How to use C# with AIR?

Question

I have some basic experience in making Flex sites, but I think I have more use for Flex in making a desktop AIR application.

Anyway, I was wondering if it is at least possible to use C# alongside Actionscript/AIR? I can't find any example of this.

Also, can I use custom Flash components in a Flex app? I know I can use Javascript components.

Thanks

Answer 1

Your options with AIR are limited to HTML/JS, Flash/ActionScript or Flex. There's no support for other languages and frameworks.

Answer 2

You can create a C# console application and call this application from AIR.

var file:File = File.applicationDirectory;
file = file.resolvePath("CSharpConsoleApplication.exe");
var nativeProcessStartupInfo:NativeProcessStartupInfo = new NativeProcessStartupInfo();
nativeProcessStartupInfo.executable = file;
nativeProcessStartupInfo.arguments.push("-arg");
var process:NativeProcess = new NativeProcess();
process.addEventListener(NativeProcessExitEvent.EXIT,onProcessDone);
process.start(nativeProcessStartupInfo);

In this way we have a C# application with AIR interface.

Answer 3

Slukse is correct -- it depends on what you mean by "alongside."

Obviously you can't compile C# code into a SWF -- that much we know. But you can certainly embed (as davr suggests) an ActiveX control into a .NET Forms app, load the SWF into that control, and use the ExternalInterface API to bridge the C# code running in the desktop app and the ActionScript code running in the SWF. If by alongside you mean writing server-side C# code to render data consumable by the Flex app, then of course, you can do that, too -- there's plenty of documentation out there covering how to connect a Flash or Flex (or AIR, by extension) app to Web Services of a variety of flavors, including the relatively new-ish WCF stuff.

Another way to go would be to run a standalone C# desktop app (e.g., a service, console app or the like) and have that app listening over a certain local port -- then have your SWF talk to that app using the Socket classes. I'm doing something like this now (with Java, not C#, but the idea's the same) for a personal project.

Answer 4

If by 'alongside' you mean using c# as middleware to connect to your database (probably SQL Server), or to perform remote calculations then yes you can. You can connect to a c# service using remote objects. The midnight coders produce a product called WebORB that is fairly simple to use. Version 3.4 was a totally free version that should suffice if you are building desktop applications in Air. The next two versions are not free but basically offer no real advantage to you.