Rapid Download Squad

Web applications no longer need be powered by any one individual's data, and they don't need to be confined to the desktop. Developers can draw on a wealth of publicly available content, from providers such as Flickr, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Last.fm, and combine it for use in their own applications. Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) makes it simple to bring previously web-only applications to the desktop, allowing them to run alongside traditional applications on an end user's computer.

In this book, you'll learn how to create mashup applications from the vast array of web services, feeds, and APIs using Adobe Flash and Flex together with HTML and JavaScript (Ajax). You'll be introduced to the various sources of information and the tools necessary to gather and reuse that information, and then you'll learn how to combine that content in a variety of ways.

You'll learn how to have desktop applications interact with online services such as Flickr, you'll learn how to use Amazon S3 for enterprise-level data storage, and you'll embrace technologies such as OpenID. In addition, you'll create abstract visualizations based on music sourced from Last.fm and consume Twitter content via RSS. You will also see how to use the Flash-native data format SWX along with PHP to create a Yahoo! weather widget.

You'll discover just why you may want to build a widget or a desktop application rather leaving things web-based; then you'll create an application using Flex Builder and AIR and learn how best to distribute it. With so many tools and so much data available, the possibilities for mashup creation are endless. Creating Mashups with Adobe Flex and AIR provides all you need to get you up and running quickly, while also giving you a solid understanding of the technologies involved so you can take things further—to a place limited only by your imagination.

In this book you'll learn

• how to use Flex 3 in conjunction with ActionScript 3.0 to build powerful applications;
• how you can use Adobe AIR to take your application from the Web and onto the
  desktop;
• the differences between developing for the Web and for the desktop;
• how you can use the APIs of popular web services such as Flickr, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Last.fm as data sources for your application; and
• how to optimize your applications for fast and efficient performance.