litl’s early christmas gift – Facebook Status Channel
Today marks the culmination of 2 months of work on the newest, and potentially most complex channel launched by litl to date: Facebook Status.
I know what your thinking, “We already know about / use Facebook. How is this different?” Remember last time when I mentioned that there are *3* viewing modes to the litl webbook; Card, Laptop mode and Easel mode? Well the Facebook Status channel is the perfect showcase channel for what can be done on the litl, 3 completely different way to display and play with the same data and show it in interesting and unique ways.
Most facebook apps just show you text and an icon. We took that idea, put it in a blender, mixed in some good old fashion vaudeville fun, added a dash of city life and pour in a tablespoon of WTF. The result is the sidewalk! Using the sidewalk you can view your friends status updates in a completely new and fun way, a way that hasn’t been done before.
It’s also a great example of how a developer can authenticate with external websites and quickly absorb XML or JSON data.
I will admit, I’m biased about this channel, that’s because I’m the one who built it. No matter how impossible you might think this is, it’s all coded in AS2 running under Flash Lite. Yes, it is. Is to! Seriously, there is no chicanery here. No secretly packaged or hidden AS3 SWF buried somewhere doing all the work behind the scenes, it really is AS2.
It’s not using any third party code other than XML2Object. Even the authentication code is written from scratch, it had to be since Facebook officially dumped AS2, and the other libraries out there would have need extensive modification to work. In other words, it’s all home grown and to a large extent very modular.
There is so much you can do with just this one application. It really does show to difference in thinking that has gone into building the litl webbook.
How cool would it be to watch your Facebook feed on the television, possibly as a backdrop to a party! Or better yet, have the feed showing via a projector at a conference and displaying peoples facebook comments about the event! Way cool!
So by now I hope your asking yourself ‘how do I get this awesome channel!’. For that you need a litl webbook. If you already have one your in for pleasant surprise: it’s free! Just go to the card catalog and download. That’s it. Well, and make sure you have a facebook account. Once you log in your goo to go!
