Although Brian and I had each worked on the Martin Engineering site to varying degrees in the summer of 2007, we still wanted to take our Druplash idea to the next level and have an experience Flash site with full HTML content underneath for those without Flash 9, including screen readers, users on mobile phones, and search engines. This portfolio was born out of that desire.

Two Flavors: HTML and Flash

The HTML site itself is fairly plain, based on Drupal's Zen Classic theme, but it does feature MP3 download links so that someone on an iPhone or other web-capable mobile phone could download my audio samples and listen to them.  The site automatically submits a sitemap to Google to allow it to crawl more efficiently.

The Flash site uses Drupal's Services and AMFPHP modules to efficiently retrieve data from views set up for each of the five main sections.  AMFPHP is the best and quickest way to send data from PHP to Flash, cutting out the necessary conversion to and from XML.

Deep-Linking and Browser History

In addition to having excellent accessibility and search engine positioning, the site uses SWFAddress and Brian and my SWFAddress module for Drupal. The SWFAddress module provides support for browser history (you can click through the site and use your browser's back and forward buttons to interact with the site.) This also provides full deep-linking support, something many large Flash experience sites are sorely missing.

Deep-linking support means that you can link into the site at http://www.stevenmerrilltenor.com/#/news and be taken right to the news page. It also means that entering the site via a search engine link such as http://www.stevenmerrilltenor.com/songs will redirect you into the right destination in the Flash site if you have Flash 9 and JavaScript enabled.

This site was part of Brian and my presentation at Boston DrupalCon 2008. If you'd like a content-managed Flash site backed by Drupal with all these benefits, contact me!