Curl has made available the newest example of a Curl Nitro “fit client” application. Designed by Manuel Lima, the founder of VisualComplexity.com, the CurlGraph features a visual representation of the social graph of individual Facebook members. Using the desktop-based application, users can visualize a circle of up to 128 friends from an established Facebook account, enabling them to see relationships and navigate quickly through that friend data to find the information they want. Through this demo application, Curl showcases its ability to support a visually engaging, interactive desktop application that is deployed like a Web application.

Similar to Curl’s recently released timeline viewer, the CurlGraph is an example of the enhanced desktop RIA capabilities offered by Curl Nitro, an extension of the Curl Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform. The display initially presents the subject, the logged-in user, in the center of a ring of their friends, with arcs indicating their interrelationship, and the size of the symbol indicating the number of mutual friends. The information panes on the right show details from profile and recent photo albums of the subject, while the images act as links to the originating Facebook page.

Key features of Curl Nitro highlighted by the CurlGraph application include:

• As a detached “Curlet” or widget, the CurlGraph runs independently of the browser, in its own view, and is accessible from desktop and start menu.
• As an “occasionally connected computing” (OCC) applet, it is installed on the local machine, so as to be available for use when disconnected. However, like any Web-delivered application, when connected, it is automatically updated whenever it is launched.
• With the Curl Nitro release, an embedded SQLite database is available for local data storage. In accordance with Facebook terms of service and privacy policy, stored data is accessible for a maximum of 24 hours before it is refreshed, to ensure that it remains current, especially regarding the privacy preferences of each user's data.

For instructions on how the CurlGraph demo application works as well as how to download the application, visit the Widgets/Gadgets/Curlets section of the Curl Developer Center. This is a demo application intended to provide developers with a better understanding of how to build Curl Nitro applications that leverage the strong visualization capabilities of the platform. The 128 Facebook Friend limit is a function of the visual design for this particular example and was selected so as to provide a usable display of affinities. Curl also has made the source files available to modify or create variations of the application.