PHP – A server side scripting language used to add advanced functionality to web pages.

CSS – Cascading Style Sheets – CSS is used to style your site. CSS makes sure that all of the elements on your page show up where and how you want them.

Browser – AKA web browser – Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome.

jpeg, png, tif, gif -These are formats used to save images.

Vector – Vector based images are create using mathematical calculations instead of pixels. The main reason to use vectors is that because they are based on calculations you can blow them up and big as you want to without losing any quality. For this reason, logos are usually create using vectors.

Address Bar -  The address bar is the long white bar located at the top of your browser that displays the URL or address of the web page you are viewing such as  http://www.amlingstudios.com/aboutus.html

Domain Name – The address people use to get to your site. Ex. www.your domain.com  To learn more about domains read our blog post What’s a domain name.

URL – This is another name for a companies web address, what we are looking for if ask for a URL is what you typed into the address bar to get to the page you want to show us.

CMS – Content Management System. CMS’s are online programs that let you update your website with limited knowledge of html and css.

Resolution – Dots per inch.

WordPress – Is a popular open source Content Management System that allows for a great deal of customization.

Open source – Is when developers share there code for a program they create so that other developers can build off of it and make modifications.

Pluggins – Work with a CMS to enhance its functionality.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Search Engine Optimization is when you build your site so that it can easily be accessed and cataloged by Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc.

Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, Google +, YouTube, Myspace, these are all social media sites. Where the content is create by you and your “friends”

Web Hosting – Hosting is when a company stores the files that make up your website.

So how do you get an email address thats associated with your domain name? The first step is to talk with your domain name  or hosting provider. Often you are given a free email account with the purchase of a hosting package, with the ability to buy more if need be. If you prefer to go a more economical route, many hosting providers will supply you with several email aliases for no extra charge. These email aliases will still be somthing@yourwebsite.com but they have no storage space of there own and are meant to forward on to another email account, say your personal one. This has the benefit of having all your email in the same inbox, but has the disadvantage that if you reply to a message the recipient will see your personal e-mail address.

How does a web server work? When you type www.amlingstudios.com into your web browser, it sends a request over your internet connection to the web server that is hosting that web site.  The web server looks for the HTML page that was requested. It then gathers that page along with all the images and assets associated with it and returns it to your web browser. Basically, you request the information and the web server “serves” it to you.

• How many pages is your site?
• Are you going to have  a lot of interactivity or video content?
• Are you planning to sell things?
• Is your site for business or personal use?

Most hosting providers sell hosting in three groups; shared hosting, virtual servers, and dedicated servers.

Shared hosting is by far the most common as well as the cheapest option.
If you see a hosting plan for $10 a month or less, its going to be a shared hosting account. Shared hosting is when you own a small piece of space on a virtual server.  The rest of the virtual server is taken up by other peoples web sites that share the same computer resources as you. If another site  on you shared hosting account is a resource hog, you may find your site slowing to a crawl. However, we should note that a good hosting company monitors this to make sure all the websites are sharing the computer resources fairly. Shared hosting also comes with a slightly higher security risk. Since your site is sharing the virtual server with several other sites, your all connected. Meaning if one of them gets hacked, your site could be at risk. Luckily hosting companies have done  a lot to beef up their security to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Virtual Server – A virtual server is when a portion of a computers resources has been partitioned off and server software has been installed on that portion. There can be many virtual servers on one computer but they act as completely independent units and have no knowledge of or impact on each other. Wait a minute, wasn’t that shared hosting thing on a virtual server? Yes, but this time you’ve got all the space on the virtual server to yourself. Which means, that resource hogs and other sites security issues are not your problem. Virtual server packages also give you more control over the configurations of your server. So if you want to install a new apache module or server language, your free to do so. This is something you can’t do with shared hosting.

Dedicated hosting is very similar to virtual hosting, but instead of having a virtual space you have a physical one. A full computer/server is dedicated just for your site and is fully customizable. Just as if it were sitting on your desk. Dedicated servers are the most expensive and are mostly reserved for very large and processor intensive web sites.

So, if you answered that your site was personal or under 50 pages a shared hosting option is probably what your looking for.  If you’re planning a large e-commerce site or hosting a video library, than a virtual server would probably be a better fit. Dedicated servers are always a good option if you can afford them. But, if you’re looking to spend that kind of money and need those kinds of resources, you make be better off buying and running your own server.

First a little background: What is Flash?
Flash started out as a web animation platform and there it remains unbeatable.  Using a timeline and key frames interface it allows you to create complex motion visuals that are unavailable with any other web technology; Flash has even been used in non web animation for television shows like “Ugly Americans” and “Johnny Test”. As the platform grew it developed its own programming language, Action script, which has allowed the development of many online programs, most notably games.  So with all that Flash can do, why is it in danger?  Flash is a proprietary software owned by Adobe, many opponents of it want an open source alternative. A more practical reason for deposing Flash is that is has a track record for being unstable and insecure.

So what are the alternatives?  Well that depends on what you are looking to accomplish.  I’m going to break it down into three categories: animation, web applications and video.

Animation; as I stated earlier for full out web animation there is nothing that can beat flash for its ease of use and its power.  But if you are designing for “I” devices and Flash is not an option, here are a few alternatives for you.

• HTML5’s Canvas property:  This is the closes thing to having Flash’s power without using Flash itself.  The Canvas tag is part of the new HTML5 web standard and allows you to create interactive animations that can be displayed in your native browser.

• Pros:  Stable, using open source web technologies the Canvas tag will work on any “I” device.
• Cons: The Canvas tag is not yet supported by all browsers, and it is not supported at all by Internet Explore, which still have the largest browser market share in the US.   It also has no User Interface for creation of content; it pulls its information from a JavaScript file. This makes it very difficult for non programmers to use.

• JavaScript Frameworks:  jQuery, Moo Tools, Prototype, these JavaScript Frameworks take the heavy lifting out of basic web animations.  (A JavaScript Framework is a collection of different JavaScript codes that can easily be accessed by calling them from your web page.) They are great for small animations but not an option for making say, a cartoon.

• Pros: Open source, very flexible, these Frameworks can allow web designers to build a slideshow or web application with a lot of the work done for them already.  For making images appear, move, grow or shrink, a JavaScript Framework is a better alternative to Flash.
• Cons:  All browsers do not display JavaScript Frameworks in the same way, while it is easy to modify an already completed web application, creating one from scratch take knowledge of not only JavaScript, but the Framework it was built with.

Web Applications;  Flash is a powerful content creation platform that can make very visually appealing Web Applications,  but its security flaws make it an unwise choice for anything that needs to remain secure.   Here are some alternatives to using Flash for Web Applications.

• Silverlight: A product similar to Flash but created by Microsoft, it focus’ less on design and more on integration.

• Pros: Silverlight is a robust platform with a strong user base, because it is created in the .net language it can more easily integrate with with other Microsoft products.
• Cons: With a lot smaller install base then Flash, Silverlight might need to be installed before a user can access your application.

• PHP and other Server Side Languages: The majority of Web Applications are now written in one form of Server Side Language or another.

• Pros: Secure, powerful and cross platform SSL’s are the way to go when writing a Web Application.
• Cons: While a lot can be done to improve the look of a Web Application written with a SSL, (CSS, Javascript) you will never have the interactivity that Flash provides.

Video on the Web; Flash has long reigned as the undisputed web video platform. It is used by YouTube, Vimeo, and is over 90% of the video on the web right now was made for Flash.  But HTML5 is looking to change that, here are some alternatives to using Flash for Web video.

• The  HTML5 Video tag: A simple to use and native video tag to use in your browser, no need for extra plug-ins.
• Pros: As simple as adding an image to your website, HTML5 video will be an easy and quick solution to video on the web.
• Cons:  It would be a perfect solution except for one thing, browser manufactures cannot decide on which type of video format to support.  Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera have all decided to back a their favorite video format, which would mean if you want to have your video seen in all the browsers you would have to have three different videos, four if you want to have older browsers view it, the fourth one would still need to be in Flash.

Browser Native Video is the way of the future, but we are not there yet, until a standard is put in place Flash video will remain king of the internet.

So is it still worth learning Flash, if you are interested in creating complex animations for the web or TV, or want to get started in online video, the answer is yes.   Adobe continues to updated and add new features to the Flash Professional program making it the industry leader.

Have Questions or Comments about Flash?  Let us know down below.

]]> http://amlingstudios.com/Illuminations/2011/02/is-flash-still-worth-it/feed/ 0 http://amlingstudios.com/Illuminations/2011/02/digital_world/ http://amlingstudios.com/Illuminations/2011/02/digital_world/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:09:07 +0000 Chris http:/?p=1 Welcome to Amling Studios blog “Illuminations” where we hope to shed some light on the web design process.
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