imlach

Hi,

Just wondering - should I put flashy (sic) Flash stuff on my website or not?

What percentage of users would you guess don't have flash installed? Are all the best sites flash-free?

Can I auto-detect if someone has not got Flash installed and direct them to the non-flash area?

Fosters

you should only really use flash if you're showing off - web design site, etc.

If I were designing a site I'd use flash, but only for bits where it wouldn't matter if the client didn't have flash installed, ie; the site would still be fully functional and still pretty aesthetic too.

IMHO, of course.

kryten

IMHO the site should be fully functional without it. Make flash an option: bonus content for those who want it.

if you make it the ONLY way of viewing your site then you'll loose people and some of those will have flash installed but like me can't be bothered to wait for a huge animation with rocking music to download.

also, ask yourself whether it really NEEDS to be in flash. could what you want to present be done just as well with html plus maybe css/javascript?

Dream Weaver

Imlach

It is currently about 93% with Flash, but why not cater for both?

I have just finished a site which was produced twice to cater for all. One with Flash navigation, and one with HTML navigation.

You then simply auto-detect whether they have Flash, and here is a simple method of doing that.

1. Create a flash file called detect.fla. In there you have 2 frames. Frame 1 has a GetURL action which points to the index page of the Flash site. i.e. GetURL("../flash/index.htm")

Frame 2 has a Stop action.

2. Create a page called index.htm, and embed detect.swf into the page.

3. In the Head section of index.htm, place this code:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="5; url=noflash/index.htm">

What happens is this: The user goes to index.htm. If they have Flash installed, detect.swf runs and directs the page to the Flash index.htm page using the GetURL action. If they dont have Flash, then the page ignores the embedded .swf, and redirects to the non-Flash page using the refresh meta.

Simple, effective and neat.

Give detect.swf attributes of height=1, width=1, so the user wont see it and hey presto.

It just means a bit of hassle creating 2 sites, but create the non-flash site first, then copy it over and add the Flash nav in.

DW

imlach

Cool - thanks DW!

Now - another question - someone on here has a website that is very cool and does something I don't know how to do......but can't remember the name of the site! - argh!

Basically, it was four icons (one was a beer glass that emptied as you moved the mouse over). Now the clever thing about that site was that as you moved over the different icons, the background faded to a different shade slowly......how do you do that? Is it done using flash?

Dream Weaver

Imlach

You mean this site - Neaves Site

Yes, this is done in flash - basically you have the movie of the beer glass. OnMouseOver you use TellTarget to tell the beer movie to play the emptying bit.

You also have a background movie. Using OnMouseOver again, you tell the bg movie to go to and play the fading/new colour bit.

Each movie needs a name, so you can target it, and will need Stop actions in the middle. Sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs, but not sure of your Flash skills level

DW

imlach

Yep - that's the one - Neaves site!

DW - thanks once again!

I've only just started out in Flash, so your words mean not much right now - but as always, I want to do everything from Day 1 (I'm like that) and so I will learn what I have to do........

imlach

I've just realised that Neave has kindly got his source for his flashy menu in his website too.....cool!

DazV

The flash interface is pretty pap. You might want to look at shockwave too, which has a much more mature useable interface.

Macromedia will be combing both Flash and Director together to form one big ***** of a package soon.

Neave's site is pretty cool - I like his/her design. Not flash for flash sake - just functional and funky!
Icons remind me of my dodgy first flash site about 3-4 years ago! www.drivelink.com shortly to be dismantled for something a little more advanced and database driven

[Edited by DazV - 3/14/2002 4:37:29 PM]