Creating a Flex application using TurboGears
by Kevin Dangoor
Adobe Flex, for folks not aware of it, is a toolkit for creating attractive, functional GUIs easily. It deploys via Flash, so it works just about everywhere (and looks the same in every browser!). Oh yeah, and Flex is free (though Adobe sells an IDE and additional server side tools that do some extra cool things).
Bruce Eckel, host of this weekend’s TurboGears Jam, and James Ward from Adobe (who will also be at the Jam) did a joint screencast where they show off how to create a Flex application with TurboGears.
HTML runs just about everywhere. Flash does not. Flash has big accessibility issues. HTML does not (if done right). That said, a GUI done with Flash might be a good cross platform solution but the preponderance of Flash showing up in places where it ought not (like navigational controls on public web page with a broad public audience) is certainly a step backward in accessibility.
Actually, Flash *does* run just about everywhere. Go to YouTube or Google Video. Are you able to view videos there? You’ve got Flash (so do most people).
Which accessibility issues does Flash have?
http://www.adobe.com/resources/accessibility/best_practices/bp_fp.html
The Flash of today is a very different beast from the Flash of 2000. Sure, Flash *can* have accessibility issues (so do many Web 2.0 apps). But, the tools are there to make Flash accessible, just as HTML can be made accessible.
By the way, I’m not being defensive about Flash. I just figure that the criticisms should be legit. (For example, don’t bring up the “back button” problem, because Flash has had that taken care of for a while and it’s an even more widespread problem with ajax apps.)
Flash has great accessibility support (screen readers, keyboard navigation, etc). With Flex much of the accessibility features are built-in to the components. We wouldn’t have so many government, financial, and publicly traded Flex customers if this were not the case. If you want to learn more about accessibility in Flex check out:
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flex/
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flex/overview.html
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flex/faq.html
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/flex/best_practices.html
Please let us know if there are missing accessibility features that you need. Thanks!