Flash

Flash is an excellent tool when used properly. Highly interactive websites are one end of the spectrum, with Flash based widgets like Flash image viewers, Flash video players, mp3 players and graphing widgets making up the other end with extremely useful tools.

Flash Video Player (#)

This is the Flash video player used on Youtube and other sites. It is licensed under a Creative Commons License and for support it has the forums.

Monoslideshow Flash image viewer (#)

Monoslideshow looks to be a nice alternative to SlideshowPro, and I have to admit that the Ken Burns effect is kinda cool (for now).

The whole whack is customizable via an xml file therefore does not require the use of Flash. It supports Flickr feeds, sounds per image and background music, and there is a budding support forum.

SimpleViewer - Flash image viewing application (#)

With a customizable interface, international font support and lightweight size (17k), the SimpleViewer flash image viewer has a lot going for it. It requires Flash 7 and is available in a free and pro version (the free has a download link).

This views sets itself apart from the others with it's unique image navigation system, and that you can right click to open the image in a new window.

A modern approach to Flash SEO (#)

Geoff Stearns provides some interesting ideas about using his flashobject script, content and behaviour separation, and indexing flash based content in search engines.

Don't miss this comment and to follow and read the second link posted.

SwfIR - swf Image Replacement (#)

SwfIR offers up the ability for the advanced styling of images via Flash and JavaScript.

Some of the features include rotation of images within content and rounded corners. You can apply various types of styles to multiple images on a given page, and it looks to be even easier to use then siFR.

PHP & SWF Charts (#)

I haven't tried this out, yet, but it looks like a simple and quick way to build charts using PHP and Flash. From the site PHP/SWF Charts is a simple, yet powerful PHP tool to create attractive web charts and graphs from dynamic data.

Standards compliant Javascript Flash detect and embed (#)

From the webpage: I decided to come up with a standard way to embed my Flash movies, whether it be a single movie on a page (full Flash site) or multiple inline Flash elements on a larger XHTML page. - includes downloadable source code.

PHP & SWF Slideshow (#)

PHP/SWF Slideshow creates attractive web slideshows from dynamic image files and data... Use PHP scripts to generate or gather the data from databases, then pass it to this tool to generate Flash (swf) charts and graphs. The same tool also accepts XML dynamic data.

Macromedia Flash Player : Version Penetration (#)

A bookamrk to the page containing the data for the Macromedia Flash Player Version Penetration. I have had some clients ask for an applet rather than use Flash. This should help to alleviate their concerns.

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The latest from my personal website,
Mike Papageorge.com

SiteUptime Web Site Monitoring Service

Sitepoint's web devlopment books have helped me out on many occasions both for finding a quick solution to a problem but also to level out my knowlegde in weaker areas (JavaScript, I'm looking at you!). I am recommending the following titles from my bookshelf:

The Principles Of Successful Freelancing

I started freelancing by diving in head first and getting on with it. Many years and a lot of experience later I was still able to take away some gems from this book, and there are plenty I wish I had thought of beforehand. If you are new to freelancing and have a lot of questions (or maybe don't know what questions to ask!) do yourself a favor and at least check out the sample chapters.

The Art & Science Of JavaScript

The author line-up for this book says it all. 7 excellent developers show you how to get your JavaScript coding up to speed with 7 chapters of great theory, code and examples. Metaprogramming with JavaScript (chapter 5 from Dan Webb) really helped me iron out some things I was missing about JavaScript. That said each chapter really helped me to develop my JavaScript skills beyond simple Ajax calls and html insertion with libs like JQuery.

The PHP Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks

Like the other books listed here, this provides a great reference for the PHP developer looking to have the right answers from the right people at their fingertips. I tend to pull this off the shelf when I need to delve into new territory and usually find a workable solution to keep development moving. This only needs to happen once and you recoup the price of the book in time saved from having to develop the solution or find the right pattern for getting the job done..