Consumers or end-users can create interesting, personalized mashups without needing to know any kind of programming. They can also save and share their new applications.
Follow these steps to create a desktop mashup using Adobe AIR applications
- Right click on your desktop or any Windows Explorer window. Select "New > Adobe AIR Application."
An application titled "AIR Template Launcher" will run, allowing you to choose the desired application template from a list.
The Custom Application Chrome template will give you windows that look like City Guide and City Maps. The System Application Chrome template will give you windows that look like Adobe Weather and Buzzword Extensions. These have a native Windows or Mac look and feel and behavior.
Automatic layout tiles and fills all available space as you drag components into the application. Manual layout does not do any automatic positioning or sizing. It is possible to drag and move the components. You can resize the components as well.
- Double-click the desired template, and wait while Durango launches a new copy of the selected template.
- Choosing either of the first two results in an application like this:
- You may drag and drop components from the samples after putting them into "Reuse" mode. There are two ways that applications are put into reuse mode, depending on window chrome.
- Applications with "System Chrome" use the left-hand fly-out to toggle reuse mode. Click the Hand icon to turn reuse mode on (it becomes an arrow), then click the arrow to turn reuse mode off.
- Applications with "Custom Chrome" like the one above are put into reuse mode by clicking the hand icon in the title bar (which becomes an arrow), then clicking the arrow to turn reuse mode off.
- You may save the mashed-up application by clicking on the "disk" icon in the title bar. If you do not save after changing the contents of a mashup application, you will be prompted on exit. When you save the application, a new folder with the prefix Application is created. The mashup can be launched by double-clicking the shortcut named "Launch."
- You may invoke "Create Flex Builder Project" on you mashup. This will update the files comprising the application such that you may import the project into Flex Builder and continue editing the application as though you had created it in Flex Builder. Once "Create Flex Builder Project" has been invoked on a mashup, relaunching the mashup via its "Launch" shortcut will not restore the application to its saved state. You must import the project into Flex Builder and build/run the application to see the "baked" application.
