Foundations of Popfly (eBook)

Eric Griffin works as a Microsoft consultant. He is based in Atlanta and specializes in Microsoft application development technologies, tools, and platforms. This includes Visual Studio, SQL Server, ASP.NET, C#, Reporting Services, Office, SharePoint Server, and more.

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 6
About the Author 10
About the Technical Reviewer 11
Acknowledgments 12
Introduction 13
Who This Book Is For 13
How This Book Is Structured 13
Prerequisites 15
Downloading the Code 15
Contacting the Author 15
Introduction to Mashups 16
What Is a Mashup? 16
A Brief History of Mashups 17
Understanding Mashup Technology 19
Mashup Architecture 24
Examples of Mashups 26
Mashup Resources on the Web 28
Summary 35
Enter Popfly 36
What Is Popfly? 37
How Do Silverlight and Popfly Relate? 42
Getting a Popfly Account 43
Creating Your Profile 43
Finding Users 44
Getting Help 45
Popfly Examples 45
Summary 48
Creating Your First Mashup 49
Finding Blocks 50
Setting Block Properties 51
Connecting Blocks 52
Testing Your Mashup 56
Adding HTML to Your Mashup 57
Saving Your Mashup 58
Sharing Your Popfly Mashup 59
Summary 60
More Mashup Examples 61
Creating a Flickr Mashup 61
Creating a Virtual Earth Mashup 71
Managing Your API Keys 81
Summary 83
Creating Web Pages 84
Creating Your First Page 84
Changing Headers and Footers 86
Creating and Adding Content 88
Changing Page Styles 92
Adding Mashups to Web Pages 95
Summary 98
Sharing Your Popfly Mashup 99
Tweaking Your Mashup 99
Sharing Your Mashup 103
Summary 116
Extending Popfly with Blocks 117
What Is a Block? 117
Block Architecture 118
RSS Block Description 119
RSS Block Code 126
Getting Data from the Server 136
Summary 136
Getting Started with the Popfly Block SDK 137
Downloading the Popfly Block SDK 137
Installing Visual Web Developer 140
Setting Up the Block Test Harness 143
How the Test Harness Works 149
Summary 157
Creating Your First Block with Visual Web Developer 158
Finding a Service for Your Block 158
Developing Your Block in Visual Web Developer 165
Testing Your Block 174
Debugging Your Code with Visual Web Developer 176
Creating Your Block Definition with Visual Web Developer 180
Summary 185
Using the Popfly Block Creator 186
The Block Creator 186
Adding Your Block to Popfly 190
Using Your Block in a Mashup 193
Summary 197
Index 198