Archive for 'Dynamic Flash Galleries'
Flash Technology Enhances Search Results (I Don’t Think So!)
Posted on 11. Jul, 2008 by Dave.
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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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Service Gallery Settings
Posted on 02. May, 2007 by Dave.
Service gallery settings you should set in xxxxx_main.html file.
It is recommended to change the default settings only while changing settings through the /admin part (sizes of small or large images). There is some incorrect representation of photos on the page (the photos themselves do not fit in properly). This happens seldom enough that’s why you won’t need to change the default settings in most cases.
The negative value which is responsible for positioning in X-direction moves the object to the left, positive one – to the right.
The value which is responsible for correction in Y-direction moves the object up and down respectively.
&stage_width - flash dimensions width (do not change)
&stage_height - flash dimensions height (do not change)
&gallery_width – gallery area width (do not change)
&gallery_height – gallery area height (do not change)
&preview_x_correction – big photos correction in X-direction
&preview_y_correction – big photos correction in Y-direction
&preview_height_correction – big photos height correction
&preview_width_correction – big photos width correction
&zoom_x=20 – position of zoom button on big photos in X-direction
&zoom_y=20 – position of zoom button on big photos in Y-direction
&menu_position=horizontal& – menu position – horizontal or vertical (do not change)
&gallery_button__correction – correction of the button with gallery names in X-direction
&page_back_correction – button back correction in X-direction
&comment_x_correction – big photos area with comments correction in X-direction
&comment_y_correction – big photos area with comments correction in Y-direction
&comment_left – left indent of big photos area with comments
&comment_right - right indent of big photos area with comments
&menu_offset – menu button width correction
&small_picture_x_correction – small photos correction in X-direction
&small_picture_y_correction – small photos correction in Y-direction
&small_picture_height_correction – small photos height correction
&small_picture_width_correction – small photos width correction
&file_option=php – parameter, responsible for the following: from which file to upload data for the gallery – PHP or html
&template_help_preview=false& - do not change!
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Dynamic Flash Gallery Settings
Posted on 01. May, 2007 by Dave.
All necessary settings can be adjusted with the help of the following two files:
- and appearance settings are modified in xxxxx_gallery.php.
Note! On some hostings at turning to file xxxxx_gallery.php, an error 500 (internal server error) can pop up, to avoid it one should rename the file xxxxx_gallery.php to xxxxx_gallery.html and change the following lines in the \admin\libs\amfphp\services\Gallery.php file:
&file_option=php& with &file_option=html&
and also change the line:
You can eliminate the error not by editing the php file but the html file. But at the same time at gallery editing (if proxy server is switched on your browser settings) will lead to a temporary cashing of information. I.e. while editing the gallery all changes will be correctly reflected in the /admin part but for some time will be inaccessible for the current user (the one who edited /admin part) because of the information cashing in his browser. In a while all changes will be visible in the gallery.
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Product Description
Posted on 01. May, 2007 by Dave.
Dynamic flash galleries are dynamic flash sites with a gallery page. For editing this gallery page there is an /admin panel based on FLEX, this part is compiled as an ordinary swf file. All the text you can edit from the external .txt file like in all dynamic flash sites. The gallery can be edited either through a text file or through the /admin panel (in case your hosting supports php).
The product is very user friendly in terms of installing: just copy the files from the folder /site_flash to your hosting. It’s advisable to restrict access to the /admin folder, in order to prevent visitors from editing gallery contents. If you don’t know how to do that, consult your hosting support service.
The gallery itself is a set of photos, located in a certain way: rows of small photos and a large preview of one of the small photos, changing at click on the small photo. There is a zoom button on the large photo. Clicking the button opens the appropriate photo of a larger size (depending on your browser’s settings it can be opened either in a new window or directly in flash). Depending on proposed design the user can add some number of galleries, rename them and delete. Pictures for each gallery automatically draw up into pages; there is a convenient listing of pages.
A distinctive feature of the gallery is the following: it is possible to change the appearance of the gallery by selecting from the four available. It can be easily set from the /admin panel. There are also plenty of other useful settings such as width of small and big photos, management of comments to the pictures etc…
System requirements
- Hosting with php (if an /admin part of the gallery is used)
- Flash Player 9 (if an /admin part of the gallery is used)
- Macromedia Flash 8 (if the fla file is used for modifications)
- Adobe Photoshop 7+; (for editing the design)
Sources available:
- PSD
- FLA
- PHP
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