Tag Archives: XML
How To Edit An XML Flash Template
Posted on 13. Aug, 2008 by Dave.
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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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The Best Flash Site Templates Ever!
Posted on 26. Jul, 2008 by Dave.
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
full circle, but it led also to the creation of some of the most groundbreaking, incredible and right down crazy cool websites you ever did see.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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Very First Template Ever (Made With The PaperVision 3D Engine)
Posted on 16. Jul, 2008 by Dave.
This week TemplateMonster introduced the very first PaperVision 3D Template ever – a beautiful Flash template with an impressive 3D interface! It’s based on ActionScript3 and made with the PaperVision 3D engine (An open source 3D engine for the Flash platform) which provides it that silky, smooth feel as well as a wide range of useful features.
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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Flash Technology Enhances Search Results (I Don’t Think So!)
Posted on 11. Jul, 2008 by Dave.
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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Web Design Wisdom
Posted on 19. Feb, 2008 by Dave.
If reading big thick books just isn’t your thing, see if you can master some of the idiosyncrasies of Flash with ready made website templates. By now most of you already know that website templates can save you a lot of time and effort, but did you know they can also be wonderful as a gentle introduction to the world of web design? Think about it, by having access to the website templates source files we’re actually being given the opportunity to be taught and inspired by the combine efforts of many very skilled developers.
This is perfect for designing reusable apps such as pre-loaders, image galleries and contact forms where’s with the website templates you don’t need to reinvent the wheel anymore. CSS templates can be used to study two to three column layouts and style rules, which you can later apply to any project. Another good example are scalable layouts templates, commonly knows as liquid templates or stretched templates, with one of these ready made liquid templates you’ll be able to master the art of getting around varied screen sizes and resolutions. My personal favorite templates are XML Flash templates because of their unique feature which allows the content to be loaded onto the Flash templates via any text file – a function to keep handy if your ever around Flash.
Yeah, you could spend hundreds of hour reading tutorials on all sorts of topics by rhetorical experts peddling everything from color schemes to grid design, however most of that is either to technical or just isn’t practical in the real world where clients demand more professionalism. The great thing about premium templates is that they are created by professional web designers using the latest technology. In other words these ready-made website templates are made by people that understand typography, layout things like that; skills one could only wish to achieve after years of practice as a graphics designer and or programmer.
Where were website templates 10 years ago, when I first got into Flash? Anyway, these are just some of the benefits of website templates, I’m sure there are many more so please feel free to leave me your thoughts, comments and or experiences you may have had using templates. Also, mustn’t forget to mention that most premium templates shops will even give you a website template free so you can evaluate the quality of the product and try your skill before you buy.
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Stylesheets, Flash and XML for Dummies
Posted on 21. Jan, 2008 by Dave.
This tutorial will show you how to include an external XML text file into Flash using external Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) to get crisp, clean and elegantly styled text within your text boxes. The latter serves two primary advantages over any other approach… (1) XML allows you to populate Flash content-driven applications with data from a simple text file. This is perfect for designing reusable application where’s nobody has to come into the Flash file again; all they have to do is add new entries to the XML file. (2) Cascading Style Sheets can be used to group style rules, which can be applied to XML elements allowing you to format all of your text boxes quickly and easily by editing just one single text file.
So before you go bold, refer back to this article and try some of this code. To write my XML, I generally use Notepad++, which it’s just a nicer version of the typical Notepad that comes with Windows; but you can use any text editor doesn’t have to be this one. Here’s the XML file we start with.
[code lang="xml"]
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
[/code]
It looks like plain old HTML doesn’t it? Absolutely, XML is very similar in many ways to traditional HTML – the difference being is that you are no longer restricted by a predefined list of tags; you can actually makeup the tag names yourself. Nevertheless don’t get too carried away, there are certain rules to naming your tags, such as not including spaces in the names, keeping your names short, simple, descriptive and all lower case. And always remembering to close your tags, every opening tag must have a matching closing tag.
The above XML reads as follow – the first line in any XML file is this XML declaration, HTML also has something like this and it’s basically just saying that this is an XML document and it should be treated as such. This is generally required but technically Flash will work either way. The next line is the root element or parent node, node is just another word for element, again this is very similar to the html tag in HTML in that every other tag will have to be nested between these two tags.
I will explain about the stylesheet in a minute, for now lets save this as “rhymes.xml” and head on over to Flash and create the code and visual elements needed to read our XML document. Open a new movie (.fla) – add two layers an Actions layers and a Visuals layer. Highlight the first frame in the Visuals layer then selects the text tool in the tools bar and drag it along the stage to create your text filed. Finally, in the text Property inspector (Ctrl F3 to access), resize it to about 400*350 pixels and set the follow options:
1. Select “Dynamic Text” from the Text Type drop-down menu. 2. In the Instance Name text box of the Property inspector, give it an instance name of “content_txt”. 3. For Line Type, select “Multiline” to ensure the text wraps correctly. 4. Select “Render text as HTML” and “Selectable” from the Properties inspector
With that out of the way, select the first frame on your Actions layer and opening the Actions panel (F9 to access) paste this code.
[code lang="actionscript"]
// load my stylesheet
var format = new TextField.StyleSheet();
var path = "crisp_styles.css";
format.load(path);
content_txt.styleSheet = format;
// Load XML source
xmlData = new XML();
// ignore any white spaces in the XML content
xmlData.ignoreWhite = true;
// load our XML file into our XMl object
xmlData.load("rhymes.xml");
// check that the XML file has been loaded successfully
xmlData.onLoad = loadXML;
[/code]
What the hell? Right lets go over this. What we’ve done is, create an instance of the StyleSheet class, load our stylesheet using the ‘load’ method and then associate it with our text field. Also, load our XML into Flash using the XML object and call our loadXML function to determine if our XML file loaded successfully. It seems now is a good time, or as good time as any to write our loadXML function so, open the Actions panel again and enter the following.
[code lang="actionscript"]
function loadXML(loaded) {
if (loaded) {
content_txt.condenseWhite = true;
content_txt.htmlText = xmlData;
} else {
content_txt.text = "Error while loading XML document";
}
}
[/code]
That’s it! Make sure to save your .fla file in the same folder as the rhymes.xml file and press Ctrl+Enter to test your movie, if you’ve followed the instructions correctly you should see some thing like this.
By George, I think we’ve got it! Though the text still seems a little dull and out of focus. Lets cut to the chase, shall we? I’m hoping you know something about stylesheets already, hopefully from working with HTML and stylesheets (CSS). If not, it’s no biggie. CSS in ActionScript is somewhat limited. The properties listed bellow are all you have access to.
[code lang="css"]
color;
display;
font-family;
font-size;
margin-left;
margin-right;
text-align;
text-decoration;
[/code]
To make this a bit easier for you. I’ve already created the stylesheet for you. Feel free to use it or create your own.
[code lang="css"]
itsybitsy {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
color: #689891;
display: inline;
}
foofoo {
font-family:arial, lucida console, sans-serif;
font-size: 11px;
color: #C1C6E3;
display: inline;
}
littlelamb {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
color: #000000;
display: inline;
}
[/code]
Save the stylesheet as “crisp_styles.css” in the same folder as your other files and, switch back to Flash to display the movie.
Not bad! But, how about adding a little more text between our XML tags to see what a real paragraph might look like. Heck, lets also add an image while we’re at it and amend the stylesheet by adding a class to give emphasis to special words within the paragraph then, we’ll return to the XML document and apply our new class to any word withing our tags as follows.
(1) Open the XML file and add this.
[code lang="xml"]
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Climed up the water spout;
Down came the rain
And washed poor the Spider out
hoppin' through the forest,
scoopin' up the field mice
and boppin' em on the head.
little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.
[/code]
(2) Go to the stylesheet and paste this chunk of code.
[code lang="css"]
.note{
color: #FCB6B8;
}
[/code]
(3) Return to the XML to apply our new class.
[code lang="xml"]
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Climed up the water spout;
Down came the rain
And washed the Spider out
hoppin' through the forest,
scoopin' up the field mice
and boppin' em on the head.
little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.
[/code]
Needless to say you’ll need to make your own image, also I should point out that the Flash Player does not support progressive JPEG files. Now, if all is well the Flash should look like this.
That’s basically it-it might seem like a lot at first but it really isn’t all that difficult. If you still find this hard to understand, leave a reply.
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XML Flash Site Templates: Accessing symbols using the library.
Posted on 16. Nov, 2007 by Dave.
The year was 1985 Saturn makes its national deybute as ” A Different Kind of Car Company” (that’s a laugh!), MacGyver premieres on ABC, and the first film in Steven Spielberg’s “Back To The Future” trilogy profitably brands Marty McFly as a household name. Marty is an average 80’s teenager, except for one problem. He is stuck in 1955. Now, the only other way to get back is to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, but the only source strong enough to generate that kind of power is a bolt of lightning; unfortunately it’s impossible to determine when and where they will strike.
Our topic here is accessing symbols in XML Flash Templates, which is rather like being stuck in 1955 trying to jumpstart a DeLorean. Sure, there are geeks who can do XML, and there are frilly frou frou types that are great at Flash. But an artist writing XML? Or a coder doing Flash movies? Wouldn’t this kind of crossover require a flux capacitor and run the risk of a major disruption to the space-time continuum? Apparently not. In the previous articles (XML Flash Templates – Maintaining your Flash website made simple!) I introduced you to XML Flash Site templates a new product category with a unique feature allowing content to be loaded onto Flash via an XML file.
Basically, what this does is grant anyone the simplicity of editing the Flash template’s content from a text editor, and still keep the performance and beauty of Flash intact. Notwithstanding, what if I needed to access the elements (or “symbols” sometimes these two words may be used interchangeably) within the Flash Template itself (e.g. the frilly frou frou)?
There are three different ways you can do this you can “A” double click the symbol on the stage to edit it in place, “B” select an instance of the symbol on the Stage and right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh), and select Edit in Place or “C” which in my opinion is the safest and easiest way to access Flash elements and that is through the symbols library. You can launch it using Ctrl+L hotkey or by selecting Library from the Windows menu. Note directions apply to both XML Flash templates and all other Flash template types.
The Library contains all bitmaps, sound and movie clip symbols used in the Flash template. To make the customizations of our XML Flash template easier for our customers we 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.
As you browse through the symbols library you will be able to see the content of each symbols in the preview area, however if nothing shows in the preview area it means that the symbols color is the same as the background color. For example you would not expect to see white text on white background. You can easily remedy this by momentarily changing the movie background color. Press Ctrl+J hotkey to open Movie Properties window, and select a lighter or darker shade of color.
In some cases you might also want to duplicate a symbol. The menu, for example, may have a total of 5 main navigation items and you desire to add one more (i.e. you wish to include a FAQ page); from the symbols library, what we need to do is right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the symbol, select Duplicate Symbol and give the duplicate symbol it’s name. Next, drag the symbol unto the stage and give it an instance name. Note an instance name and a symbol name are tow totally different things. Meaning, that while there may be two or more instances of the same symbol with the same name “symbol 1”, each instance must have assigned a unique identifier (e.g. instance name) for all ActionScrip reference purposes.
To edit the symbol, you simply double click the symbol to access it in the Main Area. Then double click the text area and enter your own slogan. Once you edit a symbol, Flash updates all the instances of that symbol in your document. You can customize all other Flash elements by repeating these simple steps.
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XML Flash Templates – Maintaining your Flash website made simple!
Posted on 28. Sep, 2007 by Dave.
On September 18th, 2007 templatemonster.com, announced that it now offers XML Flash Site templates a new product category with a unique feature allowing content to be loaded onto Flash via an XML file, no doubt aimed at lessening the convoluted task of running and maintaining Flash Sites.One of the claims made on the templatemonster web page is:
“XML Flash Site templates are equipped with the system that will simplify your work with the Flash website by giving you the opportunity to edit it without having to use the special Flash software for that (you only work with the XML file)”
What their basically saying is that I can get the functionality and simplicity of editing my template’s content from a text editor, and still get to keep the performance and beauty of a premium Flash website.
So I decided to put this to the test, using a free sample XML Flash site, a copy of which I have taken the liberty to make available to you here (Free XML Flash Site Template Tryout). Don’t mention it! Besides as a developer you’re expected to be somewhat comfortable around XML. So if you aren’t, this free XML Flash Site template is just what you need to start getting your hands dirty.
Once I extracted the files I opened the site_flash directory, located the tfile_main.xml file and in just a few key strokes same as I’m doing right now I was literally changing menu items, adding more links, and even editing the content throughout the entire Flash template instantly requiring no prior knowledge of Flash whatsoever (I only worked with the XML file). What I liked best of all is not having to buy some hyphy Flash software in fact I did all my editing in Notepad. I simply edited all my stuff from the text file, changed whatever I wanted, and still kept the efficiency and beauty of Flash totally intact. Seriously, it’s unbelievable!
One neat thing XML Flash Site templates allow me to do is add as many “read-more” pages as I want or, for that matter, any page. Here’s what you do. I wont go into too many details-this is already beyond the scope of this article, and you’re darn smart.
Copy (Ctrl+C) an existing code for a “read-more” button [code lang="xml"](e.g. _read more)[/code], find an area where you want the button to be, paste (Ctrl+V) and give it a unique identifier [code lang="xml"](e.g. change function from asfunction:_root.more_click_func,0 to asfunction:_root.more_click_func,1) .[/code] The same if you were to add a 3rd button you’d change this function to a “2” the 4th would be “3” etc… Mi conprende? Oh yeah! I almost forgot, in addition to that little tidbit you’ll need to copy the existing code for a read-more page and paste (Ctrl+V); then replace the old text with new text and give it title. See? That wasn’t too bad.
The greatest gain for web site owners is they wont have to hire someone each time they have to make a change on their website. XML Flash site templates will let you circumvent the need to modify FLA source files whenever you need to change some text or move some pictures around. And it’s not just for beginners either, just think of the time we’ll save, I cant tell you the number of times I’ve been coding away the hours seemingly making huge progress, when out of nowhere I’ve got one of these “Flash has encountered a problem and needs to close” Dam!
Lastly, here’s the basic information you need to edit XML Flash site templates.
Open the “tfile_main.xml” file in the text editor (e.g. Notepad ++). DO NOT rename this file. Otherwise you’re screwed. Find the text you need and type in your new text. Upload all files to your public_html folder. All files should be placed in one folder. Also there are a number of free XML text editors that offer some really neat features such as color-coded text and section highlighting which can be very helpful. If you would like to find a text editor that provides this feature, try searching Google for a free XML editor or if you like you can contact the Foamers.net Web Team for our recommendations.
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Why is there such interest in Flash website Templates? – by Dave Collado
Posted on 25. May, 2007 by Dave.
As it gets harder and harder to attract new customers and keep their interest. More and more designers and clients alike turn to Flash website templates in attempt to deal with the incursion of the short attention span generation. With bandwidth no longer an issue and armed with a powerful arsenal of rich media many say Flash is already perched and ready to become the industries weapon of choice.
Even so, those of us who may be closer to finding our inner geek (you know who your are) will be more familiar with the technical issues that surround Flash hence we may appear a little less (pardon the pun) “animated” by all that fancy schmancy. Granted, for every obstacle, and every shortcoming Flash may have had, still has, whatever the case may be, Flash still possess and promises to continue to bring some really amazing virtues to the table. But, there is no justifiable reason that dazzling special effect should ever take the place of good clean HTML content on a website, notwithstanding the majority of Flash antagonist become so, due to the many inaccuracies and misconceptions floating around all over the Net concerning Flash.
Misconception number one – ( The Flash SEO scandal )
The most widely spread misconception is search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine visibility as it pertains to Flash website templates. Sorry to burst your bubble but getting your site indexed on any search engine isn’t easy whatever the underlining technology; search engines are primarily design to index static pages while on the contrary Flash is inherently dynamic. The question then arises. Is the use of Flash website templates then present an insurmountable obstacles or irremediable technical issue to bar proper indexing of these pages. And, if so how is the use of other programming techniques such as dynamically driven database sites and complex URLs (a common practice also facing similar challenges) become such common place or differ when it all comes down to search engine ranking? The answer to these questions must necessarily come from the search engines themselves and the information they provide concerning dynamic Flash sites and complex URLs. See Google Webmaster Help Center answers to Does Google index sites that use Macromedia Flash? – Does Google index dynamic pages?
What are Complex URLs?
Generally complex URLs read as follows http://foamers.net/sample.php?type=flash&details=gallery. Pages or links used to access this kind of URLs are dynamic, meaning that the content of the page can vary based on the value of the data being passed to the script (script in this case refers to sample.php) creating the page. Notice the parameters (also called a query string) being passed as name=value pairs to this script beginning at the question mark (?) each pair is also separated by an ampersands (&). The script then parses these values to determined which content (or page) it should serve; if on the other hand the topic parameter were to change one could expect to see an entirely different page. As you might imagine these types of URLs could confuse or even momentarily trap the spider by looking as if there were an infinite number of pages within just the one site. Needless to say, me Google crawler no like.
Notwithstanding dynamic pages such as these are simply too useful to avoid. Moreover there are many simple ways to amend the dynamic URLs potential issue, such as through the use of https rewrites and the like… Likewise Flash interactivity is simply too functional to ignore, and any thing else you need to do to make your Flash website template more amicable for the search engine bots to traverse is well worth the extra effort. Why? Well, for starters Flash is capable of utilizing sever-side scripts, it can also be used to assure client-side data validation, make interactive games, embed movies, music and lots of other cool stuff… Listen, it’s perfectly natural to feel a little uncomfortable and even afraid around anything you may not easy get right away; but that’s no reason to call it evil. Case in point Google uses Flash to display users video search results, better still; the popular YouTube website which uses Flash to play movies uploaded by users.
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