How Can Flex Developers Build Desktop Apps with Mozilla Prism?

In order to create AIR apps from the current Flex code base, a Flex developer can implement Flex Builder by stripping the code base off Web-focused functionality and adding desktop elements. By analogy, it is possible to include all the common code in a separate project and reuse it for creating both Web and desktop apps.

However, there is even a simpler solution for a Flex developer to build a desktop application: Mozilla Prism. The number of actions you need to take while working with Prism is hilarious—first you install Prism, second, you select the URL of the Web application you want to bring to the desktop. “Why to mess up with AIR, then?” you may ask. The main drawback of Prism is that it doesn’t have the functionality reach beyond the scope of a browser sandbox and, in fact, can only create a desktop shell for a Web application. Albeit many exciting features, such as support for offline data storage and access to 3D graphics hardware resources, have been announced in Prism to facilitate a fuller Web-to-desktop transition, they are yet to be implemented.

What is it about Prism, then, that makes it matter for Flex developers? For many, it is the unparalleled simplicity. You just bring your application to the desktop with a few clicks—without code modifications or additional coding. After that, the resulting application can be run on any computer requiring no additional runtimes to be installed. For Flex applications, only Flash player is needed.