Actionscript Cookbook

Chapter 27. A Personalized My Page Application

Personalization is an important part of many web applications, as seen in so-called My Page applications, such as those available at My Yahoo!, My Excite, and My MSN. Typical My Page applications offer modules that the user can turn on or off and position within the page. A module can be a .swf file that gives access to a web service or performs some service function, so we often use the terms “service” or “service module” interchangeably with “module,” even if the module is not a formal web service. Examples of modules offered by My Page applications include:

• Scheduler

• Email

• News

• Weather

• Stocks

• Web search

• Shopping

These modules usually can be customized according to the user’s preferences. For example, if the user activates a weather module, he is given the option of specifying the city for which to display the weather forecast.

In this chapter, you will create a My Page application in Flash. This application draws on many skills detailed throughout recipes in previous chapters, including:

• Local shared objects

• Loading and processing XML

• Using predefined components

• Creating custom components

• Using the Drawing API’s methods

• Loading external SWFs

• Using Flash Remoting to consume web services

• Controlling movie clips with ActionScript

Formulating the Application Overview

Before starting any application, formulate a plan. Clarify the project goals and map out a strategy to meet them. A My Page application requires a framework that allows various modules to ...