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Chapter 15. Adding Services

Adding web services to your applications has never been easier than with Flash Builder. Flash Builder is a "data-centric" animal and connects services with just a click and a drag, eliminating much of the laborious programming required by past development tools. Adding Flash Catalyst to the mix enables you to build world-class interactive experiences in a matter of minutes.

So what's a web service? In a nutshell, it's essentially any piece of software that makes itself available over the Internet through XML. The basic web services platform is XML + HTTP, where XML provides the language that is used to communicate to different platforms. XML is used because it's the most universally accepted cross-platform communication language. As tons of introductory articles about services are available on the web, the basics aren't covered here. Instead, you jump right into the heart of the matter and start connecting up your services.

In this chapter you learn how to build interfaces using Flash Catalyst and then use Flash Builder to add connectivity. You start by building a simple Twitter app, then a Flickr app, then a weather app, and finally a CNN news reader.

You won't spend much time building PV3D applications in this chapter, but instead learn how to institute 3D using Flash Catalyst from the Flickr app.

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The workflow advantage that can be achieved in Flash Catalyst is unprecedented. Literally, what used to take days to develop in Flash or Flex can be put ...