« New online seminar dates | Main | Porting browsers to pockets »
August 16, 2005
Mapping UI, SWF vs AJaX
Mapping UI, SWF vs AJaX: I'm slow on this -- Paul Neave posted it Friday -- but it's a great example of how a single, universal, and predictable graphics/interactivity engine can deliver a much more enjoyable user experience than those developed for a range of general text & interactivity engines. The above bookmark goes to the southern part of Ueno Koen in Tokyo, and the general functionality is similar to that in Google Maps or Microsoft Network's Virtual Earth. One small difference? Compare zooming -- the Macromedia Flash Player can zoom in or out itself (animated if desired), where Google Maps and MSN VE require a trip back to the server for fresh bitmaps if scaled -- no flash of white, no loss of context, and the specific source imagery is smoothly streamed in for best resolution over time. Paul has more in his weblog... I think this is great stuff, thanks! 8) [soapbox] The varied JavaScript engines will continue to converge and become more capable, but other engines are simultaneously growing too -- you could go to a downloadable native-code engine like Google Earth or many Microsoft initiatives, or you could use least-common-denominator browser abilities like much of the AJaX work, or you could use a single neutral, portable, easy-to-accommodate engine like the Macromedia Flash Player to abstract away all the differences and provide predictable advanced abilities. Three different approaches: native, LCD, or universal. I think one takes us further.... [/soapbox]
Posted by John Dowdell at August 16, 2005 12:54 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mtadmin/mt-tb.cgi/6452
Comments
Thanks for the comments JD, especially your soapbox speech. This is probably why I decided to make Flash Earth more than any other - just to prove that Flash is the future. Sure, AJAX can get you brownie points for being all standards-compliant, but Flash is, like you say, universal. No browser limitations - it works across any platform guarenteed. Publish once, use anywhere.
And this is with Flash Player 7 - just wait 'til FP8 is out!
Posted by: Paul Neave at August 16, 2005 02:40 PM
In Opera it does not load the images, while in IE it works perfect. Can this have to do with diferent versions of the flash player? In Opera I have 8 while in IE I'm still on 7.
Otherwise very cool.
Best regards from:
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=63.121149&lon=7.757129&z=13.1&r=0&src=0
Posted by: Trond Ulseth at August 16, 2005 04:10 PM
Today's version? (I can't readily think of a reason it wouldn't work -- new engines play old content, that's the rule -- and each of the player betas should work the same regardless of browser -- a quick check would be to uninstall and check the old one in that browser for port restrictions, caching, those types of causes.)
Posted by: John Dowdell at August 16, 2005 08:22 PM