I’ve been exploring some of the APIs available for enhancing Flash/Flex applications for social networking, and am excited to start using them to solve our clients’ needs. For the Flash community, open APIs allow developers to tap into some great content and functionality.

The specific platforms I’ve been researching are Twitter, Flickr and Facebook. Here are some of the things I’ve discovered along the way:

• Twitter. While I flinch when people say the word “tweet,” everyone from news programs to large corporations seems to be jumping on board. A few days after Super Bowl XLIII, I discovered an API for Flash developers to tap into Twitter feeds (the New York Times used it in a really cool way to show what’s on people’s minds during the game). While implementation can present logistical challenges (due to time zone issues, “Springsteen,” “halftime” and “commercial” appear in the 2nd quarter, not halftime), we can still use applications like this to help our clients understand their customers better.

   

  
  Enter in a search term in the example above or click on the trends at the bottom of the window to see what people are tweeting about right now. Example built using Lee Brimlow's Flex tutorial.

• Flickr. I love my Flickr pro account. Although the data structure of the Flickr API is a little complicated, it has huge benefits. So many development companies out there reinvent the wheel when it comes to developing a back-end tool for their customers to upload, sort, organize and edit images. Thanks to the API, we can simply have them upload images from their Flickr account, then create custom Flash applications that leverage those images. Why buy a CMS when Flickr has everything you need?
• Facebook. The Facebook API is particularly useful, given the popularity of this social networking website. How many of you have played a game with friends on Facebook? Many of those games are built with Flex and Flash. Say you want an app that puts your face on an animated character (think “Elf Yourself”). Using the Facebook API for Flash, we can do it.

Social networking is the soup du jour right now. People keep connected to friends, colleagues and family on a daily basis using these types of tools. With these open Flash APIs, we can make it look and feel cooler and more engaging than ever.