Rich Rodecker’s blog on flash, flex, actionscript, javascript, and php, with a dash of randomness
Gaia – Yeah, I’m gonna have to give it props again
I know I just posted about Gaia recently, but I’m just about to wrap up the same project and after working with it some more and getting to know it a little better, I really have to say again how impressed I am with it. I’ll put it this way: it was the first framework of any kind that I actually enjoyed getting into. SO MUCH of the kaka grunt work is taken care of for you, it just makes development a breeze, and flexible enough to allow you to do whatever you need to do. Much more of an “I’m here to help” vibe then the “YOU WILL FOLLOW MY RULES OR I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE MISERABLE” crap found in just about every other framework.
I’ll say it again: if you’re developing Flash sites and not using Gaia, you’re probably wasting you’re time.
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about 11 months ago
Hello.
quick-inquiry, do u mind? just want to know whether possible or not.
shortcuts:
[CHANGING] = changing of a section/page, ie: from /portfolio to /contacts. process of hiding current section and showing new one.
[STRUCTURE] = question connected with that structure xml file with “page” nodes.
1. [CHANGING] is it possible to define parallel or sequence changing mode?
2. [CHANGING] is it possible to define so that current section won’t be hidden till new one is loaded and ready to be displayed?
3. [CHANGING] is it possible to navigate back/forth (with browser navigation) any time(in random-crazy mode) and have no “jumping” animations?
4. is it possible to use some custom containers as a sections (like elements of Flex’s ViewStack)?
5. [STRUCTURE] is it possible to have url like “/portfolio/last” but actually have custom inner structure of sections, where one section in the middle of that hierarchy is kinda invisible in the url. It’s actually there due to some architecture case, but it does not appears in the url. like “/portfolio/last”. Tricky to explain:/
6. [STRUCTURE] let’s say I want to have simple “/portfolio/category-type/gallery-id/photo-id”. Of course it’s a madness to write all possible routes into xml, so can define site structure with use of regular expressions? and to have a logic that if category matches some pattern then we shall use first kind of container, if other pattern – other kind of container.
7. [STRUCTURE] is it possible to have some kind of index sections at some level? i.e.: i go to “/news” and I want to see this month news without modifying URL part.. if I click on some news I go to “/news/thismonth/news-id”.
if you will be so kind and answer me, and all the answers will be positive – I can try to remember other things needed in flash-websites-dev.
about 11 months ago
point5: parser has ate symbols:
5. [STRUCTURE] is it possible to have url like “/portfolio/last” but actually have custom inner structure of sections, where one section in the middle of that hierarchy is kinda invisible in the url. It’s actually there due to some architecture case, but it does not appears in the url. like “/portfolio/<%hidden/%>last”. Tricky to explain:/
about 11 months ago
That question is really better suited to the Gaia Forums, but for the most part, yes, it can do pretty much all that. It excels at all the items you marked [CHANGING], at least it did for me using actionscript transitions (you can use either AS or timeline transitions between sections).
For the items you marked [STRUCTURE], Gaia also provides fantastic ways of handling your needs. From what I can gather about what you’re trying to describe, some of that functionality is already baked-in to the Gaia (like deeplink support and ‘landing pages’ for a section). In addition, the framework uses what it refers to as the “Gaia Flow”, a straightforward process of handling transitions between section, which is basically (I’m simplifying a little bit, it’s more well put in the documentation):
– request to go to a new section (referred to as goto() in the API)
– begin the transitionOut of the old section
– load the content for the new section
– transition new section in
– complete transition
Each of those steps has an associated event that is dispatched. The great thing is that, if you want to, you can ‘hijack’ the events and effectively ‘pause’ the flow at the step you are at, so you can do whatever you custom things you need to do. When you are done, you can explicitly tell Gaia to continue on with the flow from wherever it left off. It’s perfect for what you want to do with your [STRUCTURE] items, though you’d probably go about it in a much simpler way than what you’re describing.
On top of all that, the ‘Gaia Flow’ itself is easily customizable. By simple changing an attribute in the site.xml file, you can change the order of the sequence of the flow….for example, not transitioning out the old section until after the new section has transitioned in.
Again, the best thing for you to do is go and get started with it, and it won’t take long before everything clicks.
about 11 months ago
By the way, I have nothing to do with Gaia except for becoming a fan.
about 11 months ago
i’ve checked documentation.. unfortunately, according to it:
1. u have to write/generate site.xml with ALL pages(that take part in navigation) defined.. plus they need to have unique IDs.
correct way: regular expressions must be used for similar pages (eg: categories of portfolio). plus combinations of several regexp patterns on one level of hierarchy.. FAIL?
2. each page is basically a module (external SWF). LIMITATION! what if I don’t want to have preloaders or I want to have them but they jump since I have quite good internet connection? what if I want pages to be in a one main SWF? FAIL?
3. each page must extend PageAsset. LIMITATION! what if I want Flex Canvas or Box or whatever to take part in navigations? FAIL?
these are kinda principle questions of architecture.. or I’ve missed smth?
about 11 months ago
I’m not trolling, I’m serious=)