Adobe Apollo

Adobe have a pre-alpha release of their Apollo framework available for download from their site. From Adobe’s website – “Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to the desktop.”. A neat idea, when you consider applications like Google Spreadsheets / Documents that currently run in a browser; it doesn’t feel right.

The good thing about Apollo is that it doesn’t require the need to learn any new languages. I’ve put together a GlobalSurfari RIA to prove how easy it is to use this took me about 45 minutes which included the time to work out Adobe’s Apollo API – if I had a bit more experience with the API it would have probably taken more like 5. I didn’t need to learn anything new because it is all simple HTML and JavaScript.

The cool thing about the test application is that it uses a Google Homepage Module (http://globalsurfari.com/gs.xml) as the source data for the destination dropdown.

Global Surfari Apollo Application

Get Apollo alpha from Adobe Labs, get the GlobalSurfari plugin from http://globalsurfari.com/GlobalSurfari.air and the source code at http://globalsurfari.com/globalsurfariapollo.zip.