Web Roundups: 7 Free Flash CMS

A Flash CMS is a good option to deliver projects to your clients when they want to manage and change the content easly, without programming knowledge and avoiding to edit the flash files. Today, we show you the free available options which you should bear in mind before decide to go on Premium Products. Developing your own Flash CMS it requires lot’s of time to research and develop. Therefore, you should try one of the following options which will save you time and money.

The aim of this article is to show you available options that present a full Flash Front End, no matter if the back end is using a PHP or other kind os script / platform. Now lets take a look!

GLU (Currently on Beta)

GLU is a sophisticated, next generation rich media platform, intelligently combining a rich media community, management system and flexible development framework.

In so doing GLU brings together a cross-section of online Communities, Designers, Developers, Content Providers and Commercial Enterprise.

GLU provides the bond and creates the synergies for these audiences to collaborate, create and participate in engaging user experiences. This is achieved through its Rich Media Management System and Flexible Development Framework.

Rich Media Management System

GLU’s Rich Media Management System (“RMMS”) is a web-based administration interface which features:

– MANAGEMENT, capabilities for rich media projects,

– MODERATION, for user generated content,

– MEDIA ENCODING, and publishing in real-time, and

– DELIVERY, of content to end-users.

The GLU have various features which you can check your self, but i would like to remark the following:

• Google Analytics Event Tracking – use your own GA IDs;
• Google Analytics Page View Tracking;
• ActionScript 2.0
• ActionScript 3.0
• Real-time media encoding;

Where to start:

• Official tutorial page
• Request a free account to test it at account register page

Silex

SILEX is an open source RIA which lets you build Flash websites for Flash Player 7, 8 and 9. All multimedia file formats can be assembled in SILEX WYSIWYG editor for publishing website online, in a local computer and on CD-R.

Features

• Intergation with CS3;
• Automatic SEO system;
• Multilingual Contexts Management;
• online editing (RIA) – intuitive WYSIWYG;
• layout system and themes;
• components system;
• automatic deep linking;
• automatic HTML version generated on the fly for search engines;
• Flash ActionScript API;
• rich text player with wiki syntax;
• integration with other open sources applications (such as WordPress);

Requirements for web deployment

• PHP5 Hosting;

Where to start

• Look at the Online demo
• Browse the documentation and see some samples

Secretary (Free for open-source or non-profit projects)

Secretary is an, easy to use easy to set up, content management system. It’s specifically made for flash and comes with some very need tools for flash-developers. The front-end gives the user a unique and smooth experience and makes the administration very inviting. However, an integration between Secretary and other open source applications might be painfull, as Secretary is a full Flash site.

Features

• Dynamic xml structure;
• Very simple Installation (Copy files to your server);
• WYSIWYG texteditor;
• Secure 128 bit password protection;
• Dynamic thumbnail generation;
• Drag’n’drop editing;
• Dynamic font loading;
• Developer framework for xml parsing and loading;
• Simple and nice userexperiense;
• Easy search and rss integration;
• Extendible userinterface;

Where to start

• See the official page for more info

FlashMoto (Currently on Beta)

Flash Moto CMS is a revolutionary content management system aimed at Flash developers and designed to simplify the publication of Web content to Flash websites. Our Flash CMS is fast, flexible and extensible. It provides a powerful development platform that enables you to extend functionality with presentation. The ease of use and richness of Flash CMS were reached due to the diligent work and great efforts of our team of professionals.

Where to start

• Flashmoto blog
• Getting started demo video

10CMS

10CMS is a platform for building and deploying User eXperience Applications (UXAs). A number of pre-build UXAs are available from 10CMS for customization, or completely new can be created. These components extend the standard Flash Professional components with in-line WYSIWYG content editing and XML management capabilities.

Works with SWFObject and SWFAddress to enable SEO, and data is stored in XML.

Where to start:

• Demo page

TypoFlash

Typoflash.net have developed a new convenient interface where you can edit all elements of Flash websites either images or any other content. New images can be easily added to your Flash website and existing images can be replaced, re-sized and etc. Creating search engine friendly urls and editing existing ones isn’t a problem as well.

Features

• extends Typo3 CMS to manage any flash content;
• makes it possible to maintain both html and flash version of the same data;
• harnesses flash remoting communication;
• makes extensive use of caching of complex data queries;
• full multilanguage support;
• implements many search engine optimization features;
• is userfriendly, ie. enables bookmarking, use of backbutton and deeplinking;
• is your friend when you want to boost your data driven site with features such as fullscreen video and playing mp3;
• is a framework for Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) within Typo3;
• supports both AS2 and AS3;
• supports AMFPHP;

Requirements

• Typo3 CMS;

Where to start

• Based on typo3, you can find getting started tutorials here

FlashDance CMS

FlashDance CMS is a flash Content Management System framework and application to build and maintain flash web sites and flash offline projects. It provides developers an extendable api and tools to generate a customized web site or flash presentation with a built in and also customizable Content management system. And end users a fairly easy way to build / maintain their site. The weak point on this nice option is that doesn’t accepts Actionscript 3.0.

• Multilingual content development.
• Customizable navigation sidebars and menus with different visuals and functions.
• Sectionwise page headers if wanted.
• Some breadcrumbs implementation.
• Drag and Drop WYSIWYG page content editing with CSS support.
• You may develop new custom components and plugins from scratch using core API calls and connections through a notification system.
• You may also do this by modifying and recompiling from original fla or actionscript sources.
• SwfAddress integration is default, and allows the use of SEO URLs, deep linking, back and forward browser button functionality and per page title customization.
• Audio and Video Players and Playlists (in development, almost finished)
• Easylly skin default audio and media players, either via swfmill and MTASC or by editing original -skin only- fla files. (in development, almost finished)
• Flexible and feature rich Photo Gallery plugin you may also customize, fully AS2 both in website Engine and Admin.
• Some metadata and other HTML handling from configurations
• Lots of reusable code for animation tweening, user interfaces, and event handling.
• Many custom built (or borrowed) lightweight ui components for use on any project. (Scrollbars, scrollpad, SimpleList, Combos, tooltips, really simple buttons, ruler set, tree, various form fields)
• Lots of PHP code to handle uploads, file and directory listings, exif handling on jpgs, mailing etc…
• SQL files provided to build default user admin tables.

Requirements

• PHP4/5
• MySQL

Where to start

• Offical page

Now tell us what you think about using a flash CMS, and which of the above would fit better your needs.