14 | Chapter 1: Introduction to the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
Adobe AIR Desktop Integration
As discussed earlier, applications deployed via the browser
cannot always support the same user interactions as desktop
applications. This leads to applications that can be cumber-
some for the user to interact with, as they do not allow the
type of application interactions with which users are familiar.
Because an Adobe AIR application is a desktop application,
it’s able to provide the type of application interactions and
experience that users expect from an application. This func-
tionality includes, but is not limited to:
- Appropriate install/uninstall rituals
- Desktop install touch-points (such as shortcuts)
- Rich drag-and-drop support:
—Between operating system and Adobe AIR applications
—Between Adobe AIR applications
—Between native applications and Adobe AIR applications - Rich clipboard support
- System notifications
- Native icons
Once installed, an Adobe AIR application is just another
native application, which means that the operating system
and users can interact with it in the same as any other appli-
cation. For example, things such as OS-level application pre-
fetching and application switching work the same with
Adobe AIR applications as they do with native applications.
The goal is that the end user does not need to know they are
running an Adobe AIR application in order to be able to use
it. They should be able to interact with an Adobe AIR
application in the same way that they interact with any other
application running on the desktop.