Nov 6, 02:26
AJAX vs Flash, round 1, arena: Web2.0, fight!
Lately Web2.0’s been a hot fishing market. Many have already made the big bucks out of it. And many others are on the edge of being acquired by Yahoo!, Google, or Microsoft and the rest just experimenting and having fun, yea I meant you! just a geek no business man! Some use Flash and some others use AJAX.
Sit ups, push ups, and Flash warm-up
Macromedia Flash has been there since the first days of web, it’s a plug-in based technology that’s embeded in HTML markup documents. By release of the version 4.0 of Flash it gained so much popularity that Flash 5.0 plug-in shiped with WinIE out of box after installing Windows XP. The introduction of ActionScript 2.0 with typed nature, and very close to true object-oriented pattern language Flash MX came to this world with many components that inherited roots from SmartClips in Flash 5. As Macromedia elevated Flash, Director Shockwave droped from the internet and Flash became the king of interactivity on the web forgetting the multimedia capabilities and the popularity in the entertainment & gaming circles.
Flash MX/Flash 6.0 introduced powerfull components that addressed the needs for building more of Windows/ or Desktop like applications on the web, Flash 7.0 swifted in with compiled components and more of support for XML, and Web services & SOAP. And now Flash 8.0 is out. Part of Studio 8.0 with many graphical enhancements and run-time effects such as drop shadows, layer blending and more. With all this mass of updates and feature yet there’s more! Macromedia introduced technologies based on Flash such as Flex, Communication Studio, and Remoting Objects. All and all to make Flash the technology of choice for web-app developers.
Is it that soccer club in Holland?
No, that’s Ajax Amsterdam!
AJAX has become the buzzword used everywhere now a days, whoever wants to throw words just shoots you with AJAX, every web-app that comes up has to be prefixed or suffixed with AJAX for recognition, and of course the words like Gmail-style-interface and XMLHTTPRequest are some good percentage of words we read or receive in our inboxes, or feed readers.
So what’s this AJAX? I’m not going to explain this one since you’d be hearing this for the 100000XXXth time if I do. If you’re left behind then logon to AJAXBlog or just Google AJAX and see for yourself. Simply put it’s a technique not a technology that gets Javascript, DOM and XML to work together with HTTP requests, yes HTTP request inside JS to keep data asynchornos.
Javascript & DHTML have been around since ever, now with the AJAX technique Javascript has come back like Micheal Jordan when he came back the second time after retirement full of moves, accented shining head and flying like a butterfly.
Web2.0, the Arena
The first time I noticed the title “Web2.0” I thought it was just a new CMS or maybe a new version of XHTML. I thought it was XHTML2.0 so they called it Web2.0. After days I was reading an article and then again I read this Web2.0 title. I was so curious and started thinking is it another WWW just like the IPv6? So started digging my way on google and ooops! I was ashamed of myself. Man, I’m just thinking how would it be possible for me to explain such a thing to a novice? It’d be a nightmare to deal with.
According to what I digested with my small brain Web2.0 is the new approach of living on the web, a new approach in designing and developing websites/applications and a social mass of applications that host and serve power-users and end-users alike. Most of the Web2.0 applications are highly interactive and usability’s been the main target extended with directness and the least number of options and specialization of tasks and services. Got it? I don’t think you did with the way I phrased that sentence.
It’s by no mean AJAX, Flash, XMLHTTPRequest, RSS, nor any one application. It’s just new buzzword to wake us up and tell us that the web has improved and it’s elevated an age, a major version number.
Okay, I kept you waiting long enough, let’s get down to business and start the fight. What’s the deal with AJAX vs Flash? read on!
Hurry up you missed a minute and 43 seconds
Why the battle? obviously AJAX has taken all the votes already but Flash is fighting back and getting some of the score. AJAX and Flash are both capable of communicating with webservers and request/handle HTTP requests and posts. Both work neatly with XML, both have many many components available for free and for commercial licensing, and more important than all both are nearly standards set.
AJAX is kind of a new commer to many of us, while Flash has penetrated well. Javascript is available on most of the browsers if not disabled while Flash has to be downloaded if not available. Flash and AJAX can make the best of interactive web-applications. Flash is more powerful on the multimedia side but is powered enough on the code and data side to compete with AJAX.Why would we use Flash in AJAX favor? or the vice versa?
While designers who tend to join the webstandards crowd still want to have their own stuff back they use many stuff such as sIFR to keep their head ringing, developers stay home with their own tools—text, text and some more text. Hybrids would use both; but still developers do not like to use many. In my opinion, where there could be a big team to execute projects, designers have hands in the process, and where teams are smaller, developers take lead and lead the whole thing with their text and non-compiled interfaces.
Score Board
Many many applications have arrived with the hype of Web2.0 mostly of service and subscription-based types such as bookmarking, feedreaders, photo sharing, web-based e-mail clients, discussion boards, file sharing, and mainly collaboration tools. Below is a short and brief list of a selected number of Web2.0 apps based on AJAX and/or Flash.
Here’s the list you read so long to reach:
| Flash | AJAX |
|---|---|
| Yahoo! Maps | Google Maps |
| Goowy | NetVibes |
| - | del.icio.us |
| - | 37 Singnal’s Backpack |
| - | Gmail |
Guess what? it aint no fair results right? I could’ve listed more applications but I only chose the most popular and the most aggressive ones.
Round Two
The second round of the battle and this article will discuss the technical differences, pros and cons of both Flash and AJAX in details and why use each of the technologies/techniques and where, until then.
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