Ok, here is a simplified version of what I did for my company. http://www.solowebworx.com/search.html
Now, this is a quick example and not a FULL example of what I was talking about. If anyone is interested in the code, I will post a zip of it on my site. thanks, Clint ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug White" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, June 20, 2003 11:36 AM Subject: Re: Is Flash really THAT good? > Unfortunately, There are a ton of Flash web sites, that are either media > centric, cartoon centric, or game centric, and there is a dearth of > business/commerce centric Flash sites. > > Referring a potential commercial client to the Macromedia.com or many of the > other "sample" Flash sites, which are full of slow loading, multiple popup > windows, and other absolutely useless functionality, while noisy and show pretty > animations and colors, will surely turn most of them completely off. > > There have been a very few (unfortunately) Web sites that use flash as an > adjunct to conventional commercial development languages, such as CFMX, CF 5.0, > PHP or even ASP can do much more IMHO, in creating a user friendly, well > designed, bandwidth conservative, presentation of the business entity, including > our by-words; "Dynamic data-driven web application" > > The competition is on for the most eye-catching presentation of the business > "face" done with the mission of bringing the client back often. I believe all of > the software publishers are throwing marketing (name-your-currency-here) to try > to corner the market where the big bucks are. Be it .NET, ASP, ASPX, CF, CFMX, > PHP, and others. > > A web developer must keep in mind that all of these are tools to get the job > done. The focus should be on doing the job and meeting the customer's needs. > Managers, frequently either fall for the marketing hype, or will choose a > technology based on the in-house skillsets. I can quote example after example > of businesses that have wasted a tremendous amount of development money in > trying to develop in, or convert to a particular technology, just because it > seemed to be the "in" thing to do at the time, and was getting quite a bit of > attention in articles written in the various "free" trade publications., whose > focus changes from issue to issue. > > The practice of management dictating the technology before development starts, > is, in most cases, a costly, very costly mistake, and not only hurts the bottom > line, but wastes developer resources. The previous sentence, I believe, is > probably the greatest contributor to developer unhappiness with his job, and > also contributes to developers moving from job to job. Two very large scale > operations come to mind, but I will not name names here. In one, the IT > manager dictated three years ago a complete switch from a ColdFusion data driven > web site, which included a high volume order entry and shopping cart, to pure > Java. They had a twenty developer ColdFusion developer team, 18 of which have > since left the company, and the new technology has not yet been fully > implemented. The two remaining CF coders, are kept busy with updates on the > existing site, but literally thousands upon thousands of dollars have been > thrown down a empty hole with little or no progress, mainly due to the moving > target of the adopted technology. The other made a deal with Oracle for > enterprise licensing, and the attending Java hype, and is spending millions to > convert a Hodge-podge of database programs that previously worked well, but were > not integrated, and a blind insistence on writing all applications in pure Java, > which we all recognize is still a moving target. > > As a Macromedia User group manager, I have been exposed from among our > membership, all of the above. We have a wide diversity of developer and > management types among our membership. There are some really atrociously > designed web sites that, while full of eye candy, are really short on > functionality. There are some web sites that function fairly well, but are > poorly organized and suffer from design effort. Even fewer are the web sites > that bring together both design and functionality. Each of us have that area in > which we excel, and that is a good thing, but all of us must widen our skills to > at least have a working knowledge of each technology, as it applied to the > project(s) in hand. We must remain focused on the solution to the customer's > needs and wants, and should integrate their input every step of the way. > > Bottom, line, as one who is intimate with several technologies, and centered on > ColdFusion, I am still convinced, that while Flash has a niche place in > enterprise development, it is not the complete answer, and as CF install, > documentation and performance issues continue to be addressed, and the Red Sky > beta becomes a release, developers will come to recognize that CF is a very > reasonable and efficient alternative to these much-hyped new technologies. It > takes less lines of code to produce results than any of the other languages and > is considered by many a standard for Rapid Application Development (RAD) > > What is wrong with the KISS methodology? (Keep It Simple, Stupid) > > I will stop here as I think I have gone over my 0.02 worth. feel free to add or > comment. > > ====================================== > Stop spam on your domain, use our gateway! > For hosting solutions http://www.clickdoug.com > ISP rated: http://www.forta.com/cf/isp/isp.cfm?isp_id=772 > ====================================== > If you are not satisfied with my service, my job isn't done! > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Lofback, Chris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, June 20, 2003 10:07 AM > Subject: RE: Is Flash really THAT good? > > > | > However, with a thread like this, it makes me think that you > | > are like the others who bitch about flash yet haven't seen > | > any flash movies worth while. Here are a few flash sites > | > that I consider to be worth your viewing. > | > > | > http://www.2advanced.com/flashindex.htm > | > > | > http://www.egomedia.com > | > > | > http://www.estudio.com > | > > | > just about any flash site on http://www.cwd.dk > | > > | > http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html (had to throw this > | > is for the humor) > | > > | > Just to name a few. > | > | Well, call me old school, but I find these sites annoying and difficult to > use. It is my firm opinion that the vast majority of web users do not care for > this stuff. It is meant to impress developers, techies and managers but it is > hopelessly unfriendly to the majority of users who simply want to accomplish a > task on a site. They do not want to wait for these gee-whiz animations to load > or to figure out which widget does what--they just want to get what they are > there for, and making them wait while your site goes into these gyrations is > just bad business. Who wants aggravated customers? > | > | Customer service always wins over gimmicks. On the web, "speed and usability" > = good customer service, "splash pages and non-standard navigation" = bad > service. > | > | This is going to be hotly denounced by those who love the bleeding edge, but > plain HTML (black text, white BG, blue links, no fancy DHTML) is almost always > the best choice to let the user get what they want fast. Unless your product IS > multimedia-based, or you are using Flash (or any other plugin/gizmo) to make > your service easier/faster to use or to provide some vital capabilities--like > enhanced form validation/processing--I wouldn't use it. For whom do we develop > our web apps? The developers or the users? If you are an online business, > you'd better think about it! Look at Yahoo and Google. It's no coincidence > that they are successful and they both use simple designs. > | > | http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ > | > | OK, Flame on! :) > | > | Chris > | > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
