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Well, I'm not that old (yet) but I heard that practice makes perfect...
Can somebody, please, 'splain-me-dis...
I'm new to flash. I'm not new to programming or web development, just new to flash. I can pick my way through some reasonably tough actionscript and I think I've done ok (if I may rate my own performance) and have developed a nice dynamic flash menu.
Since I had never before really gotten into the guts of anything flash, I was only aware of what I had "seen" on the net. So I get this client that wants a "flash" menu. He explains all the criteria of where it should be, how it should look and how it should function. Nothing sounds unreasonable and says, "Shoooooore Boss!"
Well that was the begining of quite the learning curve. I'm ok with that. I like learning new things and I'm always up to a challenge. I've got the menu done. It works like a charm. I'm happy and proud :)
Now... let's just... get this thing... uuug... into.. the.. web.. page..#*$!
Some details to help make this clearer.
1) It's a horizontal menu with vertical drop-downs. (You know, just like every freakin' dhtml, javascript menu in the universe... only this one is flash!)
2) It looks like it's only 20 pixels tall but in fact the flash file is 250 pixels tall (to accomodate any number of menu items in the dropdowns.
3) The web page is designed to be viewed on 800x600 (all content fits within 760px. In all other cases the page is simply centered in the window.
4)The menu does not span the entire width of the webpage. There is a column 130px wide on the left side.
5)Since the menu has drop-downs that should appear "over" other content, the flash file needs to be positioned absolutely... oh ya... it also needs to be transparent.
6)Since the window is centered but the menu is not (and the position can change if the window is resized), I need to center the menu in an absolutely positioned div that is 100%. I then need to offset the menu the same amount as the width of my left column (in the end I just made a 2 column table. I know it's "bad" but NOTHING else held the menu in place.)
7) Some pages have "other" flash content.
8)....
I can keep going but there's enough here already that anyone who knows anything about flash, are holding their heads yelling "Gaaahhhh!"
Any links appearing under Flash are untouchable. They simply don't work... unless (so I've read)... you set the flash to "opaque". But that kills the transparency I need. (It doesn't make any sense to me either)
Transparency is only moderately supported by all browsers. Since this is our main menu, we need a good alternative menu.
If you put flash on top of flash, the most currently active file will appear on top... so... freakin' blinkin' mayhem. That's all I have to say about that.
Absolutely positioning an item on a relatively positioned location was an exercise (to say the least) but I've finally got the menu appearing "where" I want it to be.
Flash ignores z-index.
I'm about to make our online submission forms... I heard that form elements will punch through the flash (I guess I'll find out soon enough).
While building and trying to solve some of my many issues (flash related of course) I made some interesting observations.
People complain that "Flash isn't used for content". Well, my experience says that I won't bother trying to use it like this ever again. It simply is not "other" content friendly unless you put it in a box, off to the side, and make darn certain that you don't try to do anything nifty, or else bear the wrath of a severe wet noodling.
Macromedia themselves, have gone through great pains to make a non-flash alternative for anyone not flash enabled (cudos to them). They have done a fantastic job. I can even browse their site using netscape 4.7 on a mac in classic mode and the menu looks and acts EXACTLY just like their nifty flash menu I get when I surf in using Win IE6 on XP Pro... now wait a second... someone stop me if I get a little goofy here...
1)If it looks exactly the same
2)If it acts exactly the same
3)If the flash version doesn't offer anything more than the degraded "alternate" menu
Why is there... a... flash... menu?
Is it simply flash just for the sake of being flash?
If the criteria is that I have to build an exact non-flash replica, to suit everyone who doesn't meet our sites minimum flash requirements, then I'm sorry, I have better things to do with my time (Like kicking cats or something <--jk )
I have no inkling to bother making the flash object to begin with(opps too late).
Truthfully, this is the thought process I've had while buiding our "alternate" menu. I think that I will be trashing our flash menu and the "alternate" menu will become our "only" menu. What's the point behind maintain the 2 menus that are meant to be identical?
Please tell me if I'm WAAAAAAY off base here.
I'm interested to hear any other "war" stories because you just don't hear them unless you go digging.
Instead of a "what you CAN do with flash", I think it would be most beneficial to have a "what NOT to do with flash".
SN
As to the problems with Flash isnt this the same with most web stuff? I rarely use flash but have had MANY nightmares trying to postion,hack and design parts of some websites just using html/css! It would be follish to assume Flash is any different. Layers dont work with form elements properly but Im not going to abandon them because of a slight difficulty. If you dont need to use flash dont use it.
Don't attempt to build a Flash site with dynamic content unless you're up for sleepless nights and a learning curve that is extremely steep. To become a true Flash developer, you need to embrace Actionscript in depth and preferably a server side script such as PHP or ASP. However, once you're a fully fledged flasher and are aware of the seemingly boundless possibilities that it offers, you'll never want to go back to any other 'static' web language and seemingly no project is beyond the software's capabilities.
I'm currently using Flash <-> PHP(xml) <-> MySQL and it's the most solid, useable and effective dynamic content set-up one can ask for. In my opinion as both website and RIA developer, there's nothing else that can touch it.
Stick at it - it really is a joy to work with. As far as 'mixing' codes and protocols in one website, I'd try and avoid it. Have one html page that shells the Flash movie and have everything else as server side called from within Flash.
Good luck.
