This is my first post around here. I'm a long time developer and have been
using Flex part time for around 18 months. I'm in the process of setting up the
Perth Flash Developers Group which got me into this site.

Anyway, I'm in a shared office with 5 other web devs/designers and are
pitching for a customer wanting an ecommerce site, and he stipulates liberal
use of Flash. We have settled on Magento as a backend and I can imagine all
sorts of creative Flash animation drawing on the web services of Magento.

However the other guys are unanimously warning away from anything too funky
and Flash based for the shopping interface, saying
1) They don't work, citing loading times, broken functionality

I get this to some degree. I've had at least a couple of Flash sites simply
not work lately, perhaps due to running Flash Player 10 in Opera on a Mac. The
reasons don't matter - the point being that Flash adds technical barriers to
customers buying stuff. I still have the ideal that something well built in
Flex can be at least as reliable as an AJAX
solution, and definitely more powerful in a branding sense (important for our
job at hand), but they aren't convinced.

2) They don't sell product, just confuse customers

They're arguing that the grid of products is tried and true, and deviating
from that will result in loss of sales.
I just played with http://www.crumpler.com.au and while it failed to load the
first time, and when it did work it did too much loading for my attention span,
I think it did make a brand impression on me and after the first minute or so I
enjoyed the experience. One guy concedes that http://www.burton.com works well,
but says it would have been very expensive, like $100K.

So are there any good examples of Flex/Flash-heavy ecommerce sites that go
beyond what AJAX can do these days ? And are there any good up to date
components or services for building them ?

Thanks for any reactions/comments.

Gary

Hi,

Please try the shopping cart samples at the URLs below.

http://examples.adobe.com/flex2/inpr...flexstore.html
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/prod...es?cc=in&lc=en
http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/used/search

Hope this helps.

Top Anti-Flash Cliches
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/jd/arc...nti-flash.html

What about the cost of having an AJAX app compatible with all browsers,
versions and OSes ?

There are many cliches about Flash like:

- You can't use the back button: WRONG
- You can't select the text: WRONG
- You can't save the pictures. WRONG
and the list goes on and on.

It's the responsibility of the designers and developers to make user friendly
Flash sites.

You can create fast loading, smooth and reliable buying experiences with Flex.
It's just a matter of talent.

Hey there gazmcghee!

I agree with Karl. It sounds like your co-workers just don't like Flash.
That's their bias. Not yours.

You say the customer "stipulates liberal use of Flash". So what's holding you
back from delivering the user-experience the customer wants?

"Flash adds technical barriers to customers buying stuff"
--So does HTML and CSS. And my budget, for that matter.

"..perhaps due to running Flash Player 10 in Opera on a Mac"
--Yeah, you right! If your Flex project is complied for Flash player 9, you
shouldn't have a problem. Wait a while before targeting version 10.

"...says it would have been very expensive, like $100K."
--This guy sounds like my plumber, only cheaper. Find another plumber.

--MORE quotes from your message, with rebuttals---

"...I'm too scared to try anything new..."
"...HTML/CSS works just fine and is the future of the web!"
"If my grandmother can't view it, then..."

--OK, your co-workers didn't say these things, but they are thinking them.
See? I can make stuff up just as well as they can.

Another link to add to the e-commerce experience using Flex would be our
childhood favorite store

http://toysrus.shoplocal.com/toysrus...ion=entryflash

As for the comment about the $100k if you're finding clients who are willing
to pay $100k for that, then I definitely need to raise my rates :-)

Thanks everyone for the useful comments and links. These guys aren't fools, and
I have had a few crashes with Flash and Air lately (the latest in Adobe Media
Player caused OSX to request a power off !).

I've almost signed up the customer after proposing Magento as a backend with
100% Flex on the main page of the frontend. I'm combining the products display,
product details and shopping cart display into a single page, and then when
they decide to buy, they will be using normal Magento for the checkout and
payment. The customer will also log into Magento for all backend functions.

Magento is rising star of shopping carts, but is particularly interesting to
Flex developers as it is based on the Zend framework which Adobe has been
working with lately towards good Flex integration, and have added AMF support
as standard. Also see this :
http://www.matsiya-technology.com/ma...-api-for-commu
nication-between-flash-flex-and-magento-2