Building Flash-based websites using Adobe Flex - Lesson 1/10
1 like938 views
The document introduces Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) using Flex and Flash, highlighting their benefits like rich user experience and SaaS management, while noting drawbacks such as longer load times and SEO challenges. It explains the role of Adobe AIR in enhancing Flex applications and showcases various applications built with Flex. Resources for further learning, including official documentation and user groups, are also provided.
Building Flash-based websites using Adobe Flex - Lesson 1/10
- 1. Building Flash-based websites using Flex Lesson 1 – Introduction to Rich Internet Application Alex Goh [email protected]
- 2. Agenda ● Introduction to RIA ● Flex and Flash ● AIR ● Benefits of using flex ● Downside of Flex ● Showcases of Flex applications ● Resources
- 3. Introduction to Rich Internet Application (RIA) ● Desktop-like applications running in the browser. ● Overcome many limitations of traditional web technologies: ● Stateless architecture ● User interaction is mostly point-and-click ● Non-responsive (click > load > wait > click > load > wait > ...) Fat server thin client architecture HTML Server-side HTML Database scripting HTML Fat client thin server architecture Server-side RIA scripting Database
- 4. Introduction to Rich Internet Application (RIA) ● RIA benefits: ● Rich user experience, like desktop applications ● No cumbersome installations, or upgrades ● Single point management, leading to the concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) ● The down side: ● Longer initial loading time (can be optimized by module decomposition) ● May not be very SEO friendly (Adobe is working with Google and Yahoo to solve this problem)
- 5. Flex and Flash ● A framework sitting on the Flash platform Flash Flex Framework Actionscript .swf .swf Flash Platform
- 6. Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) ● A Flex or Flash application is usually a web application ● Web application which runs within the browser is subjected to many inherent browser limitations: ● Inaccessible to file systems (restricted file uploads/downloads) ● Cannot access system resources (memory allocation, taskbar ...etc) ● No off-line support ● AIR is simply a wrapper around a Flex or Flash application so that it can be installed on a computer. ● e.g. Kiosks at Singtel, Starhub shops. TweetDeck (Twitter client)
- 7. Benefits of Using Flex ● Fast application development, rich user experience. ● Cross-browser compatibility – IE, Firefix, Safari, Opera, Chrome ● Cross-OS compatibility – Windows, Mac, Linux ● Large immediate audience (>97% of all computers have Flash player installed) ● Master Flex programming, and you can development application for: ● Web ● Desktop, Kiosks (AIR) ● Mobile (Flash Lite) ● TV (Flash TV on the way)
- 8. Downside of Flex ● Requires Flash player, some companies ban Flash player on all internal computers. ● Myth: Each page within a Flash site does not have a unique URL. ● Myth: Search engines cannot crawl Flash content. ● Myth: Flash sites are too bloated, takes too long to load.
- 12. Showcases https://www.photoshop.com/ https://www.photoshop.com/
- 14. Showcases http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones?lc=en&cc=sg
- 17. Resources ● Official documentation - http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/ (also accessible from Flex builder) ● Adobe Flex DevNet - http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/ ● Singapore Adobe Flex User Group - http://fug.sg