Windowless (not chromeless) Adobe AIR app

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Windowless (not chromeless) Adobe AIR app

What would be the best way to go about building an Adobe AIR app that doesn't have any windows (i.e. exists only in the system tray / dock)? I noticed that the default base tag in Flash Builder is <s:WindowedApplication> which seems to imply there'll be a window.

Should I just use <s:WindowedApplication> and call window.hide()? I saw there's another base class, <s:Application>, but I got the sense that was more for files that run in the browser. It seems like using window.hide() would briefly flash a window when the application starts which could confuse users. However I'd also ideally like to retain the ability to have the app open a window later if needed, or also to change the application from tray-only to windowed through an update.

You need to edit the app-config file to enable transparent chrome and visible = false. Then you need to change the WindowedApplication tag to and app your custom skin. You need to add control buttons for close etc, since that functionality isn't present in a web-app (since you have changed the tag). Also you need to add drag functionality. If you like to make your application re-sizable you need to add that too, manually.

jase21 2010-10-04 04:32:31

Thanks for the response, but I'm not looking to have custom window chrome - I'm looking to get rid of the window entirely (and to just show a tray icon instead, but I figured out the tray icon part). The closest I've come is setting `window.visible = false` on initialization, but that causes the window to flash open briefly and I'd like to avoid that somehow if possible.

Alan 2010-10-05 04:03:42

In your airAppName-app.xml file, set "systemChrome" to "none", "transparent" to "true" and "visible" to "false".

jase21 2010-10-05 04:27:04

I actually just found the "visible" option in the -app.xml file and got excited, but for some reason AIR seemed to ignore it - it still showed the window despite setting everything you mentioned. I'm using AIR 2.0, maybe it's deprecated or something? Anyway, I just discovered that adding `visible="false"` to my `<mx:WindowedApplication>` worked, so it's finally solved. Thanks!

Alan 2010-10-05 05:05:29

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Windowless (not chromeless) Adobe AIR app

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