Dr. Dobb's Journal - November 2007 - (Page 41)

d11gold_p6db 9/10/07 11:16 AM Page 41 Instantly Search Terabytes of Text continued from page 39 This is one of many features that make installed Adobe AIR applications look and feel just like regular desktop applications. Finally, Adobe AIR provides an API that applications can use to update themselves by providing an updated installation package containing a new version of the application. Combined with network detection and download capabilities, it is straightforward to implement a variety of update policies: optional, forced, payment required, and so on. Network and Communication Support Adobe AIR provides basic HTTP support courtesy of Flash, HTML, and PDF and binary client sockets as introduced in Flash 9. Adobe AIR also extends the Flash LocalConnection API to permit communication not only between Adobe AIR applications but also between Adobe AIR applications and Flash content executing in the browser. As with LocalConnection today, applications must opt-in to receive messages from other sources. These features are designed to allow the creation of web applications and desktop applications that work together, rather than compete. For example, a company may offer both a web-based and Adobe AIR-based version of its interface to perform banking tasks. As a customer, you might use the desktop application at home, but the web-based application from a kiosk. A single click can take users from one to the other. This model is not simple and is not a first line of defense for typical users. Typical users should, as with all desktop applications, be careful about which applications they choose to install because installation conveys trust. (Adobe AIR uses signed deployment packages to help users make good decisions about which applications to trust.) For enterprise administrators—and indeed, anyone who acts as an administrator, even if only for a single machine—the privilege model can be used to reduce the risks of running Adobe AIR applications. This feature is not intended to let you run applications that you don’t trust in a protective “sandbox”; if you don’t trust an application, you shouldn’t install it. It is intended to provide an additional measure of assurance that an application you trust not to do certain things is, in fact, not doing those things. N N over two dozen indexed, unindexed, fielded data and full-text search options highlights hits in HTML, XML and PDF, while displaying links, formatting and images converts other file types (word processor, database, spreadsheet, email and attachments, ZIP, Unicode, etc.) to HTML for display with highlighted hits Spider supports static and dynamic Web content, with WYSWYG hit-highlighting API supports .NET/.NET 2.0, C++, Java, SQL databases. New .NET/.NET 2.0 Spider API N N N Enterprise Support Adobe AIR is targeted at both consumer and enterprise applications. In the enterprise, Adobe AIR will offer the same advantages of rapid development that the use of web technologies will bring to Adobe AIR applications. Another advantage comes from Adobe AIR’s security architecture that lets enterprises run Adobe AIR applications with the additional insurance that these trusted applications nonetheless cannot step outside their administrator-prescribed sandbox. Other features are designed to be enterprise friendly, too. For example, enterprises often use native installation technologies to manage installations across a large number of machines. Adobe will provide a free tool that administrators can use to convert Adobe AIR deployment packages into native installation packages (MSI files). These MSI files can then be deployed using existing infrastructures, such as Microsoft SMS or IBM Tivoli. dtSearch® Reviews N “Bottom line: dtSearch manages a terabyte N Security Just like traditional desktop applications, an Adobe AIR application can perform operations that are dangerous. The file API permits an application to read, write, and delete files and, in combination with the network APIs, a malicious application could render substantial harm. Adobe AIR mitigates this risk by providing a comprehensive privilege-based security model. Capabilities that are either inherently risky or that can be risky when combined with other capabilities can only be executed by an application that has been granted the necessary privilege. N N N N Conclusion Adobe AIR will provide a cross-platform runtime environment that will enable the development of desktop applications using web technologies. We believe this will enable the melding of great web experiences with the advantages of true desktop applications, both for developers and for users. DDJ of text in a single index and returns results in less than a second” – InfoWorld “For combing through large amounts of data, dtSearch “leads the market” – Network Computing “Blindingly fast”– Computer Forensics: Incident Response Essentials “Covers all data sources powerful Webbased engines”– eWEEK “Searches at blazing speeds”– Computer Reseller News Test Center “The most powerful document search tool on the market”– Wired Magazine For hundreds more reviews — and developer case studies — see www.dtsearch.com Contact dtSearch for fully-functional evaluations The Smart Choice for Text Retrieval® since 1991 1-800-IT-FINDS www.dtsearch.com 41 November 2007 l www.ddj.com l Dr. Dobb’s Journal ® Spider ($199) Desktop with $800) h Spider (from Network wit ) 99 ider (from $9 Web with Sp ) (from $2,500 CD/DVDs Publish for New beta Win & .NET 64-bit Engine for Linux Engine for http://www.dtsearch.com http://www.dtsearch.com http://www.dtsearch.com http://www.ddj.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Dr. Dobb's Journal - November 2007

Contents Hmmmm Alia Vox Developer Diaries Developer’s Notebook Smart Compilers - But Smart Enough? Conversations Grid-Enabling Resource-Intensive Applications Distributed Computing: Windows and Linux Adobe AIR: Desktop/Web Convergence Transparency on Demand Reusable Associations Effective Concurrency The Agile Edge Swaine’s Flames

Dr. Dobb's Journal - November 2007

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