A full day seminar presented by Romke de Haan and Nate Frank. This workshop is being coordinated by Dr. Mariam Zahedi, Professor and Trisept Solutions Professor in Management Information, Lubar School of Business, UW-Milwaukee
Overview
Traditional web applications have centered their activities on a client server model, using a web browser as a thin client. This approach required a great amount of traffic to flow back and forth from the server to the user’s desktop. As an alternative, Macromedia (now merged into Adobe) introduced the concept known as Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), which were designed to reduce this round trip traffic using client side technology. With client side technology, instructions are executed on the user’s computer.
Adobe’s product, Adobe AIR, is a cross-operating system runtime product that enables web developers to use their existing web development skills, code, and tools to build and deploy RIAs and content to the desktop. Adobe AIR has a rich set of features, with support for building applications using HTML, JavaScript, Flex, and Flash.
This workshop will provide an introduction to creating RIAs using Adobe Flex, AIR, and Flex Builder and will look at sample applications. Course files for download will be available after the presentation.
Topics
Setting up an application. Learn how to set up a basic AIR application using various proprietary and open source tools such as HTML, Javascript, Flex, and Flash.
Distributing a basic application. After setting up an application, we will walk through creating an AIR installer package and find out more on how to distribute your AIR installer.
Drag and Drop, Copy and Paste. Learn about using some basic features, such as drag and drop, and copy and paste, offered in AIR’s API to interface with your application and the operating system.
Working with the local file system. Understand how to navigate the local file system.
Working with files. Learn how to create and store custom files for your AIR application.
Working with a database. Learn how to interface with AIR’s SQLite capabilities.
Using Cairngorm. Understand the advantage of using the Cairngorm architecture in your Flex AIR application.
Deconstruct FlossyFX and other applications. In this session the speakers will use commercial applications that they have created in Adobe AIR to demonstrate how AIR is used in a real world environment.
About the speaker
After graduating from the non-profit organization Homeboyz Interactive, Romke de Haan launched his career working as a designer/developer with companies and brands such as HP, Victoria Secret, Trek Bikes, Fullhouse Interactive, and Resource. Currently working at Avenue A | Razorfish, Romke is also establishing a hybrid organization that trains at-risk youth and young adults in professional technologies.
Nate Frank received his fine arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design from UW-Milwaukee. He started working as an interactive developer and manager of interactive production at a Milwaukee firm, Hanson Dodge Creative, where he developed interactive experiences. His clients included Mortgagebot, Burton, Trek, Johnson Outdoors, and Volkswagen. Nate also returned to UWM where he taught a design workshop course focused on Flash and interactive media.
Romke and Nate currently work at the Chicago branch of Avenue A | Razorfish. As senior presentation layer developers, they work on interactive experiences for numerous brands, including Kraft, Navteq, AT&T, JCPenney, and many others.
Who should Attend?
This workshop is offered for developers, designers, and anyone interested in Adobe Flex and AIR for delivering interactive experiences. The development of Flex and AIR projects without using an IDE will be demonstrated initially; however, the focus of the workshop will be the use of Adobe Flex Builder 3, covering intermediate to advanced coding in Actionscript 3 and MXML.
Coordinator
Dr. Mariam Zahedi is a Professor and Trisept Solutions Professor in Management Information, Lubar School of Business, UW-Milwaukee
