An Introduction to AIR Development, Security, and Deployment (Flex Camp Boston 2008)
An Introduction to AIR Development, Security, and Deployment
J. Philip Camp, IBM Interactive - Boston
Moving from Flex to AIR isn't that big of a deal. AIR is as easy as Flex. Coding is the same, just the top level application changes, additional styling options for the chrome.
Use external style sheet to help style the application (could be done by the designer and just included by the developer with an mx:style tag).
How to get rid of the Native OS look and field. Set application chrome to none. All pieces of the Flex chrome are standard Flex components. Those can also be styled using CSS.
Using code behind can further reduce the coupling between the MXML and the ActionScript code. Programmatic setting of UI component properties.
Now we want to add data persistence. With code behind we can add in persistence as needed instead of always using HTTPService to request the data on demand. SQLiteAdmin is simple tool to look at a SQLite DB.
Security:
All apps use the same engine, one app can read another application. Possible to use encrypted database.
Deployment:
Need certificate to sign it (available from most certificate provides) can create temporary certificate. Bundle with AIR Badge to create a nice installer that can be run from the web.