Differences between SWFAddress and JSInterface... which to choose?

Question

What are the differences between SWFObject/SWFAddress and JSInterface?

JSInterface has a lot more functionality but SWFAddress seems to be the standard, so I'm wondering what you choose to use and why, and if you could use both of them.

Can you even do SWFAddress-like things with JSInterface? I can't seem to find out how to do "back", "forward", and to update/listen-for the url changes...

Answer 1

SWFAddress is the standard for deep linking in flash. Its tried and tested and used in a lot of production quality software. If all you're looking for is deep linking and using the browser provided buttons and bookmarking, then go with SWFAddress.

If you need more communication between flash and the browser and want a simplified and more robust ExternalInterface go with JSInterface.

Heres a good explination of the main features of JSInterface: http://actualwave.com/lab/pack/JSInterface%5Fpresentation%5Fen.swf

Answer 2

Hi!
SWFAddress is only deep-linking library that uses JavaScript only for this. JSInterface is library that helps you do anything what you can do with JavaScript but inside Flash.

So, if you need only deep-linking - SWFaddress is your choise, but if you need extended JavaScript fearutes, like DOM manipulations, or data exchange with Ajax application, or external resource management(you can load data from many resources at a time), or environment control(window size and placement), SWFAddress can't give you tools to do this.