A swf (flex output)
does not have the ability, as far as I know, to do this(partly because of
security concerns). You are in a browser there is no access to a users system
except that which is allowed.
You have the ability to
upload files but no drag and drop style. You can not interact with the system
*yet*.
The Flex/Flash
framework is cross platform (unix, mac, windows) It is also cross browser
(Opera, IE, Firefox etc..). An Activex on the other hand is not, and assumes a
multitude of OS support to do it's thing, hence activex is windows/IE only
technology. It assumes that you have the .net (insert version here) runtime
(xx-mb download). Allot of companies block activex support, and/or _javascript_.
All these things limit your user base.
The ubiquity of the
flash platform is large for these reasons:
No
requirements (except a 1mb download/installed automatically).
That is all.
Nothing
else.
1 whopping
megabyte.
Works
everywhere.
Lot’s of
devices.
(insert
multitude of others here)
In order
to keep this, they keep it simple. What do you do when you need to upgrade your
activex to a new version, how can you be sure that everyone has the right
version. What about when you depreciate features.
Adding another
component into the mix just complicates things more then they are
worth.
We could say, yes drag
and drop is slick when interacting with the desktop. However are all the
limitations really worth it? Is limiting your user base worth it? Are the
support problems worth it?
A user is quite happy
selecting files to upload vs. drag and drop. Seeing as uploading the files is
one very small part of a system, I don’t see this as being a show stopper.
It’s what you do with
the files after that counts. I really think that the interaction design and
ergonomics that can be accomplished with Flex far out weight it’s short comings
(if indeed you can call them that).
However, if the user downloads a swf and runs it "localy" then you could trascode before upload. You just can't have controle of a users system while in the browser. Sandbox security prevents it.
My comment you quoted was in regards to AJAX not
Activex they are 2 completely different animals. Ajax is required to conform to
the same sandbox security restrictions as Flex. Even more so. That is why the
solution you mentioned uses an ActiveX control in order to get at the system. Is
this even something a user would really want to do knowingly?
God knows what the heck
that ActiveX is doing behind the scenes…Which brings us to yet another thing to
limit the user base. Probably one of
the biggest "confidence". Will your user trust this? Some will. The
greater part will not.
By doing this you
effectively:
Knock out a large part
of your market.
Confuse the heck out of
user’s that are inexperienced
Lost confidence, or
make users wonder about security.
Only one browser
allowed
Only one OS
allowed
Etc
All for a slick drag and drop, that most won’t see, use, or care about. When I look at all that, I think to myself “Who needs exterior drag and drop operations?”. I’ll just make the product more appealing and user centric on the inside.
hope this helps, good question.
-----Message d'origine-----
De : flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]De la part de Stefan Richter
Envoyé : mercredi 29 mars 2006 18:32
À : flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Objet : [flexcoders] Can Flex do this? (was: Too many mistakes)On this note I wanted to ask the crowd: is Flex2 capable of letting a user drag a file from their desktop into the browser, onto the Flex app and then have Flex upload it?I saw something similar being done by a custom ActiveX control in combination with AJAX and it was very slick. I had never seen anything like it. Moreover that plugin was able to transcode video clips to Flash Video format before uploading...Stefan
Works across browsers with no extra code (= less maintenance and dev time) that alone beat’s Ajax hands down again IMHO (insert hundreds more here).
hope this helps
Jason
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