Redistributing the Adobe AIR Runtime Installer
mikechambers April 7th, 2008
I am currently traveling through Europe as part of the European leg of the on AIR Tour (just wrapped up the Brussels event). The events have been great thus far, and the attendance and reactions have been very positive. One of the cool things about the event is that it gives me (and the other speakers) a chance to hang out and chat with developers. One of the questions that keep coming up, and which I wanted to answer on here really quickly, is whether it is possible re-distribute the Adobe AIR runtime installer, and if so how.
The answer is yes, we provide a way to allow developers to redistribute the runtime installer. For the most part, end users download the AIR runtime directly, either from the Adobe website, or as part of the seamless badge install (both of which assume the user is online). However, for various reasons, developers may not want to rely on installing the runtime directly from Adobe (i.e. maybe the end user will not be online). Along with the 1.0 release, we also released a program to allow developers to license the right to redistribute the Adobe AIR installer, either on its own, or as part of a native installer.
In order to re-distribute the Adobe AIR installer, you must first apply for, and receive permission from Adobe to redistribute it (this requires accepting a license, and submitting a form). Once you do this, you can get all of the documentation for how to distribute the runtime and integrate it with your custom installer.
We have a ton of information on this on the website (including a FAQ).
In general, the license allows you to:
- distribute the runtime installer on a closed intranet
- distribute the runtime installer on fixed media, such as CD or DVD Roms.
- distribute and launch the runtime installer as part of another native installer
In general, the license does not allow you to:
- modify the installer, or files to allow AIR application to run without having the runtime installed on the user’s system.
- distribute DLL’s or other files from the runtime directly within an application
For example, if you get a license, you could redistribute the runtime installer on a CD rom, next to your application’s AIR file. You could also bundle it in a native installer, that first installed the runtime, and then installed the AIR application.
However, you could not, for example, extract files from the installer, installer files, or the installed AIR runtime, and include them in your application and redistribute those (i.e. maybe to try to get an AIR app to run without having the runtime installed).
In general, this is simply a different way to redistribute the Adobe AIR installer. Running AIR applications always requires that the runtime be installed on the user’s system. You cannot modify the installer, or the installer or runtime files (as the website says “Licensee must distribute the Adobe AIR installers and files as-is without modification.”)
Anyways, this is just a quick overview. To get the all of the information, including the license agreements, check out the website and the FAQ. The team has been pretty quick about going through submissions, so if you need a license, it shouldn’t take too long.
Post any questions in the comments (although I am in Europe right now, so it might take me a while to respond). If you have legal questions about the licese, then check out the license and FAQ (Im not qualified to answer legal questions).
So a licensed HTML dev shop could make an auto-run CD that launched an HTML install file hyperlinked to the local AIR redistributable.. I know an HTML guy I’ve been trying to covert, and this effectively wipes out his only remaining objection! Awesome evangelism! You guves great headstarts in all sorts of ways. Thanks for pointing this out.
Yes. If they received a license, they could include, and link to the AIR installer on the CD Rom.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
You mentioned theres a form of distribution as a badge? Could you link us to this? How would you suggest the best way would be to promote this badge?
Thanks Mike! That’s a great news! We’ve applied for this embedded installer; it’s a good idea to let us choose whenever we wants to propose the update installer :) Cheerz!
hi mike,
thanx for this info!
btw - how does this license issues affect does tools like the new shu player (http://www.shu-player.com)? as i’ve read shu’s wrapping air packages and includes the whole air runtime into a single executable. the use does not have to run the air installer at all. how adobe deals with that?
regards
jan v.
halle s.
germany
Yes, I, too was wondering about Shu.
I’d assumed that if an application distributor bought Shu, they’d simply have to apply for a license to distribute direct from Adobe, and that would cover it.
However, reading what you’ve written above:
In general, the license does not allow you to:
* modify the installer, or files to allow AIR application to run without having the runtime installed on the user’s system.
* distribute DLL’s or other files from the runtime directly within an application
…sounds like Shu directly violates what you’ve said.
It’d be good to have some official Adobe word on Shu, so that developers don’t end up buying a technology that leads to them being in breach of Adobe’s licensing - because I’m guessing that, strictly speaking, it’s the end developer who’d end up in breach, not Shu themselves.
[...] ???????????????? ???????????? AIR ? ??????? ? ???????????? ??? ? ???? ???????????? ?????????? ??????, ? Adobe ??????? ?????? ???-?? ??????????????? ???? ???????: ?????? ???, ??? ????? ???????? ?????????? AIR ? ???? ???????????, ??-???????? ?????? ????????? ?? ???? Adobe ? ???????? Adobe AIR Redistribution License. ?????????? AIR ????????? ??? ???????????? ???? ??????, ? ????????? ???? ??????????? ????? ???????? ????????, ??????? ?????? ?? ??????????????? ?????. ???????, ????????? ????? ?????????????? ? ?????????? ? ?? ?????? ? ?????? ??????????????. ?? ?, ???????? ????, ? ?????????? ?????? ???? ?????????? ??? ???????????? AIR. ????????? ??????????? - ?????. [...]
Mike,
I find it incredulous that Adobe has taken this step! The logic/reasoning that made you choose this path boggles the mind…as a developer working on RIA technologies, one of my motivations for choosing a platform would be the prevalance of the runtime on the machines of my users…so Flex/Flash would score high because of the widespread availability of Flash on most systems - on the other hand, AIR would score very low.
Any bundling type of arrangements apart, the only way to accelerate the spread of the AIR runtime would be to have compelling AIR-based applications that drive adoption and drag the runtime when users install the apps (similar to what happened to Flash due to the growth of YouTube).
So the way I see it, if someone is developing apps based on AIR and have the wherewithal to distribute their app to a wide audience and in the process drag the runtime along, the developer is actually doing a favor to Adobe! It would not be amiss to conjecture that AIR developers should expect some sort of compensation from Adobe if they help push the spread of the AIR runtime…as opposed to having to face this kind of retrograde step of having to put up with a procedural barrier as you have done currently…
I would love to know the rationale for this…
Regards,
Sumanth
>So the way I see it, if someone is developing apps based on AIR and have the wherewithal to distribute their app to a wide audience and in the process drag the runtime along, the developer is actually doing a favor to Adobe!
The entire post is about how you CAN get a license to redistribute the runtime installer.
Did you read the blog post? You CAN get a license to redistribute the runtime installer with your application.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
>You mentioned theres a form of distribution as a badge?
You can find info in the docs:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=distributing_apps_3.html#1035778
and find a beta badge installer at:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR_Badge
and how to use the badge installer with SWFObject at:
http://olddougnewtricks.blogspot.com/2007/08/using-swfobject-and-air-install-badge.html
hope that helps…
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
Yay, great news!
I meant to start learning for quite some time, but time hasn’t been in my favor.
(also testing comments)
Great.
So basically, it would be possible to install the AIR runtime as a part of a NSIS (for example) installation process.
Since using this can - as far as I can see - pretty much obfuscate the usage of AIR, it really put this framework at the same level with frameworks like the Microsoft .NET, or like the JRE, allowing developers to make the user focus only on their product, and not on the technology used to make it work.
As a member of the client’s Dofus (you know, the flash MMORPG) team at Ankama, this is an incredibly good news. I really like the way AIR is moving on.
By the way, is there any plan on integrating AIR applications in a browser? Just like Java applets, for example? This would finish to make AIR a complete tool for any kind of developments, online or offline.
[...] Chambers’ post on Redistributing the AIR Runtime Installer, because AIR isn’t a replacement for Director or Zinc, it’s coming at a whole new angle [...]
Mike,
What I’m still not getting on all this is whether our clients can install the runtime on their network using tools such as LanDesk. The language in the FAQ would make it seem not.
That’s what our clients want and that’s what we need to ease the deployment burden, not to mention pushing app updates to our clients. In our industry, most end users do not have admin rights to their machines and therefore must involve IT for installs. We need the means to make deployments as painless as possible.
I know there are issues probably mainly with Legal and the fact that such installs bypass the user personally clicking throught the EULA. What is needed is a ’site EULA’ then which the clients can sign and then do the mass deployment.
Please put me in touch with someone who can discuss these matters with us and help us reach resolution.
Jeff
>What I’m still not getting on all this is whether our clients can install the runtime on their network using tools such as LanDesk
Jeff,
I am not familiar with Lan Desk, but if this is for distribution on an internal network, then the license does provide for that. Just apply for a license, and specify how it is intended to be redistributed, and the team should be able to follow up with you.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
Thank you, Mike. We did apply for the re-distribution license and were approved. I think our confusion was stemming from the definition of ’silent install’. In doing a network deployment, you’re not really doing a silent install per se, because someone in authority has approved the installation and has scripted it.
An attorney raised the concern and I think our confusion is/was based on semantics. Might be good to have clarification in the FAQ to cover what exactly they mean, for us mass-deployment newbies.
Jeff
Mike,
I’m still not feeling 100% warm and fuzzy about the intranet deployment options. A definitive statement would be very much appreciated - i.e., that YES mass deployments ARE OK so long as the EULA isn’t bypassed or disabled.
Jeff
“YES mass deployments ARE OK so long as the EULA isn’t bypassed or disabled”
I don’t want everyone in the company to have to click an EULA agrement the majority wont understand or care about.
In that sense, yes, I do want to hide the pop-up screens - the install of the runtime and ideally any of our apps too.
The issue I’m trying to resolve, Tom, is that most users of the target audience of my application won’t have admin rights. Yes, Desktop support and schlep around to each workstation and install each instance, but that’s a pain, and I’m trying to minimize pain for the clients, which will speed adoption.
In a “headless install” situation, the approval of the EULA would be scripted instead of requiring manual intervention for each install. That’s scenario I’m looking at, and I’m hoping that Adobe sees it the way I do. The language in the FAQ is a tad ambiguous.
In any event, I think it is incumbent on Adobe to provide developers the means to get their app quickly and painlessly deployed. If you build an enterprise-level software product, you need to supply enterprise-level deployment options. Otherwise you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
A commercial questions:
If a redistribution licence will be granted, will it have any cost or will it be free?
If not free is available somewhere on the web a price table?
and a technical one:
If a flex application should be distributed on CD/DVD but it doesn’t need the AIR functions… what’s the best way to deploy it without using a browser?
Is it possible to wrap the flex application main swf file into a Flash CS3 .EXE tha simply loads the flex generated main swf?
Thanks
>If a redistribution licence will be granted, will it have any cost or will it be free?
The standard redistribution license is free.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
This license seems the same in many ways to the Flash player redistribution agreement.
I too am interested in Shu applications. Now please correct me if I am wrong but it seems these are not compliant with the ’standard’ redistribution agreement and I cannot find any info on the Shu site that says otherwise either.
However we have used Zinc for some time now and while it appears Zinc output applications are no more compliant with the Flash redistribution agreement than Shu apps are with AIR redistribution agreement, are we to assume Adobe are going to allow us to use Shu or not?
I would be very upset if our financial investment in Adobe products to create AIR applications goes to waste because we cannot use Shu - which we NEED to for the kind of apps we often develop.
Mike,
It’d be good to have at least some info about Shu. Even if it’s only “the legal team are looking at it”.
Ian
If Shu allows you to include either the Adobe AIR installer, or parts
of the Adobe AIR installer or runtime with your application, then that
violates the license and is not permitted without explicit permission
from Adobe (as detailed in this post).
You must first obtain a redistribution agreement from Adobe to redistribute the Adobe AIR runtime for installation purposes.
Adobe permits the distribution of the Adobe AIR product only under its standard redistribution license agreement which developers can apply for from the Adobe AIR distribution site (http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution1.html). Adobe does not permit the use of Adobe AIR without installation. Furthermore, Adobe has not granted any software tool provider or other party the right do to so. Adobe does not encourage the use of any software that promotes a prohibited use of Adobe AIR or relies on undocumented capabilities.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
OK, so from what you say Mike I can assume Shu output apps are in the same legal position as Zinc output apps.
“Adobe permits the distribution of the Adobe AIR product only under its standard redistribution license agreement”
I would like to highlight the word “only” as that appears to contradict the info on Adobe site….
On the redistribution page of Adobe site, there is the following…
“If you feel this agreement isn’t right for you and would like to speak with Adobe about a custom distribution agreement, please send an email to license-air@adobe.com.”
So would I be wrong in assuming we can apply for a custom license to distribute our Shu output application?
Mike,
Thanks for the clarification.
Ian
–
So would I be wrong in assuming we can apply for a custom license to distribute our Shu output application?
–
From my comment above:
Adobe permits the distribution of the Adobe AIR product only under its standard redistribution license agreement which developers can apply for from the Adobe AIR distribution site (http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution1.html).
Adobe does not permit the use of Adobe AIR without installation.
Furthermore, Adobe has not granted any software tool provider or other party the right do to so. Adobe does not encourage the use of any software that promotes a prohibited use of Adobe AIR or relies on undocumented capabilities.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
Sorry Mike, but its the issue of a /custom/ agreement. As the redistribution page (http://www.adobe.com/products/air/runtime_distribution1.html) states…
“If you feel this agreement isn’t right for you and would like to speak with Adobe about a custom distribution agreement, please send an email to license-air@adobe.com.”
I am just unclear, as you are saying one thing and this page says another.
You seem to be saying Adobe will not allow different agreements, yet the above phrase suggests we can at least contact Adobe about a custom license.
But I take your point that the ’standard’ redistribution agreement wont cover us shipping any shu based apps. Pitty as I bought a copy last week.
[...] much possible, only thing you need to get a case by case runtime distribution agreement from Adobe. Mike Chamber’s has an article in his blog about it. It will be much [...]
Hi Mike,
Do I need to get runtime distribution agreement from Adobe if a native installer downloads AIR runtime from Adobe website directly and trigger the AIR installation? In this case user is not going to the adobe air download page in his browser but native installer downloads the executable from the download URL and launches the executable. AIR runtime installation will continue after that as usual.
Thanks,
Jeesmon
With all due respect, Mike, you are dodging the Shu question like a well-trained politician.
Instead of dodging the question, you could have said “I need to get a final answer with legal” and get back with us with the official reaction.
The only reason you would be so elusive about this is if Adobe was exploring their legal options against the company that is selling Shu for alleged violations of Adobe’s questionable license policy, especially in light of letting other wrappers run free for so many years, and, in fact, encouraging their use.
If Adobe brings the hammer down on Shu, then Shu would likely argue that Adobe has let other companies violate their dubiously enforceable shrink wrap agreements for years and Adobe would end up looking like the bully who is forcing fair competition out of the market, miring themselves in public relations situation with their community.
So, your answer is a non-answer and will remain a non-answer and people should just accept it. You do not have the freedom to say one way or the other anything specific about Adobe’s legal position about Shu, so you just point to the agreement without making any clear judgment about how the legalese should be interpreted.
What this means to everyone here is that you’re not going to get an answer out of Mike, so leave him alone about it.
Talk to your own lawyers to find out whether or not you would be legally be able to violate Adobe’s EULA, and whether or not that section of Adobe’s EULA is legally enforceable. Many shrink-wrap agreements have parts that are not, but don’t expect the company who wrote it to help you figure that out. It all comes down to money and do you have the mettle to take on Goliath? Not everyone wants to be David.
>With all due respect, Mike, you are dodging the Shu question like a well-trained politician.
I am not sure how I can be any clearer on this:
From my earlier comment:
–
Adobe does not permit the use of Adobe AIR without installation.
Furthermore, Adobe has not granted any software tool provider or other party the right do to so. Adobe does not encourage the use of any software that promotes a prohibited use of Adobe AIR or relies on undocumented capabilities.
–
Replace “any software tool provider” with “Shu” or any other software tool provider.
Replace “other party” with yourself, or any other party.
Replace “any software” with “Shu” or any other software.
Again, I dont know how I could be any clearer on this.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
I think Steven is right here, Mike. Adobe haven’t openly chastised Shu (or whatever they call themselves) for its software. My guess is Adobe wouldn’t want to do so, especially in the light of their current campaign to boost their “Pro Open Source” image. If Adobe aren’t doing this, then you wouldn’t either, as you are a representitive of Adobe, thus what you say, they say. However, because Adobe haven’t made a stand against the people who make and sell Shu, others feel as though they are being given a hard time, because they are being told they can’t distribute AIR as they wish, even though others are doing just such a thing and are getting away with it, right under Adobe’s nose.
To put it more simply, people want to see where the whole Shu thing is going. Will Adobe let them off and allow them to continue selling Shu, or will they make them pack in their sales gimick and refund their customers? No one will want to buy into Shu if they feel it’ll become a useless product?
If you can’t answer that, then someone more influential at Adobe must.
@lee
First, this has nothing to do with open source.
Second, Shu has posted on this issue. From their website:
http://shu-player.com/air-runtime-notice
–
As yet, Adobe have not granted us a license to embed AIR in our Shu packager application or grant us a license that allows redistribution of Shu output applications which have the runtime embedded.
We have therefore made some, hopefully temporary, changes to the Shu packager. Firstly, the Shu packager application is no longer an AIR application itself wrapped in Shu. Secondly, because the Shu packager no longer has AIR embedded, it will prompt you for location of an AIR runtime during packaging.
–
and then
–
However, you are required by Adobe to seek a case by case runtime redistribution agreement.
–
As i state above:
–
Adobe does not permit the use of Adobe AIR without installation.
–
So, you cannot use the Shu player to redistribute the Adobe AIR runtime. As I have stated about 50 times in this post and comments, no one can redistribute Adobe AIR without permission from Adobe.
So, as Shu says you have to get permission from Adobe (see above) if you want to use Shu to redistribute the runtime, and Adobe says they will not give permission to redistribute the runtime files.
Let me be very clear:
You cannot legally use the Shu player to redistribute applications that contain the Adobe AIR runtime.
The thing that is frustrating, is that Shu knows this (see above), and yet are just passing the risk on to their customers.
You can create an installer that first installs Adobe AIR, and then installs your AIR application. You just need to get a license from Adobe to redistribute the installer (that is what this blog post is about).
mike chambers
Thank you, Mike. Was that so hard?
>Thank you, Mike. Was that so hard?
Well, I just assumed that anyone reading my blog could understand :
–
Adobe does not permit the use of Adobe AIR without installation.
Furthermore, Adobe has not granted any software tool provider or other party the right do to so. Adobe does not encourage the use of any software that promotes a prohibited use of Adobe AIR or relies on undocumented capabilities.
–
I was apparently wrong.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
Excellent. I think that’s all we wanted to read… A straight, non-messing remark in your words that Shu is not allowed.
Also, I know Shu isn’t open source, but Shu is the work of a company taking the initiative, which essentially is what open source projects are. They’re the same in my own opinion, whether you have to pay or not and whether you have access to source code or not.
Thanks for being frank, though, Mike!
I would like to apologize for any misunderstanding. My intent was to say that Mike is answering this the best he can so leave him alone about it. I didn’t mean to come across like he wouldn’t answer us so don’t bother asking him. I felt based on his responses that his hands were tied by Adobe legal as far as using clear and direct language in regards to Shu specifically. As it ends up, he was expecting that people would connect the dots. I believe the people asking wanted to be told whether they could specifically use Shu or not, regardless of the clarity of the language in the license agreement.
Thank you, Mike, for answering this using clear language, as well as providing a link to the Shu site where they offer disclosure, as well.
>Thank you, Mike, for answering this using clear language, as well as providing a link to the Shu site where they offer disclosure, as well.
No problem. I apologize if I came off as a jerk, but I was trying to provide language that would cover any company or situation, and not just one specific company or situation.
And yes, I am limited about what I can say about legal stuff (such as the license), as I am not a lawyer.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
Looks like my question was posted at a wrong time while the Shu debate was going on. So I’m posting it one more time. Sorry for the double post. I’m really in need of an answer. Thanks.
Hi Mike,
Do I need to get runtime distribution agreement from Adobe if a native installer downloads AIR runtime from Adobe website directly and trigger the AIR installation? In this case user is not going to the adobe air download page in his browser but native installer downloads the executable from the download URL and launches the executable. AIR runtime installation will continue after that as usual.
Thanks,
Jeesmon
If anyone came off as a jerk, it was me.
So what about MDM Zinc?
I think Shu has just meet almost the same situation here as MDM Zinc years ago? But as MDM Zinc can survive, why Shu can’t?
As Adobe is pushing mass installation of AIR runtime, obviously they won’t appreciate the whole idea of running native AIR application without AIR runtime installed, even it’s rather convenient for end-use under certain circumstance from a developer’s view.
I really like to give my client a choice for installing another RUN-TIME or not (actually, I’m using my own method to package air application into native exe file), but if Adobe says no, I might have to switch to Zinc solution, which apparently within Adobe’s legal tolerance.
Hi david, what method are you using to package your application? i need a simple way to do this, drop me a line in rodia1985 —– hotm….com
Thanks in advance
Thanks for such a good and detailed post.
However, I still have some doubt about the AIR installer, and would request you to please clarify.
I have developed an AIR based application, and need to send it to the client. Now the client does not have AIR installed in his system, and is also totally ignorant about it.
Now when he double clicks on the AIR package, first it will check whether AIR is present in the system or not. On finding that it is not present, will ask the client to first install AIR, and then my application.
Now, my questions are:
1. Technically, how is this possible? Since currently, the package does not have any associated program to run it, and windows cannot recognize it.
2. Do I need a license to package AIR installer with my installer ? From your provided Adobe link I find that “if I am using the Adobe AIR seamless install feature (via the install badge)” I do not require the license.
Thanks,
Arunava
Hi all,
I may be wrong with the following as I have not much experience with air but the following statement reflects my current opinion:
I’m absolutely disappointed with the way Adobe makes me install the air-runtime on a target user machine!
Let me explain: As a casual programmer for my company with a fairly good knowledge of flash I had finally some time at hand to look into air. With some cross-reading I actually programmed a nice little widget (I’d even call it “airdget”) within two days. OK - know was the time to send it to some people for testing - no problem to create an .air-file! However, none of the testers was able to actually install it. Well, I thought, must be the air-runtime. So some more cross-reading was necessary but I couldn’t believe what was necessary to install the runtime!
I guess what people want, what I want, is a way to send out air-files that “simply” install. With flash, the browser did most of the work, or a simple projector file would do. But even with all the features I got to like in air (a really powerful tool) it’s not worth the hazel to also go through pains in installing the runtime or bully users with obscure ways to download and install it.
Honestly, for casual or even hobby programmers this is hardly bearable. And those are the people that helped spreading flash and making it a success. (I have not looked into this shu-thing of the discussions above/below, and maybe haven’t read enough about the whole topic yet, but I would guess that this is basically the essence of what I described here - a simple way to install air!).
So, even though it is a great and powerful tool, I will leave it till Adobe comes up with something better. I might hate myself for mentioning this, but my next step is looking into silverlight to find out if their way of handling things is a bit more “sophisticated”.
hd
-I guess what people want, what I want, is a way to send out air-files that “simply” install.
Did you read the post? The entire post was about how you can get the AIR installer and make an installer that installs the runtime and your AIR application.
-I might hate myself for mentioning this, but my next step is looking into silverlight to find out if their way of handling things is a bit more “sophisticated”.
Silverlight does provide a way to do this. It is called building a native windows application. (Not sure what Silverlight has to do with AIR though).
-s
Hi Mike,
Do you know if you (i mean adobe) plan to implement what shu-player do ? It’s really a pitty that AIR applications can’t be wrapped into a native executable to get a standalone app. Adobe should really considers this functionnality.
Best regards.
François Boukhalfa.
@François BOUKHALFA
No, this is not something we are currently considering.
If you need a standalone projector, then I suggest looking at something like zinc or Director.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
Thanks for your quick answer Mike.
The fact is I (and many people too) haven’t any knowledge in Director but good skills in flash/flex and web technologies.
I would preferred using a standard API directly stated by Adobe (like AIR) than using exotic Zinc API or whatever.
Therefore I hope shu-player will not become forbidden; it’s my last hope to see AIR adopted by business decision makers at my job.
regards.
François.
>Therefore I hope shu-player will not become forbidden;
See this comment from above:
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/04/07/redistributing-the-adobe-air-runtime-installer/#comment-12073
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com