Differences between adobe actionscript 3 softwares and which should be used to create youtube style annotations?

0
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I'm working on a guitar tutorial website where users can select parts of a song, then write an explanation of how to do that guitar technique. The explanation will pop up, like a youtube style annotation whenever someone plays that song. It's like the youtube video annotations, except exclusive to guitar lessons:

When someone plays a song, the annotations get displayed in real time.

-There will be 3 sql databases: user information (ex. email, password, etc...), song meta information (ex. song name, length of song, etc...), annotation information and content (ex. annotation start and end time (to queue when the analysis/annotation should be displayed), etc...). The flash gui will interact with all databases.

-The site will be done in php.

There's a lot of options out there (Adobe flash CS5, flex, flash builder), what are the differences between the three?

Can you recommend just one based on the specs? I don't want to throw down US$799 for flash builder premium 4.5 for php but also don't want to purchase flex builder 3.0 US$99 if it would take me a lot longer to do.

Thanks

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phpsqlflashapache-flexflash-builder
You could also use the free FlashDevelop instead of flashbuilder if you are more a coder than user of a graphical IDE. – DanielB

2 Answers

2
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What not

That sounds like a serious application, so I would discard Flash CS5 altogether: you don't get all the programming productivity stuff (like code completion) and it's harder to bring good structure in your code. You can use Flash CS5 for animations, banners, simple applets and the like, but it's not a good choice for a bigger application.

Free

You could do it for free since the Flex SDK is open-source and the mxmlc compiler is free to use (you can use mxmlc to compile pure actionscript code too). There are two options here:

  • simple text editors (with plugins for AS and Flex) like Vim or TextMate. Compile on the command line or with ANT.
  • FlashDevelop is a free IDE (like FlashBuilder) that can do pretty much everything FlashBuilder can. You don't get a design mode though (I for one, do not consider that a downside)

Not free

There's FlashBuilder, FDT and IntelliJ Idea (and probably some others), which are all pretty much equally expensive. If you will be doing more Flex or AS projects it's definitely worth the expense, but for just one project you might reconsider. As for the php integration: it will speed up development time, but if it's just for one project, I really don't think it's worth it, considering you'll probably have to do some initial research on how to get those integration features to work. They only pay off if you use them many times.

There's also the option of FlashBuilder 3. It's slower than the later versions and has less coding assistance, but you can et it to work with the Flex 4.5 SDK if you want to, so that's not a dealbreaker.

Who's it for

Your choice may also depend on the developers that will be doing the work. If you have a developer who is proficient with Flash CS5 but doesn't know the first thing about FlashBuilder or command line compiling, then by all means go for Flash CS5.

2
votes

First off, you need to distinguish between flash and flex:

  • Flash is mainly used for making animations, basic websites, games. It is far more lightweight than flex.

  • Flex is a framework mainly used for creating rich internet applications. It is more robust, and offers the developer many built in components to create applications fast. For an overview check out tour de flex

Once you know which technology you are going to use you can decide on the software to buy

  • If you want to create a Flash CS5 project in Flash Builder you will need Flash CS5 AND Flash Builder. Flash Builder has better coding support such as code completion, ... but it is not necessary to achieve your goal.
    In fact, most flash developers use FlashDevelop or FDT eclipse plugin.

  • To develop Flex you can either use Flex Builder or Flash Builder.
    You can use the flex 4.5 SDK in Flex Builder as well, so you can develop flex 4 in Flex builder as well. Off course, Flash Builder has more extra features than Flex Builder.

If you choose Flash Builder, you should know that:

  • Flash Builder 4.5 was released mainly for Mobile and Flash Catalyst support
  • Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP supports Zend Framework

So really, the choice all depends on what you want to achieve and how. You are the only one who can answer that question, so I suggest to dig in a little deeper and look at all the benefits of one vs the other.

Cheers