Flash?

Travo925

New Member
Howdy, I am currently playing around with some different website options. I am looking into making a site, particularly a flash site. I have found some flash templates that i am looking into buying, but once I get these templates what will I do with them? Can I just use the .fla file and open in Flash MX? I am rather a 'noob' when it comes to this.

Also, I have been researching php nuke. How does this work? Do I have to have somebody host it like a normal site?

Back to the flash topic; If in fact all I have to do is open the .fla file in Flash MX, will the entire site be broken into pages, and can everything be edited to my needs?

Finally, any of you know of a rather cheap hosting service, with a yearly rate? ...with no banners or popups...

Thanks, and help will be greatly appreciated,
-Travis
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
I will let someone answer the flash questions, I stay away from flash personally as it is not really search engine friendly, especially flash only sites.
In relation to phpnuke, yes you would need to get a web hosting account to set it up, and it would need have the ability to setup a mysql database.
As to cheap yearly hosting plans, http://www.ripplehost.com/ have some very cheap yearly deals with no banners or popups. It is a no frills service though, and cant comment on how good it is, you can check out their user forums.
 

StephanieCordray

New Member
I gave up on Flash too but if you have specific questions I might be able to help a little. Yes you can open the .fla file in Flash MX. You can even import the swf file but it doesn't show layers, etc. so it's not a very good way to work with it.

You also asked about phpnuke. As much as I hate giving a bad rap to any open source apps, being an advocate, I have to warn you that phpnuke is not a very secure content management system... One hopes that the makers and developers will fix the problems in the future but there are just too many sites using it being hacked for my comfort. There are other content management systems that are better, postnuke, MD-pro, xoops, to name a few. As far as hosting, you need a service which offers mySQL databases. Other than that, yes, it's like hosting a regular site. There are hosting companies that don't offer mySQl databases with their most basic plans so be sure to read what services are offered with what plans.
 

Travo925

New Member
Thanks...
I see that Flash isn't a very favored interface to work with, what would you suggest I use to make my website???....keep in mind I am new at this and know a little html which is just about it...
-Travis
 

StephanieCordray

New Member
That would depend on what you plan on doing with the site. It's easy for me to sit here and recommend all kinds of thing that may wind up confusing you if you are new to working with webpages.

If your information isn't going to change very frequently, I would suggest static webpages (basic html, maybe a bit of javascript if you feel up to it). If it's going to change frequently, there are a lot of different options so... how about it?
 

Travo925

New Member
well...i didnt really listen to you guys (sorry no hard feelings) and went with flash, I worked all day today on it and only got a little bit done...I know you guys arent too fond of flash, but ya think you can tell me what ya think of what I have so far?...
*Note- I plan on changing hosting, just signed up for this free one to see how it looked...

http://www.freewebs.com/travisolsen/

Please keep in mind i am new at this and dont tear me apart too much :eek:

but, this is what I have, used some nifty program I had on my computer don't even know the name of it, would tell ya but I am not posting from that comp...
-Thanks, Travis
 
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ian

Administrator
Staff member
That is quite good for your second site. Though I am not a fan of flash, it is well suited to some purposes. I found it all too fast moving, and kind of distracting from any real content. Also the links at the bottom right hand corner, would be nice if some text appeared when you moved your mouse over the link so that you could tell what the link is for.
 

StephanieCordray

New Member
I agree with the speed, some things look okay at their present speed, like the arrows coming up from those bottom links but much of it is rather distracting as ian stated. The flashing arrow at the top center doesn't really sync with anything. The worst distractions are in the beginning because everything is just "flashing by" so quickly, including your text... you can fix those elements fairly easily i think depending on the program you are using, :).
 

Travo925

New Member
StephanieCordray said:
The flashing arrow at the top center doesn't really sync with anything. .

Plan on putting a picture there....

Thanks for the constructive critisism :D , I will put all that into consideration :D
 

stuluk28

New Member
hey, I've been learning flash for the past few years now, as well as standard webdesign techniques like html, css, php, etc.

In my opinon, flash is a nice way to go, but all depending on your target audience, and what the contents of the site will be? If it doesn't 'need' flash then maybe I would just make a wickid regular website.

However, If you do fancy playing with flash, I would recommend getting a beginners book or two, rather than downloading .fla's. It'll give you great basic understanding then, when you know more, think about finding source code. Afterall, there's no point download some wikid flashy thing, if you don't know how it works and can't tweak it to exactly how you want it!

Any of the 'Sams teach yourself books are awesome', or a 'friends of Ed' title. Look for anything with 'basics, foundation, beginner, etc' in the title. I've got a few now and seem to learn new things with each one!

Hope this helps.
 

netware

New Member
it doesnt matter if the whole site is made on flash . . it can be indexed with no problem, thats not a valid excuse to exclude doig flash only sites
 
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