ASTRA Web APIs
The Yahoo! ASTRA Web APIs library is a set of wrapper tools that facilitate access to Yahoo! public APIs from Flex and Flash applications. The library creates an abstraction layer above the communication protocols used by Yahoo! servers, enabling Flash and Flex developers to send and retrieve data without any manual parsing. The Web APIs library is easy to install and all accessible methods are fully documented. The library is open source and available under the BSD license.
Installation Instructions
To use the Yahoo! Astra Web APIs:
- Download and unzip the Yahoo! ASTRA Web APIs library.
- Open Flex Builder and create a New Flex Project(File > New > Flex Project).
- Keep Basic project selected and click Next.
- Enter a project name, for example TestProject.
- Select the location of where your project will be saved.
- Once you have selected a project name and the source path, click Next.
- Now you need to point your application at the Yahoo! ASTRA Web APIs library. To do this, select the Add Folder button that appears within the Source Path tab.
- Browse to whereever you extracted the source/as3/ folder from the zip file.
- With the AS3 folder selected, click Ok. Then click Ok again in the Add Folder dialog window to set your source path.
- That's it! Now, select the Finish button. After a few progress bars you will be presented with a blank MXML page. This MXML file can now fully access any of the classes from the Yahoo! ASTRA Web APIs library.
To get more details on how to use the Astra Web APIs, consult with provided examples, and read the Web APIs Class Reference.
Support and Community
To get help and ask questions about Yahoo! ASTRA Web APIs, please visit the ydn-flash Yahoo! Group. Be sure to send bug reports and feature requests here too!
Additionally, we recommend visiting the Yahoo! Flash® Blog for the latest news and announcements about Flash projects at Yahoo!.
Web APIs Overview
Yahoo! Answers AS3 API
Yahoo! Answers is the most popular Q&A service in the world, with hundreds of millions of users and tens of millions of questions and answers. That entire dataset is available for search and retrieval via the web APIs, and now via the ActionScript APIs as well.
Yahoo! Answers AS3 API is contained in the packages com.yahoo.webapis.answers.*, com.yahoo.webapis.answers.events.*, and com.yahoo.webapis.answers.params.* (click the links to access corresponding documentation), and consists of 12 distinct classes. The main entrypoint to the Answers AS3 API is the AnswersService class. To see Answers AS3 API in use, check out the Weather+Answers Mashup tutorial or the Answers browser tutorial.
Yahoo! Weather AS3 API
Yahoo! Weather provides current detailed meteorological conditions and forecasts for over 60 thousand locations around the world, from Aruba to Zimbabwe internationally, and from zip code 00210 to 99950 in the US. The data is updated hourly and comes with a full set of weather icons to reflect the conditions. The current weather report, in addition to temperature, contains full details on wind conditions, sunrise and sunset times, atmospheric conditions, and other data.
Yahoo! Weather AS3 API is contained in the packages com.yahoo.webapis.weather.* and com.yahoo.webapis.weather.events.* (click the links to access corresponding documentation), and consists of 11 distinct classes. The main entrypoint to the Weather AS3 API is the WeatherService class. To see Weather AS3 API in use, check out the Weather+Answers Mashup tutorial.
Yahoo! Search AS3 API
Yahoo! Search indexes 19.2 billion web documents, 1.6 billion images, and over 50 million audio and video files. The search indices are updated daily and in addition to site search, feature image, video and audio search, song downloads, album lookup, news search, term extraction, spelling correction, related suggestions, local and context-based searches. All of these are accessible via the AS3 API.
Yahoo! Search AS3 API is contained in the packages com.yahoo.webapis.search.*, com.yahoo.webapis.search.events.* and com.yahoo.webapis.search.params.* (click the links to access corresponding documentation), and consists of 20 classes. The main entrypoint to the Search AS3 API is the SearchService class. To see Search AS3 API in use, check out the Search tutorial.
Yahoo! Upcoming.org AS3 API
Yahoo! Upcoming.org is a social event calendar with an open API. The Upcoming.org API allows users to manipulate all aspects of the calendar: edit and post events, create groups and venues, retrieve lists of events and metro areas, and so on. The AS3 wrapper provides convenient access to that functionality via native AS3 classes.
Yahoo! Upcoming.org AS3 API is contained in the packages com.yahoo.webapis.upcoming.*, and com.yahoo.webapis.upcoming.events.* (click the links to access corresponding documentation), and consists of 11 distinct classes. The main entrypoint to the Upcoming.org AS3 API is the UpcomingService class. To see Upcoming AS3 API in use, check out the Upcoming Event Browser tutorial.
Yahoo! Maps Communication Kit for Flex (deprecated)
Important: The new Yahoo! Maps ActionScript 3 API provides a superior implementation of the Yahoo! Maps component in native ActionScript 3. The Yahoo! Flash Platform team recommends that developers begin transitioning to the new AS3 and Flex components because the Yahoo! Maps Communication Kit for Flex is now considered deprecated.
Yahoo! Maps is a powerful map browser with multiple additional tools (widgets) that make it truly universal. The Maps API allows incorporation of GeoRSS feeds, custom marker creation, and many other features. Although the Maps library currently only exists as an AS2 component, we've created an AS3 wrapper that allows developers to use Maps in their AS3 applications..
Yahoo! Maps Communication Kit for Flex is contained in the packages com.yahoo.webapis.maps.*, com.yahoo.webapis.maps.events.* , com.yahoo.webapis.maps.methodgroups.* and com.yahoo.webapis.maps.utils.* (click the links to access corresponding documentation). To get started with Maps, make sure to check out the Maps examples.