Release date: 6/9/2010
System Requirements
| Windows® | Macintosh® | Linux | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor Minimum | Minimum: Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor; Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHz or faster | Intel Core™ Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor. | Minimum: Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor; Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHz or faster |
| Operating System | Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise including 64 bit editions, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2 and SP3, Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows 2003/2008 Server, Windows 7 | Mac OS 10.5 or Mac OS 10.6 | Fedora Core 12, Ubuntu 9.10, OpenSUSE 11.2 |
| Memory | Minimum: 512MB RAM; Recommended: 1GB RAM | Minimum 512MB RAM; Recommended: 1GB RAM | 1GB RAM |
Note: AIR 2 does not support Windows 2000 and Mac PowerPC. Additionally, Mac OS 10.4 is not a supported development environment when using the AIR 2 SDK.
Additional Requirements for Linux Systems
| Supported desktop environments | GNOME or KDE |
| Package management systems | RPM or Debian |
| Minimum GTK+ version | 2.6 |
| Window managers | Metacity (default for GNOME) or KWin (default for KDE) |
| Transparency | Support for transparency in AIR applications requires a compositing window manager and additional X server extensions. The following are supported: Compositing window managers: Beryl, Compiz, Compiz-fusion X server extensions: Composite, Render, Shape |
| Flash Player | Seamless (badge) installation of AIR applications from the web requires Flash Player 10.0.15.3 or later |
A list of libraries required to run AIR 2 on Linux are listed in the following Adobe Knowledge Base (KB) article: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/838/cpsid_83888.html
Adobe AIR 2 installation and runtime user experience supports the following languages:
ADL provides a new feature to support screen size simulation when the movileDevice profile is specified. Please read details in the section below, "ADL screen size simulation in the mobileDevice profile."
URLRequest.idleTimeout and URLRequestDefaults.idleTimeout let you specify the amount of time (in milliseconds) that a connection will for the server response after a request is sent.
You can now use the DNSResolver class to look up the following types of resource records:
Using the new FilePromise APIs, it is now possible to drag and drop files that exist on a remote server or that haven't been generated yet. You can copy such files by dragging them out of the AIR application and onto the desktop. This enables new user interaction possibilities for applications like content management systems, online stores, or FTP clients.
New socket properties allow you to access the local address, local port, remote address and remote port.
New printing support allows finer control of the way content is printed from an AIR application, including the choice of printer, paper size, and number of copies. New APIs allow a developer to retrieve additional printing information, such as printable area, whether the printer will print in color, and whether the print job is currently active. It is also possible to print without displaying the print dialog.
There are several new features added in this release to support better text input handling with IME software. The new API enhancements are designed to use with the new Flash Text Engine (FTE).
Large screen displays now can display windows that are 4,096 pixels horizontal x 4,096 pixels wide. It used be 2880 x 2880 in previous version.
Record audio locally on your device without the need of a server.
Detect when mass storage devices such as cameras and USB flash memory drives are available to synchronize files such as photos, videos, mp3 files or other files.
Open popular document types like .pdf, .psd, .doc, .ppt, and .mp3 using the native application associated with that file. For example, opening an .mp3 file will launch iTunes on systems where iTunes is the default application for mp3 files.
Developers can now launch and communicate with native processes using the standard input, output, and error streams. Using the Native Process API, it is now possible to communicate with native libraries built using Java and .NET and also native applications such as "grep" for file searching. You can also create operating system specific installers (native installers). Applications that use the native process API must be deployed using a native installer.
You can package an AIR application in a native install program instead of an AIR file. Applications packaged and installed using a native installer have access to platform-specific features such as the Native Process API. See Packaging an AIR application in a native installer.
The local SQLite database now provides support for nested transactions.
The new NetworkInfo object lets you enumerate the network interfaces on a computer and access the properties of an interface such as whether it is active, the IP address, and the display name.
New capabilities such as CSS transforms, animations, and canvas support are now available. See section "Adobe AIR and AJAX" for additional details.
Build peer-to-peer applications or local servers that make it easier to communicate with other local applications or remote applications over the network.
You can now connect to a server that requires TLSv1 or SSLv3 for socket communications.
Runtime support for user datagram protocol (UDP) allows developer to build time-sensitive, real-time networking applications such as multi-player games.
JavaScript code runs 50% faster without any code changes to the application using the new SquirrelFish Extreme JavaScript engine.
Build entirely new types of applications using multitouch (Windows 7 only) and Gestures (Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.6). Multitouch is not supported in Windows 7 Starter and Home Basic.
Applications run faster and use system resources more efficiently. The CPU usage of idle applications has been reduced, as has overall memory usage. The runtime itself is also smaller.
Vector printing, already available on Windows, is now available on the MAC.
NOTE: Vector printing is not supported on Linux.
When an unexpected error happens within an application, developers can now capture that event as an exception and present useful information back to the user such as instructions on how to report the issue or restart the application.
Support for next generation secure internet protocol.
AIR 2 can be installed using Debian and rpm package installers in addition to the binary installer.
TLS sockets (encrypted sockets) and access to the MAC address are supported. The new File.downloaded property lets you indicate that a file was downloaded from the network and the OS should prompt the user with a confirmation dialog before opening it.
Enable applications built using Flash or Flex work with a screen-reader application.
Users with these operating systems will continue to be able to install and run AIR 1.5 applications, but will not be able to install or update to the AIR 2 runtime. These operating systems are not supported when developing AIR applications with the AIR 2 SDK.
You must update your application descriptor file to the 2.0 namespace in order to access the new AIR 2 APIs and behavior. If your application does not require the new AIR 2 APIs and behavior, you are not required to update the namespace from 1.x based namespace. To update the namespace, change the xmlns attribute in your application descriptor to:
http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/2.0
There is a new AIRCore framework, which includes the existing service monitoring classes, as well as a couple of additions :
air.net.ServiceMonitor
air.net.URLMonitor
air.net.SocketMonitor
air.net.SecureSocketMonitor
air.desktop.URLFilePromise
The SecureSocketMonitor class is a new addition that takes advantage of the new SecureSocket class available in AIR 2. The URLFilePromise class implements the IFilePromise interface using an HTTP data source. The entire service monitoring framework, plus the new additions, are now packaged in a new library file, aircore.swc and aircore.swf. The original library files, servicemonitoring.swc and servicemonitoring.swf, are still included in the AIR 2 SDK, but use of these files is deprecated. We recommend switching to using aircore.swc in your Flex- and Flash-based applications, and switching to aircore.swf for HTML-based applications.
In an AIR application that uses the AIR 2.0 namespace, the value property of an HTML <input type = "file"> element differs depending on the sandbox of the HTML content. If the document containing the input element is in the application sandbox, the value property is set to the full path of the file chosen by the user (for example, "C:\air\file.txt"). If the document containing the input element is in a non-application sandbox, the value property is set to the file name only (for example, "file.txt").
In an AIR application that uses a namespace of 1.5 or earlier, the value property of an HTML <input type = "file"> element always returns the full path to the file. This is true whether the HTML content is in the application sandbox or in a non-application sandbox.
Please refer to the End User release note for information about Installing and Uninstalling Adobe AIR and about Installing AIR applications.
The AIR API versioning scheme is not currently enforced by the ActionScript compiler made available in Flash Professional, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, and the Flex SDK. An application using an older AIR namespace (e.g. 1.5) but developed with a tool supporting a newer version of AIR (e.g. 2.0) will be able to successfully reference and compile when using newer APIs. However, when that application is run, attempting to use one of the newer APIs will result in a runtime error or incorrect behavior. To avoid this issue, we recommend updating your application to the latest namespace supported by the authoring tool in use.
The AIR 2 SDK can be used on its own to develop HTML-based AIR applications or with the Flex SDK to develop ActionScript or Flex-based AIR applications. The Flex SDK is free, open source, and is available for download from http://opensource.adobe.com/.
* Windows Flex Builder 3: c:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3\sdks\3.2.0 * Windows Flash Builder 4:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4\sdks\4.0.0 * Mac Flex Builder 3: /Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3/sdks/3.2.0 * Mac Flash Builder 4: /Applications/Adobe Flash Builder 4\sdks\4.0.0
tar jxvf AdobeAIRSDK.tbz2
If you have trouble overwriting files due to file permissions, try this command:
sudo tar jxvf AdobeAIRSDK.tbz2
If you use Flash Professional CS4 to build Adobe AIR applications, please follow the instructions below to manually update to the AIR 2 SDK.
Flash CS4 is now configured to use the AIR 2 SDK.
In order to take advantage of the new AIR 2 features, you must update your application descriptor file to use the AIR 2.0 namespace. See the section "Updating Your Application Descriptor Namespace" for additional details on how to update it.
You must manually change the application descriptor generated by Flash Professional CS4 for every new AIR 2 project.
If you have an existing AIR project, navigate to the folder that contains your SWF file and open the application descriptor file. By default, the name of the application descriptor file will be the name of your .swf plus include "-app" in the name. For example, if the .swf file is named mygame.swf, the application's descriptor file will be "mygame-app.xml".
For a new project, you will need to do the following steps to create and update the application descriptor file:
Note: Moving these folders may require administrator authentication depending on your account privileges.
Adobe Community Help is Adobe's next generation help experience. It's an AIR application that provides the following features:
Community Help is installed by default in Creative Suite CS5 and Flash Builder 4. If you're using the AIR SDK separate from those tools, you can install Community Help yourself here: Install Adobe Community Help.
You can find links to all of the AIR documentation on the Adobe Developer Connection.
The AIR Help and Support page is a search portal for AIR information from Adobe and the AIR developer community. You'll also find great new articles and tutorials and links to current support issues.
In AIR 2, installation logs for the runtime and for individual applications are created by default. The file is named "Install.log" on Linux and Windows. The file is named "system.log" on Mac OS. This log file is cumulative, meaning that a new log is appended at the end of the existing log file whenever an attempt, successful or unsuccessful, is made to install or update the AIR runtime or an AIR application. The size of the log file is limited to 0.5MB and the file is truncated when it becomes too large.
The location of this file differs from platform to platform:
*On Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\AIR\logs\Install.log *On Windows Vista/ Windows 7: C:\Users\<username>Appdata\Local\Adobe\AIR\logs\Install.log *On Mac OS X: /private/var/log/system.log (console application) *On Linux: /home/<username>/.appdata/Adobe/AIR/Logs/Install.log
If an URL contains non-ASCII characters, the application might fail to work properly on Windows if the libraries that the runtime depends on to parse such URLs are not present. If IE 7 is installed, then the necessary libraries are installed and the application should work fine. The problem does not reproduce on Windows Vista and Windows 7. (2477685)
If Firefox is configured as the default browser and a Firefox window is already open in the background, calling navigateToURL doesn't bring the Firefox window to the front on Windows. (1609175)
Java versions 1.5 and above do not accept high-ASCII characters in passwords used to protect PKCS12 certificate files. Java is used by the AIR development tools to create the signed AIR packages. When you export the certificate as a .p12 or .pfx file, use only regular ASCII characters in the password.(1908199)
Mac 10.6 only. When replacing the NativeApplication menu property, the first menu's label always shows mac's logo. The menu functions correctly in other respects. (2442577)
The cursor can move to the wrong position when typing certain Thai characters in HTML content. Text input for languages other than those listed in the supported languages section above is currently not supported. (2486968)
Mac only. Native application installer packaging may fail if the AIR SDK or the files you are packaging are in a path with Unicode-encoded Chinese characters or the <filename> descriptor tag has Unicode-encoded Chinese characters. This is due to an underlying issue Java has with Unicode filenames. (2539439)
Mac 10.6 only. The application menu bar isn't visible when the application is run from command line with adl. The workaround is to switch focus to another application and then return to your app. (2530559)
Some applications on Windows 7 can not be opened using a .lnk file when using file.openWithDefaultApplication. Examples include C:[ProgramData]]\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Sticky Notes.lnk and C:[ProgramData]\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\System Configuration.lnk. (2573727)
<IMG> tags won't displaying ICO files on Mac OS 10.4/10.5. This limitation does not exist on Mac OS 10.6. (2563698)
The EXITING event does not fire properly when Introspector is open in an HTML-based AIR application. (2559508)
Users cannot install an 2.0 application over a 2.0beta2 application. Users are shown an error message stating that the AIR file is damaged and to contact the application vendor. A more descriptive error message should be provided in this circumstance. (2559067)
Only a single instance of an AIR application can be running. A workaround is to change the value of the <id> element in your application descriptor file prior to debugging. (2516616)
Using Flex 4 Spark text components is only supported when using the released version of Flex 4 and AIR 2. Known issues exist in older (beta) versions of Flex 4. The AIR 1.5.x does not support the Spark text components. (2559578)
On certain hardware configurations running Windows XP, the AIR app "theGood Uploader" application can cause CPU usage to reach 100%. (2540843)
Using both the SecureSocektMonitor and other monitors in the air.net package simultaneously may cause a crash on Mac OS 10.5.8 or later when using a low polling interval, such as 1 ms. The workaround is to use a higher polling interval. (2555669)
On Mac systems, the NativeWindowDisplayStateEvent may get dispatched twice when calling NativeWindow.maximize(). (2564809)
When using the File APIs to copy large amounts of files and data from a DVD, the copying step may experience a sharp slowdown on Mac OS 10.5. The issue is caused by an underlying issue in the OS, which has been fixed in Mac OS 10.6. (2414772)
If you are printing a page containing Flash Text Engine (FTE) text which is transparent and which uses a non-embedded font, the page will not print correctly using the bitmap, vector, or auto print job options. To work around the problem, please embed the font. (2629777)
ADT currently cannot turn off timestamping for native application installers built on Windows. The '-tsa none' argument will not work when attempting to sign the .exe installer. Typically, developers turn off timestamping while they build and test their applications and they don't have access to the network. The workaround is to not sign the.exe installer in this case. (2628232)
A native application package created on a computer running OpenSuse 11.2 cannot be installed on older RPM Linux distributions. (2495682)
After installing the runtime using a native package installer, a badge installation may not work and you might see the following error: "Sorry, an error has occurred. The application could not be installed. Try installing it again. If the problem persists, contact the application author. Error #1". This issue is fixed with Flash Player 10.1. The workaround for older versions of Flash Player is to download and save the .air file locally and try installing it using "Adobe AIR Application Installer." After doing so, future badge installations should work as expected.
Mailto links do not work if Google Chrome is set as default browser. (2565050)
Application name is reported as "anonymous" in the kwallet password dialog which this displayed when an AIR application accesses data in the encrypted local store. (1862087)
With certain applications like iPlotz, SocialVisor, UVLayer, and Time100, flickering can be observed in the application stage when using these applications. (2487242)
When installing AIR using the binary installer, the installation dialog at times appears clipped. (2461190)
When accessing certain secure sites, a "SSL Certificate Alert" is displayed.