Be Inspired with Flash Twitter APIs

Twitter is everywhere on the Web. People are using it to keep in touch with friends, to keep abreast of specialized industry news, businesses are using it to find new customers and interact with them online, and it has already rapidly become a quick and convenient way to communicate. So it was only a matter of time before Twitter worked its way into Flash files.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways Twitter can be used with Flash both on ActiveDen and around the Web. But to start off, let’s examine a couple of very useful APIs Flash developers can use to quickly pull in and manipulate Twitter data.

Flash Twitter APIs

Tweetr

This is a simple to use AS3 Twitter API that includes the majority of all Twitter API features and a URLShortener Class based on http://is.gd/. Tweetr also includes a simple and easy to install PHP Proxy Class that allows the Tweetr API to be used for Flash content that is supposed to be deployed on the Web. This effectively circumvents any Twitter crossdomain restrictions.

SWX

SWX professes to be the easiest way to build Flash applications utilizing Twitter. SWX stands for SWF Data Exchange Format and is a new, native, data format for Flash that uses simple SWF files to store and exchange data. Here’s an example of just how easy it is to call Twitter data into Flash using SWX:

Open the SWX Data Analyzer: http://swxformat.org/php/analyzer/
In Flash, create a new FLA and in that, 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");

Test your FLA and look in the SWX Data Analyzer to see the last 20 public timeline updates as they load into your Flash application.
To display the updates in Flash, trace out the value of loader.result.
That’s all you need to start working with SWX and Twitter! No API necessary!

Around the Web

Twitter Sketch

Twitter Sketch searches Twitter for the most recent posts that contain either the words “up”, “down”, “left” or “right” and the color words “red”, “blue”, “green” etc. The drawing ‘cursor’ creates circles of varying sizes and fades older circles over time. The application reads Twitter results word by word so when a matching word comes up it either moves the cursor in one of the directions (“up, “down” etc.) or changes the color. If the word doesn’t match, the cursor continues drawing at the last color or position. New results are fetched every 20 seconds, causing a slight delay between realtime posts and visual output. The result is an example of how something mundane as a group of words can be representing visually in an exciting and dynamic fashion.

Word Feeder

Word Feeder invites the user to type in any word(s) and it brings up images that match your search from Flickr, and also searches through recent Tweets to find uses of the words you search on. Word Feeder is an example of an app built using Tweetr, which we mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Free Twitter Designer

The Free Twitter Designer helps Twitter users with little graphic or Web design experience to design their own Twitter page background courtesy of this clever little Flash application. Users can change background images and add and manipulate text.

Visible Tweets

Flash-based Visible Tweets takes the keyword(s) you enter, finds Tweets that match your search criteria, and then displays them with vibrant color and beautiful animations. It’s the coolest way to view Tweets!

Twitter Flash files on ActiveDen

No time to learn a tutorial or play with a Twitter API? Fear not! The quickest and cheapest solution to integrate a Flash-based Twitter solution in your Flash project is via our very own Twitter files on ActiveDen! Check out the files below to see creative solutions to using Flash to process Twitter feeds: