AIR 2:Release Notes

From Adobe Labs

Overview

This document contains system requirements, installation instructions, known issues, and other information about using the Adobe® AIR™ 2 Beta runtime and SDK.

IMPORTANT: Applications built against Adobe AIR 2 beta 1 *will not run* using the AIR 2 beta 2 runtime. In order for an AIR 2 beta 1 application to run on the AIR 2 beta 2 runtime, the namespace of the beta 1 application descriptor file must first be updated to "2.0beta2" and compiled against the AIR 2 beta 2 SDK.

System Requirements

	Windows	Macintosh	Linux
Processor	Minimum: Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHZ or faster	Intel Core™ Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor.	Minimum: Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHZ or faster
Operating System	Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise including 64 bit editions, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2 and SP3, Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 7	Mac OS 10.4, 10.5 or Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)	Fedora Core 12, Ubuntu 9.10, openSUSE 11.2.
RAM	Minimum: 512MB RAM; Recommended: 1GB RAM	Minimum: 512MB RAM; Recommended: 1GB RAM	1GB RAM

Note: Windows 2000 and Mac PowerPC are no longer supported. Users with these operating systems will continue to be able to install and run AIR 1.5 applications, but will not be able to install or update to AIR 2.

New Features in AIR 2 beta 2

Print Job Enhancements
New properties and methods have been added to the PrintJob class to give you better control of the way content is printed from an AIR application, including the choice of printer, paper size, and number of copies. New properties also give you more information about the printer, such as printable area, whether the printer will print in color, and whether the print job is currently active. The new PrintJobOptions.printMethod property allows you specify whether to use bitmap or vector printing. The PrintJobOptions.pixelsPerInch property allows you to specify the resolution of print jobs. The new PrintUIOptions (win/mac only) class allows you to control how much the end user can change the page range to be printed. See PrintJob, PrintJobOptions, and PrintUIOptions.
TLS/SSL sockets
You can now connect to a server that requires TLSv1 or SSLv3 for socket communications. See SecureSocket and Secure client sockets (AIR).
Flash Access support
You can now play protected content managed by Flash Access.
IME API/IME Text Input Enhancements
Several new features added in this release support better text input handling with IME software. The new API is designed for use with the new Flash Text Engine (FTE). The legacy IME API still supports the TextField class. The new API enhances the overall IME text input quality so that it works better and with more stability than in previous versions. You can use the following new IME APIs in this release:
- flash.events.IMEEvent Class:
  - imeClient:IIMEClient Property
  - IME_START_COMPOSITION:String Constant
- flash.text.ime Package:
  - flash.text.ime.IIMEClient Interface
  - flash.text.ime.CompositionAttributeRange Class
- flash.text.engine Package:
  - flash.text.engine.ITextSupport Interface

Other Beta 2 changes

The Socket class now includes a remoteAddress property. This allows an application to obtain the IP address of incoming connections to a ServerSocket object.
Installation log files are now automatically written to disk.

AIR SDK changes

There is a new AIRCore framework, which contains the service monitoring and URL file promise classes:

The SecureSocketMonitor class is a new addition to the service monitoring framework. It takes advantage of the new SecureSocket class available in AIR 2.

The AIRCore framework's URLFilePromise class used to included in the runtime, in the flash.desktop package.

The older service monitoring library files, servicemonitoring.swc and servicemonitoring.swf, are still included in the AIR 2 SDK, but use of these library files is deprecated. We recommend switching to the new aircore.swc in your Flex- and Flash-based applications, and switching to aircore.swf for HTML-based applications.

The AIR 2 SDK comes with two versions of the application update framework: frameworks/libs/air/applicationupdater_ui.swc (for Flex4) and frameworks/libs/air/flex3/applicationupdater_ui3.swc (for Flex3).

Features added in AIR 2 beta 1

NOTE: Applications built against Adobe AIR 2 beta 1 *will not run* using the AIR 2 beta 2 runtime. In order for an AIR 2 beta 1 application to run on the AIR 2 beta 2 runtime, the namespace of the beta 1 application descriptor file must first be updated to "2.0beta2" and compiled against the AIR 2 beta 2 SDK.

Open documents with the user's default application
You can open document files in the application the user has set up as the default opening application. Launching executables or script files is not permitted unless the application is packaged in a native installer. See File.openWithDefaultApplication() and Opening files with the default system application.
Microphone data access
You can access the sound data from a microphone directly for recording or other processing. See Microphone.sampleData and Capturing microphone sound data.
Mass storage device detection
You can now detect when a mass storage device, such as a USB drive or a camera, has been connected to the user's computer. See StorageVolumeInfo.
Updated WebKit version
- WebKit in AIR is based on the version shipped with Safari 4.0.3
- Support for JavaScript profiling
- SquirrelFish Extreme JavaScript engine resulting in 50% faster performance using SunSpider tests
- CSS3 Module support (2D transformations, transitions, animations, gradients, zoom and WebKit CSS selectors, etc.).
- Styling scrollbars via CSS
- Latest Canvas enhancements.
Global Error Handling
Global error handling lets you handle all uncaught errors (both synchronous errors and asynchronous error events) in one place in your code. See UncaughtErrorEvent.
New networking support
- Transport Layer Security
- Server sockets
  You can listen for incoming socket connections. See ServerSocket and Server sockets.
- UDP sockets
  You can send and receive messages using the Universal Datagram Protocol (UDP). See DatagramSocket and UDP sockets (AIR).
- DNS lookup
  You can look up Domain Name System (DNS) resource records. See DNSResolver and Domain Name System (DNS) records.
- Network interface enumeration
  You can enumerate the list of hardware and software network interfaces available on a client computer. See NetworkInfo and Network interfaces.
Packaging an AIR application in a native installer
You can package an AIR application in a native install program instead of an AIR file. Applications packaged and installed using a native installer have access to platform-specific features such as the Native Process API. See Packaging an AIR application in a native installer.
Native process API
You can launch and communicate with native processes. Applications that use this API must be installed using a native installer. See NativeProcess and Communicating with native processes in AIR and the following quick start articles: (For HTML developers) Interacting with a native process, (For Flex developers) Interacting with a native process, and (For Flash developers) Interacting with a native process.
Database transaction savepoints
You can commit or roll back multiple database changes as a single transaction. See SQLConnection.setSavePoint().
Screen reader support (Windows only)
Users can use screen reader software with AIR applications. See Accessibility.
Printing enhancements
- Vector printing is now supported on the Mac.
- PrintJobOptions.printMethod allows you to control whether vector or bitmap printing is performed. You can also let the runtime choose the best method (using an internal heuristic based on analyzing the content to be printed). See PrintJobOptions.printMethod.
Idle time-out settings for URL requests
You can override the default idle time-out setting for URL requests. See idleTimeout.
Improved IPv6 support
IPv6 format addresses can now be used with all APIs that accept an IP string as input.
Increased maximum size of NativeWindow
The maximum size of a NativeWindow has been increased to 4095x4095 pixels (from 2880x2880 pixels). See NativeWindow.bounds.
File promises (Win/Mac only)
You can now allow users to drag a file that has not been created yet out of an AIR application and provide the data for that function after the file promise has been dropped. For example, you could provide a list of files available on a remote server. When the user drops an item from that list onto their desktop, you can download the data and write it to the dropped file. See URLFilePromise and Dropping file promises.
Multi-touch events (Win/Mac)
You can listen for multi-touch and gesture events on computers that have multi-touch hardware and operating system support. See TouchEvent. This feature is not available on Linux.
IME API and IME text input enhancement
Input Method Editors (IMEs) can be used with any InteractiveObject, not just TextField objects. This allows you to support IME input when using the Flash Text Engine or the Adobe Text Layout Framework, for example. See IME.
Native runtime install packages for Linux
Native install packages are now provided for the rpm and debian package managers.

Note: To develop an application using AIR 2 features, you must update the application descriptor namespace to "http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/2.0beta2".

Documentation

The following documentation is available for the Adobe AIR 2 Beta

Adobe AIR Runtime

Note: It is not possible to have both Adobe AIR 1.5 and Adobe AIR 2 installed on the same machine.

Installing Adobe AIR 2

Use the following instructions to download and install the Windows®, Mac OS X, and Linux versions of AIR.

To install or update the runtime, a user must have administrative privileges for the computer.

Install the runtime on a Windows computer

Download the runtime installation file.
Double-click the runtime installation file.
In the installation window, follow the prompts to complete the installation.

Install the runtime on a Mac computer

Download the runtime installation file.
Double-click runtime installation file.
In the installation window, follow the prompts to complete the installation.
If the Installer displays an Authenticate window, enter your Mac OS user name and password.

Install the runtime on a Linux computer

Using the binary installer

Download the binary installation file.
Set the file permissions so that the installer application can be executed:
From a command line, you can set the file permissions with the chmod +x installer.bin command. Some versions of Linux allow you to set the file permissions on the Properties dialog opened through a context menu.
Run the installer from the command line or by double-clicking the runtime installation file.
In the installation window, follow the prompts to complete the installation.

Using native debian or rpm packages

Download the native package, adobeair-2.0.0.11670.deb for debian based systems or adobeair-2.0.0.11670.rpm for rpm based systems.
Double click on adobeair-2.0.0.11670.deb or adobeair-2.0.0.11670.rpm to install the runtime.
You can use the native package manager to install the runtime:

For debian based systems:

sudo dpkg -i adobeair-2.0.0.11670.deb

For rpm based systems:

sudo rpm -i adobeair-2.0.0.11670.rpm

Note: AIR registers the mime type: application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip.

Removing Adobe AIR

Once you have installed the runtime, you can remove it using the following procedures.

Remove the runtime on a Windows computer

In the Windows Start menu, select Settings > Control Panel.
Select the Add or Remove Programs control panel.
Select “Adobe AIR” to remove the runtime.
Click the Change/Remove button.

Remove the runtime on a Mac computer

Double-click the “Adobe AIR Uninstaller”, which is located in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

Remove the runtime on a Linux computer

Do one of the following:

Run the AIR installer binary with the -uninstall option
Remove the AIR package (adobeair) with your package manager.

AIR 2 SDK

The AIR 2 SDK can be used on its own to develop HTML-based AIR applications or with the Flex SDK to develop ActionScript or Flex-based AIR applications.

How to Update Flash CS4 to Use the AIR 2 Beta SDK

If you use Flash CS4 Professional to build Adobe AIR applications, please follow the instructions below to manually update the version of the AIR SDK to use version 2.0.

Update Flash CS4 Professional to version 10.0.2 at http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/downloads.html or select "Help > Updates... " from within Flash CS4.
Quit Flash CS4 Professional if it is open.
Navigate to the Flash CS4 installation folder. The default location on Windows is "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\" and on Mac OS "/Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/"
Within the "Adobe Flash CS4" folder you should see a folder called "AIK1.5". If this folder is not present repeat step #1.
Rename the folder "AIK1.5" to "AIK1.5 OLD" or delete it if you do not need to save a copy of it.
Make a new folder called "AIK1.5"
Download the Adobe AIR 2 SDK from the labs website and uncompress the contents of the folder to the new "AIK1.5" folder you just created.
Copy the "airglobal.swc" file located within the "Adobe Flash CS4/AIK1.5/frameworks/libs/air/" folder into the "Adobe Flash CS4/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/AIR1.5/" folder.

Flash CS4 is now configured to use the AIR 2 beta 2 SDK.

In order to take advantage of the new AIR 2 beta 2 features, you will need to update your application descriptor file to use the "2.0beta2" namespace.

How to overlay the Adobe AIR SDK for use with the Flex SDK

Copy the contents an existing Flex SDK folder to a new folder. For example, in Flex Builder, copy the following folder located at:
- Windows: c:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3\sdks\3.2.0
- Mac OS: /Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3/sdks/3.2.0
Download the appropriate AIR SDK file for your operating system and save it to the root folder of the Flex SDK.
- Windows: AIR20_win_sdk_XXXXXX.zip
- Mac OS: AIR20_mac_sdk_XXXXXX.tbz2
Extract the contents of the AIR SDK archive and overwrite the existing SDK files in the copied folder.
- Windows: Right-click on the ZIP file and select "Extract All" or use the decompression tool of your choice.
- Mac OS: In Terminal, cd to the root folder of the Flex SDK and run this command:
- tar jxvf AIR20_mac_sdk_XXXXXX.tbz2
If you have trouble overwriting files due to file permissions, try this command
sudo tar jxvf AIR20_mac_sdk_XXXXXX.tbz2
In Flex or Flash Builder, open the Properties dialog and choose the Flex Compiler page
Click the Configure Flex SDKs... link
Add the combined Flex and AIR 2 SDK folder created above
Use this SDK for any projects accessing AIR 2 APIs.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MAC USERS: Currently there is an issue that may cause your AIR application to crash on the Mac if you do not remove three older resources files that are still included in Flex Builder. To remove these files:

In the Mac Finder, locate your "Adobe Flex Builder 3" applications folder and navigate to "/sdks/3.2.0/runtimes/air/mac/Adobe AIR.framework/Versions/1.0/Resources".
Remove the following files: MainMenu.nib, AuthDialog.nib, and FlashPromptDialog.nib.

Known Issues

Backward compatibility issue
- Most of the backward compatibility issues are resolved in AIR 2 beta 2. If you encounter an issue with an application, please let us know as soon as possible by submitting a bug at http://www.adobe.com/go/wish.
Screen Reader Support
- There are some known incompatibilities with the JAWS 11 screen reader that will be addressed once AIR 2 and an update to JAWS 11 are released.
- Screen reader support is not available for top-level HTML applications and the HTMLLoader control. While screen reader support for top-level HTML applications is not planned for AIR 2, we are planning to add this in a future release.
- Focus may switch from AIR application to the Command Prompt. Entries in DataGrid in ItemRenderers may not be read correctly if command prompt dialog is open.
FlexBuilder
- Running or debugging AIR application with text fields in FlexBuilder on Mac OS, can result in a crash. There is a known issue that the Flex Builder SDK includes unnecessary nib file in SDK folder for AIR runtime. To rectify the problem, remove the following files, MainMenu.nib, AuthDialog.nib, and FlashPromptDialog.nib, from <sdk folder>/runtime/air/mac/Adobe.AIR.framework/Resources folder.
non-ASCII URL issue
- If a URL contains non-ASCII text, it may not be parsed correctly on Windows XP if a code module that we expect cannot be found on the client computer. If Windows XP has IE7 installed, non-ASCII characters in URLs should work. AIR on Windows Vista does not exhibit this problem.
Badge installation issue with Linux Native Runtime installations
- After installing the AIR runtime using native installer, badge/seamless installation may not work. You might see an error "Sorry, an error has occurred." The application could not be installed. Try installing it again. If the problem persists, contact the application author. Error #1". To work around the problem, install any air application (.air file) by double-clicking on the .air file. After re-launching the browser, the badge should work again.
Broadcast address on Vista
- flash.net.InterfaceAddress.broadcast is always "255.255.255.255" at IPv4. There is a Vista x64 bug where the ipv4 prefix length is reported incorrectly. Since the subnet mask and the broadcast address are calculated based on the prefix length, this results in an incorrect broadcast address.
navigateToURL doesn't bring FireFox window to the front as it should
- navigateToURL(new URLRequest("http://www.google.com"), "_blank"); doesn't bring Firefox to the foreground if the Firefox browser was restored or maximized but obscured behind other windows(1609175)
AIR does not accept high ascii chars in digital certificate password field
- Java versions 1.5 and above do not accept high-ASCII characters in passwords used to protect PKCS12 certificate files. Java is used by the AIR development tools to create the signed AIR packages. When you export the certificate as a .p12 or .pfx file, use only regular ASCII characters in the password.(1908199)
A new nativeWindow shows the Mac logo on 10.6
- Mac 10.6 only. When you open a new NativeWindow, the label of the first menu always shows an icon of the Mac logo. The menu works correctly in other respects. (2442577)
Thai text input problem in AIR HTML
- The cursor moves to wrong position when typing some Thai characters into the AIR HTMLLoader control. Thai text input is currently not fully supported. (2486968)

Submitting Bugs & Feature Requests

To submit bugs, please post describing the issue on the Adobe AIR 2 Beta Labs forum: http://forums.adobe.com/community/labs/air2/.

To submit feature requests, please send our team an email by completing the following form: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish/ .

Legal Notices

Third Party Code Information available at http://www.adobe.com/go/thirdparty/.

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