Adobe added the ability to use local databases when they created AIR. This is one of the many features that help make Adobe AIR a great solution for cross platform desktop applications. In this quick tutorial I am going to show how to create a database file and open a connection to it. The code is very simple so let's jump right into it.

The first thing is setting up a file for the database. In SQLite, which is the database engine used in Adobe AIR, the entire database is just stored in a single file. It is actually a really nice compact and portable system. I used the applicationStorageDirectory function on the File class to create a File that points to the local application storage and is named tut.db. In my case (in Vista) the actual path on disk resolves to C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\SQLConnectionTutorial\Local Store. The file isn't actually created until we make another call.

Above it the entire code for creating the database file and opening the connection. We use the open function on the SQLConnection class to open the connection. It is also advised to wrap any database functions in a try/catch block in order to catch any sql errors that may occur.

Once you have connected to the database you can do many things. Most of the operations are done using the SQLStatement class, which allows you to query the database for typical retrieving, inserting, updating, and deleting calls. One of very first things, though, is creating database table(s) and adding data. This is obviously needed before you can actually store/retrieve any data. The local database also has many other nuances that I will try to cover in further detail later on.

This is just quick intro to the local database support in Adobe AIR. Look forward to some more tutorials on the different aspects of the local databases. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.