Add AIR SDK directory to the PATH entry in system variables to execute AIR's command line tools from anywhere

First AIR application
Through this demo application we shall try to get familiar with the steps needed to start developing rich Internet apps for the AIR runtime environment. We shall use HTML and JavaScript for this demo app. We shall use scripting to access AIR libraries to get access to the file system and also create a new window. From the initial welcome window, we shall shift focus to a newly created window where the user will be prompted to select a destination directory. This will be done by using AIR's File I/O library through JavaScript.

For the application, we first need to create a directory where all files for the app will be created and hosted. Let's assume this home directory to be C:/demoApp. As discussed already, an XML descriptor file is important for the application. So, we'll create that first. For this, open a text editor and add the following code to it. Save the file as 'application.xml.'

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.0.M5" appId="FirstApp" version="1.0">
<name>Try Adobe AIR</name>
<title>Demo App for PCQuest</title>
<description>To get familiar with Adobe AIR.</description>
<initialWindow>
<content>main.html</content>
<visible>true</visible>
</initialWindow>
</application>

This XML file contains the necessary information that is needed by AIR runtime to execute the application. The application tag contains the attribute 'appId', used to give a unique identity to the AIR application. The Name tag gives the application a name that is displayed in the title bar of the application. For this demo app, we'll get 'Try Adobe Air' as the app name in the title bar. Lastly, the Tag Content specifies which file is to be opened up by AIR runtime in Webkit browser for HTML files or in Flash for SWF files.

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