To Flash or not to Flash

I love building stuff with Flash technologies. I think ActionScript 3.0 is an excellent language and Flex 4 is a very good framework. I'm not particularly enamored of the alternatives. I find JavaScript to be a mediocre language (albeit with some excellent libraries). I don't like wrangling CSS more than I have to (although Less makes it much nicer). I find HTML 5 to be a pretty immature technology so far. SilverLight's days are probably numbered. (I haven't yet delved into mobile operating systems, like Android and iOS, so I can't speak for those. And those aren't complete alternatives, anyway.)


Because I love Flash, I have a tendency to want to build everything in it. But over the years I've learned that this tendency must be curbed whenever possible. There are definite downsides to Flash, and especially to doing entire websites in Flash. (The now-defunct March of Man website and some abandoned versions of the Dinosauricon are testaments to this.)


For PhyloPic, it was pretty clear to me that there would be no significant advantage to building it in Flash. Load times would be increased without any functionality enhancement. I wouldn't be able to use it on my iPhone. And all the functionality I needed was easily available in plain old HTML/JavaScript/CSS.


With one exception.


The Submission Tool is built as a Flex app. There is one primary reason for this: image processing. Processing the silhouettes on the server side was an option, but one that could have potentially bogged the server down. (It's already starting to buckle a bit as is, pending some optimizations.) But, by using Flash's BitmapData class, I can do that bit of work on the client side before the silhouettes are shipped off to the database.


Of course there are some other benefits as well. In descending order of importance:

• Flash allows for a more unified experience for the submitter. No page reloads and no cross-browser differences.
• SPAM bots are much more capable of cracking HTML forms than cracking custom AMF web services. SWF files are generally opaque to them.
• It was easier for me to build and test.

Had it just been those three reasons, there might still have been a good argument to do it as HTML/AJAX. The image processing requirement is what really tipped the scales. One hundred submitters contrasting, cropping, and rescaling bitmaps is much nicer if they're doing it on their own machines than if they're all doing it on the server. (Okay, I've barely had even two simultaneous submitters so far, but I can dream....)

There may be other Flash tools in PhyloPic's future. For example, I think it is the best technology for the Cladogram Generator. But for the rest of the site, plain old HTML/JavaScript/CSS is certainly sufficient—better, even.

UPDATE (2012 Jan 26): The Submission Page still uses Flash but is not a Flex app.

PhyloPic Week 2: Lineages, Browsing, and API

Another good week for PhyloPic. There are now well over 200 silhouettes in the database. I also rolled out some new features and enhancements.

Redesigned Lineage Pages

Lineage pages now provide taxonomic and license information for each image. As a visual touch, figures now fade as they go deeper and deeper into the past. Here's a few of my favorite lineage pages so far:

• Anhanguera santanae (pterosaur)
• Catocala nupta (moth)
• Corvus corax (avian theropod dinosaur)
  
• Damon johnstonii (whip spider)
  
• Giraffatitan brancai (sauropod dinosaur)
• Homo sapiens sapiens (primate)
• Pantodon buccholzi (butterflyfish)
• Therizinosaurus cheloniformis (theropod dinosaur)

Yes, they're all bilaterian animals. There's a definite bias.

Image Browser

Now you can peruse the entire gallery much more easily, with the Image Browser. Use the arrow(s) on the side to navigate through pages of silhouettes.

Developer API

For any developers out there who want to use the PhyloPic database to create their own apps, now you can. I've provided an initial API, available both as a JSON service and an AMF service for Flex apps.

Also of news to developers: I've opened up the code base for viewing and cloning. (Still need to add the licenses, though.) It's a Django app, written in Python. Feel free to poke around.

Thanks

I'd like to thank everyone who's submitted images so far, especially FunkMonk, Scott Hartman, Matt Martyniuk and Maija Karala for their many contributions. (Each of them has submitted at least a dozen.) Thanks also to Steven Coombs, Craig Dylke, Mo Hassan, Neil Kelley, Dann Pigdon, Ville-Veikko Sinkkonen, Patrick Strutzenberger, Reka Szabo, David Tana, Michael P. Taylor, and Emily Willoughby!