Adobe® AIR™ Bible

Chapter 13. HTML Content

Much of this book focuses on Flex applications, due to the fact that ActionScript 3 and the Flex framework are such powerful and versatile tools for building and deploying applications. Still, there are few things more widely adopted and versatile than HTML, and that fact alone makes HTML-based AIR applications very appealing. Compared to other Web content formats, an application written in HTML and JavaScript can be run in the widest array of browsers across the widest array of systems and devices.

With AIR, you can compile these same applications to run on the desktop. You can also modify them to access any part of the AIR API, so they can use local SQLite databases, create new windows, read and save files to and from the local computer, and all the rest. The best part is that AIR uses the opensource WebKit engine as its HTML engine, which is the same engine used by the Safari browser. This engine supports CSS, DOM, HTML, JavaScript, and XHTML. Also, if you use a JavaScript library that works on Safari, then the chances are very good that you can compile your code into an AIR application without any modifications.

You can create and publish AIR applications in HTML and JavaScript either by using Adobe Dreamweaver or by using your favorite text editor, the AIR Software Development Kit (SDK), and the command-line publishing tools ADL and ADT. The SDK and the command-line tools are entirely free, and if you have a licensed copy of Dreamweaver, then you do not ...