Issuing queries against Flickr's REST API from AS3

Issuing queries against Flickr's REST API using AS3

/*
	Example usage:
	
	var fj:FlickrJSON = new FlickrJSON(YOUR_API_KEY);
	fj.loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, YOUR_LOAD_COMPLETE_CALLBACK_FUNCTION);
	fj.doCall(FLICKR_API_METHOD_AS_STRING, {PARAM_1_NAME_AS_STRING : PARAM_1_VALUE_AS_STRING, ...});
	
	you will want to convert the response string that you get in your callback to a native Object.  To do this, simply use the
	static method FlickrJSON.objectFromResponse.

        Note: leverages a json to AS3 Object deserialization function as3corelib
	
	*/
	
	public class FlickrJSON
	{
		
		import flash.events.*;
		import flash.net.URLLoader;
		import flash.net.URLRequest;
		import flash.utils.*;
		import com.adobe.serialization.json.JSON;


		
		private var apiHome:String = "http://api.flickr.com/services/rest";
		
		private var baseParams:Object;
		
		private var curRequest:URLRequest;
		
		private var apiKey:String;
		
		/*CRITICAL: owner of a FlickrJSON instance is expected to set loader callbacks...*/
		public var loader:URLLoader;
		
		/*constructor*/
		public function FlickrJSON(apiKey:String)
		{
			this.apiKey=apiKey;
			this.baseParams = {"format":"json"};
			this.loader = new URLLoader();
		}
		
		
		
		/*This is a simple function to issue a REST request to Flickr's REST server.  The JSON response 
		will be passed along to whatever function you have externally set as the "Event.COMPLETE" callback for 
		the public "loader" property of a given instance of this FlickrJSON class.*/
		public function doCall(method:String, args:Object):void
		{
			
			var requestString:String;
			
			requestString = this.apiHome + "/?api_key=" + this.apiKey + "&method=" + method;
			
			for (var index:Object in this.baseParams) 
			{
				requestString+="&" + index + "=" + this.baseParams[index];
			
			}

			
			for (var index:Object in args)
			{
				requestString += "&" + index + "=" + args[index];
			}
			
			this.curRequest = new URLRequest( requestString );
			this.loader.load( this.curRequest );
			
		}
		
		/*Converts a String of the form returned by the JSON API at http://api.flickr.com/services/rest
		and converts it into a Object*/
		public static function objectFromResponse(response:String):Object
		{
			var jsonStr:String = response;
			jsonStr = jsonStr.substring( "jsonFlickrApi(".length, jsonStr.length-1 );
			
			var objectFromJSON:Object = JSON.decode( jsonStr );
			return objectFromJSON;
		}
		
	}