Appcasting RSS
Introduction
Appcasting RSS utilitizes the "enclosure" tag of standard RSS 2.0 standard to deliver software application binaries or software. In ADC Desktop Component Explorer we extended standard RSS 2.0 format by adding an Adobe Appcasting Namespace Extension for specifying metadata (e.g. version, license, links to preview, etc) associated with software applications and components.
Why?
The problem many Flex/AIR developers face is that there is no one central repository for locating reusable components. Currently many components are placed in Adobe Flex Exchange, FlexBox.com, GoogleCode, or more commonly directly on developers' own blog site. By using Appcasting RSS feeds, each repository (or developer) can publish their own Appcasting feed and all listings of can then be aggregated inside the ADC Desktop Component Explorer for easily searching and installation.
Creating your own Appcasting feed
It's just standard RSS 2.0, the only additional requirement is that you have an "enclosure" tag in your <item>. For example:
<enclosure url="http://renaun.com/flex2/RemoteObjectAMF0/renaun_com_RemoteObjectAMF0.zip" type="application/octet-stream" />
However, to take advantage of the features provided in ADC Desktop Component Explorer you might want to add additional metadata tags describing your component according to the Adobe Appcasting RSS namespace extensionAdobe Appcasting Namespace Extension. For example:
<item>
<title>RemoteObjectAMF0</title>
<appcast:author url="http://renaun.com/blog/">Renaun Erickson</appcast:author>
<link>[http://renaun.com/blog/flex-components/remoteobjectamf0/]</link>
<guid>[http://renaun.com/blog/flex-components/remoteobjectamf0/]</guid>
<appcast:previewLink>[http://renaun.com/flex2/posts/CairngormStoreWebMain.html]</appcast:previewLink>
<appcast:previewLink>[http://renaun.com/flex2/CairngormAMFPHPExample/RemoteObjectAMF0Sample.html]</appcast:previewLink>
<enclosure url="http://renaun.com/flex2/RemoteObjectAMF0/renaun_com_RemoteObjectAMF0.zip" type="application/octet-stream" />
<appcast:compatibility>Flex 2.0</appcast:compatibility>
<description>
<\!\[CDATA\[
<p>RemoteObjectAMF0 components provides functionality to connect Flex 2 applications with AMF0 remoting servers.The example link above uses Cairngorm Store example (Cairngorm 2.1), AMFPHP, RemoteObjectAMF0 and Flex 2.</p>
\]\]>
</description>
<appcast:keywords>AMF, Remote, Data</appcast:keywords>
</item>
Existing Appcasting feeds
Adobe Flex Exchange - http://rss.adobe.com/en/yogi.rss
FlexBox (sample feed) - http://76.74.170.82/adc/yogi/samples/flexbox_appcast.xml
Quietly Scheming - Ely Greenfield's components (sample feed) - http://76.74.170.82/adc/yogi/samples/quietly_appcast.xml
AIR application samples (sample feed) - http://76.74.170.82/adc/yogi/samples/air_apps_appcast.xml