Understanding the Potential of Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)

Understanding the Potential of
Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
By Andrea Simmons
A White Paper from Integration New Media
Integration New Media, Inc.1600 Rene-Levesque Blvd W, Suite 900Montreal, QC H3H 1P9CanadaTel.: +1 514 871 1333Fax: +1 514 871 9251http://www.INM.comUnderstanding the Potential of Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) Understanding the Potential of Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
Introduction
Broad industry trends point toward major changes in how companies will communicate with their clients in the coming years. In both the business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) sectors, there is significant interest in leveraging rich web experiences to sell products, provide information, and facilitate communications.
Traditional advertising methods, including television, are losing ground as the North American 1market falls into recession, however, online advertising is anticipated to hold steady. Smart companies are weathering the storm by investing early in rich internet applications (RIAs) as ways to create direct connections with their clients. RIAs provide the same level of audio and video support as television, while delivering a continuous, interactive, and branded experience.
In February 2008, Adobe announced its new product offering, Adobe Integrated Runtime, otherwise known as Adobe® AIRT. In beta for more than a year, Adobe AIR has been embraced early by many significant brands, including eBay, Nickelodeon, and NASDAQ, and has been talked about in technology circles as a significant tool for companies looking to build new relationships with their clients.
Most of the information that's been made available about Adobe AIR so far, has been written for the programmers that are building applications, not for the visionaries that are designing the client experiences. The objective of this paper is to provide executives, project managers, marketers and other visionaries with an introduction to Adobe AIR, and information about how Adobe AIR can be leveraged to create next generation web experiences.
What is a Rich Internet Application (RIA)?
In order to fully explain Adobe AIR, it is important to first look at rich Internet applications (RIAs). RIAs are web applications that have many of the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications, but are delivered over the web. These applications combine the best of both worlds - the power and rich content of the desktop, with the benefit of Internet connectivity.
The primary differentiator between an RIA and a traditional website is that an RIA is a true "application" that allows you to perform a task. This task can be anything from finding a product or customizing a service to learning new information or playing a game.
Another key difference with RIAs is the way that they handle and process information. Traditional desktop applications rely exclusively on client-side processing. This means that when a task is initiated, the local system's resources are leveraged to process the request. In contrast, a web application relies exclusively on server-side technology to process a request. With RIAs the load is shared by both the client and the serve, which allows for a different type of data handling.
With an HTML website, when a user fills in data, changes options, or checks boxes, the complete page must be submitted to the server for data validation and then the screen is reloaded with the new data incorporated. With RIAs, the data is partially processed by the client, so a full-page refresh and return trip to the server is not necessary with every action performed. This means that when users perform an action, the results can be displayed on-screen immediately without the data being
© Integration New Media, Inc. 2008 2 © Integration New Media, Inc. 2008 3Understanding the Potential of Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) Understanding the Potential of Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
reloaded. The partial page refresh allows for increased responsiveness and smooth interaction, creating new possibilities for information flow and new methods of information display. Web applications are no longer bound to the rigid page-by-page format that was previously required from HTML applications.
What is Adobe AIR?
Adobe AIR provides a way for companies to deploy RIAs to the desktop, creating a closer connection with ... [download for more]