AIR is not for opening docs in their native apps
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008When will it become common knowledge that AIR will not open a document in its default application?! I see this same question asked about 2 times a day. If the design of your app requires opening other docs in their default app (ie Word) then you shouldn’t be using AIR or you should be reconsidering the design of your app.
AIR can read the bytes of any file and if you know which bytes are which and what to do with them, then you can effectively recreate any app in AIR but you will never be able to make an AIR app that launches Word. I don’t even understand why someone would want this. Stop thinking about AIR like a jump-off platform for beginner programmers like VB is and start thinking about its unique capabilities: Network connectivity, built-in DB, powerful animation, Flex components, and HTML rendering.
