FLASH vs DHTML
I have no particular axe to grind - I believe in using the proper tool for the job - I would not recommend a portal like Drupal for a simple blog, go with WordPress, duh - but I am increasingly seeing Flash widgets and even entire sites that in IMO could be better served with DHTML
I just finished PM on an artist's site - a very nice site, I think - with a bit of a story.
I was hired a couple of years ago to create a flip book of her work with a tellafriend in Flash - so I made it in Flash, although it could just as well have been handled with faster-loading DHTML. The producer wanted the tellafriend to send a flash file by email, and I don't like saying "impossible" but in this case I told him no flash, just a static image.
They came back to me recently for some updates to the artist's main site. Very simple updates, change a few images, change some text content nothing structural. The only problem was nobody knew where the fla was (not the project I worked on, the larger site).
Eventually I laid out $80 for the SoThink FLA extractor and it produced an editable fla that would not recompile back to the site. I had a few other people look at the pieces, the fla and a bunch of actionscript files, and it was finally determined that Humpty Dumpty would not go back together again, and the site needed to be rebuilt.
Along the way I met Arif in Hyderabad, India who has a company there named Anteriorsoft which specializes in Flash development (not so much design but complex programming projects) and I would really highly recommend Anteriorsoft for Flash development.
I became PM of a project to "recreate" the site with some new twists - the gallery images would load with XML, as well as the Contact/News content also with XML. I went through several rather minor revisions making sure the new site looks exactly like the old one, and functions the same, which is no mean feat when you are using different methods.
The final outcome is very nice, but I would challenge anyone to tell me why it has to be Flash - except that the original was in Flash - and not DHTML? Yes, there is an animation on the home page and one of the sketchbooks - heard of animated GIFs?
Some years ago, a creep on Craigslist asked me to create a Flash header for his company and I came up with a retro-sci-fi looking piece that could not easily be created any other way, using tweening. Of course the "client" disappeared and I was left holding the swf - but I am fond of it. I used images from the NASA site.
One of my pet peeves (and I have quite a few) is using Flash for menus that could just as easily be created and manged with DHTML. However the Unemployed Philosophers Guild site has a Flash menu that adds slightly whimsical animation I think would be difficult to create otherwise. (I did not create it, I consulted on "closing" a window.js constructed pseudo-window div that was being problematic, and I added an event listener to their marvelous ecard app that counts carriage returns to adjust the quote bubble accordingly - it previously only counted characters, but carriage returns were causing overflow)
I know I ramble and burble, but let's get back to the point: why use Flash when DHTML would do, load faster, be easier to change etc.?
Any Flash enthusiasts want to take up the gauntlet? - as I have shown, I respect and use Flash when appropriate (or the client specifies), but I am much more a DHTML kind of guy...
(Added later:)
(I have just moved these sites to a new server/host and resolving DNS issues - I think most are working except in http://netsperience.org/ directory but subdomains seem fine...)
webwiz posted this at 23:55 — 20th June 2008.
He has: 629 posts
Joined: May 2007
Well, I'm no fan of Flash either. But sometimes it works very well, so don't dismiss it entirely. You can actually have the best of both worlds - I have recently seen sites that substitute a DHTML animation when Flash is off. (I usually surf with Flash off as I can't stand the ads.)
Then again, not every individual or enterprise has scripting turned on, so you need some static content too. (If you set IE's security setting to "high" then JS is blocked.)
Here's a solution for embedding Flash that allows for alternative content:
http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/ -- I found it easy to use and it seems to work very well.
Cordially, David
--
delete from internet where user_agent="MSIE" and version < 8;
Greensphere posted this at 16:14 — 21st June 2008.
They have: 91 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
The faster downloading option would win every time for me people just dont wait around these days even with faster connections.
webwiz posted this at 01:27 — 24th June 2008.
He has: 629 posts
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Greensphere wrote:
Without trying to be smart, I find this genuinely interesting. Do you have a link to a study that leads to this conclusion? It would help my case at work if you do.
Cordially, David
--
delete from internet where user_agent="MSIE" and version < 8;
John_audson posted this at 05:00 — 8th September 2008.
They have: 53 posts
Joined: Aug 2008
Flash gets a bad rep among programmers. The programming model is very different from typical programming languages, and the uses of the technology have typically been annoying (banner adds, skip-intro splash pages). More recently, AJAX has emerged as an extremely popular way of introducing dynamic behavior into web pages. So why do we even need Flash?
aathuls posted this at 06:35 — 31st October 2008.
They have: 16 posts
Joined: Oct 2008
Flash is more graphic intense.
Jaspal Indivar posted this at 11:45 — 10th January 2012.
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Yes I agree with you flash is more intense in graphic but still a little people use Flash
web2tasarim posted this at 19:45 — 4th November 2008.
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Joined: Oct 2008
Hello all,
I started learning flash, but it is really boring to me. I can only text flash files at the moment. I think I am gonna quit.
Any easy way to do flash ?
Thanks.
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Jaspal Indivar posted this at 11:47 — 10th January 2012.
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yes web2tasarim, I am also get bored from flash. I am now learning PHP development
decibel.places posted this at 20:43 — 4th November 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
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Compleat Flash developers have total knowledge of the Adobe Flash editor as well as Actionscript and XML - as well as graphics editors and typesetting/fonts etc.
I generally subcontract Flash work to Anteriorsoft which does great work.
If you need Flash lite, check out Flypaper which combines Flash with a Powerpoint like presentation model and is easier to learn than Adobe Flash.
webwiz posted this at 22:07 — 4th November 2008.
He has: 629 posts
Joined: May 2007
web2tasarim wrote:
For $100 there's Swish
irrimergowl posted this at 19:39 — 9th March 2011.
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That is the proper blog for anyone who wants to find out about this topic. You understand a lot its virtually onerous to argue with you (not that I truly would need…HaHa). You undoubtedly put a new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!
donnygraives posted this at 17:03 — 23rd March 2011.
They have: 2 posts
Joined: Mar 2011
I like the amount of different techniques you can do with flash but flash can really cause problems for websites that require SEO
afreshnashville posted this at 23:07 — 26th March 2011.
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Joined: Mar 2011
I agree, although there are ways to use SEO with flash it does make it difficult, and a lot of the techniques people use for Flash Seo tend to get flagged as Black Hat
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Anne1989 posted this at 13:02 — 11th May 2011.
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What I really know about the DHTML is that its been used usually on facebook page and as I see the effect of it compare to flash, it loads up faster in a way that it provides good graphical interface wherein the information is properly arrange but the only thing that is not present in DHTML is the effects of flash. I can say that it depends on you if you want to to use either DHTML or Flash because what important in the end is that there's an information and it looks simply and professional.
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Garethjones posted this at 14:03 — 13th May 2011.
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I dont have much experience about flash and Dhtml nbut i can definitely say that DHTML page loading time is far more less than flash content.
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kingage21 posted this at 07:40 — 14th May 2011.
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Thanks for sharing the article with us.
Carmina211 posted this at 04:31 — 7th June 2011.
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I bet that DHTML is the best thing to work on compare to Flash because for the fact that dhtml is more lighter and more fast and still it can contain some great features that can be found also to a flash. Another good thing that DHTML can do is that its a really similar to a viral marketing because it can cope up with the social networking which we all know that is being more popular to a lot of internet users nowadays.
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johncameron1985 posted this at 18:41 — 28th June 2011.
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Here you have given excellent solution about the difference of the DHTML and FLASH that i was looking for. These information may help the peoples like me.
SEO Company posted this at 04:46 — 2nd August 2011.
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Would depend on how you wanted the menu to look, if it was just simple text ones then dhtml, if anything more complex then probably flash
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stellaex posted this at 09:03 — 29th September 2011.
They have: 88 posts
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What about HTML 5?
I am sure there is a lot more enhancements and you can achieve several animation styles, and with CSS 3, its all done. Make use of HTML 5 and CSS3 to beat flash!
Steve Marker posted this at 23:12 — 13th October 2011.
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Would depend on how you wanted the menu to look, if it was just simple text ones then dhtml, if anything more complex then probably flash
aaustin posted this at 23:20 — 7th January 2012.
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Master how to create JavaScript and Energetic HTML websites and program UIs that work likewise well on Nav4 and IE4 and lower beautifully for mature surfers.
jeanneluv posted this at 01:52 — 3rd February 2012.
She has: 20 posts
Joined: Feb 2012
maybe I go with javascript
as example, see this page: http://psd.web.id
not using any flash, it's pure html and javascript, with a little bit of css.
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powernick posted this at 11:42 — 8th February 2012.
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FLASH is the best...!
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