O’Reilly: Inside RIA

No, this isn't my new perspective on using the Google Maps API. In fact, it's much more exciting. Google recently released a new addition to the Maps API for Flash, including 3D perspective, and a new control set that is reminiscent of the controls in Google Earth! Straight from Google: "With a perspective map, the map is projected on a viewport (the screen) using a virtual point of reference in front of the screen (the camera). These three components (the map, the viewport and the camera) form a perspective on the viewport which gives the illusion of depth perception to the map."

Here's a trick combining graphics filters with Google maps for some interesting effects. They don't necessarily make it easier to read the maps, nor do they have a lot of value, but they look interesting, and are fun to play with. I can't claim this idea as my own. I just randomly stumbled across this post on axismaps.com, and figured I'd throw together a Flex example showing how to do it.

Excerpted from Chapter 18 of the Adobe AIR 1.5 Cookbook. Mashup applications are based on the possibility of consuming remote data sources, and to create one, you need a good understanding of the APIs available. AIR offers even greater possibilities for creating mashup applications and widgets. With AIR, you can go beyond all the sandbox security of the browser and add advanced features to the application to interact with the file system or local storage with SQLite. This chapter demonstrates how to integrate the Flickr, Yahoo Maps, and Twitter web services to create desktop mashup applications with AIR.

Google recently published a sample Flex application that demonstrated the Google Maps Flash API. Andrew Trice reported on the API last May. You can try the new demonstration application here. The application is pretty cool, but lacks some important features...

Here's a fun post that I've wanted to do for a while, but just haven't had the time until recently. I'm very interested in working with geographic data, 3D, and data visualization. This post is the first of what I hope to be several, where I will combine these interests and create an interactive 3D globe that you can recreate for your own purposes.

This post is for anyone who has found themselves in the situation where they have an existing Flash component that they can't embed in their Flash/Flex application, although they still want/need to use them together.

Great news! Google announced today at MAX that the Google Maps API for Flash now supports AIR.

Although I'm up to my neck in RIA every day, I'm still impressed by some of the things that people are able to do with RIAs and the internet. Here are a few examples that really grabbed my attention this evening.

Back in June, Google released the Google Earth API, which is a javascript-enabled browser plugin version of Google Earth. I finally got a chance to explore the Google Earth API, and here's the result.

Continuing on with my recent trend of posts related to data visualization and web based mapping, this time I've decided to have some fun and combine the two with the visualization of geographic data.

Yesterday, Google released the Google Earth API. This is basically a browser plugin for Google Earth. I have to admit, I was blown away when I saw it in action. Microsoft Virtual Earth beat Google to it with web based 3d maps, but Google is going to give them a run for their money.

With all this talk about Astro, and PixelBender, it made me think more about graphics filters. So, I thought I'd revisit them. A few months back, I did a series on graphics tricks. This time, I'm sticking to the good old filters (not the shiny new ones in PixelBender), and decided to focus on displacement map filters. Basically, the displacement map filter displaces the pixels of a component, based on the bitmap data that is passed into the filter.

Yep, thats right... Google has released a Flash/AS3 API for Google Maps, and yes, it works with Flex. I'm very glad to see the Google Maps team take this step, and provide a supported API for their maps interface.

Finally! Yahoo maps has released a full-AS3 version of their map API. This version is much faster, and easier to use than the previous versions, which relied on an AS2 wrapper, and communicated through LocalConnection. It integrates seamlessly with your AS3 or Flex applications. Great work Yahoo!

As a developer, I've known for some time now that my design skills are not exactly "professional level". Let me be honest - I typically walk past my wife in the morning to ensure I dressed in something that isn't too horrible. But while I may not be able to design my way out of a paper bag - I think I recognize good design. A perfect example of this came up this week. My city (Lafayette, LA), will soon be offering fiber to the home, much sooner than our local cable and phone company. (And trust me, they put up quite a fight, but that's another story.) They recently rolled out a Flash based map to show what areas would first be getting fiber service. You can see the map here.

After seeing the Oakland Crime Spotting project demo at Web Direction North last week I wanted to learn about about the various mapping tools and projects going on in the RIA space. I found some pretty handy toolkits for Flash and Ajax alike.