I had this idea where I wanted to share a little know how with you guys. So I’m opening up the floor, I’ll be selecting one template every now and again, and letting you guys ask me how to customize anything on that template or a similar template that you might be doing. With that I’m hoping to lure you out of the closet, so to speak, and get away from all the email back and forth about the same subject, I thought this might be a better way to address those questions having a nice open line of communications right here where anyone can comment. That way every question is open, not only to me but also to you too.

Anyhow, the template I had in mind is this new XML Flash Site, I thought this might be good to begin with as this is a fairly new product and seeing as some of you might not already be too familiar with Flash and XML.

I choose this one in particular because I thought it really practical in that it already came with a photo gallery and with it you can add a new picture or change the old ones all without ever needing to go into Flash itself. You only work with the XML file by opening it in something like wordpad or any other text editor and many times you wont even have to do that.

For example if you just wanted to edit one of the images on the template all you’d have to do is open the “site_flash” folder find the image you want to replace and simply substitute that picture with one of your own.

Here are some steps to follow. Number one you always need to name the new picture the same as the old (e.g. old file name was tfile_pic1.jpg new file must still be tfile_pic1.jp the same as it once was ) and make the new picture the same width and height as the original that way things wont get all out of porportune.

Secondly you’ll need to upload all the files from the template “site_flash” folder to your “public_html” or “www” folder on the server and keep everything in that folder.

See how easy that was, I didn’t even need to edit the XML file. So, if you really want to see how Flash and XML work together, specially if you are already working on a similar project, or maybe having difficulties or you just want to know more about editing your XML file this will be the perfect opportunity for you to get your hands dirty, ask for help, share your comments etcetera.

Now, how are you using this type of template? What part of the customization are you having the most problems with? What solutions have you come up with? And as always should you wish to acquire more information about my own template customization services simply jump over to the contact form and let me know what you’re thinking.

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Back in the day, if you had told me some little animation app would catch on as quickly and as suddenly as Flash. I would have said you were an idiot. And if I had told you that Flash would become the design and development community’s number one tool you probably would have said I was an idiot in return.

That’s what makes Flash such an amazing program. Not only did this small animation app come

Through my work at premier template customization site (http://foamers.net) I’ve worked with a number of different clients and projects to attain their unique online presence through the template customization process.

Briefly, the template customization process is the method where with we customize the look and feel of the website template and then merge it with your own content files to create a website that’s both unique and can adapt to each individual client’s needs.

And so, over the years I’ve had the opportunity to see and work with both the best of the best and worst of the worst Flash template ever. The top 5 templates of all time are not easy to compile, but since I’m a firm believer in the notion that you, me, all of us have the ability to teach ourselves anything just as long as the inspiration and desire are there, my attempt focuses primarily on website templates which not only brought us some amazing visuals, but that also generously taught me so many neat new tricks.

Do you agree with my selection? Do you think I’m being too uncritical of the ones I’ve picked, or which one do you think is the best? Lets talk about it – add comment

Number 5

I really like the whole two toned very retro atmosphere here and specially the little mp3 player at the bottom because I can take that whole movie clip and reuse it on any other projects. Template No. 20164 is an original design by author Oldman. Ever since it’s release date it has had 1 download. And there’s even a non-Flash version also included with this template.

Number 4

This one really blows you away. It’s a perfect example of what Flash 8’s all new filters were created for. I love how the animation transitions perfectly smooth, and the blurring on the big numbers for each page its really neat also.

And not only do you get the source FLA files, but also all of the PSD files are available too so you can look at all the different layers, filters and masks that went into the making. Template No. 18708 is an original design by author Maxwell. Ever since it’s release date it has had 1 download.

Number 3

There’s nothing really too fancy about this one maybe other than that whole panoramic slide with the scene effect. What I really like about it is that the author made full use of vector graphics, as well as some very useful ScrollPane components. Template No. 18668 is an original design by author Modlin.

Number 2

Perhaps the most radical innovation in Flash as far as website templates concern is XML Flash Sites, this is just one I choose only because it came with a gallery but there’s lots more and they all come equipped with a system that allows you to edit its content without having to use the Adobe Flash software.

So you don’t have to learn any Flash you simply edit the template’s content from a text editor; so if you’re just starting to learn about Flash and would like to see hands-on how Flash and XML work together this is the perfect way to play around and start getting your hands dirty. Template No. 20234 is an original design by author Cowboy.

Number 1

Drum roll, please… “Straight in at number on!” Ok, here we go… the best Flash template ever is Template No. 20361 an original design by author Hugo and one of the true innovations in cutting-edge web design! It’s based on ActionScript3 and made with the PaperVision 3D engine (An open source 3D engine for Flash), which features an impressive 3D interface as well as a wide range of other really neat stuff.

Just like the method used in XML Flash Sites this one allow you to circumvent the need to modify FLA source files whenever you need to change some text or move stuff around etc, etc.

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For example, you can now add as many pages to the Flash site as you wish - This feature is identical to the method used in their XMl Flash Site Template that allows your content to be loaded onto Flash via an XML file. Similarly, this also lets you circumvent the need to modify FLA source files whenever you need to change some text or move some pictures around.

Besides the fact that it looks very cool due to the 3D interface the ActionScript3 also provides a set of additional functional features. For example, you dont need to understand Flash/ActionScript you simply edit the website’s content in Notepad and you never worry about not having the Adobe Flash software because you’ll never have to recompile the swf file again. Another thing that comes is handy is that all of the sounds are stored as .mp3 files.

As always just to make the template customization part easier they have allocated all symbols in individual folders with appropriate names. For example jpeg and or png files would be within a folder named “bitmaps”. Likewise, you will find a “buttons” folder also for buttons symbols and so forth.

TemplateMonster says this is the first and only template made with ActionScript3 and PaperVision 3D in their collection. But there will be tons more to follow.

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Up till now search engines (Google, Yahoo! etc) weren’t ever able to crawl Flash files and when they did end up indexing some it was never completely free from error. So if you wanted to built a website and actually have people find it, then it made sense to do without the Flash. Nonetheless Flash still became very trendy among developers because of its knack for, shall we say, overlooking the obvious and putting together very unusual websites.

Adobe also says it’s “providing optimized Adobe® Flash® Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently UNDISCOVERABLE by search engines.”

Sweet! Now that Adobe has finally admitted (despite arguments to the contrary) that SWF format has never been properly index by anyone of the search engines (or that its always been pretty much crap) that should finally shut up all you evangelical Flash pushers and feens clamming Flash is the holy grail of the Internet. Shouldn’t?

So has Adobe really done what its says its done? Frankly I’m not sure. Adobe claims that this stuff will provide more relevant search results and rankings for RIA content. And in a separate blog post, Google also seems to affirm that claim stating that they’ve already launched a “Flash indexing algorithm”, which will result in better search results. Well, before you all start heading to Starbucks and buying each other those skinny soy decaf lattes, the real questions is, how much better is this as opposed to plain old static HTML text and what are the confines?

They say that in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, similarly if up till now flash files were not being indexed whatsoever, then the fact that there’s been a little progress may indeed be called “better”, but Flash indexing algorithm or not there’s still a lot of reasons why you should never go for a 100% flash-based website.

Yes Google can now discover and index text content in SWF files of all kinds etcetera, etcetera, but there’s some limitations. For example, Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. Which means that if your webpage uses JavaScript to load a Flash file. Guess what? They may not be able to discover and index the contents of that file.

Google has also admitted they “can’t attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files.” In other words so if your Flash file loads another file - such as an HTML file, an XML file, or another SWF file – what their saying is that they might index the contents of those files, but they won’t consider that content to be part of the content in your Flash files. That doesn’t sound very impressive, does it? What then? The Flash indexing algorithm does exactly what it sounds like it does NOTHING, other than the rendering of incomplete documents and the dramatic equivalent of inaccessibility.

Generally speaking when designing sites for my clients, I tend to make my content driven Flash applications run off of external XML files that are read at runtime. That way even a novice web developer with no understanding of Flash can have the functionality of editing their website’s content in notepad, and not have to recompile the swf file. Are you seriously suggesting not attaching the contents of those files to the rest of my Flash file? Seriously? Are you kidding? What the f$#@ are you talking about!

Does Adobe really expect us to believe that this will provide more relevant organic search rankings? Listen, I want my Flash files to be indexed just as much as the next guy and while this is a welcomed and important step in the right direction on the part of Adobe there’s still a lot of work to do.

So, if you do decide to use Flash (God help us all), do it in moderation and remember while Google can index the content of Flash files, other search engines wont. On that note, don’t forget to provide text equivalents of these files to help other search engines crawl and index your content.

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