Flash (Adobe Systems – Macromedia) is a program that allows the creation of animations in vector format. The program generates a file with the extension .fla which is the working file to be ”compiled” into another file with the extension .swf. Swift is another program to generate swf files outside Macromedia.
In a web page, a Flash movie file (with extension .swf) can be integrated as part of the page (advertising, menu, …) or the whole page can be flash but there will always be a HTML skeleton.
Flash allows to create high quality animations, allows some interaction with the user through the ActionScript language (derived from ECMAScript as JavaScript) programming. The latest versions of Flash also allows interfacing with a database.
Portability: The use of Flash in a web page requires the installation of the plug-in “flash player” that is not available for all systems.
Implementation: Creating a Flash animation is a complete technology itself. The complexity depends on the expected result but a good result can already be obtained without too much difficulty. Once the file .swf created, the integration in an HTML page does not pose too many problems.
Performance: A Flash page is heavier than a HTML page that contains only HTML but is much lighter than most multimedia files.
Use: With Flash, it is possible to create anything. But dynamic interfaces will be favored (moving pictures, small animations). As part of a page, Flash is used frequently in creating banners and games.
Leave a Reply