posted by Development
Have you ever had to decide between a Flash site and a HTML site driven by a content management system (CMS)? Some situations need a flashy and truly engaging experience easily made possible with Flash. Other situations require enterprise-type management and collaborative work processes to allow content updating delivered via HTML.
Do you choose the highly interactive and rich experience that Flash provides to impress your users or do you deliver an organized and maintainable site that delivers content via your favorite CMS? With most CMS setups, you often feel like you must sacrifice the rich and interactive qualities that Flash delivers. You’re also hunting down the developer who initially authored the site to update the text or a page’s message in Flash. With today’s technology and speed of advancements, you would think there would be a solution.
The good news is that there is a solution. You can have your rich graphical user interface cake and eat it too.
With new Flash technology mixed with various client- and server-side languages and data formats, you can very reasonably architect, or better yet, install, a CMS to communicate and integrate with your Flash site. You can drive content with the simple push of a button. Navigation and site structure can bend with your edits, all in real-time.
Why this offering hasn’t blown up may be due to some debatable factors. Some might say there’s a small disconnect from the CMS developers and Flash developers. There are also concerns that you lose some search engine optimization strength and maintainability with all Flash sites. There is some truth to that, but if you are deliberate and careful, it may not be such a large factor. Another reason for the gradual ascension is the major advancements in HTML, client-side languages and standards that offer quality experiences themselves. These advancements can possibly sway the decision to avoid Flash.
thunder::tech deployed our first CMS-operated Flash site in early 2009. We looked at the client’s goal and audience and agreed that the conditions were appropriate to choose this strategy. We were able to do so because of some great improvements in Flash.
Yes, there are growing numbers of Flash-CMS systems popping up and actually some that have been available for some time. Each one has a varying degree of customization available. However, if you want the final say in everything interactive. Make sure you pay attention to the available features and request a demo if possible.
If you have the right audience and goal to justify going in the Flash-CMS direction, then you should first identify your site structure and the elements you want to manage such as content, links, imagery and more. After you compare what you want to edit with what the CMS is allowing, you should be able to come to a sound decision.
It’s no longer unreasonable to think you cannot manage Flash content without the help of the authoring developer. If it’s the full site or just a welcoming banner, you can control the content and assets with the help of experienced developers.
If you are in a position to choose a Flash- or HTML-CMS driven site, just know that you do have an option. See a working example of this technology by visiting our recently redesigned website, www.thundertech.com.
Related Posts
0 Comment(s)
|
There are no comments. Be the first!
|
|