Harry Northover – The Blog

I have just received my copy of ‘Guidelines for Online Success’, the first FWA book to be published. I must say, what a great book!

It has 6 sections, each targeting a specific aspect of the web. These are:

• Interface & Design – Michael Lebowitz.
• Marketing and Communication - Martin Hughes and Jordan Stone.
• Technology & Programming – Eric Jordan.
• Technical Advice – Pascal Leroy.
• Content / Content Management – David Huge Martin.
• E-Commerce – Mark Ferdman.

So far, I have read the Technology & Programming section and Interface & Design! These sections were really informative, and this book is great read for anyone who wants to stand out from the crowd!

Harry.

Well, over the past few years, the web has changed drastically, and I thought it would be the time to post my views on it all :)

1. AIR

Adobe AIR

This is the most noticeable development in the web, and is also the most useful! As most of you know, AIR enables you to take web applications to the desktop, with unimaginable ease. The best thing about AIR, is that you can use your existing skills, to create the applications. Also, due to the AIR run-time, it is cross platform. Now this combined with the use of tradition web languages (HTML, AS, JavaScript, etc…), opens up a huge mark, never touched upon by web developers. The power of this is still to be put to it’s full potential.

For example, you could just launch a desktop app to do your shopping, instead of launching the browser, log-in in, then waiting for the browser to refresh as you add whatever you need to your cart. All this could be done without one page refresh, no long loading times etc. This would make doing your weakly shopping much easier and less of a pain in the arse.

Here are some links to get you started:

• Gotoandlearn() – Getting started with AIR. Lee Brimelow
  
• Getting started with AIR on Linux. Mike Chambers
• Adobeairtutorials.com.
• 101 AIR Resources.

2. Flex / Flash

Adobe Flash CS3

Adobe Flex 3

Now, these technologies are a lot more mature than AIR. Flex is on version 3 and Flash is almost at version 10. Nearly, if not all animation and creative sites are made using Flash technologies. The same thing using other technologies would take 10x as much work, and also when using Flash you have a universal platform. This means that Flash designers/developers can kick browser compatibility out the window.

With Flash, not only can it be a great tool to create with, but also a great tool to provide inspiration with. Now you may be thing that you can gain inspiration from anything. Now this is very true. For example, is it as easy to gain inspiration to get into web dev but looking at a PHP script, or looking at a cool animation done in Flash? Now the whole reason I go into the web, was because of Flash. I remember thinking how cool it would be to creating experiences like that, and even better, show them to the whole world!

Alternatively, you could use Flex, which is based on the Flash platform, for creating RIA (Rich Internet Applications). Flex is split into two parts, the Flex framework. This provides all the components, etc, that you build Flex applications with, then there is Flex Builder. This is a Flex IDE built on Eclipse. Flex Builder (now at version 3) is very good for getting the best out of Flex. It combines a visual GUI designer and a code view.

Flex was originally designed to be used by tradition coders and not designers, but now is evolving the same way Flash did, catering for designers and developers. Although Flex, I think it will always be more for coders than designers.

Now, if you combine Flex and Flash, you get a functional RIA but with a very fancy GUI. A lot of  was done in Flash, and the back end could be developed in Flex. This means that the traditional web app, will become a lot more interesting, but not lose any of its functionality.

Tutorial Links:

• Gotoandlearn() – Great all round Flash tutorials.
• Kirupa – Tutorials on everything!
• Flash Perfection.
• Flex.org – The heart of Flex.
• Adobe Flex Developer Center.

3. HTML / Javascript / Ajax

Ajax

Now onto the most tradition web technologies. These have been used since the early days of the web (apart for AJAX). The backbone of the web is HTML. This, in it’s self, cannot do much. This is where Javascript and other languages come in. These can be combined with HTML to provide much more functionality. This could be animation using something like Moo Tools, or a CMS using PHP/Ajax.

I haven’t had much experience using these technologies. Flash is my main one, but when I first for into web, I used HTML is extensively and also I got to know PHP.

These different technologies are now being combined with Flash, and each other to provide more complete web sites/apps.

Getting started:

• W3Schools.
• HTML Code Tutorial.
• HTMLTutorials.ca.
• Page Tutor.

Conclusion:

Well, now you know what the main aspects of some of the main languages. It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to make animations etc, then go for Flash. For RIA , use Flex. If you want to just make anything else, then you could use a combination of these languages, or see which one makes the task you need the easiest.

Harry.

I have just been browsing the Adobe Labs, and read that Flash Player 10 RC has just been released! Flash Player 10 is a great step forward for Flash as it includes these great new features:

3D Effects – Easily transform and animate any display object through 3D space while retaining full interactivity.  Fast, lightweight, and native 3D effects make motion that was previously reserved for expert users available to everyone.  Complex effects are simple with APIs that extend what you already know.

Custom Filters and Effects – Create and share your own portable filters, blend modes, and fills using Adobe Pixel Bender™, the same technology used for many After Effects CS3 filters. Shaders in Flash Player are about 1KB and can be scripted and animated at runtime.

Advanced Text Layout – A new, highly flexible text layout engine, co-existing with TextField, enables innovation in creating new text controls by providing low-level access to text offering right-to-left and vertical text layout, plus support for typographic elements like ligatures.

Enhanced Drawing API – Runtime drawing is easier and more powerful with re-styleable properties, 3D APIs, and a new way of drawing sophisticated shapes without having to code them line by line.

Visual Performance Improvements – Applications and videos will run smoother and faster with expanded use of hardware acceleration.  By moving several visual processing tasks to the video card, the CPU is free to do more.

Enhanced Sound APIs – Work with loaded MP3 audio at a lower level in Flash Player 10.  The new APIs will let you do application-level audio mixing through ActionScript and even audio filtering with Adobe Pixel Bender.

My favorite feature is the new 3D features. Although you can achieve nearly the same using Papervision in Flash CS3, the new features are more integrated into Flash and easier to use!

There is a complete list of features here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/releasenotes.html#features.

If you would like to get started with FP 10, then there are some great tutorials over at gotoandlearn(), here: http://www.gotoandlearn.com/. These tutorials show you the basic of getting started with FP 10. Although this is very interesting, it would be extreamly stupid to use FP 10 features in your project, as views would have to download this to view your site!

There is also a list of know bugs and fixes here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/releasenotes.html#known. Fixed issues are here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/releasenotes.html#fixed.

Harry.