Flash without the Flash

It's easy to have dynamic content without loading up Adobe Flash.

Take this animation for example. It's Drupal's "Views Slideshow" module which I've been experimenting with this evening. It allows you to take Drupal nodes and display them in a timed slide show. That can be just a series of images like the ones on the right, or it could be your latest line of products, complete with links to more information, meaning that you can keep a website page clear of clutter and convey as much as you need to, but no more.

Best of all, it's not dependent on Adobe Flash, but uses jQuery and the document object model (DOM) to swap in and out images. This means that this animation actually plays on my iPod touch. Not bad, considering Steve Jobs' iPad demo displayed websites like nytimes.com with broken elements.

Obviously modules like this can't do everything Flash flash can do. Flash is still king in highly interactive sites like the ones my daughter uses for online games. But this solution is ideal for business websites needing to convey more information on a small screen.

I promise to use my new found knowledge for good rather than annoying banner ads. :)