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May 13, 2007
One Small Step for Desktop RIA
Adobe has released the Alpha version of its much-anticipated cross-OS runtime for deploying desktop Rich Internet Applications Apollo.
Apollo enables people to more easily maintain a connection with information in their web applications. Just like a desktop app, Apollo applications have an icon on the desktop, in the Windows start menu, or in the OS X dock. Also, when youre running a web application today, its a separate world from your computer. You cant easily integrate local data with your web app. For example, you cant just drag and drop your local contacts onto a web-based mapping application to get directions to your friends house. With Apollo applications you will be able to this kind of integration as it bridges the chasm between your computer and the Internet.
Adding to the capabilities of Adobes existing Flex 2.0.1 platform, Apollo is an attempt to put RIAs on an equal footing with Desktop applications. Although exact specifications for Apollo are still somewhat tenuous, Adobes product management has outlined the following areas for Apollo to build on the capabilities of Flex:
- 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
It has been over three years since the release of Flex 1.0 by Macromedia. Only Adobe knows for certain how big the Flex community really is, but perhaps one can get an basic indication from the following stats:
- 100,000 developers have downloaded a copy of the Flex SDK as of 10/2006
- Flexcoders, the most prominent community forum for getting Flex community support has 6,354 registered members (as of this posting)
- FlexManiacs conference will likely have approx. 200-300 attendees (at which I have the privilege of presenting)
- Apollo Camp had 300 attendees (but was sold out so perhaps many more would have come if Adobe held it at larger venue)
Adobe can cause a fundamental shift in Desktop applications if:
- Adobe manages to build a community orders of magnitude bigger for Apollo than it has for Flex
- Adobe makes Apollo SDK open source and opens up the various protocols for data services such as AMF, RTMP (not advocating making LifeCycle Data Service Open source but allowing others to build open source alternatives easily)
- the $100 million that Adobe plans to invest in venture capital over the next 3-5 years goes into pipes and smokestacks type of technology rather than to frivolous startups in Web 2.0
Posted by Arshak Navruzyan at May 13, 2007 1:57 PM
