How can I understand if GAIA is the right choose for me ?

Dear all,

I've just seen the introducing video of GAIA Framework and I have really appreciated it so much!! My compliments.
I'm not a programmer but probably something like a "power user". If the hard coding is limited I will do it otherwise not.
I'm able to use graph applications quite well and adobe flash at medium level too.

I have now the opportunity to develop a new site using flash and so the first step I did is to search for a framework that help me to limitate the code writing to max level.
I gently ask you if you think that, starting from scratch with GAIA, I need a long training and test period to be productive.
How much is the effort to understand and write the coding part and how much is the requested level of knoledge of a program language. Ruby & Rails for me are totally unknown.

My new site is about  SPORT RUNNING sector with an innovative approach and look.
I wonder if somebody of you guys has accidentally an experience on that on a similar sector.

So, please help me to do an important choice !!
Many thanks

Giovannino

Hi Giovannino
Welcome to Gaia. In my opinion, Gaia is a rather simple framework to get a hold on as long as you:
1. already have some AS experience
2. stick to the Gaia way of doing things (kind of long to explain here, but you'll see)
3. your first Gaia projects are kind of simple, basically navigation, and little to none inter-page communication.
4. keep your complex stuff isolated from Gaia (code it inside one page, or even better, code it in a separate swf file and load it as an asset).

You can do anything over this framework, as it's just AS, but I'll name you a few common pitfalls:
. If you need properties or methods from page A to be called from page B, do Gaia.api.getPage('index/pageA').content.yourMethod(), but don't use strong typing or you'll run into application domain problems (if in AS3).
. Put you initialization code inside transitionIn, not inside the constructor.
. don't code inside Main.as, code inside your pages classes. If you need a "global" place for startup things and that, use the IndexPage, as it's never unloaded.

Check this video tutorials first: http://totallynerdy.com/, I've found them very useful to beginners.

And you're welcome to come back to the forums for specific questions; just look for them first to check if they're already answered around here

Cheers!

I forgot to mention, it's a great framework for basically any type of flash site. It helps you standardize your flash sites structure, has swfaddress built in and integrated with the pages flow, it saves a lot of time building all the FLA files and they corresponding classes, it's dead simple to manage the pages flow in terms of loading and animation (you only tell Gaia where to go and it does all the loading and transitioning itself), the assets are really handy, and lots of other minor but useful things (really, lots).