This is a follow-up to my forum question...
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=60&catid=585&threadid=1369337&enterthread=y

In a nutshell, I would like to be able to write a FLEX/AIR application, with a single unified code base, that can run on a desktop (as AIR can today), or within a browser (as FLEX can today), or both. If we consider AIR to be a superset of FLEX, then the request is to allow AIR apps to run within a browser.

- This would simplify development (single code-base, and a single development model).
- Some use cases, or user experiences (especially consumer webapps), require that the application run in a browser. If these apps require AIR capabilities, then you are SOL.
- This could help address the need for embedded HTML within FLEX apps (http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-13740).
- This could also allow embedded PDF within FLEX.
- Offline FLEX apps, etc.....

Having AIR run in a browser would be very, very nice. For me, i consider it essential. And i don't believe this would diminish desktop AIR apps in any way.

I can not see any technical impediment to running AIR apps inside a browser, so why not offer the option?

"Tear away" support would also be very cool (see reprint below).


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Form Post Reprint <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=60&catid=585&threadid=1369337&enterthread=y

Does anyone know if there are plans to allow Air apps to run within a browser?

I'm new to Flex and Air (so i may be missing something), and i think the concept of being able to run flex/web apps in a desktop context is very nice, as well as the desktop API (file io, sqllite, etc...); but why are AIR apps not able to run directly in a browser? Why force a desktop deployment?

What would AIR in a browser mean? For me it means i can create a flex webapp (running in a browser), that has access to all the extended AIR API, like file io, sql database, offline support, etc. The *exact* same app could be run in either a browser, or desktop (or any other Open Screen in the future). A AIR/FLEX app that runs in a browser might require that the app be signed (for trusted access), or maybe the app could optionally run within a restricted sandbox and not require any signing (similar to Java applets). Having both options would be great.

But the key is having a single code-base to develop, and giving users the option of running in either the browser or desktop or both. For many types of apps and users i think it would be a significant barrier to *require* installation and running as a desktop app.

What would be really cool is doing something similar to what is being developed for Java Applets. The latest Beta applets allow you to drag, or "tear", the applet off the web page on to the user's desktop. If a user does that, they are prompted to install the applet as a desktop application (webstart app). Why not do something similar for AIR?

https://jdk6.dev.java.net/plugin2/#EXPERIMENTAL_FUNCTIONALITY

AIR also includes other components that would be interesting to integrate while hosted in a browser, particularly webkit. Would AIR in a browser use the host browser, or webkit? Maybe it could optionally do both? That would be cool to have AJAX running in Internet Explorer via a webkit runtime. In that scenario your AJAX may have more consistency across browsers. Same for the PDF engine.

It would also be nice if all the main components of AIR were optional and could be mix-n-matched. What if i wanted to build a pure FLEX app that could run in browser or a desktop, have full access to the AIR API's (file IO, clipboard, drag/drop, sql, offline), but no need for HTML or PDF? Why incur the weight if not needed?

Thank you, and keep up the great work!