Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook

Chapter 3. Application Windows

The recipes in this chapter will demonstrate all the possibilities for using windows in your AIR application. In fact, when you run an AIR application, the first thing you see is the main application window. That first window is automatically created for you by AIR. You specify the properties and content of that first application window in the application descriptor file (the XML file that ends with -app.xml). You can also set some of the properties (such as title) in the application descriptor file using code (MXML, ActionScript, or JavaScript). Changing the Main Application Window discusses setting the properties for the main application window.

In addition, when you are developing your AIR application with Flex, you can use the Flex chrome that is provided by the Flex Framework. Launching a New Window (Flex) shows you that chrome while discussing how to launch an application window from within your AIR application.

Apart from the standard Flex chrome, one of the cool features of Adobe AIR is that you can create your own chrome. Creating Windows with Custom Chrome will go into depth about creating windows with custom chrome, and you’ll learn how to cast a drop shadow on the desktop around the borders of a custom chrome window in Adding a Drop Shadow to a Custom Chrome Window in ActionScript.

Apart from your initial main window, of course it is also possible to create other windows in your AIR application. Imagine, for example, that you want to make ...