Flash Framework: Gaia or PureMVC

[DavidOrtiz]

hey guys, i been reading up on both frameworks and was just wondering if anyone knew of or happened to use either or of these frameworks.

I'm looking to discover which one is the most powerful and easiest to learn. any ideas please.

[creatify]

hey guys, i been reading up on both frameworks and was just wondering if anyone knew of or happened to use either or of these frameworks.

I'm looking to discover which one is the most powerful and easiest to learn. any ideas please.

I've played with GAIA, and have reviewed pureMVC but haven't played with it. They really have their own different sets of merits. My two cents:

GAIA: appears great for creating full-Flash Web sites that may rely on a certain amount of timeline animation, maybe not the best choice for more complicated database driven Flash web applications that run differently that a Web site. Really nice that it sets up swfaddress for you. Seems quick to learn even if your AS knowledge isn't too strong, also seems like it's very flexible allowing for customization - which you'll definitely need semi-strong AS knowledge to do. From what I see of GAIA, I'd summarize it as a framework that utilizes XML to build a full-Flash Web site quickly.

PureMVC: Lends itself much more to ground-up Flash applications. PureMVC really isn't a framework that is defined by a configuration XML doc. It's a core set of AS files for establishing a strict MVC framework for whatever you're building - it's really big into "states" which is nice and extremely flexible. I think PureMVC will be a bit more complicated to learn, but I'd refer to PureMVC being the "guts" of GAIA.

IMHO, you'd learn a lot more about MVC and the backend structure of GAIA by getting a handle on PureMVC first. Well, or use GAIA and if needing to really customize things, then maybe pureMVC's structure will become more familiar after seeing how GAIA is working based on your site XML structure.

Another one (used for Flex) is Cairngorm. There are a few Flash implementations out there of the Cairngorm framework. This is similar to PureMVC - I prefer to use a my-own-modified version of Cairngorm with Flash - simply because I've been forced to in the past. :thumb2:

I have two friends that are raving about PureMVC.

[DavidOrtiz]

Great answer, my AS is pretty strong, i just don't have the time to fiddle with both frameworks. I think i'll start with Gaia and hopefully it'll work out well with FlashDevelop3. Been reading that there are some issues with scaffolding in Gaia and FlashDevelop because of how gaia uses jsfl.

again i feel i should state, i'm purely looking for something that'll help develop full flash sites quickly.

also, again, great answer creatify.

[theCodeBot]

Great answer, my AS is pretty strong, i just don't have the time to fiddle with both frameworks. I think i'll start with Gaia and hopefully it'll work out well with FlashDevelop3. Been reading that there are some issues with scaffolding in Gaia and FlashDevelop because of how gaia uses jsfl.

again i feel i should state, i'm purely looking for something that'll help develop full flash sites quickly.

also, again, great answer creatify.
I use my own frameworks for everything, however messy they may be :P

I haven't played with entire frameworks made by others before, TweenLite is about as far as I go in terms of other people's classes incorporated into my code (obviously except for the fact that I DO use the builtin classes in flex to no end, I shamefully admit)... do either of these frameworks allow you to extend them under the hood with your own functionality when you find theirs lacking the specific features you need?

[creatify]

... do either of these frameworks allow you to extend them under the hood with your own functionality when you find theirs lacking the specific features you need?

if I understand your question: as mentioned earlier, IMHO GAIA is for quickly building full-Flash sites based on an XML tree that defines your site. Granted it's AS framework is set up to allow you to connect piece of your site together, handle data/model info etc etc.

But, PureMVC is different in that is a bare-bones footprint to build any type of application upon. It comes with core AS files, and a number of interfaces that you extend. So, I might say, by itself it really doesn't have it's own "functionality" ie it's not a "base site" or anything like that. It's a set of core rules (MVC) that you adhere to that are to better application development/encapsulation/flexibility/extendability etc. So, I'd definitely look into PureMVC if I were you. A few of the best things about a framework like pureMVC are: you start to build things that are super simple to be reused in many diff. projects. Due to the structure, if working in a group, you can fairly easily assign tasks to different developers since everyone is working within the framework - there isn't time wasted on searching through others' code as you should know where to look for certain functionality. Also, If you pick up your code a year later to modify something, having learned the structure, it's going to be easier to modify. And, of course expandability - adding Views within a framework like this is usually a snap.

Granted, if you're not used to them, they can be difficult concepts to learn - especially for those of us coming from creative backgrounds.

Hope this helps.

[Melis]

I need help on a GAIA framework project and looking for someone to help either as a consultant, freelance or part time.


Please help! Thank you!