Quote:
Originally Posted by billyea
Although i have graduated. I still like to see how things are going.
I'd just like to take a moment to explain my choices:
There's a wonderful backend to the site that you should see someday, which skirts past the expensive Flash editor itself. It's an entire CMS actually. Also the standard navigation methods hold up fine under most modern browsers, again due to the wonderful SWFAddress that implements custom URL and back-button support for Flash.
I do like to consider myself reasonably competent though. I have Javascript, PHP and DOM experience, enough to have done this site in another way (Dojo?) but... why? What is SO wrong about Flash?
I hear a lot about hating Flash, and I even addressed issues that people have about Flash (broken navigation, slow loading, poor layout, difficulty in editing) to the point where many visitors to the site say they had expected a Flash site to be much worse, and were pleasantly surprised. I had faith that I had resolved many of the problems, but I hear people still chanting those same issues as if I hadn't. It almost seems like blind hate. Or perhaps it is a hate for proprietary technology, an opinion I do not subscribe to.
My methodology may frustrate other developers who like standards, but I used Flash because it works, and a solution that works and meets the needs of my team (and ends up winning awards!) is a perfectly fine solution to me. If the solution had required standard HTML, I would've met that need as well.
However, with new emerging platforms like HTML 5 and integrated video, I do hope it will be replaced eventually. Who knows what my team can come up with? I have faith!
|
First off, thank you for replying. Second, I was by no means saying you were incompetent because you used Flash, merely remarking that now, with the advent of AJAX and DOM manipulation it is possible to do nearly 100% of the things that Flash does.
You particular site did not fall prey to many of the the problems that Flash causes but those problems are still prevalent in others. I will admit I was quite surprised that not only was the site pleasant enough to use it had top notch content I'll say it again, TOP Notch Content, this is the primary failing of Flash based sites in my opinion, too often people spend a lot of time making them pretty and, for want of a better term, flashy but neglect the content.
Don't let my criticisms of your choice of a solution take away from the awards, you and your team have put a lot of work into that site, it shows. If all Flash based sites had the quality yours does perhaps my only real gripe with Flash would be that Adobe doesn't know how to write a plugin for OS X that doesn't use 50+% of my cpu.