PHP & Adobe AIR RIA's

First and foremost - I am sorry if this is a question that has been answered hundreds of times on this site. When I typed the topic in it came back with a ton of related threads, and after reading through the majority I have found no CLEAR answer to my following questions. So here they are (may the flaming begin...)

I am building an inventory control type of application that houses a mySQL database online. I want to distribute a select few copies of this开发者_C百科 program via desktop application to customers of mine to check their inventories. So the question is, I guess, do I even want to use Adobe AIR to do this with or should I stick to the web only type of format. And secondly, is AIR capable of dealing with the same kind of PHP/AMF requests being asked of it. (I read somewhere that AIR only supports HTTPService type calls and not RemoteObject)

I hope this makes sense. I just don't know all of the limitaitons, if any, that AIR has versus a standard output the the web. The reason I want the AIR app is to restrict the people even using this application. (I will give copies via CD/DVD to ONLY my customers who need to access their current inventories.)

Thank you in advance to all who respond. And again, I am very sorry if this has been answered time and time again - I truly did try and do my homework.

-CS

Actually AIR expands on the existing ActionScript API. It is in no way more limited than a pure web application (whoever wrote that article on 'remoting' not being supported in AIR doesn't know the first thing about it). On the contrary, AIR can do lots of things that web-apps can't: native windows, dock icons, local databases, drag&drop from your desktop, interacting with applications on your desktop, ... just to name a few.

The thing I would worry most about in your story is this: how are you going to get it installed? You have to know that if you want to install an AIR app, you need to first install the AIR runtime (much like Java).

You would like to distribute via CD.

• Do your customers have the right to install any software on their PC's?
• If they do, they still will need to install the AIR runtime first. Are the allowed to do that.
• If you answered yes to the 2 previous questions: how are you going to explain them to first install the runtime and then the AIR app itself? It makes the installation procedure far more daunting for non-tech users.

One last question: what's wrong with a secure web-app and giving your customers a username/password to log in?

In your case, I would say that Air is overkill. If the data was supposed to be kept client side, that would be one thing -- Air does have a built-in database, but you're not. In fact, in order to get the application work you need to have internet access and one of the major point of Air is that it is a desktop application.

As to detriments of Air vs. Flash in functionality? None that I know of. Actually, Air has a lot of bonuses: direct, file system read/write/execute access; a built in database; and, because there is no worry about ActiveX vs. browser extension, I will wager that there is greater consistency under Windows (although I have seen at least one bizarre difference under Mac). On Windows there is even a special installer which will install Air and then your application in Air. Of course, on Mac and Linux, you'll need to give them step by step instructions.

The thing is, in your case, I don't see any of those being any real help to you over what you could do in a browser. In a browser, you can ensure that you know your clients are using version 3.2.11 instead of having to have them go to the help and say "read me the version you see on your machine." Finally, with Air, if you don't have an SSL certificate you have to buy one otherwise the application will come across as "unknown author" and certain security policies will go bananas -- $400 isn't much, but it is annoying.