Macromedia Flash 8 represented his first serious interaction with a programming language, an epiphany whereupon his BA in Design for Interactive Media became far more focused on the Programming side of things than the Art (although it turned out okay).
He considers himself to be fortunate to have encountered the Flash Platform when he did, as during that time between first contact and today, the Flash Platform has evolved at just the right pace to enable him to keep up with the latest shiny new features.
In addition to developing Facebook-integrated Flash Player applications, James has also developed a few AIR applications, built a couple of Apps for iOS and Android devices, helped develop a load of websites, and blogs about all of this on his website: http://www.psyked.co.uk/.
Acknowledgement
So much of what seems original in the world of programming can be achieved by simply learning to use the tools that others have already developed, and the code that we use in this cookbook does a lot of just that. With this in mind, we should acknowledge the authors of the two main Facebook ActionScript libraries:
Jason Christ, the team from http://gskinner.com/ and the teams at both Adobe and Facebook, who have collaborated to produce the Official Facebook ActionScript 3 SDK.
Mark Walters, a.k.a. yourpalmark, who almost singlehandedly extended the Official SDK into the unofficial community-supported SDK, introducing a more frequent update schedule and a range of helpful new ActionScript classes. Its his version of the SDK that we use in this cookbook, and Im very grateful for it.
Thanks also to my technical reviewers, Emanuele and Paul, whose comments have been invaluablekeeping my propensity for bad coding practice in check as much as everything else, I hope it wasnt too harrowing a task for you guys.
And of course, the team at Packt Publishingparticulary Steven, Hyacintha, and Leenaand everyone else whos been involved. No doubt that I could not have done it without you.
About the Reviewers
Emanuele Feronato has been studying programming languages since the early eighties, with a particular interest in web and game development. He taught online programming for the European Social Fund and now owns a web development company in Italy where he also works as a lead programmer.
As a writer, he has worked as technical reviewer for Packt Publishing and hes actually writing a book about Flash game development.
His blog, www.emanueleferonato.com, is one of the most visited blogs about indie programming.
I would like to thank Leena Purkait at Packt Publishing for the opportunity to review this book, and my little daughter Kimora for making my life happy.
Paulius Uza is an award winning Interactive Producer and Managing Partner at InRuntime Inc. Over the last nine years, Paulius has gained significant experience in various fields of digital advertising and technology by working with a world renowned brands such as MTV, Nokia, ZuluTrade, AAAFx, and Donzi Marine to name a few. Being an artist and a technology expert, Paulius combines best of both worlds by creating and delivering engaging digital advertising and interactive media experiences.
Paulius is a major contributor to open source community, with his software featured in hundreds of open source and commercial software projects such as Adobe Captivate.
During his free time he writes a blog about interactive design and programming topics at: http://www.uza.lt
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This book is dedicated to Leonie; my soulmate, my better half. Shes been infinitely patient and supportive, both before and during the writing of this cookbook. Couldnt have done it without you, you know.
Family and friends deserve credit alsoencouragement and support is very warmly received. I apologize profoundly for being distant and unreachable for so long while Ive been writing.
Preface
Flash applications are popular and becoming increasingly social. With Flash applications for Facebook you can tap into a potential audience of half a billion existing users, their connections and affiliations, their uploaded images, posts, comments, and more.