Just read Nathan Pitman’s report about the updated Flickr Gamma version. One particular note was the Organizer is no longer done in Flash. Scanning the the announcement page, help page, and bug list, I couldn’t really find any information or context as to why. Anyone have any more info?
5 Replies to “Flickr’s New Non-Flash Organizer”
Comments are closed.
I remember last year when Flickr replaced all Flash based features of their site except for the Organizr. I think the latest redesign was just the final attempt to move to an all DHTML/Ajax interface to keep the site consistent.
There slideshow is still done in Flash so not sure I buy that. Also, there usage of Flash to load images was a lame attempt at preventing saving of images so that was just a matter of time, not consistency.
I recall reading somewhere that Flash had been retained for doing things like doing previews when rotating an image, can’t find the original reference but this post on FlickrBlog mentions the original transition from Flash to DHTML/AJAX
The organizr and photo display both used to be in Flash mainly because of Flickr’s birth from a game we were developing in Flash. I already had a lot of UI libs and such hacked out in AS, so it was quicker to build on those than start from scratch with JS. (Flash was never meant to prevent anybody from saving photos to their desktops though that is a common misconception.)
We moved to using DHTML for the photo display because we actually had a lot of complaints about the Flash (slow to load, blocked by too many people’s ad/flash blockers) and also because I am more at home working in DHTML.
And those are the main reasons for moving to DHTML for the revamped Organizr also. Had we not had all the Flash libraries when we started, it never would have been done in Flash.
But, the photo rotatio UI on individual photo pages is still Flash (best cross browser way to preview rotation), as are the slidehows. I think the slideshows will always be Flash (and we have a sweet new redeisgn of those done, waiting for us to find time to implement it).
Wow, thanks a bunch for the context Eric as well as clearing up that misconception! That is quite scary to hear about your user complaints, however. I’m sure loading could be remedied, but not sure about the later.