Category Archive for ‘Moo’ at SWX: SWF Data Format

Archive for the 'Moo' Category

Using the SWX ActionScript Library to make SWX Twitter API calls

Published

on August 25, 2007

in Documentation, Moo, SWX APIs, SWX Twitter API and Tutorial

. 0 Comments

If you don't want to work manually with movie clips (and you will probably not want to on a daily basis), you can use the SWX ActionScript Library instead. This library provides you with a completely abstract (and recommended) way of working with SWX RPC.

Here's how to display the text of the last status update of your friends using the SWX ActionScript Library:

import org.swxformat.*;
 
var swx:SWX = new SWX();
swx.gateway = "http://swxformat.org/php/swx.php";
swx.encoding = "POST";
swx.debug = true; 
 
var callParameters:Object =
{
    serviceClass: "Twitter",
    method: "getNumFriendsUpdates",
    args: ["aral", 1],
    result: [this, resultHandler]
}
 
swx.call(callParameters);
 
function resultHandler(event:Object)
{
    // Display the text property of the first result.
    trace (event.result[0].text);
}

I hope you enjoy working with the SWX Twitter API (also check out the Flickr API while you're at it) and, again, please feel free to use the public SWX gateway here on swxformat.org in your own mashups and applications.

Building your first Twitter mashup with SWX RPC

Published

aral

on August 25, 2007

in Documentation, Moo, SWX APIs, SWX Twitter API and Tutorial

. 0 Comments

If you want to develop Flash (and Flash Lite) applications that use data from Twitter, you can get started without installing anything at all by using the public SWX gateway on this site. (The public SWX gateway is located at http://swxformat.org/php/swx.php).

In fact, you can create your very first Twitter mashup in just four lines of code by following these simple instructions:

Open the SWX Data Analyzer
In Flash, create a new FLA.
Create a new movie clip and give it the instance name loader.

On the frame that has the loader movie clip, add the following script:

loader.serviceClass = "Twitter";
loader.method = "getPublicUpdates";
loader.debug = true;
loader.loadMovie("http://swxformat.org/php/swx.php", "GET");

That's all you need to get the latest public timeline updates from Twitter into Flash (you can see that the data is being loaded if you look in the SWX Data Analyzer).

To display the text of the first update in Flash, trace out the value of loader.result[0].text.

A quick hack to do this is shown below. Create a TextField on Stage and give it the instance name status and add the following code to your script:

function onEnterFrame
{
    status.text = loader.result[0].text;
}

Notice that you didn't need to download or install anything. That's because SWX is native! It uses SWF files to store and exchange data.

That's all you need to start working with SWX and Twitter! No API, external classes, etc. are necessary! And that little snippet of code (which, by the way, fits on to a moo card) also shows you exactly how SWX works. It loads the data in a SWF file and the data is accessible the moment it loads as native Flash objects. No deserialization necessary.

Of course, if you want to host your own SWX gateway or develop and test offline on your own machine, you can download and install SWX to your own machine. That will also allow you to create your own service classes and APIs.

Note: The Flash IDE will give you a security sandbox warning when you run the above example but the application will run correctly (look in the SWX Data Analyzer or trace out the loaded data to check this.) This warning occurs because you are running the SWF in the Flash IDE. If you put the SWF file on the same domain as the SWX gateway, it will also work without requiring any further code. However, if you want to use the Public SWX gateway and deploy your Flash applications to your own server, you must either manually call System.security.allowDomain, or (the recommended way is to) use the SWX ActionScript Library, as exlained below.

How simple is SWX? Moo card example.

Published

aral

on August 25, 2007

in Documentation, Moo, SWX APIs, SWX Flickr API and Tutorial

. 3 Comments

SWX is so simple that instructions for getting data into Flash using it easily fit on to a Moo card (ask me for one if you see me around!)

To get a list of the most recent 100 photos from Flickr into Flash, do the following:

Open up the SWX Data Analyzer
In Flash, create a new FLA and create a movie clip on the Stage. Give it the instance name loader.
Write the following code on to the frame that the loader movie clip is on:

loader.serviceClass = "Flickr";
loader.method = "swxPhotosGetRecent";
loader.debug = true;
 
loader.loadMovie("http://swxformat.org/php/swx.php", "GET");

That’s it! Test your movie and look in the SWX Data Analyzer to see the results being loaded in to Flash from Flickr. That’s how simple SWX is.

If you want to display the results from within Flash, create a long, single-line dynamic text field on stage and give it the instance name status. Add the following code to the timeline:

function onEnterFrame()
{
    status.text = loader.result.photo[0].src;
}

Initially, the status text field will display undefined until the data is loaded and then it will display the URL of the first photo from the list of recent photos that is loaded from Flickr. Notice how you can access the results as native Flash objects the moment they’re loaded. No deserialization or massaging of the data is necessary!

In this example, you used the SWX Public Gateway (http://swxformat.org/php/swx.php) which you're welcome to use in your own applications to create mashups with the supported APIs (Flickr, Twitter, etc.) without having to host or write any back-end code yourself.

SWX: SWF Data Format

Archive for the 'Moo' Category

Using the SWX ActionScript Library to make SWX Twitter API calls

Building your first Twitter mashup with SWX RPC

How simple is SWX? Moo card example.

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