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Thread: Use of Adobe Flash

  1. #1

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    Use of Adobe Flash

    I'm revamping my website around an exhibit opening this weekend, using GoLive. Adobe Flash seems so 2006 since iPhones and iPads won't see galleries built with it. What are you all using these days for slideshows and galleries online? Anything else that works with all browsers and offers any degree of image-copy protection?

  2. #2

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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    You could use Javascript/AJAX techniques for rotating slideshows. You can even do fadeout effects and other things that only Flash used to be able to do. Nothing offers any degree of copy protection though, except only posting low-res images and/or using watermarks.

  3. #3
    Stefan
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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    Be cautious about doing major changes to your website right before potentially getting a lot of visitors. You'd probably be left with a couple of bugs to iron out, and your gallery might have unexpected issues. At least be fully prepared to go back to your previous version.

    For galleries, if you only need limited customization, you could use one of the many Javascript galleries available. A Google search for "javascript gallery" will give several listings of such. Several seem to have some level of "right click protection" built in, but keep in mind, anyone who wants to save your picture has a "print screen" key on their keyboard.

    Personally I'm looking at making my own site/gallery in Flash, since I always end up annoyed with the lack of control over pre-made galleries. I could do it in Javascript, but I value my sanity and time, so I won't. Working on mobile devices is a bit of a moot point in my opinion, since using the same interface rarely works very well on small touch devices. I'd prefer a separate gallery for mobile users, with simple navigation, no bells'n'whistles, and images that fill the screen when clicked.

  4. #4

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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    I hate the idea of giving in to Apple and switching. They chose not to support Flash. I would not go out of my way to accommodate their stubborn decision.

    Just my 2 cents worth.

  5. #5
    Joshua Tree, California
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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash


  6. #6

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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    Quote Originally Posted by LyleB View Post
    I hate the idea of giving in to Apple and switching. They chose not to support Flash. I would not go out of my way to accommodate their stubborn decision.
    What about "accommodating" Google? Putting your content in a proprietary black box (which is what Flash is) prevents your site from being properly indexed for searching. Is that worth some unnecessary, distracting animation which could be easily replicated with Javascript?

    Open web standards are there for a reason. If you choose to make yourself invisible to Apple and Google, one might rightly ask if you're the one being stubborn.

  7. #7

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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    I hated Flash way before Apple hated it :-) When I hit onto a flash website, I have to have a real, real big incentive not to turn around and leave that very instant.

    For slideshows I use jQuery (a javascript library) with various plugins (mainly the "cycle" plugin, which has plenty of options, but is on the other hand simple to control).

    For galleries I use html and css, only occasionally giving way to a javascript "zoom viewer".

    The only thing from Flash that I like is "Zoomify", which allows to look at an image in all the detail you want to give. I don't think it's useful for a normal photography website though, unless pixel-peeping is what people enjoy the pictures for - very doubtful.

  8. #8

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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    It's not a matter of ideology -- all those companies have their faults -- but doing what works. Flash has always been flawed, demanding more from the viewer with steady updates, questionable security, and a lot of bugs. Plus it seems to actually encourage bad-difficult-obscure interface design.

    And even though none of those big companies are blameless, Adobe really sucks the worst of all.

  9. #9
    Marek Warunkiewicz Marek Warunkiewicz's Avatar
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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    @Sascha.. couldn't agree with you more. You can't bookmark, print, uses a heckload of memory... all in all, Adobe has a lot to do to correct some basic flaws in Flash. That said, I do like the resolution-independent aspect of it. One still has to use raster images though. That still slows it down. The only place I used Flash was in menus, and not that often there either.

  10. #10
    Stefan
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    Re: Use of Adobe Flash

    Open standards are good in theory, but consistently getting exactly the desired look and behavior on several browsers using Javascript is extremely time consuming. Frameworks help with compatibility and structure, but have problems of their own, and impose limitations beyond those already caused by the language. Current Javascript is stuck in the past, it is a plain ugly language. HTML5+CSS3 manage the trick of being stuck in the past *and* being stuck in the future at the same time. Still the unstructured, untyped and fragmented Javascript mess, while also currently being only a working draft expected to become a W3C recommendation in ten years or more. If not improved, the weak video support of HTML5 means that Flash is going to be around for a long time.

    As a user, I hate Flash, the plugin, the poor web integration, the security issues. As a developer, it is the only viable way to do a lot of things. I wish the open standards would be a lot better.

    Sorry about drifting off topic

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