Droolbox

DroolBox is an AS3 framework, but it's not yet another AS3 coding-glue/MVC framework.

DroolBox is an AS3 framework, but it's not yet another AS3 coding-glue/MVC framework.
Inspired by Gaia and MODx, the focus is on structuring full-flash websites around known concepts: pages, popups and URLs.
Then it gives the average Flash developper solutions for a lot of common and fastidious tasks.
By doing so it helps to build feature-rich dynamic websites a lot quicker.
An optional PHP counterpart is needed for a lot of its best features like SEO.

Every framework has contraints and drawbacks: we just hope DroolBox is the right balance between features and hassle for a lot of Flash developpers and teams out there.

DroolBox features

(value creation features for your client in blue)

Visual developpement:

  • we love using the Flash Pro IDE for quick integration of elements and textfields, sometimes timeline animations. This is supported and optional.

    • Structure:

  • simple solution for structuring around pages and popups
  • pages can contains other pages and popups to create sections of your website
  • every navigation point (page/popup) has an URI identifier like a HTML page on a web server
  • navigate inside your site using simple « goto(URI) » commands
  • built around SWFAddress, so deep-linking and back/forward buttons are usable
  • solution for permalinks (when you need to deep-link to a user-customed page/module)

    • Motion:

  • in/out transitions between navigation points
  • simple transitions can be defined in the structure XML or customized in AS3

    • Text content:

  • all the texts are centralized in one or more XML files
  • fonts are loaded as separate SWF files and packaged with a simple solution (TTF/OTF only)
  • HTML/CSS content solutions for both classic TextFields and TLFs (Flash Pro CS5).

    • Multilinguism:

  • URI use the title of the pages and are translated in the current language
  • every text node in the XML can be used to store multilingual content
  • the page structure can be customized by language (if some sections are not present for a specific language)

    • Loadings:

  • DroolBox XMLs are automatically compressed in ZIP files for quicker load and backup of each change (for emergency rollback).
  • images/sounds/videos...etc assets can be declared in the structure XML. Assets are smartly loaded when needed or preloaded on the site start.
  • the loader is customizable (transition in/out and progress)
  • file-sizes are known by the loader to be more accurate
  • browser-cache is bypassed if and only when needed: each file modification date is known and appended to its URL.

    • SEO:

  • no PHP work needed for SEO. Upload and configure. This is free SEO!
  • every page automatically gets its own HTML page equivalent, with all the texts and assets
  • users are redirected to the right Flash page (deep-linking)
  • uses translated URI for betted SEO
  • sitemap.xml automatically generated

    • Other AS3 tools:

  • a complex sound mixing table with fades in/out and sound/music/video channels
  • solution for building menus/submenus