Welcome to the Adobe® AIR® 2 beta release on Adobe Labs. Adobe AIR 2 provides end users with exceptional application experiences while giving developers the easiest and most powerful way to develop desktop applications across multiple platforms (Mac, Windows, and Linux).
AIR 2 builds on the success of AIR 1 by giving developers new capabilities, and even tighter integration with the desktop. Some new features of AIR 2 include:
- Support for the detection of mass storage devices.
- Advanced networking capabilities like secure sockets, UDP support, and the ability to listen on sockets.
- Support for native code integration.
- The ability to open a file with its default application.
- Multi-touch and gesture support.
- New APIs for access to raw microphone data.
- Webkit update with HTML5/CSS3 support.
- Global error handling.
- Improved cross-platform printing
- Improved security and support for enterprise and government standards.
Download and Discuss
Get the AIR 2 beta
Discuss AIR 2 in the forums
Report bugs or feature requestsFor a complete list of features, please refer to the Release Notes.
For an overview of the new features in AIR 2, please read Robert Christensen's Introducing Adobe AIR 2 beta article or watch Christian Cantrell's MAX 2009 presentation, What's Coming in Adobe AIR 2.
The AIR 2 Public Beta is your opportunity to explore new features and communicate your feedback. Please remember that that this is beta software, so there will be bugs, incomplete features, some performance issues, and some missing documentation. Therefore, please use the AIR 2 Beta only for testing and exploratory purposes.
Getting Started
Follow these steps to get started with the AIR 2 beta:
- Download the AIR 2 SDK and AIR 2 runtime
- Learn to use AIR 2
- Read the release notes
- Download sample applications
-
Ask questions and share your feedback in the AIR 2 forum
Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Terms of Use.
Community
Below you'll find references and links to help you participate in the AIR user community.
Online Forum
Ask questions, discuss, and share feedback with other users in the online forums.
Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Terms of Use.
Weblogs
Follow what the AIR product team is talking about and post comments on the AIR team weblog.
Adobe Developer Connection
Learn more about building AIR applications in the Adobe Developer Connection.
Visit the AIR Developer Center
Examples
Checkout examples of what the community has built on Adobe AIR 1.5.
- Checkout customer success stories in the Adobe AIR Showcase
- Find applications in the Adobe AIR Marketplace
Resources
If you want to learn more about releases on Labs as well as other Adobe technologies, visiting a user group or connecting with an Adobe Community Expert is a great place to start.
Product Details
Features
For a complete feature list, please read the Release Notes.
| NEW FEATURES | BENEFITS |
|---|---|
| Contextual applications and desktop integration | |
| Native Process APIs | Developers can now launch and communicate with native processes using standard input and output. Using the Native Process API, it is now possible to communicate with native libraries built using Java and .NET and also native applications such as "grep" for file searching. You can also create operating system specific installers (native installers). Applications that use the native process API must be deployed using a native installer. |
| Mass Storage Device Detection | Detect when mass storage devices such as cameras and USB flash memory drives are available to synchronize files such as photos, videos, mp3 files or other files. |
| UDP Networking Support | Runtime support for user datagram protocol (UDP) allows developer to build time-sensitive, real-time networking applications such as multi-player games. |
| Socket servers and Peer-to-Peer | Build peer-to-peer applications or local servers that make it easier to communicate with other local applications or remote applications over the network. |
| Native Document Handlers to Open Document | Open popular document types like .pdf, .psd, .doc, .ppt, and .mp3 using the native application associated with that file. For example, opening an .mp3 file will launch iTunes on systems where iTunes is the default application for mp3 files. |
| Enhanced drag and drop support | Copy files to the local machine by dragging files out of the AIR application and onto the desktop. This enables new user interaction possibilities for applications such as content management systems or online stores. |
| Local Microphone API | Record audio locally on your device without the need of a server. |
| Increased maximum window size | Large screen displays now can display windows that are 4,095 pixels horizontal x 4,095 pixels wide. |
| New Webkit with HTML5/CSS3 support | New capabilities such as CSS transforms, animations and canvas support are now possible. See section "Adobe AIR and AJAX" for additional details. |
| Performance and the onramp to mobile | |
| Performance improvements | Faster applications and efficient use of system resources with a smaller runtime, reduced CPU usage for idle applications and and reduced memory usage. |
| Faster JavaScript engine | JavaScript code runs 50% faster without any code changes to the application using the new SquirrelFish Extreme JavaScript engine. |
| Multi-Touch and Gestures | Build entirely new types of applications using multi-touch (Windows 7 only) and Gestures (Windows, Mac and Linux). |
| Security, enterprise and government | |
| Global Error Handler | When an unexpected error happens within an application, developers can now capture that event as an exception and present useful information back to the user such as instructions on how to report the issue or restart the application. |
| Support for Screen Readers | Enable applications built using Flash or Flex to be screen reader enabled. |
| IME (Input Method Editor) API | Easier to build input support for complex characters and symbols (e.g. Chinese, Japanese characters) using your standard keyboard or input devices. |
| Cross-platform vector printing | Improved printing quality on MAC. Now Mac printing is equal to what is supported on Windows and Linux. |
| IPv6 network support | Support for next generation secure internet protocol. |
| New Linux .deb & .rpm installers | Alternative to current .bin installers and supports new Linux runtimes. Needed for native process applications. |
| Security Improvements | Set the execution bit on a file, TLS sockets (encrypted sockets) and access to the MAC address. |
For a complete feature list, please read the Release Notes.
FAQ
- What are the goals of the beta?
- The Adobe AIR 2 beta is intended to enable you to explore the new features of AIR 2 and provide feedback.
- Will the beta versions of Flash CS5 Professional and Flash Builder 4 support Adobe AIR 2.0 capabilities?
- Yes.
- Is there an application or authoring tool that goes with the Adobe AIR application runtime?
- Web developers can use the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of their choice, including Adobe tools such as Eclipse-based Flex Builder, Flash, and Dreamweaver to build Adobe AIR applications. Developers can build Adobe AIR applications using their existing web development skills with technologies such as HTML, Ajax, Flash and Flex. Additionally, there are Adobe AIR extensions for Dreamweaver CS3/CS4 and Flash CS3/CS4 Professional as well as a feature in Aptana to make it very simple to bring applications onto the Adobe AIR runtime. The free Adobe AIR Software Developer’s Kit (SDK) provides a set of command line tools for packaging Adobe AIR applications. The Flex SDK makes it easy for Flex and Flash developers to get started with Adobe AIR.
- Where can I find sample applications built on Adobe AIR 2?
- Sample applications with source code are available on the AIR 2 samples page.
- Will Adobe AIR have support for other languages than English?
- The Adobe AIR runtime supports 16 languages are supported including: Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish. Adobe AIR SDK is English only.
- When will the final release of AIR 2 be available?
- Adobe is not yet disclosing the final release date for AIR 2, however we expect it to be in the first half of 2010.
See answers to more frequently asked questions in the AIR 2 Developer FAQ
System Requirements
The minimum system requirements for the AIR 2 beta are located in the Release Notes.
Release Notes
This release of AIR 2 is prerelease software and is designed for evaluation purposes only. We do not recommended that this release be used on production systems or for any mission-critical work.
