The Social service enables you to write applications that integrate leading social networks such as Facebook and MySpace into your apps. The service, implemented through an easy to use API, provides an abstraction layer that connects with different networks. This removes the complexity and repetitive work of having to implement multiple APIs in order to integrate social features from multiple social networks into your application. The service also insulates developers against underlying social network changes, as the underlying APIs at the supported social networks change, the service adapts to those changes so you don’t have to rush updated versions of your app to market. Additional social networks will become available in the future and will work with existing applications with little additional development effort. The capabilities in the Social service are powered by Gigya.
Features
Authenticate
Authenticate users in two clicks. The supported networks can be implemented as identity providers.
Supported networks: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, AOL
Download and Discuss
Download the Social service library
Discuss Social service in the forumsExtract Profile Information
After the user has authenticated to the social network of their choice, developers can extract and use the user’s profile information such as name, email, photo, birth date, gender, location, and interests within the application. Friend lists with information such as friends’ names, email address, photo, birth date, and gender can also be accessed.
This information can be used to make the application more personalized for the user. For example, the application can display a "most popular" list determined by what a user’s friends have viewed, or target content based on a user’s specific location. Users can also interact with their friends from within the application. For instance, users can invite their friends to play a multi-user game.
Post status updates
Users can promote your content by sending status updates, tweets, or notifications into their social network, driving friends back to your site.
For example, you can encourage users to challenge their friends to play your game.
Once the user sends the status update, the update gets posted on the friends’ newsfeed.
Getting Started
Follow these steps to get started with Social service:
- Read the developer guide to learn how to create your first application
- Download the library and incorporate it into your application
- The technology requires you accept special Terms of Use directly from our partner Gigya, therefore you must visit http://www.adobe.com/go/social_setup to learn about the licensing terms and to obtain your API keys.
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Ask questions and share your feedback in the Social service forum
Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Terms of Use.
Community
Below you'll find references and links to help you participate in the Social service community.
Forum
Ask questions, discuss, and share feedback with other users in the online forums.
Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Terms of Use.
Resources
If you want to learn more about releases on Labs as well as other Adobe technologies, visiting a user group or connecting with an Adobe Community Expert is a great place to start.
Product Details
Documentation
The documentation can help you get started with the Social service.
Read the Social service developer guide
FAQ
- How is the Social service different from the ActionScript APIs provided by Facebook and MySpace?
- The Social service enables developers to use a single set of APIs to integrate with multiple social networks including Facebook and MySpace. This allows developers to write just one application that connects with multiple social networks. It also insulates them from any underlying social network API changes.
- How does the Social service relate to Open Social?
- Open Social is a set of specifications to help developers write applications that integrate with multiple social networks. Open Social, however, has been implemented in an inconsistent way and to different degrees by different social networks. The Social service provides a single API that bridges these differing implementations of Open Social across the supported social networks. The goal of the service is to provide developers with a single set of APIs that allow them to build applications that integrate with multiple social networks.
- How much does the Social service cost?
- During beta, the Social service is free. At GA, a pricing model for the service will be put in place. If you have feedback on how we should price the service, please let us know.
- Can I use my existing keys with the different social networks?
- Yes, your existing keys for the supported social networks can be used with the Social service.
- What social networks are supported?
- At this time Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Yahoo! are supported. More networks will be added in the future.
- How does the user tell the social network to grant your application access to their information?
- The user is prompted by the social network to allow or deny your application access to the user’s information.
- Who is Gigya and what is Adobe’s relationship with Gigya?
- Gigya is a leading a leading social media authentication and distribution platform. Adobe has partnered with Gigya to provide you the Social service.
System Requirements
The Social service should work with Adobe Flash Player 9 and Adobe AIR 1.5 and higher.
The Social service library does not contain any platform-specific code. As such, it should work similarly across all platforms that Flash Player 9 runs on.
Release Notes
This is the first public release of the Social service and is designed for evaluation purposes only. The software contained within the downloads is not final; but, many portions of the technology are fully implemented and ready for you to try and discuss.
The fps.as library includes both the Distribution service APIs as well as the Social service APIs. Therefore, if you include the fps.as library in your project you do not need to include the distribution.as library. Simply change your import statements to be “import com.adobe.fps;” to gain access to both the Distribution service APIs and the Social service APIs. We will be deprecating the distribution.as library because it is now redundant to the fps.as library, however apps that have included distribution.as in will continue to work indefinitely.
