Google Maps Collaboration Using Google’s New ActionScript API, Flex, and BlazeDS
Google recently released the Google Maps API for Flash. I took the opportunity to create a Google version of the MapRooms sample application I posted recently. MapRooms works like Chat Rooms. You can create a room, or join an existing one. In addition to chatting, MapRooms allows you to collaborate on a map: the application leverages the real time capabilities of BlazeDS or LCDS to provide map synchronization between users in the room, and allow you to “whiteboard” on top of a map.
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“LiveHelp / Call Center” Application Source Code
I recently posted an example of a “Live Help / Call Center” application built with Flex and BlazeDS. A number of you have asked me for the source code. So here it is…
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Live Help / Call Center Application with Flex and BlazeDS
I recently posted a number of examples (Yahoo Maps Collaboration and Collaborative Data Entry) showing how to use the BlazeDS / LCDS Message Service to build collaborative applications. In this post, I’m extending the Collaborative Forms application to provide an example of a more complete and real life “Live Help / Call Center” application.
Yahoo Maps Collaboration using Flex and BlazeDS
Two years ago, I wrote a simple Google Maps collaboration example. The Flex application listened to Google Maps events to synchronize maps between different users. It also added nice collaboration features such as videoconferencing and a collaborative whiteboard overlaid on top of the map. In addition to demonstrating the real-time messaging capabilities of Flex, this application also illustrated Flex/Ajax integration using External Interface.
Two recent events prompted me to revisit this sample:
- Yahoo recently released an ActionScript 3 API for Yahoo Maps.
- Adobe recently released the Remoting and Messaging features of LiveCycle Data Services as an Open Source project named BlazeDS.
So, I updated the sample to work with the Yahoo Maps ActionScript API and BlazeDS (or LCDS). No need to communicate between Ajax and Flex in this version since the rendering of the map is entirely done within the Flex application.
Flex Test Drive Server for Java Developers (Tomcat-based)
I have been working on a Tomcat-based “Flex Test Drive Server”. The Test Drive Server is a minimal and ready-to-use version of Tomcat (currently version 5.5.20) in which the Flex Data Services (version 2.0.1) WAR file has already been deployed and configured along with a variety of tutorials and sample applications. It allows you to get up and running integrating Flex with Java back-ends in a matter of minutes. Download fds-tomcat.zip, expand the file, and run…
The Test Drive Server includes:
- An updated version of my 30 minutes Test drive for Java developers
- A brand new Flex Data Management Services tutorial
- Flex/Spring integration samples running “out-of-the-box”
- Flex/Hibernate integration samples running “out-of-the-box”
- Flex/JMS integration samples (JMS powered by ActiveMQ) running “out-of-the-box”
- A new version of my Real Time Market Data application with advanced messaging features: Java API (no JMS in this version), subtopics, etc.
- Collaboration Dashboard
Building Collaborative Applications with Flex Data Services and Flash Media Server
I presented a session called “Building Collaborative Applications with Flex Data Services and Flash Media Server” at MAX (the Adobe developer conference) last week. Beyond the basics of the Flex pub/sub messaging infrastructure, the session provided techniques to build real life collaborative applications. I started with a simple chatroom, and then incrementally added features to end up with an IM client supporting presence and videoconferencing.
Many people have asked me to make my code available. So here it is. If you didn’t attend MAX, I added a brief description for each version of the application.
