Digital Workshop

Following on from:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4276
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4162


I wish we could now create a new publication in HTML 5. It could have limited functions, but Opus would be that much better with it.

It would mean we could quickly create pages suitable for all mobiles.

What do you guys think?

I think the option is now needed, as just the Flash isn't really suitable for the mobile market.

Yes, we are entering an era where device agnostic HTML5 web apps seem to be the logical future of mobile apps. We currently have a pipeline of projects which could begin immediately if we could use Opus with HTML5 output. Bring it on and you will see Opus take back the crown of leader in the industry.

Or bring about an untimely death? If Opus' current technology was used to produce interactive HTML5 aka Canvas elements aka Javascript then surely this involves taking all those marvelous routines and generating plain text script. Regardless of whether some is protected by server side use, the initial output will be on the developer's machine and viewable.

For example, I create a simple publication that displays some fancy animated text and picture transitions. I publish for HTML5 and in the accompanying .js file is the source needed for anyone to simply load into notepad and build their own 'publications' without Opus. Maybe, the code could be obfuscated but this punishes the genuine developers that benefit from the openness of the language.


Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps there is a big enough niche of people who have no wish to ever see a single line of code and want all their layout, triggers and actions built in a completely visual IDE. Perhaps this niche contains a large enough sample of people who are happy to publish to an open format because their projects don't require security on the big bad internet. Perhaps Flash will dies a quicker death and Native Client will have no impact and HTML5 and Apple will rule the world regardless of the wishes of designers and developers. Just perhaps.

Don't get me wrong. Canvas is built on Javascript which is a very underestimated language with a huge potential. HTML5 is a brilliant idea and offers a potential solution to whole motley assortment of things that currently make the internet interactive and I'd take an IDE over text editor any day. But there is nothing magical about HTML5. Fire up notepad and create some. Fire up Dreamweaver or other such editor and it's even easier - what is Opus going to bring to the mix that is realistic and would allow users to start using before some other product takes the lead?

mackavi, I think the option would be nice for those that need it.
I think most sites/apps can be and have been cloned without needing to see the source code. I do agree it would make it easier for someone to copy some parts but I don't really think it's a big show stopper.
We would still be able to secure code behind server based scripts like PHP, ASP etc. (database connections).
I think Opus would be a fantastic development platform for creating HTML 5 games for mobiles and the web.
I use Dreamweaver everyday and think Opus is far more suited for this.

Hi Jez,

I think the option would be nice full stop It's always good to have a flexible program. But what I'm questioning is which of Opus' features realistically get made available for the creation of canvas based publications and what time scale is acceptable.

If Opus Canvas had the same features as Opus Flex, then yes we could create a whole range of decent multimedia and games but how long would you wait and at the expense of what (Android / Flex)? The problem is that if HTML5 is to replace Flash then it needs to offer the same and with so many non-flash devices already out there, will people wait around?

Personally, I think that if Opus did HTML5 then it would be better building on the excellent Flex e-learning functionality to develop HTML5 m-Learning and SCORM 2.0. Basic layout, text /object transitions, timings, mouse over, click, hide show, move, simple variables and access to the RTE data model. Just Opus stripped back to basics but with a clear and defined purpose.

Here are a couple of outside references to add to the conversation:-

HTML5 apps

http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives ... _apps.html

Right now nobody’s interested in a mobile solution that does not contain the words “iPhone” and “app” and that is not submitted to a closed environment where it competes with approximately 2,437 similar mobile solutions.

Compared to the current crop of mobile clients and developers, lemmings marching off a cliff follow a solid, sensible strategy. Startling them out of this obsession requires nothing short of a new buzzword.

Therefore I’d like to re-brand standards-based mobile websites and applications, definitely including W3C Widgets, as “HTML5 apps.” People outside our little technical circle are already aware of the existence of HTML5, and I don’t think it needs much of an effort to elevate it to full buzzwordiness.

Technically, HTML5 apps would encompass all websites as well as all the myriads of (usually locally installed) web-standards-based application systems on mobile. The guiding principle would be to write and maintain one single core application that uses web standards, as well as a mechanism that deploys that core application across a wide range of platforms.

How to Make an HTML5 iPhone App

http://sixrevisions.com/web-development ... phone-app/

You’ve been depressed for like a year now, I know. All the hardcore Objective-C developers have been having a hay-day writing apps for the iPhone. You might have even tried reading a tutorial or two about developing for the iPhone, but its C—or a form of it—and it’s really hard to learn.

I don’t want to say that you should give up on the objective: you can get it eventually. But in the meantime, there is something else that you can do.

You can create a native app that lives with all the other apps, and for the most part, it’s going to be a pitch-perfect imitation.

You can do this with the skill set you probably already have: HTML(5), CSS, and JavaScript.

I’ll show you how to create an offline HTML5 iPhone application. More specifically, I’ll walk you through the process of building a Tetris game.

I believe that Opus can sit squarely in this space and in that way regain it's place as the development tool that the world is looking for.

Offline apps are of particular interest. http://diveintohtml5.org/offline.html

Why and how the Financial Times dropped the app stores and went to web apps using HTML5.

Why http://apps.ft.com/ftwebapp/
How http://aboutus.ft.com/2011/06/07/ft-web ... hnical-qa/

I wish that I could create these browser agnostic apps with Opus.

Browser agnostic applications?

http://html5test.com/

My FF7 scores 70% whilst my IE8 scores an amazing 9%.

As for native apps, what do you think will be Apple's response when the world wakes up and realises - HTML5 - you don't need an app for that!

Mack

And what do your smartphones and tablets score? - after all they are the target market not the desktop.

Here in the antipodes the phone is now the FIRST screen for web access.

It's the browser that's the issue, right? So that's why he was testing his score on Firefox and IE.

HTML5 is great, but it will be a while (I've heard 1-3 years) before the full support is there in the browsers and from a conference I saw, you would still have to do things specific to the target (i.e., video in an example the person had encoded video 3 different ways so that depending on the browser and platform, it would display what worked best and natively to the target).

The way i see it, this could create a new vertical market for Digitalworshop.

I would just like the option to create something that mobile devices can use. Flash is great, but not supported by all devices.

To compensate the loss of some functions that may only be possible with Flash or the plugin, maybe some extra HTML5 specific functions could be added, such as user location or some sort of code encryption?

I have been doing some trials using Opus to produce a Flash(5) SWF file and then running it through Google's Labs Swiffy (beta) SWF to HTML5 converter at http://www.google.com/doubleclick/studio/swiffy/

If this works it will be a great work-around until DW output to HTML5. This way we can still use Opus for interactive iPad webapp production. Please give it a go and let us know if this works for you.

Thanks Trevor for the link this will come in handy.

It's a shame, there's such a big market with the ipad, iphone etc that I wish there was an easy way to make content with Opus for them:
http://youtu.be/jdExukJVUGI