My Digg API Contest Entry

Digg is holding a contest for users to create interesting applications in Flash/Flex using their new API and Flash toolkit. I’ve decided to code something together for an entry and hopefully place in the top 10. First prize gets a new pimped out computer with like a 1000 games, but I’d be happy to just get some Digg gear. Anyway, here’s my application, which I call "Digg Watch".

Click here to view Demo
Click here to Download

I set up the interface to be similar to that of Digg’s, so users familiar with the site will be able to jump right into it, and even if you’ve never been to Digg, I think it’s still pretty intuitive.

By clicking on a story, a new window slides out that shows data on the submitter, description of the story, digg/comment count, promotion date, etc.

You can click either of the links to launch the built in HTML component and view the Web page right from the application.


Clicking on the “Story Activity” button in the right panel displays the Digg activity of that story for the past 12 hours. This is handy for seeing how stories collect Diggs throughout the day.

If you click on the “Who Dugg This?” button, you can view a list of all users who dugg a particular story and when. By default it shows all diggs from the past day through the current day, but by adjusting the dates using the chooser controls, you can view any date range you want.

Finally, by clicking on a username in the “Story Info” area or by clicking the “User” button on the top navigation menu, the application will display any user’s currently dugg and submitted stories.

This is one of the more useful functions, because you can see how a specific user’s stories are doing, including your own. If you want to change the current user, click the white link on the top right and type in any Digg username.

So that’s my great Digg application. You can download it here or check out a demo here. The downloadable version requires the Adobe Apollo runtime to work, and will run on Mac and PC. The demo version is Web-based and only requires the Flash player.

If you like my app and have an account at Digg, please drop by in the coming week to vote for me, if I make the top ten, that is!