Can Adobe AIR applications execute processes on the local client machine?

Question

I want to be able to launch a third party process from within an Adobe AIR application (actually a command line process). Is there a security context that AIR apps run in that prevents this?

Answer 1

Two of the most requested features for Adobe AIR have been the ability to launch native executables from an AIR application, and the ability to integrate native libraries into an AIR application. Unfortunately, neither feature is included in Adobe AIR 1.0.

However. Check out:

This blog post

Airaveer

Shu-player

Shu enables you to increase the power and reach of Adobe AIR. With Shu your AIR applications can quickly be converted into standalone applications to run on PC or Mac machines without the AIR runtime installed! Shu applications can also be run from a CD or network share and do not require installation. In addition Shu provides you the developer with a toolkit of commands to extend the system capabilities of your AIR application, features include, controlling external applications, opening external files, database connectivity and control, system path retrieval and screen capture functionality.

Using any of these methods will however break some of the intentions with AIR, which is cross-platform development. And as far as i know that's the main reason why Adobe won't let you execute native code at the moment.

Answer 2

Actually with the latest version of Shu you have the ability to create a standard AIR file with additional commands which breaks no intentions of AIR at all.

Answer 3

Regarding Shu, you should probably read this post from Mike Chambers:

http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/04/07/redistributing-the-adobe-air-runtime-installer/

It's not 100% clear that what Shu does is totally legal.

Answer 4

Shu seems like the answer but we've had trouble with their support

In our evaluation we had trouble installing the application if air was already installed. This isn't acceptable for our customers, we'd like it to be a smooth experience.

Has anyone had any luck with their support or seen this problem?

Answer 5

Never Buy SHU package from http://shu-player.com/. It is a waste of your money for the following reasons:

a) The executable is close to 15 Meg and it is slow b) Their documentation is horrible c) No one will email you back. They just take your money and that is

I was able to create a PHP socket server and use Adobe Socket API to pass the commeand to execute the program. I use the exec call. You can do the same thing with creating a C++ program to do Shell Execute and your C++ program can be a socket server.

I can do it so you can do it. Email me if you need help and I can give you the code on how to do it.

Answer 6

I was able to create a PHP socket server and use Adobe Socket API to pass the commeand to execute the program. I use the exec call. You can do the same thing with creating a C++ program to do Shell Execute and your C++ program can be a socket server.

hallo Mehran,

this is exactly what i am searching for. can you give me some advice or post the source.

thx

Answer 7

Just FYI, this will be possible in AIR 2.0, announced at Adobe MAX.

Answer 8

Hi gimmli, Did my email helped you with running native application using Adobe Air. Did you write your socket server in Java?

Answer 9

doable with Adobe AIR 2.0, currently in beta.