Air communication with other apps

[flipthefrog]

Im considering using Ext and Air for writing an asset management application for animated feature film production. The only alternative for writing the gui, for various reasons, is wxPython or any other Python gui language.

What I would like to do is pass calls from Ext via Air to behind the scenes Python scripts that move files, loads files in Photoshop or Maya, etc

My question is, is this possible. It says in the Adobe Air faq that booting other apps, loading files, etc is impossible from Air (for fairly obvious security reasons I guess), but does that mean that Air can only take (like drag and dropping text from other apps), not give?

[watrboy00]

To maintain cross platform compatibility it cannot load system applications. I can only do simple text read/write functions.

I agree this is a depressing drawback of Adobe Air as I was looking into building something similar in Air to run locally on clients machines.

[flipthefrog]

Is that the reason they give?

Dear lord, what exactly is the point with Air then? Why should anyone ever bother installing an Air web page (which is what they are if this is correct, not applications) when they can just get the exact same thing in a webbrowser, except for some not very important thing like drag and drop from other apps. I mean, being able to browse ebay while offline isn't actually terribly useful, is it?

It's back to wxPython then.

[watrboy00]

That is the only thing that I have been able to find that explains it.

There are many scenarios where Adobe Air applications could up. Say for example eBay made a desktop app that you could run that would so you current bids. Maybe not that useful but better than having a browser open all the time and it would be very lightweight.

Just depends on your requirements.