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Yahoo Maps provides a component that you can use in your Flash and Flex applications. FlightAware provides an API (you have to pay, not free) that allows you to get tracking information about air traffic. Together, you get a mashup of tracking the progress of an airplane currently in flight over the USA via an animated map.

This example shows how to get dynamic data onto a YahooMap component from FlightAware’s DirectFlight API using Flash 8, AS2, and PHP. PHP converts FlightAware’s XML to a smaller, more Flash friendly, JSON format.

Yahoo Maps & FlightAware Mashup – Source ZIP

You can get more plane ID’s for Atlanta here, or choose a state & airport here.

Twitter.com is a website where people post what they are doing, when they are doing it. It is like a 1 sentence blog entry, where you succinctly say what you are currently doing. You post an update to your situation whenever you can. The public and your friends can see what you are doing and receive updates to this via RSS feeds, your phone via SMS (text messages), and your IM client. You can even embed a Twitter badge on your website to show the world what you are currently doing.

They’ve made it really easy for Flash developers by providing public XML and JSON feeds for both the general public, and your friends specifically. This example reads in the public feed via PHP proxy so you don’t need to login or anything. It also shows how easy it is to work with JSON compared to XML when compared to the Amazon example.

Twitter Example – Source ZIP

For those that attended Tuesday night’s Adobe Flash Platform User Group meeting, here are the 3 examples I promised to post. Sorry took so long.

If you didn’t attend, these are 3 examples that show how to use just a little code to access dynamic data in Flash using AS1 and AS2. A significant amount of companies have started releasing data to be used via public API’s. This data can be used by Flash to create cool, quick little widgets or even mini-applications. Hopefully these small examples will show you how you can access this data without being a programmer.

Amazon.com has a great developer API. Using just a little ActionScript 1 code, you can quickly create Flash widgets that access their swath of services. This example shows how to utilize Amazon’s API via loading variables via LoadVars and then parsing just a bit of the XML that comes back. This particular example gets a list of books that relate to “cows”.

Amazon Dynamic Flash 8, AS1 – Source ZIP

Via Leif’s Site:

WHAT: The Febuary 2007 Meeting of the Adobe Flash Platform User Group of Atlanta
WHEN: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
WHO: Jesse Warden presents “Design and Data Driven Flash”
WHERE: Roundbox Global at King Plow Arts Center (directions pdf)

About this Meeting:

There are many ways that you can get data into your Adobe Flash projects. Some data can be gathered dynamically, meaning that the data is not hardcoded into a static SWF file. Jesse will be showing how designers and developers can create very creative & impactful solutions to various problems using dynamic data. These solutions could take the form of Flash websites, widgets, or various adverts. Jesse will arm us against the may the perception that using dynamic data requires a server/back-end programmer, or that all dynamic data has some form of cost with it. Designers and developers will discover that using very little code they have a lot of power at their fingertips.

Join us to see how designers and developers can utilize dynamic data in their Flash projects using

• Actionscript 1
• Actionscript 2
• Actionscript 3
• examples that use Flash Players 8 and 9
• examples using Flash Lite 2.1

Who Should Attend?

• Adobe Flash Professional Designers
• Adobe Flash Professional Developers
• Web developers seeking insights into Flash
• Server-side programmers seeking ways to bridge creative and technical gaps
• Anyone seeking insights into dynamic data
• Anyone wanting look coding in the new Actionscript 3 standard
• Users of Adobe Flash Professional
• Anyone wishing to see a fun and energetic speaker like Jesse