Flash What is Flash? Multimedia platform used to add animation, - PDF document

Flash

What is Flash? • Multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. • Supports bidirectional video and audio streaming. • Can capture keyboard, mouse, microphone, and camera input. • The adobe flash player is required to view flash content. • It is available for common web browsers and on many mobile devices. • Attempting to position it self as a solution for Rich Internet application development as of 2009.

Strengths of Flash • Quick UI development • Creation of rich and interactive interfaces • Quick graphics creation • Animation features like tweens, bone structure, etc • Large developer community. • Well documented. • Quick and easy deployment • Vector Graphics allow for easy scalability.

Deployment • Embed an obj ect and give it a path. • Minimal code needed to embed in html: <obj ect width="550" height="400"> <param name="movie" value="Untitled-1.swf"> <embed src="Untitled-1.swf" width="550" height="400" / > </ obj ect> • Add .swf file and resources to server. • No server changes needed. Only client requires software to run.

Market Flash is ubiquitous • 95% of PCs and 99.3% of web-enabled desktops in America have a flash plug-in installed o 92-95% of flash-enabled machines have the latest version • Therefore, unless developing for iOS, Flash is a safe bet. • "Many important and popular websites require users to have a Flash player, sometimes with no fallback for non-Flash web users." --Wikipedia

Performance and Security • Shown in benchmarks to be equal to or better than HTML5 • Poor performance due to poor programming. • Flash has vulnerabilities that can be attacked o Adobe has recently officially apologized after taking a year to fix a major and well known security vulnerability. • Steve Jobs has arguably been Flash's biggest opponent, citing performance and security issues. o But it has been suggested that Flash represents a large threat to Apple's lucrative "App Store"

Animation in Flash CS5 • Provided tool allow user to easily create smooth animation. Examples of these tools include: o Tweens to create smooth animation from point A to B o Bone structure to create smooth animation of objects o Tools for smooth 3D rotation o Motion Presets for quick and constant animation through the file

ActionScript 3.0 • Object Oriented • Library of types from simple, String, or complex, MovieClip • Simple, forgiving coding language • Can be written in individual slides, objects on the stage, or in external ActionScript files • Allows for manual scripting • More control • Obfuscators such as secureSWF protect from decompiling

Adobe Flash Creative Studios (CS5) • Adobe Flash CS5 is the main tool for developing flash applications. It is a collection of a of Adobe products. • Lowers the learning curve • Increased productivity for experienced developers • Quick graphic layouts • Code snippets have pre-written code • Allows you to embed ActionScript throughout the project • Animation is done on a frame to frame basis

Adobe Flex • Flex is a software development kit (SDK) released for the development of cross-platform rich Internet applications. • Interacts between the animation and the ActionScript • Provides a work flow and programing model • Provides a set of user interface components • Allows for drag and drop, web services. • Notable user of Flex include YouTube.

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) • A cross-platform run time environment for the development of RIA's that can be run as desktop applications. • AIR allows the applications access to local storage and file systems. Server side storage is no longer necessary. • Applications can be developed in HTML, AJAX, CS4, and JavaScript • Data can worked with using: a local XML file, a local SQLite database, an encrypted local store

Open Screen Project Several goals announced in 2008: 1. Attempt to provide a consistent API across all platforms. 2. Abolish licensing fees for Adobe Flash Player and AIR. 3. Release of full specifications for implementing .swf and .flv files. 4. Creation of Flash Cast and Action Message protocols to allow Flash applications to receive content from remote databases.

HTML 5 • HTML 5 along with the Open Web technologies will phase out Flash, but until then flash will be used as a stop- gap. • Useful for rendering fancier fonts and for video streaming, Flash still useful for more in depth things. • Community driven - has holes in support • This presentation was written using a web app that was made using HTML5 .

Comparisons Adobe Flash HTML5 • Tool costs $650 for CS5 • Zero tool costs upgrade • Non-standard - yet • Accessible to different • Compatibility with mobile level of computer users devices • Large pool of • Easy deployment documentation • Code is visible - mostly • Quick development time • Harder to develop fancy • Greater application range interfaces • Easy deployment

Conclusion Flash offers: • A fast, quick and aesthetically pleasing way for developing web applications • Accessibility • Superior code base and documentation • Large distribution, tool, and code base