catid=641
Blogs About AIR
Kevin Hoyt is the Platform Evangelist at Adobe and although his blog doesn’t focus specifically on AIR, it’s certainly the place where you’ll find out news about the latest AIR developments. blog.kevinhoyt.org
The AIR Developer Center also have a feed for their tutorials. rss.adobe.com/developer_center_air_tutorials.rss
Finally, aboutnico.be is the blog of the creator of the AIR Google Analytics Reporting Suite.
If you’re blogging about AIR or developing an AIR app, leave a comment with a link and I’ll check it out.
Another Free Book!
This isn’t AIR specific, but is pertinent to how things are going on the web so I thought I’d add it in.
There’s a difference between using JavaScript and knowing JavaScript. If you amend Dreamweaver generated scripts, download free scripts or use Javascript libraries, then now might be the time to go back and learn JavaScript from scratch. 2008 is the perfect time to do this as AJAX hype dies away and just becomes the norm.
There’s is a really fantastic book available online which actually demonstrates the examples as you go along. Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke isn’t just a book. It has a built in JavaScript console that lets you test and play around with all of the code examples on each page. It works online or offline and is a really impressive piece of work.
It’s released under the creative common licence at eloquentjavascript.net
Thank you Marijn, you have created a truly elegant piece of work.
A Lot To Take In
That’s a lot to take in in one go, so you can download this post as a PDF and access all the links from there as you need them.
Tomorrow I’ll wrap up this series on AIR with a look at whether or not AIR matters and what it means for the industry. Then on Friday it’ll be back to normal with a review of free software. This week it’s a look at my top 5 Thunderbird extensions so look for that one.
Good luck with AIR and leave a comment to let me know how you plan to learn AIR.
Download this post as a PDF. (ps I always rewrite my posts so the PDF version is slightly different, but all of the links are the same.)
