Comments on: Will Adobe let us create a screen capture application in AIR ?

By: Muhammad Hassan

Muhammad Hassan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:49:03 +0000

I believe Adobe should add this feature, the application already have file access, and it can call another native (or java) application (see http://blog.everythingflex.com/2008/04/24/do-a-screen-capture-with-adobe-air/) to do that work for it and Adobe - Captivate do this, see http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/

So what is the problem?

I hope Adobe add that feature soon

By: dede

dede — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:26:24 +0000

Does anyone know when would AIR go to final release?

By: Noel B

Noel B — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:06:08 +0000

I think this would be a great feature for AIR.

The security concerns are way off base. Adobe Air already has file system access, meaning that it can already open, copy, and send a large variety of local data surrepticiously to a foreign server (as can pretty much any application you download and run locally).

Sending a screenshot of your desktop seems quaint in comparison.

By: David McArdle

David McArdle — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:19:08 +0000

No joke, sharing a desktop is not a bad feature. I can allow access to my web cam. What is different about a desktop. If my web cam was pointed at my desktop, Adobe will still give my swf access to the web cam (with the user’s permission of course). Please Adobe, let me build a screen cast client that does not require an operating system specific driver or java. Not that java is bad, I just like it for my server.

By: nalnalital

nalnalital — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:23:47 +0000

ridiculous, if I can erase my HD, write files, and more, why can’t take snapshot of my desktop ^^
I’m very desapointed to use zinc, that’s a good product, I used it many times since 2001, but I prefer the Adobe syntax, you see the result just by compiling in AIR, when you need to export by zinc…

By: laduch

laduch — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:37:06 +0000

I have question…
What kind of database work best for AS3??
I like MySQL… but I don’t know anything about AS3 yet.

By: flnotes

flnotes — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 11:17:13 +0000

I think we can create screen capture app using mdm Zinc V2.5 (http://www.multidmedia.com/software/zinc/). It now supports AS 3 and Flex2.
You can also download a sample file named Simple Mac OSX Image Capture (Exchange File#000123) from mdm file exchange page.
Here is the full url (http://www.multidmedia.com/support/developers/exchange/?action=show&id=123)

Does it mean applications developed using Zinc are not secure enough ?

And yes they are also coming up with something called Pandora.

From the FAQs page..

Adobe Systems unveiled their Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), formerly known as “Apollo”, just a few weeks ago and MDM feel now is the right time to announce the development of Pandora. According to the official Pandora Page, “Pandora was conceived prior to any announcements about Apollo. However, given the timing and the nature of both products, comparisons with Adobe Apollo/AIR are to be expected.”

Adobe better take notice.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:05:40 +0000

My only issue with screen caps is that on OSX, they don’t currently work quite right when using SHIFT+APPLE+4-SPACE to capture only the app window… transparency is lost.

I too would be concerned security wise if every air app could take screen caps, although I can see some usefull functionality in it as well.

By: Kelvin Luck

Kelvin Luck — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 10:18:58 +0000

I asked a similar question to an Adobe employee at an event as was told that this would be possible. I bought up the security issue and he basically said “people have chosen to run an executable file - they need to be aware of the dangers of doing this”. I was a bit surprised because obviously a malicious app written in AIR would reflect badly on AIR itself but he was firmly of the opinion that AIR would be powerful enough to write apps (useful or malicious) and that users should only install AIR apps that they trusted. This sounds different to what JD is saying above so not sure if Adobe have changed their mind on it in the last month or so…

By: flnotes

flnotes — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 09:15:04 +0000

It is true that we cannot predict how people would use or abuse an application. But we can always put some kind of sandbox security around it to prevent some sort of common abuses.
If this sort of thing is possible, then I think crippling an environment with unnecessary restrictions is just too much. It is like cutting off the head to prevent headache.