It’s just over two weeks until Adobe’s official CS5 launch. If you are curious as to what the next interation of Flash has in store, check out this excellent video overview by gotoandlearn.

Highlights include:

• iPhone export
• swfObject now the default embed method
• New xml based file format
• Custom class code hiniting
• New text layout framework
• Support for RTL languages

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FlashMoto is the latest in a small group of content management systems dedicated to Flash development. They claim its the first CMS built with ActionScript 3 and realized as a Flex RIA. CMS’ aimed at editing Flash content have traditionally been pretty lacklustre (to put in politely), so lets see how FlashMoto fairs.

Key features

• - Advanced WYSIWYG Editor
• - Built in SEO & deeplinking
• - Video, MP3 player, form builder and gallery components
• - File and font browser/uploader
• - Library of ready made templates (at an additional cost)

Developing with FlashMoto

FlashMoto runs in the browser allowing for a impressive level of near real time editing. You need a server running PHP 5.2.1 or higher with Zend Optimizer 3.3+. Anyone familiar with installing php applications will have no problem getting started. There is a helpful control panel which provides error checking for folder permissions, server compatibility etc..

A CMS can often save on development time as well as editing time. Unfortunately this is where FlashMoto becomes cumbersome. To get all the WYSIWYG goodness you will have to invest a considerable amount of time learning the specific structure, language and idiosyncrasies of a FlashMoto template. Their moto of “ANY FLASH WEBSITE CAN BE MANAGED!” should come with a declaimer along the lines of “as long as your follow our exact development blue print”. You do get two sample templates to get you started, but its probably not worth trying to retro-fit older projects. This is definitely not a plug and play CMS.

Design & usability

The manager interface is one of the strongest features of FlashMoto. Its really well executed and without a doubt the most impressive browser application I have used. The UI design is first class, with a superb attention to detail set against a logical, well thought out layout. Considering this is an application running in the browser I don’t think they could have done much better. The only small drawback I found was there was no provision for different levels of user control.

The pay off for that extra development time is a Flash website that is very client friendly. The toolbars and built in components make editing and building new features easy and intuitive. With just a few mouse clicks you can edit a menu, create a new page and even build a contact form. FlashMoto have done a pretty amazing job here.

The excellent manager interface is a design and technical marvel.

Support

One of the benefits of using open source projects like WordPress is the huge amount of collective knowledge assembled over time. FlashMoto’s community forum is unsurprisingly sparse, but there is a good level of documentation including video tutorials, a faq, contextual help in the app itself and a help desk for direct contact with the developers. This will only get better over time as they are clearly doing all the right things.

Pricing

At the time of writing the standard per domain license is $199. I would like to see bulk discounts available and ideally a unlimited license. The ready made templates, which include FlashMoto start from $240. This represents incredible value and is where I see most sales being made.

Overall

FlashMoto is by far the best Flash CMS I have used. The beautiful interface, built in SEO, deeplinking and impressive components create an attractive package. The problem FlashMoto has is there are open source CMS’ that can output xml and as a result don’t require the development headaches of learning a completely new system (or the cost). However, they do not offer anywhere near the same level of intuitive, complex editing. For Flash novices FlashMoto is a god send, developers, you might want to hold on to your home-brew & open source CMS’ a little longer. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Visit FlashMoto

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HYPE is a “visual” framework conceived by Branden Hall & Joshua Davis with the rather lovely goal of making AS3 more accessible to designers.

Flash has matured incredibly in the past decade, but it has done so in a way that has blocked non-developers from even getting started. The simple fact of the matter is that with older versions of Flash you could learn the tool and how to program ActionScript almost entirely through creative play. With the latest iterations, unless you have a background in object-oriented programming, that method of learning by doing is simply not an option. This is where HYPE comes in.

This rings true with me as I know many former designer/coders who have simply given up with AS3. HYPE really does makes complex animations\interactions much easier to build. The only downside is you do have to invest a little time learning the language of the framework itself, but really this is very small price to pay.

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The truly excellent Greensock tweening platform has hit another milestone in the form of its version 11 release. We have been using tweenMax exclusively for sometime now and can not recommend it enough. If you are still using tweener, or perhaps Adobes own offering, give Greensock a run and you will be amazed by the speed and flexibility of the platform.

New features include TweenNano: a ridiculously small (1.6k) tweening engine and TimelineLite\Max which make managing sequences and tweening groups mind numbingly simple.

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Its been a long time coming, but Flash has finally made it onto the iPhone – in the form of, wait for it – standalone applications. For reasons beyond us (obviously not technical), there is still no Flash Plugin runtime for the iPhone version of Safari. Nevertheless this is good news for Flash developers as it provides new opportunities developing for an established platform.

Some sample applications are already on the App Store, made with an pre-release version of Flash CS5, which exports/converts Flash projects into “native” iPhone apps. It will be interesting to see how these perform as traditionally anything built with Flash is quite resource hungry (compared to truly native applications) .

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Flash xml editor (version 2) is essentially a pretty, client friendly interface for editing xml files online. It does this quite brilliantly with raw & wysiwg code editing, image, video & sound previews and even a tool for cropping images. As well as editing existing xml files you can add new xml files, so its easy to create truly dynamic Flash web sites.

The killer feature is the simplicity of the integration. Any xml file put into the main “xml” folder becomes editable. This means you can add an easy to use cms to any xml driven site in a matter of minutes.

The only fault we found, is that a lot of the important options are hidden in right click context menu’s. This is not a major problem as full source code is provided so you can customize the interface to you liking (and branding).

Flash xml editor v2 is available to buy exclusively from Flashden. Prices start from an incredibly reasonable $40 for a single license, with big discounts available for multiple uses.

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After nearly a year of development and close communication with the Flash Player team, the latest version of SWFObject is now available for download. More robust and well thought out then ever, the 2.2 milestone cements SWFObject’s place as the only embed method you should be using.

Unfortunately it seems Adobe has still not got the message. While officially giving SWFObject a seal of approval, contrary to early reports its not a option in the publish settings of Flash CS4.

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