Adobe Updates Facebook Developer Platform

Adobe Systems has updated its developer platform to allow developers to more easily create applications that “combine the social connectivity of Facebook with the ubiquity and power of Adobe Flash,” the company said on 4 October.

Adobe announced “a major update to the Adobe ActionScript 3 SDK for Facebook Platform (formerly:ActionScript 3 Client Library for Facebook Platform API)”, Michael Koch of the Adobe Developer Connection posted on the Adobe Developer Connection blog.

Improved Facebook communication

The Adobe ActionScript 3 SDK (Software Development Kit) for Facebook Platform was “developed by gskinner.com and [is] fully supported by Facebook and Adobe. This class library facilitates the development of Flash Platform applications that communicate with Facebook using the Graph API”, Koch said.

In an interview with eWEEK, Heidi Williams, Adobe’s principal product manager on the Flash platform team, said, “This is an update to the SDK we released more than a year ago. The update supports the new Facebook Graph API.” Williams said the original ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform rolled out in March 2009.

The update “allows ActionScript developers to build compelling new Flash applications that run in the browser or on the desktop using the Adobe AIR runtime”, Williams said. “Developers told us they like it that they can communicate with Facebook without having to write a lot of new custom code to do so.”

Moreover, the updated SDK “encourages forward compatibility”, Williams said. “The new SDK is simplified, so when Facebook adds new features we won’t have to do a whole new rev of the SDK.”

New resources

Koch on the ADC blog said, “To help you get started, we also posted new and updated resources in the Adobe Developer Connection, including two new inspirational showcase examples: FIFA Superstars (developed by Playfish) and Glee Your Life (developed by Trailer Park, Inc. for FOX Home Entertainment).”

In addition, “To jump-start your development, we’ve also included 13 updated and new code samples for you to explore and reuse,” Koch said.