CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptapache-flex
user63898
user63898

Reputation: 30895

What client web GUI technology to chose Flex or dhtml/JavaScript?

im standing and trying to decide which client web GUI to chose flex or js/dhtml ( one of the frameworks or combination ) i need to build front end to system that user can edit some kind of book format that involved images and texts and i really don't know what is better . for user experience and easy development

Upvotes: 0

Views: 365

Answers (4)

Ammar
Ammar

Reputation: 1158

Simply put: Flex will be a much easier framework to work with to provide a good user experience.

Flex is really great (actually the best) to process images and do video and sounds effects in the browser. Manipulating text and images layout just cannot be simpler with any other framework.

When working with Flex, try to target Flash player v9 (not v10) since it's already installed on ~98% of PCs connected to the internet.

On the other hand, js/dhtml might be harder to work with (depends on your experience) but will be able to provide a better user experience IMO. Users will be working with a web page after all which will feel more natural to them.

Performance: The flash player is the fastest VM you can target to run code on the browser as far as I know. It is way much faster than IE6 for example (no doubt about that, a huge gap). But with FF 3.5, and latest versions of IE and Safari, I think the gap is much smaller if there is any. Actually FF 3.5 uses the same technology to run js the Flash player used to run ActionScript. Tamarin

That said, there are other aspects of performance than code execution speed. The flash player will require more memory (special on Mac and Linux). And depending on your application, might be less responsive overall. (this depends on rendering, animation, and how will you implement things).

I really don't consider requiring a browser plugin is one of the cons of Flex since that plugin is there for almost all users, and users are very likely to be running it on another page before visiting your web app.

The only pro for js/dhtml is that it will feel more natural to users and IMO will provide a better experience if done correctly.

Upvotes: 1

Glenn
Glenn

Reputation: 5342

Since my relatively large client-server project made the transition from a heavy DHTML front-end into a heavy Flex front end, I'll explain our reasons. We were using dojo 1.1 for our JavaScript library.

  1. We already had flash components because there were parts of the application that were custom-designed animated diagrams (e.g, org-chart type stuff). ExternalInterface was good, but it was nice to move into a single architecture for the front-end. There ended up being some duplication because of the mixed metaphors.
  2. Because of heavy use of dojo widgets (dijit library), upgrading to new versions was difficult, and we ran into some problems when Firefox 3 came out. And likely when IE8 came out. The problem was that dojo had fixed the problems, but would have required a major rewrite if pieces of our application in order for us to upgrade (they had rewritten some of their container widgets in 1.2 or 1.3 (IIRC).
  3. Was tired of fighting with CSS differences in browsers. At least flex is mostly compatible between supported browsers.

I prefer JavaScript to ActionScript 3, but the flex transition made sense for us.

Upvotes: 0

Kezern
Kezern

Reputation: 473

I made my self the same questions some weeks ago. I have choosen flex because it's easy to use and you can get good looking effects without effort. I think the issue of need the flash plugin installed in the browser is no problem at all beacause most of users have it already installed and if not it's very easy to install.

Upvotes: 0

TheHippo
TheHippo

Reputation: 63139

Pro Flex:

  • Better Performance
  • Stuff like images and sound are easier to handle

Pro JavaScript:

  • Works in every browser if you chose a well-programmed framework
  • No browser-plugin required

Upvotes: 1

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