What are the (technical) pros and cons of Flash vs AJAX / JS?

Question

We provide a web application with an interface fully developed in Adobe Flash. When we chose Flash 6 years ago, we did it for our large number of functions for interacting with the user, such as dragging and dropping files, opening and closing menus, tree navigation elements, pop-up dialogs, etc.

Today it is obvious that AJAX / JS offers approximately the same capabilities, and due to the fact that the number of frameworks available to it, it is quite possible to implement them.

Is there a technical reason why you need to choose a technology differently? By "technical" I mean performance, security, portability / compatibility, etc. I do not mean aspects such as a very non-software development method in Flash or it makes sense to switch an application from one to another.

As I just explained in another question , it seems to me that JS is moving forward in terms of market share, and I wonder if we are missing any important ones if we stick with Flash.

Answer 1

• Properly Designed AJAX Applications Are More Effective Than Flash
• Properly designed AJAX applications are lighter than Flash.
• AJAX does not require a plugin (Flash is quite ubiquitous, so this is not very important) *
• AJAX is not controlled by any company like Flash

Edited to add: * Except for the iPhone, as Abdu points out.

Answer 2

In addition to what others have said, Flash is limited to a “rectangle” and cannot be added to a regular html page in an unobtrusive way.

@Gulzar I think that when more browsers support the video tag, for example mozilla 3.1, we will see even greater use of ajax / js on top of the flash drive.

Answer 3

• Adobe ActionScript is a statically typed language; Javascript is dynamically typed. Depending on your point of view, this can be good or bad.
• With Javascript / HTML / CSS, you are about to go to a hellish browser, especially if you want to support older browsers. This can be mitigated by the available libraries, but it is still a big headache. With Flash, you write code once, and it just works in all browsers.
• Even with available libraries, Flash user controls are simply more advanced than anything you can find in the Javascript / HTML world. In Javascript, you will not find anything that comes close to the simplicity and power of the user data control that Flash provides.

I do not see how Javascript has more market share than Flash. Almost everyone who has a web browser has a Flash plugin installed. I would be interested to know how many people disable Javascript, but have a Flash plugin.

Also keep in mind that you will have a huge learning curve and a lot of development time if you decide to switch your technology base so that you really have a good business.

This solution also has a lot to do with what your application does and who your installation base is.

Edit: I see that people mentioned that the iPhone does not support Flash. I would expect this to change with the iPhone installation base - Adobe would be crazy not to support it.

Answer 4

JS and Flash have an excellent online presence with overlapping capabilities. One area of ​​JS is still missing in the video rendering.

Answer 5

Flash, well used, makes it easy to localize and internationalize.

In addition, it is much easier to use Flash in an accessible form; you can give the screen readers the correct text, instead of going through all the possible elements of the form.

Answer 6

Since I cannot accept the two answers, I am going to combine Christ Upchurch and 17 of the 26 answers in my own message. I think these two together pretty much summarize what I wanted to know. Thanks guys!

Answer 7

I think Flash should be limited to online games, videos, and animations. Otherwise use html and Ajax. This is a web standard and is supported by almost all devices. AFAIK, iPhone does not support Flash. This is a fast-growing segment that you are already blocking. Keep it simple and efficient.

Answer 8

Despite the fact that flash memory is quite common in desktop browsers, mobile support is very limited (flash lite? Yeah, right). I am very upset looking at the restaurant on my phone to find the whole site based on flash memory, and I can’t even get a phone number or address!

Answer 9

One of the advantages of Flash is that it has several features that help you safely perform operations on a domain type, which can be useful. Flash also has (limited) support for some hardware, which is not possible with Javascript.

Personally, I will try to use as much Ajax as possible before moving on to something like Flash. From the point of view of the user interface, it is better that the controls and basic authorship be a little more developed. The Sound Manager project is a good example of leveraging a small amount of Flash while storing the remainder in Javascript.

Answer 10

I suspect that one of the reasons javascript is becoming more and more popular is because it is easier to embed in an existing application.

Answer 11

If you work a lot with polygons, then Flash is still easier to program and debug. With AJAX, there are many libraries for processing polygons, but the more libraries your application uses, the slower it gets.