Adobe AIR Issue -- Newswatch

[xxmikexx]

This thread is a fork of the following thread in the FS2004 forum ...

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=186262

The corresponding Avsim thread is here ...

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=263&topic_id=50831&mesg_id=50831&page=&topic_page=1

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Below is the slightly-edited text of an email I sent to the management of the major FS-related websites, and to certain other interested parties. I don't have time to credit the source of every piece of information but I will say that most of it was originally made known to me by Holger Sandmann, who has been posting not only here at FlightSim.com but also at Avsim ...

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<Folks,>

It's not that .air files are getting deleted, it's that the Adobe AIR software is reporting them as not being valid Adobe files. FS itself will not have been harmed and will continue to run in the normal way.

The solution is to change the file associations for .air files away from Adobe AIR and over to the .air-file-friendly application AirEd. Because there is some difference of opinion regarding what should be done regarding FS users who aren't computer savvy, I'm going to stop listening to others, conduct my own tests regarding when the problem arises,
and decide for myself how best to explain the situation to newbies as well as giving them the simplest reasonable solution to follow.

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The following is a link into the Adobe site, a forum on which this very issue is being discussed, with references back into the FS community ...

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=72&catid=670&threadid=1389507 (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=72&catid=670&threadid=1389507)

The recommended solution would be brain surgery for many FS users who are not computer savvy. Maybe it's a simple matter of documenting the situation and how to recover from it in an article available to all for wide distribution ...

But maybe it will be a procedure that will allow a newbie to achieve a simple but effective installation of AirEd ...

Or maybe I'm going to have to go further and write some code to force the desired file association in the registry, incorporating that program into a download package that will include and install AirEd ...

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I don't know yet. When I do know I'll say so. All I know at this time is that the procedure recommended by Holger and others a) works but b) strikes me as newbie-hostile.

thx,
Mike

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[xxmikexx]

The first bit of testing has been done. I went out to the Adobe site and learned that Adobe Reader 9 (currently in beta) will in fact install AIR. Therefore it is in fact a pending threat regardless of what anybody else may have said.

The automatic installation of this beta on my development system failed but that doesn't matter -- had it been successful it would have installed AIR. I will instead be installing AIR myself.

By the way, the Adobe site lists 27 AIR applications. I don't know how popular any of them is but I'm going to find out what I can over the next few days.

[xxmikexx]

I used System Restore to back out all traces of the failed Adobe Reader 9 Beta installation, and to restore Adobe Reader 7 as the active pdf reader. I then downloaded and installed AIR, immediately after which I ran FS2004 …

This did not trigger any AIR complaints about .air file corruption, so I rebooted and then ran FS2004 again. The result was the same – no AIR file error messages. This is actually as expected, but I wanted to make sure that this would be the case.

[xxmikexx]

To make absolutely sure of a clean foundation for the AIR installer I used System Restore to get back to my pre-testing original state. Then I deinstalled Acrobat Reader 7. Then I reinstalled it and ran it once. Then I created an association of .air files with AirEd.exe (the old version from Y2000). Then I double-clicked on a .air file and proved that this would bring up AirEd. Then I ran FS2004 and once again proved that, as expected, there would be no problem.

Then I installed Adobe AIR. When the installation was complete I double clicked on a .air file and got the dreaded corrupted file message, thereby proving that the installation of Adobe Air had changed the file assignment away from AirEd and over to AIR. I then right clicked on the .air file and took the “Open With” option, which indicated that the default file open program was the Adobe AIR Application Installer. (Of course at the moment we have no AIR applications installed, because the installation of Adobe Reader 9 Beta failed as mentioned above.) I then re-established the association of .air files with AirEd.

Anyway, I then made a System Restore snapshot. Thus I now have two of them, the newer one allowing me to roll back to the system as it stood before installing the first AIR application (which will be my next step), and the older one being the system as it stood just before testing began.

Now … It's true that no newbie is going to want to edit a .air file, but that's not relevant. The question on the floor is whether the installation and/or first time running of an AIR application is going to result in the dreaded error message.

[xxmikexx]

I installed a single AIR application, downloading and saving locally Acrobat.com.air. I then double clicked that file, which caused AirEd to run instead of the Acrobat.com installer. This resulted in the dreaded error message.

So I changed the .air file association from AirEd to the AIR application installer. The application installed without any error messages though there is an unimportant bug in the installer in that it puts up two duplicate windows, each of which asks you whether you would like to install the application in question. (I answered yes using the window that began life at the top of the Z-order.) I then registered with the Acrobat.com online service, which caused the application proper to launch without error.

I then changed the file association back to AirEd and launched the Acrobat.com application via the Start/Programs menu. It started without error.

I then ran FS2004 again, and again I loaded a saved flight, which causes an aircraft to load, which results in a .air file being read. The sim of course ran without any problems.

[xxmikexx]

Conclusions …

1 – There is never a problem running FS.

2 – If a newbie were to both use FS and allow Adobe Reader 9 to install Adobe AIR, he would not get any error messages from either FS2004 or the Adobe AIR installer, nor would the Reader 9 application produce any error messages.

3 – If an experienced user were to associate .air files with AirEd and then double click on an FS .air file, the file would open normally in AirEd, and Adobe Reader 9 would continue to run normally, however …

4 – Any further attempt to install an Adobe AIR application, whether requested explicitly by the user or implicitly as a result of running some application (for example by requesting installation of a third party AIR application via the Adobe AIR subsite) will generate an AIR installer error message because the .air file that the installer will see will be an FS .air file rather than an Adobe AIR .air file.

5 – All of the foregoing is consistent with the assertions of Holger Sandmann, and with the experiment results reported by Jim Skorna.

6 - There is no need to inform newbies about anything. However, there is a definite need to inform old hands who are accustomed to editing .air files. Otherwise they will get error messages that they will not understand, leading to the confusion seen in the long threads on FlightSim.com and Avsim.


Recommendations …

1 – Do not manually associate .air files with any application. Instead allow Adobe AIR to take over the extension for purposes of file association.

2 – For purposes of editing FS .air files, simply launch AirEd and then navigate to the file of interest.

If both recommendations are adhered to, no error messages will be seen.

[xxmikexx]

I am now opening this thread to public comment. My plan is to write a very short article for FS community site managers, webmasters and sysops to use however they see fit. That article will contain a link back to the thread you're reading now, calling attention to my post #6 above. The article will be aimed at experienced users who do edits of FS .air files.

I'm going to compose that article in a few hours, after I've eaten, slept and gone swimming. :D I will then submit the article to FlightSim.com webmaster Nels Anderson for publication at his earliest convenience. I will also email the contents of that article, along with a link to this thread, to the following people ...

FlightSim.com -- Nels Anderson
Avsim -- Tom Allensworth
SimFlight -- Francois Dumas
SkyBlueRadio -- Jeff Turner
FS Pilot Shop -- Michael Epstein
SimPilotNet.com -- Christian Stock
ACES Studio -- Phil Taylor

I will also try to register at Adobe so I can post to the relevant forum both the article and a link to the thread you're reading now.

[xxmikexx]

Special thanks to Holger Sandmann and Alastair Monk for having repeatedly beaten me upside the head till the light dawned. :D

Also, special thanks to the Windows deity for having invented System Restore, which I will now use to roll my development system back to the happy state it had been in before these tests were begun.

[xxmikexx]

The following is an inside joke directed at ... well ... he knows who he is ...

Go Broncos

[opaplano]

Special thanks to Holger Sandmann and Alastair Monk for having repeatedly beaten me upside the head till the light dawned. :D

Also, special thanks to the Windows deity for having invented System Restore, which I will now use to roll my development system back to the happy state it had been in before these tests were begun.

I am pleased you "have seen the light". For awhile it seemed the sage advice by Holger, Jim Vile and others was being ignored.

If you have the opportunity, I would certainly stress to all simmers (regardless of experience) to carefully read ANY error messages they see - and write down the complete details. And of course, not to 'Panic" when they see one as often there is a simple explanation and/or fix.

EDIT ADDED:

Reggie Field has just posted a very informative message about Adobe Air at Avsim - I recommend taking a look:

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=263&topic_id=50831&mesg_id=50980&page=

All is well that ends well.

[xxmikexx]

opaplano,

I was talking about the people whose positively-framed remarks finally got me to stop and think.

As regards sage advice, my having just now gone back and reread the original thread in the FS2004 forum I can safely say that Holger was the ONLY (repeat only) one of us a) to have fully grasped the situation, and b) to have made the correct recommendation about what to do, which is to simply document things for the benefit of those people who edit .air files.

Thus in that sense all credit must go to Holger. I simply felt the need to systematically test everything and to report on the results, wherever those might take me. The outcome of that process definitively elevated Holger's remarks above the prevailing he-said-she-said clamor to which I too had been contributing. I failed to say this in my post #8 above so I'm saying it now.

Therefore ...

A big round of applause for Holger Sandmann, please!

[opaplano]

opaplano,

I was talking about the people whose positively-framed remarks finally got me to stop and think.

As regards sage advice, my having just now gone back and reread the original thread in the FS2004 forum I can safely say that Holger was the ONLY (repeat only) one of us a) to have fully grasped the situation, and b) to have made the correct recommendation about what to do, which is to simply document things for the benefit of those people who edit .air files.

Thus in that sense all credit must go to Holger. I simply felt the need to systematically test everything and to report on the results, wherever those might take me. The outcome of that process definitively elevated Holger's remarks above the prevailing he-said-she-said clamor to which I too had been contributing. I failed to say this in my post #8 above so I'm saying it now.

Therefore ...

A big round of applause for Holger Sandmann, please!

Be sure to read Reggie Fields post at Avsim which I linked to in my previous message. He has great insight as to what we can expect in the future as the Adobe Air program is implemented.