Flash VS jQuery for RIA development: which one is better to use and for what reasons?
It is easier to create rich internet applications that look and feel like desktop applications using Adobe Flex because of their large library of large widgets. It's much harder to get anything that looks like Flex applications using jQuery. Edit: Both jQuery UI and Flex allow you to customize and extend widgets, although this is arguably easier to do in Flex. I've included links below to demo sites where you can see the difference better.
Flex applications run in Flash and will look the same in all browsers. Traditional web applications can look and behave differently in different web browsers.
If you want to use Flash Builder and additional features , you have to pay. jQuery is free.
Flex will only work in Flash browsers, which excludes most mobile browsers (for now) and iPads. jQuery will work in any browser with decent javascript support, which is pretty much all of them. Edit: It should be noted that while most desktops have Flash ( see Adobe stats ), many custom plugins like click2flash on safari and others in Firefox that disabled Flash, or at least required users to click on it to run it. There have also been performance issues on Macs, but Adobe claims to fix these issues in future releases.
Try to find samples of both to see the difference:
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I started working as a graphic designer. I found out that you can animate illustrations using Flash 5 ... so I learned how to use the timeline. Then I found that I wanted to "invent" more complex web streams that included my illustrations and animations; why I learned ActionScript.
As I grew up as a web developer, I noticed that a lot of basic animations (button drags, page transitions, etc.) we do with JavaScript ... and eventually something called Ajax (extension or JavaScript method).
Upon further investigation, I learned that ActionScript was mostly inspired by JavaScript syntax.
In short, with Apple's tough stance against Flash on iPhone / iPad, I could find my personal education in JavaScript, then AJAX and jQuery, and then ActionScript. It seems to be a logical progression.
Everyone knows what Flash is capable of when it comes to animation ... but if you want to see what's possible with JavaScript and jQuery, check out this LA designers blog: http://www.sohtanaka.com/web-design-blog/
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It really depends on what you want to do, as each approach has its own advantages and limitations.
Benefits of Flash (or things that can only be done in a flash):
- interface sound
- 3D interactivity (for example, creating a 3D game in javascript is currently unrealistic)
- augmented reality
- good design IDE
Flash is part of the Adobe Creative Suite and can be quite expensive. You can work with other tools, but then you lose advantage # 4.
Advantages of HTML5 and javascript (jQuery)
- much broader browser support.
- mobile internet (it's big)
- easier accessibility and searchability (although this is possible in Flash, it is just harder to accomplish)
- better UI with many things (text selection, scrolling, inline controls, etc.).
HTML5 and javascript are open standards and as such are completely free.
To find out the time to find out: this is very similar, I think, since the languages are very similar.
Probably the best current approach is to use HTML5 with jQuery (or any javascript in general) for most of your work, and when you need more features, sprinkle a little flash (which you can often download as a jQuery plugin);)
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Wow ... what a loaded question. The answer is simple and really depends on the platform you are targeting. If the target browser supports HTML 5 features such as canvas and SVG, flash (in most cases) is deprecated with a combination of HTML5 + JavaScript (JQuery is the most popular JS library). Unfortunately, the browser with the largest install base (IE) does not support these features (at least until IE9 is released), so we sometimes have to use Flash.
Flash is about to fall by the wayside in the coming years, so I would spend more time learning HTML 5 and JQuery.
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