Last Tuesday (Dec 9, 2008) I took part in the Flypaper Webinar which threw some light on many issues that I wanted to know, before I drill deep into this application. I’ll forward it to you from my point of view.

So… What’s Flypaper?
Flypaper is an application which uses the Flash (Adobe) as a platform, and allows the user creating, editing and programing Flashy presentations, minisites and other interactive products with easier, simplified tools and templates. It also provides the client quite impressive tools to analyze the users’ navigation behavior.

flypaper Screens

What’s the difference between Flypaper and Flash?
The Concept, as I understand it, is to build a higher level of creation that will allow a wider range of users, beside the conventional Flash designers and developers, but including these groups also. The application pretends to upgrade the abilities and results of everyone who needs Flash-based products.

Pretentious? yes. (But evolution is also pretentious)
I can’t say that this application is a finished solution for the destination it aims to yet, but the first steps are behind, proving that in quite simple tools you can communicate with complicated-code-based features and graphics, that can give us the WOW effect that we look for.

Creating interactive structure of screens easily
The program interface is highly visual and intuitive, though it also supports AS (actionscript) codes, even ones that weren’t created in Flypaper. The structure window below the main stage allows you to drag and drop slides into it and create a schematic structure of your product, laying slides one next to the other, one after the other, vertically and horizontally navigation.

flypaper - Interactive Structure

Using Ready-Made objects and templates
the application contains dozens of slide templates, in different styles and for different causes. It contains buttons and ready-made animation editable templates. I still haven’t checked the verity of styles but it looks not bad from the Webinar’s review.

Web Analytics tools in Flypaper
The program contains this exellent tool which is a must on anything we create and want to improve. These tools can track almost any event or action that the end-user made, from page viewing, through the time he watched specific items/pages, and even if the end user copied certain parts of text from the content (If I got it right). Nice. BTW, the analytics data is being stored on Flypaper’s servers.
As for my question if it is synchronized with Google Analytics Tool, I got a “Not yet” answer

Flypaper - Analytics Tools

Finished Product formats
The program offers quite comfortable formats for your product, from Flashy ones to linear-video formats, through the familiar .exe format.

SEO abilities? No Comment (Flashy, remember?)
This is an assumption, since it was not mentioned, and my question regarding this matter stayed open. Therefore it’s a small disappointment. For this kind of evolutionary progress I would expect a reference, even the minimal one. It looks like Google will solve this matter since no one else seem to challenge it.

Open Source
As far as I understand, the program isn’t an open source but released a Chemistry Development Kit (CDK) for developers to build components.
Well, I guess that we all know a little more now. my two bottom lines are:

1. It looks a bit early to put all my “Eggs” in this “Basket”
2. I’m certainly going to drill deep on the trial version, and decide if the licensed $795 application worth the cost.