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FerrieJB
Participant
May 17, 2016
Answered

Availability of Adobe AIR runtime in the long term?

  • May 17, 2016
  • 8 replies
  • 9799 views

Hi all,

I'm currently maintaining an extensive portfolio of Flex (SDK 3.5) based products, that all run on browser based Flash Player plugins, and following the announcement of Google Chrome hiding Flash Player behind a click-to-start mechanism, I am reviewing what target runtime would be the best for our products.

I understand that Adobe still officially supports and develops AIR, but would there be any clarity on the long term (>5 years from now) roadmap of this product ?

Would converting my Flex code to run in AIR be a safe bet to ensure future compatibility on the platforms in runs on?

I've also been looking at alternative runtimes. There are some initiatives that try to compile MXML to HTML5 compatible CSS/JS - FlexJS, but those don't support stuff like AMF or E4X which make it useless in our situation. JavaFX could be another option but that would mean rebuilding our entire codebase from scratch.

We have about 10 years of development in Flex source code in our repositories and it seems like such a waste to have to rebuild it all. What are my options, and what guarantees are available, to ensure the availability of our products' runtimes in the future?

I presume there must be many devs facing this problem, and I was wondering if there will be a formal path from Adobe to follow (like f.i. an Adobe supported product that compiles MXML into HTML5 properly, or a guarantee that AIR will be available for at least certain period of time). Any suggestions or helpful links are welcome.

Kind regards,

Ferrie

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer fbelhaouas

    I asked my question without to do a deep enough search, I believe this is the answer to my question

    AIR Roadmap Update

    8 replies

    DrAlfredGreen
    DrAlfredGreen
    Known Participant
    July 27, 2017

    I wish someone would explain how AIR works. When I convert one of my hundreds of FLA files to AIR, it seems to good to be true. I have - so far - experienced no change in functionality. My music education instructional units use the fps adjustment feature that finally came out, and even that worked great the first time.

    I fear that my AIR conversions are really just using a hidden Flash Player, which will eventually be impossibly obsolete and then finally unavailable.

    Thanks for the help!

    Bz

    F
    fbelhaouas
    Participant
    July 27, 2017

    Hi,

    Now that Adobe announced the EOL of Flash player, what's the future of Adobe Air ?

    F
    fbelhaouasCorrect answer
    Participant
    July 27, 2017

    I asked my question without to do a deep enough search, I believe this is the answer to my question

    AIR Roadmap Update

    ThadeuConstantino
    ThadeuConstantino
    Participant
    January 27, 2017

    Many Many Natives. 

    http://www.myflashlabs.com/

    Adobe Air powerfull. o/

    ADOOOBE oO

    A
    ArmandN
    Inspiring
    June 8, 2016

    The sad truth is that Flash is dead. It pains me to say it, but denying it won't change it.

    There is no R&D in the Flash/AIR runtime, no new features (remember "AS Next"?). Pure Javascript in Chrome is 3x faster than AS3, despite the fact that the compiler needs to infer type. On the other hand Javascript/canvas is nowhere near the Flash performance. Steve Jobs managed to turn the public perception against Flash, yet 9 years later html5 performance still sucks! (effects are slow, fps on mobile is a problem, battery usage is high).

    Apple, Google and Mozilla simply want to bury Flash. The new developers haven't even tried it and don't know its advantages. I've been doing Flash development for 19 years (I think, Flash 2 era) but I simply can't explain anyone why Flash/AIR still is a superior platform to html5. No one would listen.

    I have ported my game, SparkChess (http://www.sparkchess.com) from AIR to HTML5 using Typescript (which I recommend for porting the code) and createjs for canvas, the rest is html/css. For the AIR equivalent I'm using NWJS for desktop and Cordova for mobile. Guess what - players still prefer the Flash version, but soon they won't even be able to play. Yay for progress?

      G
      gperry91
      Participating Frequently
      June 9, 2016

      ArmandN - do you happen to read the AIR SDK release notes? Or do you only rely on press releases for your information?

      http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashruntimes/shared/air22_flashplayer22_releasenotes.pdf

      Or look at this post on upcoming AIR features in 2016

      AIR in 2016 - Feedback survey and Christmas Tale « Starling Forum 

        A
        ASWC
        Inspiring
        July 28, 2017

        Can your tool convert something like this?

        Will it fill an MSE buffer from a byteArray which can be attached to a video object.

        var connection:NetConnection = new NetConnection();

        connection.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, netStatusHandler);

        connection.addEventListener(SecurityErrorEvent.SECURITY_ERROR, securityErrorHandler);

        connection.connect(null);

        var stream:NetStream = new NetStream(connection);

        stream.client = this;

        stream.addEventListener(NetStatusEvent.NET_STATUS, netStatusHandler);

        stream.addEventListener(AsyncErrorEvent.ASYNC_ERROR, asyncErrorHandler);

        stream.play(null);

        stream.appendBytesAction(NetStreamAppendBytesAction.RESET_BEGIN);

        stream.appendBytes(byteArray);


        Of course, my tool converts code and code only (from AS3 to Typescript) so this is not the problem, the problem is whether you have a Typescript implementation of NetConnection, NetStream, etc ... I had to develop a Typescript framework to mirror the flash package classes that are referenced. For example all flash display list classes are based on PIXIJS (by composition so this can be switched), my flash sound package is an implementation of the AudioAPI, etc ...

        davidrenelt
        davidrenelt
        Inspiring
        June 6, 2016

        I've moved on to Phonegap/Cordova .. not by choice, not at all .. but it is a painful but very obvious truth that there is no more momentum behind Adobe AIR, and a lot of momentum behind Phonegap/Cordova for crossplattform mobile development.

        The reason why it is painful is because the flash rendering engine is a technological marvel that still has no equal. You could throw impossible things at it, and it just did it, while WebGL/Canvas turns into a performance nightmare every "wrong" step and forces you to sacrifice ideas simply because it would kill the performance.

        So it's a very painful and tearful goodbye. I've developed a lot of fun things with Flash/Air the past 15 years, it has been a great ride, but when the love turns one sided, it is time to move on.

        Colin Holgate
        Colin Holgate
        Inspiring
        June 6, 2016

        AIR gets updated every couple of weeks. Animate has already had updates, and I would expect more soon. I don't follow PhoneGap, does it get updates? I don't really need it though, I can already do what PhoneGap does using Animate. With that I can create the HTML5 content and also the web view app wrapper.

        leop66344762
        leop66344762
        Inspiring
        June 6, 2016

        Yes, it is real that AIR gets updated every couple of weeks (sometimes more often).

        And I know the team is pushing hard.

        But this is what I said about PR. We developers know all of this.

        But for the end customer, all they hear is "Flash is dead", "Google stops Flash player by default now", "Native apps are faster"... What I mean is, there is a lot of publishing going on with "the bad" of Flash, and little about its marvels.

        I think everyone would really benefit if there were more publicity regarding the platform as a whole, and Adobe's long term plans regarding it.

        leop66344762
        leop66344762
        Inspiring
        June 3, 2016

        Hi,

        I also agree that we need more PR and more credibility. As of now, I find it hard to find resources, hard to find credible information, majority of PR, tech announcements, evangelist posts date as back as 2010->2013...

        If you show that to any prospective customer and say: look what its possible... the first thing everyone replies is: but this dates back to 2010! And then.... we have to overcome a big concern that the technology is dead and no one uses it anymore (Thanks to the bad PR against it).

        I know this has been discussed 100x, and I also know that what we can do we AIR/Flash since its inception is still way ahead of several other offerings... But, final customers don't know this. And I hear over and over from my customers: We need to do it as a Native app. And in the end, it starts to make sense. I don't know about you, but I don't do games. I do business apps. And my customers expect UI that works exactly like native, looks native and perform like native. It is a big issue to recreate the wheel (and keep it spinning).

        To be honest, if there is no effort to bring it back to the top, it will fade away.

        I wish someone from Adobe would comment on this, publicly, because I asked it privately and did not get any answers.

        D
        DaveCates
        Inspiring
        June 2, 2016

        Just want to say I agree with all of this.

        But also...we need some major PR effort to show off the platform and it's significant potential vs others like Unity etc.

        We need this PR because soon it will be an absolute nightmare to recruit developers who are skilled enough to develop with AS3 and Air. That would be an absolute show stopper...and avoidable with the right evangelism and PR.

        I'm up for getting stuck in and helping out but would need resourcing...

          natural_criticB837
          natural_criticB837
          Legend
          June 3, 2016

          I fully agree, PR (as in credible commitment by Adobe) is the one thing Flash and Air is missing. Chris and the team are doing a great job, but they need to be backed by the company more. Other than that it leaves little to wish for.

          I do not understand why Adobe is so shy about the platform. If you look at Unity, they make 125$ per month per developer now. I am not saying I am happy to throw the money out of the window but for sure we are willing to pay more if that fuels the future for the platform.

            natural_criticB837
            natural_criticB837
            Legend
            May 18, 2016

            Hi Ferrie,

            yes we are in the same boat. We are developing web and mobile games with Flash and Air and with the latest developments we are currently investigating if it is time to start over in another technology. However it is such a waste of resources to change the horse and I assume it would be much cheaper for everyone just to fund Adobe or someone else to seriously rethink Flash and Air and invest into its future. I seriously do not understand why Adobe does not try to monetize it better, I assume money would solve all of our problems.

            Cheers

              A
              Applauz78
              Inspiring
              May 23, 2016

              I would happily pay for this.. IMO it's wayyy better developing in AIR as I can target iOS and Android in 1 code base. .. Too expensive to do this as native development...  and terrible doing it in HTML apps.

                K
                KarlCfs
                Inspiring
                May 25, 2016

                I agree. I bet we are a lot of developers that have many years professional work put into AS3 that would happily pay a monthly fee to make sure the technology stays relevant in the long run. Adobe please, take our money!

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