Site development in Flash: Revisited and Revised
In an earlier post I asked the question “Why use Flash for site development?” and went on to give a list of valid reasons why Flash could be a suitable platform for (RIA) site development. I presented a similar list to a client I am working with on a (perhaps overly) rich internet app. After some consideration we decided to move forward on my recommendation and build the client architecture and components in Flash. This is where the previous post left off.
Where are we now? Well, first let me clarify that this is an active project and that I am prohibited from discussing specific details (you know the drill). I can say, however, that several (un)foreseen factors have forced me to revisit and ultimately revise my original recommendation of Flash. Surprisingly, these factors had nothing to do with the capabilities or limitations of Flash. In fact, we had most of the Flash ‘issues’ resolved before the project began. The factors in question? Time and manpower. We’ve been on a very tight schedule from the beginning and the combination of delays and a void of available Flash dev/designers (in Seattle anyway) created a bottleneck (me/Flash). Our best chance for success was to shift the focus of development away from Flash and leverage the technology/skills/experience we have more of - HTML/CSS/ASP/etc.
So, while Flash was certainly up to the task, we were unable to assemble a qualified team to do the work. Moving forward, this is my biggest concern for the future of Flash/Flex/Apollo development. Mindshare. The technology is great, but if there aren’t enough qualified developers to meet the demand…
I think you’re dead on with your concern about the lack of mindshare as it relates to Flex and Flash development. I think one of the contributing factors of this problem is the price at which Adobe insists on selling their software. Not so much Flash, but more so with Flex, Flash Remoting Server, Flash Media Server etc. By over-charging (IMHO) enterprises for this software they undercut themselves in the process because it eliminates the chance of a developer trying to learn or further hone his/her Flash/Flex/ActionScript skills. Because, let’s face it, if the budget’s not there, and there’s comparable/competing technologies that are free then there’s a good chance the project won’t be using the typically more expensive Flex/Flash [whatever] Server.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:29 pmWith regards to (lack of) mindshare, price can certainly be a contributing factor. Breeze, for example, is an awesome platform based, in large part, on Flash Communication Server. The enterprise version of Breeze will set you back about $40k plus a recurring annual subscription of $8k. Selling this to a client is nearly impossible (though it seems I have managed to do so - more on this in a future post). Ironically, we were finally able to find a solid Flash developer to assist us on the project. Sadly, we missed our window for an “all-Flash” site and instead are building a hybrid HTML/CSS/ASPX site with various Flash widgets.
July 24th, 2006 at 3:00 pmFlash is very powerfull toll for people who want to create “eye candy toy” for people. In other cases php, fles, ajax, ror is more helpfull than flash. It’s my opinion.
Best regards
May 15th, 2007 at 2:17 pmChris
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One downfall to flash that you may have forgot to mention is the lack of visitors due to search engines not being able to cache/database the text of your flash site easily.
There are ways around that as well. I love flash, in fact I will probably some day turn down a customer that would prefer html vs flash. but the bottom line is, that (at least for entirely flash sites) flash makes the hard things easier, and the easy things harder.
examples:
HTML and most other languages:
-no problems with back button
-no problems being found by search engine
-no masking needed to keep site in bounds
-allows for advertisements (google ads) to be added easily
-password protection is more reliable.
Flash:
July 7th, 2007 at 7:59 pm-simple to make nice menus
-able to create just about anything you can imagine.
-object oriented interaction
-can simplify database requirements by interpreting data locally.
=Flash runs into file pathing issues more often due to flash player security settings.