Peter J S

MSN Protocol - Adobe AIR

Over the weekend I decided to try and make a successful authenticated connection to MSN using AIR, writing it in Javascript. I can tell you this, it’s been nothing but a pain. I am not sure if it’s due to my limited knowledge of the MSN Protocol, or just that it isn’t possible. I would like to think it was the former. I have been so close to just giving up on it.

There are various versions of the MSN Protocol, 15 being the latest one being used by clients. I believe 14 and 15 require extra / different things done to create a successful login connection, so I decided to go back to MSNP13, things seemed a little easier from what I have read. I played around with it again last night, and managed to get as far as sending a request to Nexus. At the moment it’s still a no go.

Here are a few great resources for understanding the MSN Protocol.

http://www.hypothetic.org/docs/msn/index.php
http://msnpiki.msnfanatic.com/index.php/Main_Page

I will probably post the source in the week, just so people who might be interested in how it’s done can get an idea.

Tags: adobe, air, JavaScript, msn

Adobe AIR Links

Below is a list of my favourite Adobe AIR related links. Some of them contain some great information relating to AIR.

If you have any that I have missed, feel free to post it.

Mike Downey
Mike Chambers
Lee Brimelow
Christian Cantrell
Kevin Hoyt
Adobe AIR Developer Center
Adobe AIR Forum
onAIR
Yahoo Group
O2Apps

Tags: adobe, air, blogs, Links

Javascript AIR Samples

If you learn best by reading code, then I encourage you to download Kevin Hoyt’s examples. The zip file contains samples ranging from writing / reading files, to connecting to a database (SQLite).

“Revisiting 35+ samples for Beta 2 required a substantial amount of focus and time. As the next release of AIR hits the stands, I’m sure I’ll be required to find the time to update them once more. The good news is that I’m working on an easier way to share the samples, and allow for the community to get involved. I envision a place in the near future where you can add your own samples, comment on existing samples, and even rate them. Stay tuned!”

http://blog.kevinhoyt.org/2007/10/25/javascript-air-samples-updated/

Tags: adobe, air, JavaScript

Set mime type for AIR files

For some reason, I could not get the badge (check previous post for in browser install) to work as it should, I would always get an error of “Error#2032″. After a bit of investigating by searching google, I found out it is because the server didn’t recognise it correctly, so an easy fix was to create a .htaccess file and place this in…

Tags: 2032, adobe, air, error, htaccess, mime

AIRPacker

Yesterday and today, I have been working on an Adobe Air application that makes use of Dean Edwards Javascript Compressor called “Packer“. I found myself using Packer more and more often, and it was becoming a bit of a pain loading up the page, copy and pasting my Javascript in, and then creating the compressed file. Most of the time I ended up closing the page by mistake. Anyway, I wanted my own lazy way of doing it, so I set out to create an application that could open and save out files.

So with permission from Dean (thanks Dean) to use his Packer script, I give you AIRPacker…

As you can see, the layout is basically the same as what is on the Packer page. Most of my time was spent learning the AIR API.

At the moment it has only been really tested on Windows, I don’t have access to a Mac at home, so let me know of any problems.

To run the application, you will need Adobe AIR.

Install from your browser…

Here is the AIR file…

AIRPacker

Note: This is a beta.

If anyone wants the source, just open it up with winrar and extract the contents. Or I could upload a zip file if people want it.

Any problems, please post a comment.

Tags: adobe, air, airpacker, dean edwards, JavaScript, packer

Ext JS - 2.0 Beta

If anyone is thinking about creating slick applications in the browser, or even thinking of creating something with Adobe AIR, then I highly suggest you take a look at Ext JS 2.

Ext JS is a GUI library that has tons of components, comes with excellent documentation, tutorials, and a community.

I have used Ext JS now and again for personal projects, mainly using it for developing desktop applications using Adobe AIR, and will likely continue to use it.

Have a look at this desktop example application in your browser (note: if you have firebug, disable it, or you may find it is a little slow)…

http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/desktop/desktop.html

Check the main site out…

http://extjs.com/

Tags: adobe, air, ext, JavaScript

Building a desktop application with Ext and AIR

Jack Slocum has wrote an article on how to build an application using the Ext framework, and Adobe Air. For those that are interested in learning Adobe Air, then I highly suggest taking a look at it by downloading the Air file and uncompressing it with Winzip or Winrar.

Building a desktop application with Ext and Air

The application Jack creates is a personal task list application. It shows you what can be done with Air, including customising the window chrome.

Here is a screen shot of the application…

Tags: adobe, air, ext, JavaScript

Adobe Air Beta

For those that are / have been following Adobe Apollo, then there is good news. There is a beta version out, and it contains a lot of goodies for HTML / Javascript developers. One that is very tasty is SQL Databases (like SQLite I believe) for Javascript.

Also note that there is an official name for it now. It is no longer called “Apollo”, it’s called “AIR”, which stands for “Adobe Integrated Runtime”.

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air.html

Much better documentation for HTML / Javascript developers as well.

Tags: adobe, air

File Upload With Apollo And Javascript

While reading a few blogs this morning, I came across Kevin Hoyt’s blog, and his entry about file uploading using Adobe Apollo and Javascript. He has put together a nice example of how you can use Javascript with Apollo to handle file uploads. Check it out, comes complete with source as well…

http://blog.kevinhoyt.org/2007/05/21/file-upload-with-apollo-and-javascript/

It’s nice to see more applications being done using Javascript with Apollo. At the moment it seems to be dominated by Flex.

But yeah, if you are interested in Apollo, take a look at the source, it’s not overly complicated really, and Kevin walks you through it in his entry.

Tags: adobe, air, apollo

Apollo Editor Source So Far

Someone at ProVision (forum) asked for the source, even though it is no where near being done, I thought I will release what I have so far incase anyone else wishes to see how I am doing it, or would like to carry on with their own version.

So here it is. You will need the Apollo runtime installed, and the SDK installed to be able to test the application. This is solely for developers, this is not a finished application (can not be installed yet unless it is packaged up into an air file), there isn’t a great deal done so far.

Editor.rar