Ted Patrick has posted the latest Flash Player 9 install statistics - and the numbers are very, very impressive: 2,320,000,000.

Application deployment reach exceeding the 2 Billion+ range - This is HUGE!

For years I have paid close attention to current Flash Player version penetration statistics and it has been growing faster than ever, reaching 98% of all internet users worldwide as of March 2007. This proves that the true power of Flash Player is it’s ubiquity and legitimacy.

As always, it is a great time to be a Flash Platform Developer!

I have developed an open source ActionScript 3 project called “AIR Cairngorm” which is intended to provide a framework for working with the new Adobe AIR services while utilizing the Cairngorm-micro architecture.

When I say AIR Services, I am referring to the SQLite and FileSystem APIs, which are available in Adobe AIR.

AIR Cairngorm provides a framework which developers can employee to build typical Cairngorm applications that utilize these services.

The following is a brief description of the AIR Cairngorm API:

AIRServiceLocator: The AIRServiceLocator is a sub class of Cairngorm ServiceLocator, therefore it inherits the same API as ServiceLocator, and adds an additional API for working with local databases.
view source

SQLService: The SQLService is essentially a wrapper class for the SQLStatement and SQLConnection classes. The SQLService class allows developers to create an mxml implementation just as one would with typical HTTPServices, WebService and so forth in a Cairngorm ServiceLocator.
view source

ISQLResponder: ISQLResponder provides a consistent API from which asynchronous SQLStatement execution results and faults can be handled. ISQLResponder is very similar to IResponder in that it defines both a result and fault handler with a slightly different signature which is specific to a SQLStatement result / fault, (i.e strongly typed parameters).
view source

ISQLStatementResource: ISQLStatementResource is a marker interfaces which is intended to improve code readability by indicating that a class which implements this interface is to provide access to external SQL statements defined in a .properties file.
view source

SQLStatementHelper: SQLStatementHelper is an all static utility class which provides a mechanism for substituting tokens specified in a statement with arbitrary values.
view source

I am also releasing an update to Cairngen (though only a dot release) which supports the AIR Cairngorm API. Cairngen will now provide targets for generating business delegates which utilize the AIR Cairngorm services.

I suspect Adobe will release an updated version of Cairngorm which supports integration with AIR applications. AIR Cairngorm provides an interim solution which developers can use under the terms specified in the License.

I plan to update AIR Cairngorm to support the AIR File system API within the next week or so.

Below I have provided downloads for the source, binary, AIR Cairngen and usage example:
source
example
air-cairngen
air-cairngorm

I remember when I decided to make the switch from typical web development technologies to Flash. At the time, I saw something in the Flash Platform which I felt clearly set it apart from all other client side web technologies available (ASP, JSP, DHTML, JavaScript etc).

Somehow I just knew it was going to be BIG!

This so-called “something” which I saw, would eventually evolve to become the buzzword we all know so well today – Rich Internet Applications.

So whats the moral of this story?

The moral of the story is this: I never would have imagined that what my intuition told me about the Flash Platform years ago will continue to hold true for the next decade and beyond!

To help you better understand what I am talking about please read the following from Robert X. Cringely of PBS:

An AIR of Invisibility: Adobe has Microsoft in its sights

It is a great time to be a Flex Developer!