The AIR browser API lets web applications detect, install, and launch AIR applications. There are some restrictions on its use, however:

Applications have to opt-in to the detect and launch capability. This is done by specifying in the application’s descriptor.

Installing and launching applications can only be performed in the context of a user event

“In the context of a user event” means that the method is called during an event handler for some event, such as a mouse click, that’s initiated by a user action, such as clicking on a button. Note that this doesn’t mean all mouse events qualify, as they can also be dispatched programmatically.

Why this restriction? To protect the user against malicious (or just really annoying) web pages. WIthout this restriction, pages could install and launch applications as soon as the page is loaded, over and over again, until you give up in disgust and quit using the Internet.

This restriction occasionally trips people up when using the browser API because it’s tempting to wait for a user event, then call getApplicationVersion() to determine whether or not the application is installed, and finally call installApplication() or launchApplication(). But this won’t work because the getApplicationVersion() call is asynchronous; when the specified callback function executes, the code is no longer part of the original user event.

Note that getApplicationVersion(), however, need not be called during a user event. The trick, then, is to call this method right away, when your web page loads. By the time the user clicks on the button, you’ll already know whether you need to install or launch and can do either immediately within the context of the user event.

One final note: consider calling getApplicationVersion() periodically from a Timer. That way, if the application install state does change while the page is open, subsequent clicks on that button will continue to do the right thing.