Soldato
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I find it odd that people are being kind enough to try and help him but he is very cagey about what he is trying to do.
building a flash site, could do with some help?
- Thread starter dvdbunny
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Soldato
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Go to www.htmldog.com and read through everything there and put it in action. HTML/CSS isn't that hard to learn it just takes some time and brain cells, if you use it for a few weeks and research any issues you come across to find solutions you'll be building clean enough websites with great SEO built right in, in no time.
In the long run you'll actually save time over trying to implement and bodge together off the shelf type things in the hope it will look ok and kind of work. But to be honest it will only ever look ok and never great unless you actually learn what's going on.
Do it properly, learn the relevant skills, put them in action and build a good website!
Once you have HTML/CSS under your belt it's a very simple job to plonk lightbox in to display pictures.
In the long run you'll actually save time over trying to implement and bodge together off the shelf type things in the hope it will look ok and kind of work. But to be honest it will only ever look ok and never great unless you actually learn what's going on.
Do it properly, learn the relevant skills, put them in action and build a good website!
Once you have HTML/CSS under your belt it's a very simple job to plonk lightbox in to display pictures.
Caporegime
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Flash does not "suck", it is the future. Coders dislike Flash because it allows results to be achieved in minutes by a noob that would takes hours or days to learn using HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Flash is almost universally compatible in terms of the flash player being present on 99% of PCs nowadays, and it allows for an incredibly interactive and exciting web page, so Flash rocks.
An out of the box PC does not come with flash, my mobile phone does not have flash and another thing that really winds me up with flash is every few months I get another popup telling me the site I'm viewing was coded in a newer flash program so to see these "effects" I'd need to update my flash plugin.
For the tech savvy everything has to be shiny generation, flash rocks. But for the rest of the world it's just annoying. If your site needs accessibility don't go anywhere near flash.
For the tech savvy everything has to be shiny generation, flash rocks. But for the rest of the world it's just annoying. If your site needs accessibility don't go anywhere near flash.
Soldato
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Flash can be crap and it can be awesome. The problem is it's overused most of the time in situations where it's completely uneccessary - eg. a flash navigation structure, which BTW has to be one of the dumbest ideas known to man.
LOLWUT?Robbie G said:
Soldato
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Do it yourself. I'm an absolute noob when it comes to this sort of thing, but I've spent 7 or 8 hours over the last week reading up on some tutorials, and feel reasonably confident that I could now build at least a basic site.
Soldato
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Decided against posting it my own site, only due to it being "hand in date" very soon, will post after that
Anyway
I created my own CSS, + learnt varying bits of PHP along with some help from this very forum
Did a few flash tutorials
I use lightbox on the product pages so when you click on a product you get the pop up window, I must stress how easy this is to function, google LIGHTBOX
I'm currently using some crazy flash thingy for my webcart which I wouldn't advise but it'l do for my purposes (Read not actual business)
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Caporegime
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LOLWUT and +1 all you like. I will stick to reasoned arguments rather than forum-geek clichés.
More and more high profile websites are using flash, especially those with a design / entertainment industry focus. This trend will only continue, and Flash will grow ever more popular and powerful, while HTML coders sweat it out for days learning something that takes five minutes in Flash.
The SEO aspect is a problem, but it can be overcome with certain methods of html integration. The other great thing is that people can't easily rob your code on a flash website.
Caporegime
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That, is a lovely looking and functioning website. Flash animosity seems to come from those slightly set in their html ways thinking "oh no, how will I cope when the hours I spent learning all this html and css are almost totally negated by something sensible at last coming to the internet table?".
Sometimes, change is a good thing.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the problem with flash is not people being stuck in their ways, google still does not know what's inside your flash website, so all outbound links are not counted, all inner PR structure is nill, keyword density is nill, people cannot search for a phrase that comes up in your site, it is difficult to make a link to a certain frame/page within your flash website (is that even possible without multiple swf?), flash sites are more difficult for users to browse because if it looks different from what they're used to, if it doesn't look different than they're used to then whats the point in using flash?
Flash is not a mature medium for basing a whole website on, if flash does indeed rock, why don't all the major sites use flash? Why is google not flash? Why is't wikipedia flash?
Because the medium is not as viable as HTML and other than looking flashy it offers nothing over HTML at all and is infact stunted.
Flash for now should stick to portfolio/niche sites, or sites where content is not that important.
Soldato
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^^ Well summed up.
Caporegime
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Flash sites can be targeted by search engines by embedding html versions in the site, which many people do anyway. Having an html version allows all of the above whilst using Flash to create a stylish and interesting experience for the user. Not sure about the individual Flash page thing...I doubt a search engine can target a Flash page directly unless you managed to code it within ActionScript, i.e. when the site is linked to via a certain keyword, gotoAndPlay ([frame]) etc.
I'm not sure I agree with this point since flash websites are hardly so different looking that they'll make someone immediately click away or make it harder for them to operate. It's still click-the-link isn't it after all, not exactly complicated. Most people would surely think "wow what a fancy site" rather than "run for the hills, this website is moving!".
No, but it will be. And Google and Wiki hardly require intensive multimedia functionality; they're heavily word-based websites. And it's not just about looking flashy, it's about offering an enhanced user experience and adding interest through visual stimulus. Otherwise you wouldn't care how well your TV reproduced colour, as long as you got the general idea.
Depends what you mean by content. Go to the http://www.empireonline.com, which utilises Flash heavily, and tell me the content isn't that important on a film database website. They use Flash to enhance the adverts and make you feel like you're practically watching a movie just browsing the website.
Of course though there are scenarios where Flash is more appropriate and scenarios where it is less so.
I have no idea what you are on about there, but the only flash element was a sidescrolling picture gallery on the front page, once I was reading "content" there was no flash at all.
Thanks, that's quite recent, I must have msised it.
I'm not sure what you mean by this.
But that's a website with flash on it, not a flash website.
What I mean to say is that the majority of websites out there designed entirely in flash either look the same as regular websites with animation added on, or they look really different confusing the user, users like things to be predictable. If it looks the same with animation the benefit to the user is negligible, maybe it#s because I come from the function > style way of thinking, I try to use as few images as possible in pages nevermind flash =/
I'm of the opinion "If it aint broke don't fix it" and HTML isn't broken.
But that's the issue right there, in general it does not enhance the user experience for 99% of websites.
For example, a few reasons why a flash based shop (from the OP) is a bad idea; people cannot link to your items directly, your items will not show up in search engines all they can do is point you to the main page and find your way, the same is true of wikipedia, it would be completey useless in flash.
I'm not trying to argue here, just trying to defend the "HTML coders don't like flash because it's easy and they're stuck in their ways"
I like flash, but I find it difficult to implement it in ways that will actually benefit the user and me.