Hi all: When it comes to developing for Flash, Flex, and ActionScript I am a total noob even though I've been a developer with 20+ years database programming experience and 10+ years programming for the web. And I've spent many hours trying to understand the right approach to my use-case but am still feeling a long way from understanding. I'm hoping after I explain my use case you guys can help guide me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.
Basically I need to develop a video widget whose marketing goal is viral distribution. Tthe client wants me to use ClearSpring <http://www.clearspring.com/> which is a widget container <http://www.testspring.com/docs/tech/widget-dev/container> than manages the platform nuances (i.e. FaceBook vs. MySpace vs. WordPress, etc.) and also provides reporting. It doesn't provide any widget functionality, it just packages it to run on the different platforms. As far as I can tell, ClearSpring is a good thing but I've not been able to get it to work yet because of my lack of Flash/Flex experience. But although ClearSpring supports functionality using both HTML+CSS+Javascript and Flash/Flex <http://www.clearspring.com/docs/tech/distribution/destinations> the former doesn't work on Facebook and Facebook is a client requirement. The functionality I need to build is simple. I need to build a SWF that contains a simple video player that will load and play an .FLV file (no frills needed here, at least not for v1, just start and stop a video), but it needs to be able to call a simple REST-based webservice to retrieve the name of the current .FLV to play (i.e. the service will just be an HTTP GET to a URL like http://services.example.com/current-video/ <http://services.example.com/current-video/> that returns the full URL of the "current" .FLV file in text/plain, nothing more, and I plan to use PHP for the REST service on the server.) If this were Javascript in the browser with a video playing SWF (i.e. Flowplayer <http://flowplayer.org/> ) it would be a no-brainer for me. But since I need the client-side functionality packaged in a SWF file I don't know what to do next. So my questions are: 1. In a nutshell, what's the difference between Flash or Flex or ActionScript? (After much googling I still can't find a definitive answer.) 2. Do I need to learn Flash or Flex or ActionScript, or all of the above? 3. If more than one of the above, what do I use each for? 4. Which Adobe Software would I need to buy for this? 5. Are there free or open-source versions of software that would give me what I need? (I'm not making that much on the project so I'd hate to have to drop drop US$1000+ for an Adobe product .) 6. Are there any books you'd highly recommend for what I need? 7. Are there any examples you can point me to on the web of things very similar to what I am trying to accomplish? MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE for any and all help on this. -Mike Schinkel http://mikeschinkel.com <http://mikeschinkel.com>
