flash, elearning, random thoughts
This page is a DRAFT
What is the ramen Player?
ramen Player represents my 5th generation dynamic Flash/XML framework. It’s a highly customizable XML driven web site frame work that allows for the rapid development of a fullscreen Flash web site. It’s similar to Steven Sack’s Gaia frameworks - but not as automated for the developer.
The first 3 generations were aimed at the rapid development of e-learning products. They focused on a templatized approach to page interaction design using a standardized XML schema that allowed for on-shore and off-shore developers to rapid create web based training (WBT) from a script. These versions (culminating in “inFlite Player”/gen 3) were used to create over 60 WBTs for Wachovia. The last gen has become the defacto standard for the creation of WBTs by both the internal development team and off-shore contractors.
Gen 4 was more of an experiment for me. Taking the best concepts of gen 3 (the inFlite system for Wachovia) and adding flashy, more modern interaction types that would be suited for a web site rather than corporate training.
The current gen was rewritten from scratch in Flash 9 and AS3. It focuses on small file sizes, UI cusomtization and site structure customization. The monolithic page template approach has been replaced by an exerternal SWF model. It also has a “page object” system that allows image, text fields, shape primiatives, audio players, and a few others things, to be added to any page. These objects may have animations (using CS3 animation XML), transitions, and trigger events that affect other objects. So a unique interactive page may be created entirely in XML without any timeline animation or scripting in the Flash environment. Kind of like my own simple MXML.
Preview
Current version - ramen 0.8
Previous version - “Site Engine”
Sites developed using ramen
These are a few simple sites that I’ve created over the past year using ramen.
inFlite Player demo -Â This was a demo of the available templates created for instructional designers at Wachovia. The look/feel was created to be fun and to challenge their ideas about what a WBT piece could look like.