Browser graphics: Apple Applet vs Flash vs anything else?

Question

We sell photo albums created by our customers using the client album editing program (for Windows). Now we are going to develop an online program so that customers can create their albums in a browser: upload photos and edit them. It will be a rich browser application with full graphics support.

The problem is what to use technology?

Our server application is built in Java, and we are thinking of Java applets so that we can reuse some Java code. We are also not very familiar with Flash. But some people say Flash is preferable.

Perhaps there are some modern technologies now? SVG or some Google technology (like GWT, but with graphics support) or something else?

What do you think?

Thanks in advance!

UPDATE

Photobook Editor was created using GWT + SVG.

Answer 1

There are four great options you can go for:

• HTML5 + CSS 3 + AJAX
• Silverlight
• Flash
• Java

HTML 5 + CSS 3 + AJAX (for the surrounding site.)

Since there are many graphic elements, and these upcoming standards are quite new, it would be difficult to get everything that you would like to achieve in this language, you could create most of the site in this, but the image editor itself is not easy enough to develop in comparison with other languages.

Silverlight (If you have a lot of time ... Bad choice, for now ...)

For many users, this is not installed by default, although support for installing it is reasonable (Moonlight on other operating systems, Silverlight may work in different browsers), if you want to reach the general public, you can skip this for now. This will allow you to learn C #, .NET, WPF and other Microsoft technologies so that you can move, which will require a lot of training time from your company.

Seesmic, the second popular Twitter client, however, seems to use Silverlight to quickly install and update its desktop application in the browser, so it may not be too difficult to require Silverlight from your users. Another bonus to learning C #, .NET and WPF is that you can use the technologies you have learned to write desktop applications. (Which again may work on other OSs, Mono support is getting good)

Java VS Flash (Stay if you have no reason to change!)

As you can see on Google Trends: Java, Flash, Silverlight , you will notice that Java and Flash are on the same level, so they are both supported by your users. You can best stay with Java because you have experience working in that language, and not forget that you can reuse the code you wrote. Another bonus when staying with Java is that you do not have to switch between software to develop different parts of your infrastructure.

You can search Java VS Flash in Google, and only when you have a reason to change, you have to do it, it makes no sense to study something with the same (or maybe worse) capabilities when the thing you use in great for doing this job right now. There is nothing wrong with learning something new when you have time for it, but you will have the disadvantage of being new to it ...

Answer 2

Java applets are a multi-functional, well-established technology for implementing applications on web pages, and you are a Java store with a Java code base installed.

If there is no specific platform that you want to target, where you know that Flash support is better than Java support, then in your position I would just stick to Java.

Answer 3

Other options are:

• Javascript, raw or using a set of Javascript tools like Ext-js
• GWT
• JavaFX,
• Silverlight ... but this will not work with a lot of browsers.

Answer 4

You can try Adobe Flex . It is specifically designed for the RIA and offers many Flash features. It uses a specific form of XML (MXML) for layout (and supports CSS) and ActionScript for scripting and has many pre-build components. Also check out Tour de Flex , which itself is a Flex application containing code examples and advanced components. If the default components look too restrictive, you can use your own flash files. Then the code is compiled into a swf file or into an air file (for desktop applications).

You can also use an infrastructure such as GraniteDS to transfer data between the Java-based server and the Flex client, allowing you to reuse some of your codes. I believe that it takes advantage such as Spring if your projects use it.

And there is a version of Eclipse designed to work with it: Flash Builder (formerly Flex Builder). It comes as a standalone IDE or Eclipse plugin (this requires a license, although, in my opinion, a 60-day trial version is also available).

I think it will look better and faster than Java applets (not sure about JavaFX, though, since I never used it). But on the other hand, it will require some overhead training on how it works (moreover, if you plan to use GraniteDS), but as soon as you get it, I think this is a great tool.

Edit: ActionScript is very similar to Javascript (both are based on an ECMA script), so if you know that it won't be too hard to learn AS. Also, the MXML part is somewhat similar to using HTML, but much more powerful as you can define your own classes and use them directly as a tag in the MXML part.

Edit2: you can create an animated album using components like this (demo here )

Answer 5

It depends on what tasks this image editing tool should perform.

If this helps, here are some similar questions:

• Online Image Editor - Ajax or Flex / Flash?
• Photoshop Embeddable Web Image Editor
• Free open source image editors .

NTN, George

Answer 6

Switching from Windows to another private solution (such as Flash and Java) directs you "from the pan to the fire." Try the standards! As for HTML 5 with drag and drop, GMail allows you to add attachments this way.

Answer 7

If you have a working Java editor for albums, maybe you can pack it as a Webstart-Application? If this deployment method is fine, you can save a lot of work.

http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/desktop/javawebstart/index.jsp

Answer 8

It is all about your target customer. If your goal is open access to desktop applications, and your web application is more like an interface, you should stick to flash memory, which is already present on 90% of home computers. If you need something more powerful, with a lot of code already made and available, and your users do not mind installing java jre, java is the way to go. But it's all about the user. I suggest you do some kind of analysis on your user base (see if anyone has access to your download page, whether Java or a flash drive is installed) and make your decision based on this.