[CS3][AS2] Anyone Used FlashBlocks?

[gotoAndCrash]

Has anyone used http://flashblocks.com/?

Any experiences, positive or negative?

Any limitations, such as :
You must use certain components, or
You can't use certain code, or
You can't perform certain animations/functionalities, or
You must strictly adhere to a set of guidelines laid out by FlashBlocks...?

Any info would be helpful, including if you know of a better alternative to FlashBlocks.

Thanks.

[frdmsun]

Flashblocks is a very open system and does not limit the way the you design at all. Flashblocks is a component set that works directly in the Flash application. There are no strict guidelines or limitations. Animation, keyframes, embeded movie clips, all function normally.

3rd party scripts and components often work seamlessly with Flashblocks. And scripts and components that use external XML files can often be edited right from Flashblocks through the included (and simple to use) xml editor.

See the demo site that comes with Flashblocks. It also includes all example modules, scripts and components.
http://www.sketchography.com/demoSit...s_demoSite.php

and video tutorials
http://flashblocks.com/tutorials/vid...etting_Started

and of course more information from the Flashblocks.com website
http://flashblocks.com

[gotoAndCrash]

hmm... with one post to your name, & the nature of the language of your post, I believe you're either a robot or an employee of FlashBlocks...or a robot employee of FlashBlocks

However, some of what you said was helpful to know, even if seemingly copied straight from the owner's manual.

(jokingly, frdmsun, no offense )

Anyone else with a counter-opinion?

[frdmsun]

Regarding personal experiences, you may find the forum helpful as well.
http://flashblocks.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard

not a robot ,
Sunny

[hidef1080]

I use Flash Blocks for a calendar project had to do for my department.
It was easy to use and easy to setup.
It did everything I wanted and the customer service of the Flash Blocks team was outstanding.

You will need php on your server to use it.

Sunny you rock!!!!!

I do not work for Flash Blocks btw....

[gotoAndCrash]

...not a robot ,
Sunny

He's not a robot!! Yea!!
Yeah, the forums, I didn't think about that. After just scanning thru a few it seems like they're mostly resolved within just a few posts, which is good. I'm just on the verge of making a decision between FlashBlocks & Drupal. I've done a few successful Flash FrontEnds for Drupal BackEnds (Custom Dev guys did the Drupal), but we were looking to get something more geared for Flash CMS.

Thanks, guys, I appreciate it!

[gotoAndCrash]

Hey guys, I have another question -
I do pretty much everything dynamically, as an example let's say :

I'm making a site that has a portfolio viewer which consists of a black bar (height:200 pixels, width:500 pixels, alpha:50%), & on top of that black bar will be a horizontal list of thumbnailed images. I'm creating the black bar dynamically using the drawing API, & I'm attaching the thumbnails via XML dynamically, which brings me to my question :

Is it required that an object be on the stage in order to be editable? Can I edit the contents of a dynamically created Movie Clip (using createEmptyMovieClip())?
Also, each page of the site is also created this way - is it possible to modify the content of Contact Page, for example, even though there is nothing physically on the stage at authoring time?

Also, using the "black bar thumbnails" from above as an example, how would I add a new item to my portfolio being that there's nothing physically on the stage - i.e. how do I associate a new image with that thumbnail viewer??

[hidef1080]

I'm not 100% sure I understand your question but you have to define what is editable ahead of time.

You can make text, images, Flash videos, components and links editable.
You can upload images and videos as well which can be used on your pages.

When I designed my departments calendar I used empty dynamic text fields for the dates because I knew my co-workers were going to enter their own events which contains text, links and static images. For a contact page if you place one or more empty dynamic text field on the page you can go back later and add new info as you gather it.


Are you wanting to add new pages on the fly?
Or are you just wanting to design a "blank site" with "empty pages" and add content as you go along?

[gotoAndCrash]

I actually joined the FlashBlocks forum, & posted a similar question there, & the guy responded saying that you can add FlashBlocks editing components dynamically via ActionScript, which is awesome, so I expanded on my question a bit, but he hasn't gotten back.

Are you wanting to add new pages on the fly?

Yeah, basically, the way I've been doing things lately is there's nothing really on the Stage - I create a lot of stuff using the drawing API (using code to say 'make me a box here, & make it this color, & this size'), using XML to attach images into a Movie Clip created using createEmptyMovieClip(), & creating Text Fields using createTextField().

I also wonder about if I can make my own things, like I have this little custom scrollBar I made a while ago - it's just a Movie Clip with some code & graphics (pieces of the scrollBar), & I can dynamically dump some text into it, pass it a few parameters for width & height, etc, & it just does it's thing. So I wonder if I'd be able to use it, or things of that nature...?