AIR Roadmap Update

Thanks so much Chris.

That is GREAT news, we believe this may also help AIR untangle itself from Flash which we think is just holding it back from really shining.

We have major investment in AIR and are delighted to see that Adobe continues its commitment to this awesome technology.

As far as Flash is concerned, in our view it's already dead, RIP flash!

Thanks as always and have a great week ahead,

Sean.

Thanks Chris, this announcement probably explains the delay on the Air roadmap. Any chance to hear something about an HTML5 target for Air? With Flash fading out as the only current option to export for web, we will need a replacement for the technology stack or lose 20% of our userbase. Are you considering an HTML target it or is off the table?

Thanks

rewb0rn, you should checkout this effort on ANE for HTML5, its very promising and has a lot of momentum behind it:

GitHub - tuarua/WebViewANE: WebView Adobe Air Native Extension for OSX 10.10+, Windows Desktop, iOS 9.0+ and Android 21+…

Maybe Adobe can fork it and add it to the main build.

I don't want to load HTML5 content into an Air app, I want our AS3 projects exported to HTML (i.e. a replacement for Flash)

Thanks for the list Chris, but the lack of any mention towards an HTML output solution remains concerning to everyone. A statement needs to be made on this.  This is not just a Flash Player thing, but an ActionScript issue and it's future.  No response to a gaping hole seems irresponsible.

Just one word: GREAT!

We are very happy to see GPU render mode for Desktop as that will be a great alternative for our service. Native on iOS, Android and Desktop version on computers.

Thanks!

Chris, are you working with Facebook to allow AIR games to be run on their new GameRoom service?

Facebook Gameroom - Games - Documentation - Facebook for Developers

I have an Apache Flex 4.13.0 app that is deployed as an AIR app. Will Adobe continue to support the Flash runtime for AIR apps?

Any change to the certification process? maybe an ACE for Air? please?

chris.campbell, thanks for the quick response. We don't use StageWebView or HTMLLoader at all. I assume you're asking if we load HTML that contains an <object> tag to embed a Flash movie in the HTML.

We do, however, in a number of places use a mx.controls.SWFLoader to load external SWF files from the network. I suspect that will still work. Am I correct?

Thanks Chris, we also develop cross platform real time business apps (not games) in Apache Flex and running on AIR. This is still by far the most productive way to develop cross platform apps.

Would be nice to see some real progress on using native HTML browsers in AIR apps without having to resort to an ANE: and ANE means the app can't be distributed as an .air file and you lose the AIR in place update feature.

Do you really believe that the AIR will continue for a long time? An Adobe has already shown that it has no commitment to the developers that we use a technology from it. Turned out Flex did not continue Flash Builder and you believe the AIR will continue into the future? Soon, the end-of-the-air poster is out, and then one is the right one to learn other technology and our desperate customers.

I have multiple applications in Flex Web and now? I only have 2 years to learn something new, to migrate all the applications of my clients to another technology. This is a lawsuit against Adobe after all I spent time and money with my company investing in Adobe technology

AIR is of course amazing..  I know I'm speaking to the choir here but still it's a sigh of relief for us to know that AIR will continue to be supported in the truly amazing fashion that we've enjoyed over the past many months.

It's a shame about Flash but the writing has been on the wall for some time, so it's no surprise but I hope that the AIR team can begin working on, and support the existing efforts behind porting existing Starling or Flex Web APPs to HTML5/JS.

Support for wearables I'm super excited about.. I see that it's mentioned in the Community Features Survey so that's fantastic!

I'd also like to see Flash Builder rekindled, it's still the best IDE in my opinion but at least we have alternatives..  still would be great to see.

Go Adobe!!

eduardo12fox wrote:

 

I have multiple applications in Flex Web and now? I only have 2 years to learn something new, to migrate all the applications of my clients to another technology. This is a lawsuit against Adobe after all I spent time and money with my company investing in Adobe technology

Dude, Starling/Feathers is amazing, Adobe have been pushing this for some time, so check it out.  Also, Apache Flex have been working on a port to HTML/JS for some time - depending on how complex your APP is, you may already be able to port it.

Adobe's commitment to AIR should be a huge sigh of relief for you..  We can all continue to work with AS3 and a single code base!

I also want to add that Adobe really has a gold mine on its hands, AIR.

It is still by far the best cross platform / GPU powered dev environment and I just wish Adobe would spend more money marketing AIR properly, as many devs are simply not aware that AIR is superior in many ways to HTML5, Unity and other cross OS runtimes today.

So maybe now that's flash is out of the way, Adobe can really start marketing AIR for the awesome platform it is.

Sean

Sad to see Flash go, but this was expected for a long time now.

This is good news for my AIR games on Steam though! If AIR continues to get new features, I may end up using "Flash" for some time still.

Thanks for finally getting this road map out! I feel very relieved after years of uncertainty.

For dews
I understand dews that Apache Flex is not available for a business application. Another problem is: Do you really believe that AIR will continue? It may end sooner or later.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for keeping us informed. I see in the roadmap that VR/AR is on the list. This is good news. Can you elaborate what that might look like further?  Also, can Adobe please begin serious promotion of AIR again? I am not dismayed by the announcement because I think your team has done a good job with translating Animate to a web standards output tool. The Web as we have known it is fading away anyway. It is clear that AR is the next Web--and that it will supplant our current mobile experiences. PLEASE, get some of your talented team to blue sky something wonderful in AIR and AR, and then promote it everywhere. Here is an opening for again making the tool a leader in the field of emerging interactive experiences.

eduardo12fox  wrote

 

For dews
I understand dews that Apache Flex is not available for a business application. Another problem is: Do you really believe that AIR will continue? It may end sooner or later.

The Flex framework is still a viable platform for a business application.  It's just that Stage3D is really the way to go, so that's Starling and the UI components from Feathers, in my opinion the better option.

The Apache Flex team have been working on a port to HTML5/JS that's really promising, so you can still code using the Flex Framework and use Apache FlexJS to output your APP into HTML5/JS and voila you have a Web APP that is no longer reliant on the Flash plugin.

As far as my belief in AIR - I honestly do believe in the future of AIR.  As born2code said:

Born2code wrote

 

It is still by far the best cross platform / GPU powered dev environment and I just wish Adobe would spend more money marketing AIR properly, as many devs are simply not aware that AIR is superior in many ways to HTML5, Unity and other cross OS runtimes today.

I couldn't agree more.  Now that Flash is out of the way this may free Adobe up to start a more aggressive marketing campaign. Perhaps a new name for AIR to get away from Flash completely? If developers actually knew how good AIR was we'd start to see the community grow in a huge way, particularly when support for wearables is on the table. There are so many ECMAScript coders out there - if they only realized what they were missing with AS3.

Thanks for this update!

Hey Chris,

Great to hear the commitment to AIR!

Love to hear more on the VR/AR plans!? We've invested a bit in this side of AIR already so really interested in what the runtime will be providing!     

I have several android air app for education,.. it's download my swf module regularly.. so after the death of flash player, will SDK can publish SWF file for my Android AIR App?

I really loved a few features listed here and looking forward for upcoming release!

• Support for 64-bit AIR – Windows Captive Only
• Support for the latest SDK on iOS 11 and Android O
• VR/AR support for AIR apps
• ANE support for Swift on iOS (WOW!)
  

Thank you!

I second the idea of updating Flash Builder.

I knew this day was coming, but it was still sad news. I am so grateful for my time creating content for Flash. My first introduction to the Flash world was Flash 4. Flash and ActionScript made me want to be a programmer. After using it, I actually changed my degree to CS. Thanks for all of the work Macromedia and Adobe team members! I still develop AIR apps and hope it continues to have a bright future. Are there any plans to update Flash Builder? Maybe it could get a name change to AIRBuilder. There have been a lot of updates to Eclipse that would be nice to have in Flash Builder. I'm excited for ANE support for Swift. Keep up the good work!

Checkout FlexJS.

I really love the idea of having more updates to Flash Builder and makes the eco-system more solid! But I also know this not going to happen, or sooner.

Here is a site with some great info on FlexJS. He also has an excellent extension to VS Code:

https://nextgenactionscript.com/

I second the idea of generating web assembly output as it helps maintain our investment in our code bases.

dews  wrote

 

Now that Flash is out of the way this may free Adobe up to start a more aggressive marketing campaign. Perhaps a new name for AIR to get away from Flash completely?

I hope the team at Adobe seriously considers this.

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Chris+Velevitch  wrote

 

I second the idea of generating web assembly output as it helps maintain our investment in our code bases.

Web Assembly output is a topic that has come up on the Flex Dev list a few times. Here's an interesting discussion on the topic:

Pony Mail!

chris.campbell Can we expect any improvements to CPU rendering / the classic DisplayList for Adobe AIR (given that its from the flash core, is there now going to be an opportunity to improve those areas that are shared)? If not, are there plans to make development with Stage3D or similar as easy as it is to do now with Vector based design from Animate/Flash Professional? I ask as I represent a non-profit project that has worked with Flash and more recently AIR for many many years now and Vector based drawing is extremely important to us. Alternatively, our only option is to move to HTML5 which we really don't want to do given the disruption to our current workflow.

In addition, we feel that Flash/AIR is great and we want to see it to get better and to grow. Without it, our long-standing project would be dead.

chris.campbell We would pledge what I consider a substantial amount of money to Air if we get an HTML target in return (say 5 digits a year), and we are probably not the only ones. Feel free to contact me if that is something you would like to discuss further.

Kind regards,
Ruben

Adobe AIR is awesome! Especially when you guys have put so much effort in creating AGAL and optimizing for an endless list of different Android devices. AIR has a real value now. Only if you would make effort to improve Flash Builder 4.7 that is working great when it don't crash. Flash Builder 4.7 works great but it crashes too often.

Please make "Increase the GPU memory texture limit" a first feature that you will implement. Memory on the devices grow at astounding speed and mobile devices display resolutions are no joke either. And a limit of 512MB is really low today.

From a noob perspective it does not look like that will be a complicated feature and it can give us so much more freedom.

But just out of curiosity what are the problems of increasing memory limit. Why can't you just increase that flag to 1024   MB

Ok, we can live without flash. But what about realtime video streaming (please don't advise HLS, Dash etc. it isn't "realtime").

Any plans to support RTMP in HTML5/JS?