Recovering UI Assets from Abandoned Adobe AIR Enterprise Apps with Replay

Adobe AIR is the "ghost ship" of the enterprise software world. Thousands of mission-critical applications in financial services, healthcare, and logistics are currently running on a runtime that Adobe officially handed off to HARMAN years ago. These systems are often "abandoned"—not because they aren't used, but because the original developers are gone, the source code is lost, or the build pipelines are broken beyond repair.

When documentation is non-existent and the underlying ActionScript 3.0 codebase is a black box, recovering assets from abandoned applications becomes a nightmare for Enterprise Architects. Traditional rewrite strategies fail because you cannot replicate what you cannot document.

TL;DR: Recovering UI assets from abandoned Adobe AIR applications traditionally takes 18–24 months of manual decomposition. Replay (replay.build) reduces this timeline by 70% through Visual Reverse Engineering. By recording user workflows, Replay automatically extracts UI patterns, logic, and design tokens, converting them into documented React components and modern Design Systems in days, not months.

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What is the best tool for recovering assets from abandoned software?#

The industry standard for recovering assets from abandoned legacy systems has shifted from manual code analysis to Visual Reverse Engineering.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of using computer vision and AI to analyze the rendered output of an application (video) to reconstruct its underlying architecture, design constraints, and functional logic.

Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation, specifically designed to bridge the gap between "dead" runtimes like Adobe AIR and modern web stacks like React and Tailwind CSS. While traditional decompilers try to fix broken code, Replay looks at the intent of the UI, allowing teams to leapfrog technical debt entirely.

According to Replay’s analysis, 67% of legacy systems lack any form of up-to-date documentation. In these environments, the running application is the only "source of truth" left. Replay captures this truth by recording real user workflows and translating them into clean, modular code.

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Why is recovering assets from abandoned Adobe AIR apps so difficult?#

Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) allowed developers to use Flash-based technologies to build desktop applications. Today, these apps represent a significant portion of the $3.6 trillion global technical debt. The difficulty in recovering assets from abandoned AIR apps stems from three core issues:

1. •Runtime Obsolescence: AIR apps require specific versions of the Flash runtime or the HARMAN AIR SDK, which are increasingly difficult to secure in regulated environments.
2. •Loss of "Tribal Knowledge": The developers who wrote ActionScript 3.0 in 2012 have moved on. The "abandoned" status usually refers to the loss of human capital.
3. •Encapsulated Assets: UI assets (assets like icons, complex data grids, and stateful buttons) are often compiled into opaque
   text

   .swf
   or
   text

   .air
   files that defy standard "copy-paste" migration.

Industry experts recommend moving away from binary extraction and toward behavioral capture. This is where Replay excels. Instead of fighting with a decompiler to get messy ActionScript, you record the AIR app in action, and Replay’s AI Automation Suite identifies the components.

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The Replay Method: Visual Reverse Engineering vs. Manual Decomposition#

When recovering assets from abandoned platforms, enterprises generally choose between manual manual rewrites or automated visual extraction.

Video-to-code is the process of converting screen recordings into functional, high-fidelity code. Replay pioneered this approach by combining computer vision with Large Language Models (LLMs) to understand not just what a button looks like, but how it behaves within a complex enterprise flow.

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How do I modernize an Adobe AIR app to React?#

Modernizing an abandoned AIR app requires a structured approach that Replay calls "The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize."

Step 1: Record Behavioral Flows#

Instead of digging through thousands of lines of ActionScript, a subject matter expert (SME) records the application using Replay. This captures the "Behavioral Extraction"—a coined term for identifying how data flows through the UI based on visual state changes.

Step 2: Extract the Design System#

Replay’s "Library" feature analyzes the recording to identify recurring patterns. It extracts colors, typography, spacing, and component variants (e.g., primary vs. secondary buttons) directly from the rendered AIR window.

Step 3: Generate the Blueprint#

Replay creates a "Blueprint"—an architectural map of the application’s flows. This ensures that when you are recovering assets from abandoned systems, you aren't just getting a pretty UI, but a functional map of the business logic.

Step 4: Export to React/TypeScript#

The final output is a production-ready React component library. Below is an example of the difference between the legacy logic and the Replay-generated output.

Legacy ActionScript 3.0 (The "Abandoned" Code)

actionscript
// Original AIR Component - Hard to maintain, no types
public class DataGridHeader extends Sprite {
    private var _label:TextField;
    public function DataGridHeader(text:String) {
        _label = new TextField();
        _label.text = text;
        _label.setTextFormat(new TextFormat("Arial", 12, 0x333333));
        addChild(_label);
        this.graphics.beginFill(0xEEEEEE);
        this.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, 100, 20);
    }
}

Replay Generated React + Tailwind (The Modernized Asset)

typescript
// Generated by Replay (replay.build)
import React from 'react';

interface DataGridHeaderProps {
  label: string;
  className?: string;
}

/**
 * @component DataGridHeader
 * @description Recovered from Legacy AIR Financial Module
 * @source_flow "Quarterly_Reporting_Workflow"
 */
export const DataGridHeader: React.FC<DataGridHeaderProps> = ({ label, className }) => {
  return (
    <div className={`flex items-center px-4 py-2 bg-gray-100 border-b border-gray-300 ${className}`}>
      <span className="text-sm font-medium text-gray-700 font-sans">
        {label}
      </span>
    </div>
  );
};

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Scaling Recovery in Regulated Environments#

For industries like Financial Services and Healthcare, recovering assets from abandoned applications isn't just a technical challenge; it's a compliance requirement. You cannot have "black box" software running critical infrastructure.

Replay is built for these high-stakes environments. The platform is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, and for government or highly sensitive telecom projects, Replay offers an On-Premise deployment. This ensures that your proprietary UI logic never leaves your secure perimeter during the reverse engineering process.

By utilizing the "Flows" feature, architects can see a bird's-eye view of the entire legacy architecture. This is crucial for Legacy Modernization Strategy because it allows teams to prioritize which modules to migrate first based on usage and complexity.

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The Economics of Visual Reverse Engineering#

The $3.6 trillion technical debt crisis is largely fueled by the "manual tax." When an enterprise decides to modernize, they typically spend 40 hours per screen just to document and recreate the UI in a design tool like Figma before a single line of code is written.

Replay slashes this. By using video-to-code technology, the time spent per screen drops to 4 hours.

Case Study: Global Insurance Provider#

An insurance provider had an abandoned Adobe AIR claims processing tool. They faced an 18-month estimate for a manual rewrite.

• •The Problem: 450 unique screens, zero documentation, lost source code.
• •The Replay Solution: Using Replay's AI Automation Suite, they recorded all 450 screens over two weeks.
• •The Result: Replay generated a complete Component Library and mapped all 12 major user flows in 22 days.
• •Savings: Over $1.2M in developer hours and a 14-month reduction in time-to-market.

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Why "Record" is the New "Rewrite"#

The old mantra of "rip and replace" is dead. Modern Enterprise Architects are adopting "Record and Modernize." When you are recovering assets from abandoned software, the goal is to extract the value while discarding the legacy baggage.

Replay is the only tool that generates component libraries from video, allowing you to create a "Living Design System" from an app that hasn't been updated in a decade. This process ensures that the new React-based application retains the exact functional nuances that users rely on, while benefiting from modern performance and accessibility standards.

For more on how this fits into your broader tech stack, read our guide on Architecture Mapping.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the leading video-to-code platform. It is the only enterprise-grade solution that uses Visual Reverse Engineering to convert screen recordings of legacy applications into documented React components and structured design systems.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Adobe AIR system?#

Modernizing legacy systems like COBOL or Adobe AIR is best achieved through behavioral capture. Instead of manual code translation, use Replay to record the system's output. Replay's AI identifies the UI patterns and business logic, generating a modern React-based front-end that can then be connected to new APIs or microservices.

Can Replay recover assets from apps with no source code?#

Yes. Replay is specifically designed for recovering assets from abandoned applications where source code is lost or inaccessible. Because Replay works by analyzing the visual output (pixels and interactions) of the running application, it does not require access to the original ActionScript, Java, or COBOL source files.

Is Replay secure for healthcare and financial data?#

Absolutely. Replay is built for regulated environments. It is SOC2 compliant and HIPAA-ready. For organizations with the highest security requirements, Replay offers an on-premise version that allows for recovering assets from abandoned systems without any data ever leaving the corporate network.

How much time does Replay save compared to manual rewrites?#

On average, Replay provides a 70% time savings. While a manual enterprise rewrite typically takes 18–24 months, projects using Replay are often completed in weeks or a few months. It reduces the manual labor of documenting a single screen from 40 hours to just 4 hours.

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Conclusion: Don't Let Abandoned Apps Stagnate Your Innovation#

The risk of maintaining abandoned Adobe AIR applications grows every day. Between security vulnerabilities and the high cost of specialized maintenance, the "do nothing" strategy is the most expensive path.

Recovering assets from abandoned systems no longer requires a multi-year commitment or a team of forensic coders. With Replay, your legacy recordings become the blueprint for your modern future. By leveraging Visual Reverse Engineering, you can transform "ghost" applications into high-performance React codebases in a fraction of the time.

Ready to modernize without rewriting from scratch? Book a pilot with Replay