Steve Rogers

This weekend I decided to investigate what was involved in creating a Facebook application, so after I had actually decided what to do I set about it and now have the first release of FollowMe. I decided that if I was going to do this it might as well be a bit of fun so I decided to try and incorporate Google Maps into it seeing as I have been looking into using the new Google Maps Flash API (and disappointed you cannot use it currently in an AIR desktop application - but thats another story).

So the premise of the application is that you can use it to record the different places that you travel to and leave a comment. This can build up into a history of where you have been, all of which is displayed on a map.

I also included a "friends map", using the Facebook friends facilities, so that you can also see your friends latest movements on a map as well (as long as they use FollowMe).

I think the "friends map" is probably the better one as the application connects you with your friends via blue lines drawn on the map between your location and all your friends. You can click on a friend icon which will pop up an information window on the map with their Facebook avatar and a description of what they were doing at the time.

Technically the application involves the use of:

• Google Maps API for Flash
• A SWF that is used to display the map (written using Flex)
• A bit of PHP coding to generate the embedded Facebook canvas page
• Some simple Facebook FBML
• Use of the Facebook PHP library for their API
• Some MySQL development

So if you want to try FollowMe out (you'll need a Facebook account) just go here.

I have also been looking at how to create an external application for Facebook in Adobe AIR. This had lead me to creating an AS3 REST library that can call the external Facebook API. When I get the time to finish it off I'll also post a download link here,