AIR apps developed using HTML+Javascript

Question

Hi…
I am working on Adobe AIR.
And now I have 3 options to develop AIR applications 1)Flex
2) Flash 3) HTML+javascript.
But can you please explain me when do I exactly use Flex Or
HTML+JS Or Flash.
One of the reason I know is Flex used for Rich UI
applications
Is there any list of requirements for which one of the 3
option is most suitable to use.
And I have some more questions.
1) Can AIR applications(developed using HTML+Js) invoke a web
service running on a different server
2) Can AIR application(developed using HTML+Js) detect the
connectivity of USB drive (I have developed 1 application that can
detect the Network connectivity and periodically reports the status
I want the same in case of USB(plug & play) connectivity)
3) I have one AIR application that has one HTML form on click
of button I am posting the form Data to Java Servlet using
“air.sendToURL()” as shown
<script src="AIRAliases.js" />
<script>
function sendURL()
var url = "
http://localhost:8080/InvokingServlet/Registration";
var variables = new air.URLVariables();
variables.username = document.f1.username.value;
variables.password = document.f1.password.value;
var request = new air.URLRequest(url);
request.data = variables;
air.sendToURL(request);
alert("Data has been added to Remote DB...");
</script>
The data goes to Servlet and then Servlet thru Jdbc
Connectivity adds the data to database “MySQL” database
named “user”
If I read the data from database and print in Servlet it
displays that to “tomcat server window(log)” But I want
the data from Servlet to send back to HTML page where I can display
it on the same HTML page where user entered his details. So even if
I put the result into some Scope like session or request, but Can I
read that it in HTML+Javascript page .
[email protected]

Answer 1

quote:
Originally posted by:
pravinpatil23
But can you please explain me when do I exactly use Flex Or
HTML+JS Or Flash.
This question gets asked about once a week. You
can find my latest answer
here
and a little searching will dig up more opinions.
quote:
Can AIR applications(developed using HTML+Js) invoke a web
service running on a different server
An AIR application isn't hosted on a server, so all web
servers are "foreign" to your AIR application. An AIR app does get
downloaded from a server, most of the time, but it doesn't maintain
some kind of special connection to that server.
Because of this, there are no cross-domain restrictions in
AIR like you have in a regular web browser.
quote:
Can AIR application(developed using HTML+Js) detect the
connectivity of USB drive
AIR does not allow low-level system access, and has very
little in the way of platform-specific capabilities. So, you'd have
to use a high-level, platform-agnostic way of checking for the
drive, such as by looking around to see what files are available.
Things like USB insert notifications are way outside the scope of
AIR.
quote:
I want the data from Servlet to send back to HTML page where
I can display it on the same HTML page where user entered his
details.
That question isn't on-topic here. Ask on a forum dealing
with JSP servlets.