Hi All!

A client of mine wants a Website developed in FLASH. He insists on FLASH.

He further mentioned to me that he'd later want expand the FLASH Website & make it an e-commerce website.

Not very complication. Straight, User:

1) Views Product Catalog
2) Adds Products to Basket
3) Finally Checks Out

Is this possible in FLASH ?

Thanks in Advance.

Sure. Flash can send data to be processed and stored in databases just like traditional forms.

You're going to have difficulty finding prefabricated applications that can do this, unless someone knows of a resource of which I'm not aware. But if you're up for the learning curve, I know it can be done. I've processed some simple Flash forms before. Nothing like what your client is asking though.

To be honest, I'd love to hear his rationale for going this route...

Well, he saw my Website www.joggroup.com and liked it very much.

Besides, he doesn't want the Photos of his products to be ripped (read Right Click >> Save Image As).

I know Right Click can be disabled & there are some other procedures as well.

He wants to add animations & stuff as well.

He also liked the concept that my whole website was in just one SWF.

Well, as is the case time and time again, when you've made the choice to serve up a site only in Flash, you sacrifice a)functionality, b) accessibility, c) cross-browser/device compatibility, d) 3/4 of normal browser functionality (bookmarking pages, the back button, etc.), and e) the scorn and wrath of search engines.

Sounds like a lot to give up in exchange for "animations & stuff," especially when you can animate extraneous visuals in Flash, integrate it with real content and have everything, including prefabricated e-commerce that works ;)

Besides, he doesn't want the Photos of his products to be rippedThen you don't put them online, or you watermark them. Nothing will stop someone from printing the screen, and with a site in one big .swf, you can take his entire site out of your temporary cache, decompile it, and steal every last little bit of it. Some might argue putting everything into a Flash file actually makes ripping easier, becuase it's all right there in one handy little package, ripe for the picking!

I know Right Click can be disabled & there are some other procedures as well. No it can't ;) There are some procedures that give developers a false sense of security regarding this, but nothing that actually disables it.

His thinking is terribly flawed, my friend. If after all of this he still wants an all-Flash site and e-commerce, prepare to charge him 10x as much as you would normally, and then break out the advanced Flash/Actionscript book and start studying. More power to you - I wouldn't even know where to start building this application in Flash!

Why is your client so nuts about doing it in Flash? One of those things an ignorant or uneducated client would require.

Also, make sure you check out Flex before you do anything. Flash through programming.

You can definitely build an ecommerce site in Flash, but he'll be looking at a $50-75,000 budget, if it has to be good and competitive.

And while Flash can work extremely well for specific ecommerce tasks (http://www.caledonbank.com/accountFinder.html), it's not necessarily perfect for replacing full traditional ecommerce sites.

Just check this site: http://www.oneill.com/
to see WHAT can be done in Flash for ecommerce...

Originally posted by Flasher
Just check this site: http://www.oneill.com/
to see WHAT can be done in Flash for ecommerce...

See HOW many 56k'ers buy something from that website ;)

*edit* all that ecommerce site is not done in flash, it's done in PHP, flash just parses a long GET to it.

OK, Thanx for the Replies.

He wants to Add E-Commerce later on & that time may never come.

But, if it is so Expensive & Difficult to implement E-Commerce in FLASH, we can change the FLASH only website to FLASH + HTML Website later on right?

And Keeping the same design as before.

Yes, and there is a chance that you will be able to satisfy your clilent by just adding few bells in FLASH to the site leaveingthe commercial part the same...

If the bells look cool, that may be enogh... :-)

You can, but it sounds like twice the work for half the impact, since you still run into all the problems associated with having Flash-only up-front, and then you have to reinvent the wheel for him later when the time comes to split the two out.

Originally posted by darshanjog
OK, Thanx for the Replies.

He wants to Add E-Commerce later on & that time may never come.

But, if it is so Expensive & Difficult to implement E-Commerce in FLASH, we can change the FLASH only website to FLASH + HTML Website later on right?

And Keeping the same design as before.

I'm not sure what payment plans you were looking for, but I had remembered someone build a flash front-end for paypal ordering.

http://www.flashexperience.com/store/view_product.php?product=2

I'm not sure how secure it is or how well it works, but it may be a step in the right direction.

But, if it is so Expensive & Difficult to implement E-Commerce in FLASH, we can change the FLASH only website to FLASH + HTML Website later on right?

And Keeping the same design as before.
Many sites have an html template for their stores and their main site in flash and/or html. It's common because people are used to purchasing stuff in an environment where pages reload and everything is static.