Opinions required - is this a first?

[Flashgordon]

We'd like to know what people think or our site,

http://www.arqadia.co.uk.

Most of it is really basic stuff, nothing to get excited about but we have included full ASP and database integration within flash, without using generator or any external product. Due to the lack of any helpful tips while we were working out how to do this I'm wondering if we're one of the first to do it? The bit I'm talking about can be found in any of the 'products' areas - click 'search' and you get a results page, click any thumbnail from the results and you get full product details.
Any opinions good or bad will be appreciated.
Andy.

 

[oldnewbie]

Although up until now, I've never had the need for such a search feature, I found it interesting! Can't really say if it's a premiere... It may be!
My question in relation to your line "...Due to the lack of any helpful tips while we were working out how to do this...", would be to know if you would be willing to help others interested in this by sharing your scripting? Maybe even through a tutorial?

Two small notes on the rest...

Appreciated the ?(info) on the preloader, that's certainly a premiere for me!

You could fix what I consider a small problem on your about us & products buttons. Presently, if you re-click on those buttons, the page is refreshed for nothing! It's even worst if you start off by hitting the company button in the intro(page is drawn once), then happen to hit about us (page is redrawn), followed by a hit on the about us sub-menu item where the page is redrawn once again.
That can easily be solved by the use of a conditional statement... If the present selection is active (already drawn) stop; if not draw the page!

Regards,

ldnewbie

 

[blended]

Kill your back button!

It wisely resembles a traditional website, but the back button make it start all over again. I guarantee you this will aggravate people.

It's not a premier or anything, because I've been using database integration for a while now without Generator or anything (using xml, asp, cgi...) but what you've got is rock solid in expansion (probably). Congratulations!

What I don't understand is this: If it's all through asp and dynamicly generated, why don't you use dynamic text? It'd be a lot easier to update and generate text. Also, I only notice one additional .swf which loads up (the news I think). Wouldn't it be easier to have your variouis "scenes" load when necessary as this would make for quicker preloading? Just a thought.

Blended

 

[Flashgordon]

Yep, we know about the BACK button problem. Question is, how do we disable it?
I'd like to see another example of a database driven flash site, just for comparison. Can you show me some 'Blended?'
We DO use dynamic text for all of the product information, which is what's coming from the database. Which bits were you referring to?
The reason why we made the site one comlete SWF except for the news is because we wanted instant access to each page once the preloading is done, so that regular visitors have a quick viewing experience rather than waiting for the browser to render each page, which takes a while even for cached HTML. The news is a separate SWF because that will be changing regularly so we didn't want to include it in the main site and cause another preload. If there are better ways of doing the site, I'd welcome suggestions.

 

[blended]

Check out

http://www.detroitencoding.com

I did all of it with xml database integration, and all of the text and buttons are dynamically generated. Even the background can be changed through the database. Upon adding a new tier to the appropriate xml file new buttons can be generated with unique links without having to understand a bit of flash! (unless the client has yet to fully utilize the whole thing)

basically, when the user clicks on the "enter" button from the main page just have the preloader load into a new window and that will ensure that new window have no "back."

Blended

 

[davdesign]

Hi FG et al

Looking good my friend, good to see some more db action out there. In case you didn't know (and for any others out there who may read this thread with interest) there's a really great book out there with deals with this exact topic, and worth every penny:

http://catalog.hungryminds.com/product.asp?isbn=0764535986

dave

dave@pinkzeppelin.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^​