Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

For a while now, people have been making desktop widgets using (X)HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but soon designers and developers will have the opportunity to create full-blown desktop applications using the web standards troika as well. This will all be possible using Adobe’s new cross-platform runtime environment, codenamed Apollo.

Today Adobe released the first alpha of the Apollo runtime environment as well as an SDK and other associated developer tools (the developer downloads require registration). This first alphas only support developing Apollo applications in Flex, a close relative of Flash that is geared toward application development and rich client interfaces, but according to Adobe the next beta should support (X)HTML-based applications. They have not given a time frame for the beta release, however.

Apollo promises to open up a whole new world for designers and developers, allowing us to make our mark on more than just the web as well as allowing us to bring the web experience offline to users on any operating system (I can’t wait to see what people come up with). Plus, as Apollo is built on Webkit, it will have excellent standards support right out of the gate, and I think we can all appreciate what a blessing that is.

Your Replies

#1 On March 19th, 2007 2:59 pm Lanza replied:

Well, great… but :

# Download for Macintosh (DMG, 8 MB)
# Download for Windows (MSI, 6 MB)

Cross-platform ? I must have missed something. Seems I’ll have to try with wine.

#2 On March 19th, 2007 3:34 pm pauldwaite replied:

Hang on. What do you mean, “built on WebKit”? Does that mean that the next version’s XHTML-based applications will only work in Safari?

#3 On March 19th, 2007 4:26 pm John Dowdell replied:

Thanks for the interest, Aaron… I hope this helps in your own work.

Lanza, the runtimes are platform-specific, and you can build platform-neutral atop… it’s like how Firefox/Mac is a different download than Firefox/Win.

Paul, the WebKit engine is the core HTML renderer inside the Apollo runtime, as it is in Apple’s Safari. It’s a known HTML renderer, not a new brand of HTML renderer.

I’m particularly interested in how the new distribution channel can benefit HTML/JS/CSS specialists.

jd/adobe

#4 On March 19th, 2007 5:37 pm Joshua Mostafa replied:

John, Lanza is obviously running a non-OS X, non-Windows OS – probably Linux or *BSD. Adobe’s neglect of these platforms is notorious. His “I must have missed something” is ironic.

#5 On March 19th, 2007 5:46 pm Suchmaschinen Blog - Weblog » Public Alpha-Version von Adobe Apollo auf Adobe Labs verfügbar replied:

[...] Eine erste öffentliche Alpha Version von Adobe Apollo ist auf den Adobe Labs Servern für Entwickler verfügbar. Apollo ist der Codename für eine plattformunabhängige Laufzeitumgebung, die es Entwicklern ermöglicht, ihre vorhandenen Kenntnisse (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) zu nutzen, um Rich Internet Anwendungen (RIAs) auf den Desktop zu bringen. Mit seinem Projekt “Apollo” will Adobe Web- und Desktop-Applikationen miteinander verschmelzen. [...]

#6 On March 19th, 2007 11:03 pm John Dowdell replied:

ah, I missed the significance of the “WINE” reference, thanks. ;-)

If you’re only on Linux, then you’re rarer, that’s true… the FAQ describes how Linux use and production are both definitely on the agenda, but this initial public round is for the first two standard deviations, and the learning here will be applied to subsequent Mac/Win/Lin rounds.

jd/adobe

#7 On March 20th, 2007 5:51 am Robin replied:

So this is an Adobe equivalent of XULrunner?

#8 On March 20th, 2007 8:24 am enefekt replied:

So this is an Adobe equivalent of XULrunner?

Sort of. Except Adobe actually has a plan of maintaining and promoting reuse and sharing of one instance of the runtime.

Mozilla’s strategy is to have you roll your own, and bundle the XULRunner runtime in for each application.

#9 On March 21st, 2007 1:51 am Wendy Carlyle » Blog Archive » Apollo alphas released replied:

[...] Apollo alphas released [...]

#10 On March 21st, 2007 10:53 pm Joe replied:

Looks very promising. I’m a little confused. I watched the eBay demo application movie and they are able to view the applications source code. Will all applications built with Apollo have the source code available?

#11 On March 22nd, 2007 7:18 am Luis replied:

Why have to be webkit based? I think it would be better in gecko don’t you?

#12 On March 23rd, 2007 4:39 pm John Dowdell replied:

For “Why Webkit?”, the FAQ has info:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Apollo:DeveloperFAQ#Why_did_Adobe_choose_WebKit

(It was small, well-structured, and already had mobile capability.)

For sourcecode, the HTML/JS model is intrinsically exposed, and the Flex model is optionally exposed… you can put a little “View Source” in the context menu, but don’t have to.

jd/adobe

#13 On April 23rd, 2007 11:59 pm Denise replied:

Has been a long time in the coming but I am happy Adobe releases Apollo and it is finally here, although I consider it a Macromedia made product and like to congratulate those who put thier time and dedication into this wonderful program.

#14 On April 30th, 2007 6:43 am Mike replied:

thanks for your informations @ John, the link to the webkit faqs are difficult to found at the labs page.

#15 On May 1st, 2007 1:21 pm » Blog Archive » Apollo alphas released replied:

[...] Original post by http://www.webstandards.org/2007/03/19/apollo-alphas-released/ [...]

#16 On May 30th, 2007 2:00 pm Pascal replied:

This looks promising i agree, eventhough Macromedia central applications will not (yet) run within Apollo. Looking foreward so seeing this mature. Cant wait for the Linux version.

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