There are several alternatives in JavaScript e.g.YUI/Dojo/JQuery UI/Tibco GI. Still none of them matches look and feel of Flex. Also ActionScript is very much similar to JavaScript; so there is not steep climb to do if someone plans to use Flex for UI.<p>What are the disadvantages of using Flex on UI side vis a vis compared to JavaScript/HTML UI.<p>p.s. This is for application developement and SEO is not at all my priority
When I was using flex I would run across strange bugs (such as invisible artifacts on the scrolling data grid which would make it so you couldn't trigger click/hover etc. events in random areas) which you are just "stuck with" as you can't exactly delve into the source and fix it yourself! I hate waiting for vendor updates! With extjs/yui etc. when I have come up against an oddity I have been able to get into the guts and figure it out (and usually figure out what I was doing wrong). Another factor would be accessibility. I know Extjs has this on their roadmap, what about flash/flex?
I add lots of java server-side reference code within and inbtween my static html/javascript. so unless the client code is not too dependent on any back-end code, or aleast not more then say passing a few paramerter or xml request/response, then I wouldn't go with any other ui. the main test for me is, is this, say flash client going to end up being a fat client? if it is then it's not the right choice
I came across two things:<p>1)Depending on the size of your swf, initial loading might take some time.<p>2)Not everybody has the latest player on their browsers. If your users are not tech literate. This might be an obstacle.