14 DAY TRIAL // The quality and interactivity of web experience can be extended at the desktop level through rich Internet applications. In a previous article, there is shown that such applications can be created with Adobe AIR, which represent an operating system runtime allowing the integration of different web technologies in standalone applications that run without the need of a web browser on the most popular operating systems.
Adobe AIR applications can be constructed by using free and open source tools and common web development technologies. In a long list of the applications based on Adobe AIR runtime, there are a few that could be useful for every webmaster. Depending on the application license type or distribution characteristics, the source code could be available. You could compare various parts of the source code with the corresponding program features in order to improve your knowledge.
Fresh is a RSS reader Ajax based. It provides many useful features like: customizable panels, tabbed browsing options, browser integration, offline RSS reading capabilities and more (it uses Ext JS library). The Fresh AIR source code can be downloaded from here.
Spaz and twhirl are two Adobe AIR based desktop clients for Twitter. Many of the Twitter microblogging service features are available also at the desktop level as well as a lot of other usability enhancements. For Flash video files editing, RichFLV application will allow you to read FLV metadata, edit cuepoints, perform various conversions and more.
SearchCoders Dashboard could be used as a collaboration tool to establish contacts with other webmasters. It gives you instant access to a database containing over 70,000 email messages sent to the FlexCoders Yahoo! group, contains a chat system, a blog reader and more. For task management and organizing AgileAgenda could be the application you need. If you want to go deeper with AIR applications knowledge, on the Adobe website you will find many other resources regarding AIR applications development and source codes.