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Introducing Apollo

Today we posted the first public prerelease builds of Apollo on Adobe Labs—the result of over a year and a half of development. While we are very excited to finally get Apollo into your hands, we still have a lot of work to do.

What is Apollo?

The Apollo site on Adobe Labs covers what Apollo is—and why you might want it—in quite some depth. But here's a quick definition of what Apollo is from the official FAQ:

Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

As I mentioned, you can find several articles about Apollo on Adobe Labs that provide a more thorough discussion of what Apollo is. In particular, read Chapter 1, "Introduction to Apollo," of Apollo for Adobe Flex Developers Pocket Guide published by O'Reilly Media and available for download from Labs. This chapter explains in depth what Apollo is and the problems it aims to solve.

What did we release today?

Not only did we release an alpha version of the Apollo runtime today, but we also released other tools and resources that make it possible for you to build Apollo applications:

• Apollo runtime: Alpha version of the Apollo runtime which allows Apollo applications to be installed and run.
• Apollo SDK: Alpha version of the Apollo SDK which includes everything you need to start building Apollo applications from the command line.
• Apollo Extensions for Flex Builder: Alpha builds of extensions for Adobe Flex Builder 2.0.1 that add support for building Flex-based Apollo applications within Flex Builder.
• Apollo sample applications: Applications built by Adobe employees (mostly by the Apollo team) that demonstrate various aspects of Apollo.
• Apollo documentation: Complete getting-started and API documentation for Flex and ActionScript development for Apollo.
• Articles, resources, tutorials, and videos: Tutorials and other resources to help you get started with Apollo development.
• Apollo for Adobe Flex Developers Pocket Guide: Book published by O'Reilly Media that focuses on helping developers get started developing applications for the Apollo alpha using Flex. The book is released under a Creative Commons license and is available for download from Adobe Labs. If you prefer to read the printed book, you can buy it from Amazon.

Notice that we did not release new versions of Flex Builder or the Flex SDK. You can just use the current release versions (2.0.1) when developing Apollo application.

Alpha?

Have I mentioned alpha enough times already? What exactly do we mean by saying that this is an alpha release of Apollo?

It's pretty simple; an alpha release is a very first release, which means the following:

• It is not feature complete
• Features that are implemented may not be completely implemented
• There are bugs

Here are some of the main features in this alpha build:

• Full HTML support within Flex- and Flash-based content.
• Full file I/O API
• Multiple window chrome modes (including native and custom/transparent)
• Native windowing API (partially implemented)
• ActionScript/JavaScript script bridging
• Flex components
• Low-level update APIs
• Icon support

Even though that is a pretty decent list, there is still a ton of stuff we need to implement—and that will not be not included in the first alpha:

• PDF support
• Online/offline APIs
• Full top-level HTML application support
• Settings/data persistence APIs
• Drag and drop support
• Copy and paste support
• Native file picker dialog boxes
• Full native window support
• File extension registration
• Launching an application to handle a file type
• Full control of the right-click menu
• Transparency in HTML

This is not a complete list but it should give you a pretty good idea of what the Apollo team is working on. You can expect to see these features in future builds on Adobe Labs, as well as in the Apollo 1.0 release later this year.

Time to do something cool

I have worked at Adobe (and Macromedia before the merger) for nearly seven years. During that time, one thing has remained constant: developers always take our technologies in directions that we never expect. While this is still an early build of Apollo, we can't wait to see what you do with it.

Check out theses articles and resources for more information about Apollo:

• Getting started with Apollo
• Developing Flex-based Apollo applications
• Working with the Apollo local file system
• ActionScript basics for JavaScript developers
• In the Edge: Apollo up close
• Apollo demo at DEMO 07 conference

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