In 2003 I created City Walks for Palm handhelds. The maps were of parts of town that I found interesting and each clickable map object displayed associated data. This year I ported the code to Flex/Actionscript to use as part of an online portfolio for finding a new programming gig. Along the way I've added the ability for each map object to display either a photo set, a video, or an audio track.

To make building these tours easier (I'd been building them by hand) I created City Walks Composer. It's built with Adobe AIR 2.0, so it works under Windows, Linux, and MacOS. All you need is a startup image (it's displayed while the map bits are loaded), a map image, and the associated data and media (.jpg, .flv, or .mp3) for each map object. You add an icon for each map object, fill in the information, and compile the project. The finished project is shown in a browser via a pre-compiled .swf (the engine); the project can either be shown on a local machine or uploaded to a web server.

And none of this requires any programming, database, or HTML knowledge; there's even a basic webpage included that can be customized in a simple text editor.

The software is free and the web page is http://cubicboundaries.com. You'll need to install the free Adobe AIR runtime and the City Walks Composer binary is available from the Adobe AIR Marketplace--I've got links to those at the bottom of the page. There are five working tours to see, so you can get an idea of what the software does. Also, there is an illustrated user manual and tutorials for creating the photo, video, and audio assets.

What I'd really like is feedback--what doesn't work, what needs changing, what might be missing. I've built this project for my own needs but I'd like to create something that other people might find useful.

Thanks!