Foundations of Popfly: Rapid Mashup Development Book

About the Author     xi
About the Technical Reviewer     xiii
Acknowledgments     xv
Introduction     xvii
Introduction to Mashups     1
What Is a Mashup?     1
A Brief History of Mashups     2
Understanding Mashup Technology     4
Foundation Technologies     5
Presentation Technologies     6
Interactivity Technologies     6
Web Service Technologies: Application Programming Interfaces     7
Data Technologies     8
Mashup Architecture     9
Examples of Mashups     11
AP News + Google Maps     11
Markovic.com     12
Bubblr     12
Mashup Resources on the Web     13
Web Sites     14
Mashup Web Service APIs     14
Summary     20
Enter Popfly     21
What Is Popfly?     22
Presentation and Interactivity Blocks     23
Web Services and Data Blocks     23
The Popfly Environment     24
Mashup Creator     24
Block Creator     25
Web Page Creator     25
Popfly Explorer     26
Online Community     26
How Do Silverlight and Popfly Relate?     27
Getting a Popfly Account     28
Creating Your Profile     28
Finding Users     29
Getting Help     30
Popfly Examples     30
Upcoming Music Events with Forecast     30
My Facebook Friends     31
spacesPhotoSlide     32
Summary     33
Creating Your First Mashup     35
Finding Blocks     36
Setting Block Properties     37
Connecting Blocks     38
Viewing Advanced Properties     41
Testing Your Mashup     42
Adding HTML to Your Mashup     43
Saving Your Mashup     44
Sharing Your Popfly Mashup     45
Summary     46
More Mashup Examples     47
Creating a Flickr Mashup     47
Getting a Flickr Account     47
Setting Up Your Flickr Mashup     48
Setting the User Input Block Properties     51
Setting the Flickr Block Properties     53
Setting the PhotoSphere Block Properties     55
Previewing the Flickr Mashup      56
Saving Your Mashup     57
Creating a Virtual Earth Mashup     57
Getting an Upcoming Account     57
Getting Started on Your Upcoming Virtual Earth Mashup     59
Setting the Upcoming Block Properties     60
Setting the Virtual Earth Block Properties     61
Customizing the Virtual Earth Block     64
Managing Your API Keys     67
Summary     69
Creating Web Pages     71
Creating Your First Page     71
Changing Headers and Footers     73
Creating and Adding Content     75
Changing Page Styles     79
Adding Mashups to Web Pages     82
Summary     85
Sharing Your Popfly Mashup     87
Tweaking Your Mashup     87
Sharing Your Mashup     91
Sharing Your Mashup in Web Pages     92
Sharing Your Mashup As a Windows Vista Gadget     96
Sharing Your Mashup in Window Live Spaces     99
Sharing Your Mashup in Facebook     101
E-mailing Your Mashup     102
Summary     104
Extending Popfly with Blocks     105
What Is a Block?     105
Block Architecture      106
RSS Block Description     107
RSS Block Code     114
Getting Data from the Server     124
Summary     124
Getting Started with the Popfly Block SDK     125
Downloading the Popfly Block SDK     125
Installing Visual Web Developer     128
Setting Up the Block Test Harness     131
How the Test Harness Works     137
Summary     145
Creating Your First Block with Visual Web Developer     147
Finding a Service for Your Block     147
Technorati API Operations     151
Search Operation (Query)     152
Developing Your Block in Visual Web Developer     154
Testing Your Block     163
Debugging Your Code with Visual Web Developer     165
Creating Your Block Definition with Visual Web Developer     169
Summary     174
Using the Popfly Block Creator     175
The Block Creator     175
Adding Your Block to Popfly     179
Using Your Block in a Mashup     182
Summary     186
Index     187