Before you start

This tutorial is for Web developers who are looking to create interactive Facebook applications using the free Adobe Flex SDK. Although not required, a basic knowledge of PHP, HTML, and Web application development would be of great benefit to readers. No prior experience with Flex development or Facebook development is required.

About this tutorial

This tutorial provides you with a foundation in developing Facebook applications using the Adobe Flex SDK and the Facebook development platform. You'll first be introduced to the concepts of Adobe Flex, in particular MXML and ActionScript. Then we'll look at Facebook applications and the tools available to developers, such as FBML (Facebook Markup Language), FQL (Facebook Query Language), and the REST API. Next, we'll set up the development environment by installing the Flex SDK, and I'll explain the structure of a Flex application and show you how to create a Facebook application. We then create a basic Flex application, which lays the foundation for the sample application that follows, a Facebook slideshow application.

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Prerequisites

You'll need the following tools to follow along with this tutorial:

• The latest stable build of the Flex 3 SDK.
• An account on Facebook with the Developer application added.
• A Web server with PHP 5 or later installed.
• Facebook PHP Client Library.
• Facebook ActionScript API. The latest version is V0.9.1.
• Adobe Flash Player Version 9 or later.

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Table of contents

• Before you start
• Introduction to Adobe Flex
• Introduction to Facebook applications
• Installing components
• Creating your first Flex application
• Building the sample Facebook application
• Summary
• Downloads
• Resources
• About the author

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