> Anyone making use of Flash MX for web application interfaces? > I've been building web applications using the traditional CF approach > for a couple of years, and the benefits that a Flash interface offers > of not having to jump around pages to process and refresh data is > certainly > appealing. Especially to clients who are used to computer-based > applications > that don't require moving from screen to screen to refresh data.
> If you're building Flash-based applications, what do you think of the > approach so far? > Pros/cons? > Thanks for your insights... I built a chat room in Flash and I think for that particular application, it's great. :) Less because of the need to refresh the page than for the need to prevent the browser from making noise when it does refresh -- flash was the only way to suppress the sound for all browsers and users across the board, without having them change their operating-system sound settings. But this brings up the idea too that it's not so much that users of traditional local or client apps are un-used to "moving from screen to screen to refresh data" ... They're just used to those refresh changes being localized ( i.e. if you're only updating a small grid, you don't have to refresh the whole window ), and they're used to the updates being much faster than the time it takes for an entire web page to load. These differences can be reduced if not eliminated through the creative use of javascript, frames and iframes, although the problem here becomes one of support for different browsers. Once the current problems with Flash MX for Netscape are eliminated that should _mostly_ be a non-issue with Flash, although in all honesty, I also don't know how well Opera handles Flash MX. My chat room ( http://www.turnkey.to/talkontap ) is waiting for a fix ( it may be out already, I'm not sure ) for either Netscape of the Flash MX player ( or some combination ) which NS and MM have been working on recently, before it will be useable on that platform. In the long-run, however, I would not recommend using Flash the way I've traditionally seen it used, to build the entire front-end for a site as a single movie peice. Instead, I would recommend using it sparingly, building small movies to enhance key elements of your application, and creating interraction between the movies and the parent html document using javascript. I say this in spite of problems related to variations in javascript implementations for different browsers and problems related to disabling scripting largely because of the labor intensive nature of developing Flash, thus increasing development times and costs for just about any project. And I would expect those times and costs to increase geometrically if not exponentially as the size and scope of a contiguous Flash movie ( single movie interface ) increases. If ActionScript were as well documented and as easy to manipulate as cfml or javascript, I'd see no reason to not go whole hog on it. Maybe in a few years it will be. :) Quick question for any Flash gurus who might be on the list: How easy would it be to simulate a frame or an iframe in Flash MX? How many hours would it take to get it to navigate to any dynamically provided url, grab another flash movie from that location, and embed the contents of the movie in the specified container? Isaac Dealey Certified Advanced ColdFusion 5 Developer www.turnkey.to 954-776-0046 ______________________________________________________________________ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
