"air" Object undefined, using JavaScript.

Question

Hello,
I'm using Adobe Air to extend the functionality of an
existing web client (allowing access to file-system, etc). The web
client is programmed in JavaScript.
Because the source code of the web client is pretty big, I
would like to avoid code branches. That is, I would like the web
client to run in the "improved" mode, if and only if it detects
it's running in an Adobe Air environment, otherwise it must behave
normally. This makes sense because the number of added
functionalities is quite small.
I started by creating a HTML Air application that displays a
login panel with three fields:
- server
- username
- password
The web client is deployed on a server. I want to avoid
packaging the whole web client + server in the Adobe Air
application. That doesn't make sense for my purpose. This is the
reason why I added a "server" field in the login page: the user can
enter the URL of the server he wants to connect to.
When the user clicks on the login button, the application
posts the real login page of the web client (with AJAX) and it gets
a session id cookie. Finally, I load the web client with:
window.location.href =
http://www.example.site/path/to/index.jsp
After this line of code is executed, I can see the web client
running in my Air application. Now, to extend its functionality I
have to add some Air code in its JavaScript files.
So I added the following code to the index page.
<script type="text/javascript"
src="path/to/AIRAliases.js"></script>
and I started editing a JavaScript file:
if (air) { // We are running in an Air environment
// improved code
} else { // We are running in a browser
// normal code
The problem is that the "air" object is always undefined. I
though this was a problem of AIRAliases.js, but it wasn't the case:
"window.runtime" is also undefined.
It seems like "window.runtime" is undefined after any
"window.location.href = ..." instruction.
Is this normal?
Is there another way to load a website in an Air application,
giving it access to the "air" object?
Thank you,
Matthew

Answer 1

Thank you Joe for the explanations. I had a deep look at the
documentation about sandboxes.
I'm now able to set up a bridge between my remote client's
javascripts and the "dangerous" functions with access to the full
Air API.
However, I still have a big problem.
My remote web client displays a list of files (that's a very
simplified description). What I would like to do is letting the
users drag-and-drop files from the desktop into the files' list
(that would be the drop zone). Then, they will be automatically
uploaded to the server.
The problem is that I can't access the "getData" method of
the "drop" event I get in the event handler:
dropZone.addEventListener("drop", function(e) {
window.parentSandboxBridge.upload(e.dataTransfer.getData("application/x-vnd.adobe.air.fil e-list")[0]);
I also tried moving the event handler in the app sandbox but
it didn't work:
dropZone.addEventListener("drop",
window.parentSandboxBridge.dropEventHandler);
The error I get is always something like getData is
undefined.
How can I solve this?
Thanks
Matthew