A new application called Sprout, launching in private beta at DEMO today, promises to make the creation of Flash applets a whole lot easier.
Sprout is a browser-based, WYSIWYG editor for Flash with an interface reminiscent of Photoshop or Dreamweaver. Designers can use it to create, publish and track Flash widgets, websites and mashups, thereby obviating the need for them to work with programmers who would cost time and money, and who might not execute designs satisfactorily.
The application itself is entirely Flash/Flex-based and won’t require account registration for first-time users (that is, once the private beta period is over). As can be seen in the screenshot to the left, the interface consists of a staging area for construction of a so-called “sprout” (don’t call it a widget!), as well as several panels for tools, components, pages, properties, and more. I found that my experience with Photoshop served me well for creating a sprout (embedded below) that displays TechCrunch feeds, since the same editing concepts are applied by both programs. That said, it would be nice if Sprout had undo capabilities and proper layering, as found in Photoshop.
While all WYSIWYG editors lack at least some of the functionality achievable through direct programming, Sprout overcomes this limitation in part by providing a library of “components” that can be integrated into a given creation. The company has lined up general components such as video, slideshows and RSS feeds in addition to components from 3rd party web services such as Meebo, Yahoo Maps, PollDaddy and Ribbit.
Sprout is marketing its release as a better way for designers to create distributable widgets. The company has partnered up with Clearspring, Gigya, and SpringWidgets to provide both easy distribution and tracking/analytics. Sprout creators can track the usage of not only entire sprouts but the elements, such as buttons, within those sprouts. They can also use the application to make changes to sprouts that have already been distributed across the web.
While Sprout’s current focus is on the widget use case, its capabilities don’t end there. Since you can create sprouts of any dimensions, there’s nothing stopping you from creating entire websites using Sprout. Its pages and linking functionality certainly lend themselves to this type of creation. And since Sprout has incorporated 3rd party services, it can also be used to create mashup pages/portals. The range of possibilities will increase when Sprout releases an SDK in the following month, allowing outside developers to add to the components library.
Sprout should be publicly available in the next few weeks. Until then, the first 200 TechCrunch readers to sign up here will gain access to its private beta. A video demonstration of Sprout is provided below, alongside the RSS feed sprout I created for TechCrunch (hosted on their demo server so it may go down).
Wow – that is really cool.
DEMO conference requires IE for Live Streaming????
pretty whacked
So I run IE and they make me enter all the info in again, great
@damon – the streaming works for me in Firefox on Mac…not sure why you’re having problems.
Sprout is looking strong, but I don’t think I’d categorize it as a no-programming widget development platform. It has a very specific, purposefully constrained set of controls. You create Sproutlets. Cool, for sure, and they can do a lot. But if you had some specialized requirement and needed a Flash widget, this might not be the tool. When I saw the demo I thought this was a simple-to-use Smilebox, or something similar. However, maybe they’ll deploy a component that supports arbitrary AS3 inclusion and running. Maybe it’s there already…
damn impressive.
Noice!
Flash *applets*?!?! You mean objects? Or perhaps swfs? Applets are from the java days!
This message is to the Mego girls. (TC40 Mego.com)
This looks like an indirect competitor. You should have had an interactive Mego on your site a long time ago so that people can see how it works…
This is awesome!
..well, I’m in there and just made a Sprout that plays an MP3 and has a live countdown to a product we’re launching…
So far, this is pretty damn cool, the publish feature isn’t working right now, so I’m guessin’ their server/s are crowded?
Can’t wait to see this up and fully running though, it’ll kick a few amateur developers in the ass overnight
That name is definitely interesting to me….
I started an open source project in San Francisco almost a year ago that helps developers create and grow ActionScript applications. My project also happens to be called “Sprouts“.
While conceptually similar in that we both generate SWF output, my project is essentially geared for developers and theirs appears to target marketers.
this is really cool
Wow!
I hope they have an adsense widget for the Sprouts.
They have to add a fourth tab called Monetize.
Abhishek
damon #2: Welcome to the internet. Sometimes things mess up and when you switch browsers, you have to reenter your information again.
Impressive product
This is great! Thanks for the review and invitation to test it. It’s easy to use and does the “basics” well enough to be useful.
I just took it for a test drive. Very sexy application. Well done.
It will be perfect for the average joe non-developer.
A little education on what widgets are and do and most anyone can design and launch a widget for themselves.
..still not working to “save” widgets.
Regardless, I’ll keep the broswer open on this one.
Private branding/hosted private apps would do well as another model.
PS, on the suggested monetize tab, I want to get my startup’s gateway plugged into this asap:
http://www.4celling.com
As a Flash developer, I have to say this looks very nice. In the past I have done a lot of business with Flash e-cards and smaller embeddables, and think that Sprout could soak up some of this market – especially with the detailed metrics as a feature.
The only thing I’m curious about is how Sprout intends to generate revenue. Mark, do you have any insight into this?
I noticed that a simple Sprout is over 500KB…a large download footprint for a widget…
Great to see many designers here. There is an interesting service called DesignPal is getting out soon. Please register for early Beta access at http://designpal.bluepal.com and we appreciate your great suggestions in that regard too.
Thank you all
Any ideas on how they plan to monetize it?
Very nice product – widgets HO!!!
I created a simple music player:
http://altpen.livejournal.com/
It took me about an hour for a first time user. It might be quicker when I use it for second time. The interface was intuitive. I used what they call a component to create the player. Once I selected a component, all I had to do was adding the files and setting colors. I got some flash errors while doing it.
Overall, I am impressed by their tool. It is a great start.
@anon, ChrisW: You’ll notice the branding at the bottom of my widget. Users will be able to pay to take that off, so that’s one source of revenue. Another will come from deals that Sprout strikes with web services that want to offer components.
Wow! i will definitely be using this on my site in the future. I already made a couple of them. Thanks for the heads up!
im all for a cool app.. which this seems to be, ive been wondering what their product is and now i know.. im happy about that… but why do you gotta take a stab at programmers? especially when reviewing an app that was indeed worked on by.. uh… programmers…
hehehe (i’m a programmer, see)
i r in <3
*flashgasm*
Wow. Sprout Beat us too it. Fortunately we’ve been planning on going open source for a while to develop such things faster. Check OrganicIncentive.com out for another in depth Flex-built flash widget customization tool.
-James
from
FaceySpacey.com, Your One Stop Social Media Shop
@Matt – I’m a programmer too, I ain’t hatin’.
This looks pretty cool. What was that last bit about an instant update to everyone who has coped your sprout? Could I make a really popular sprout and then ‘update’ it to a pr0n sprout that was then replicated to like 30 websites? Nice!
damon’s not really having problems. part of being cool is to complain about IE
Mark..
What makes you think that you can replace people with teeny..weeny widget tools online.
Great.
http://www.jhatak.com
Blazing Fast Internet Web Meetings : Free
Looks pretty nice the Flash applets, I hope it will redolent with Photoshop.
It will be perfect for the average joe non-developer.
Cool, for sure, and they can do a lot. But if you had some specialized requirement and needed a Flash widget, this might not be the tool
It’s exciting to see more tools available for the Prosumer Developer.
http://chriscro...umer-developer/
Hey TC readers. Thanks for all the kinds words about Sprout. I really appreciate you taking the plunge and helping us with the private beta. We know the product is not perfect yet, but we are working hard to squash bugs and get your input on how we can improve Sprout so we are making a something that you will use (and hopefully tell your friends). If you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
aloha,
carnet
Ultra-cool! I applied for the closed beta. Hopefully I can get my hands in the pie.
Does anybody remember bad Flash intro’s. Ease of development is great but a design tool that “anybody” can use means “anybody” can use it. Oh well, such is the way of the web 2.0
This is very impressive, and inline with the social media industry. The ability to manage, and edit multiple copies and aggregate those changes is very, very impressive (read: powerful).
Will do alot better than Anark.
seriously, we need more badly designed, amateur flash loosed on the web? not really, we need less flash on the web, not more.
What’s the point of having a flash based RSS widget on your site? I guess if you really want to make your site less accessible then that’s the way to go…
This is so artificial and useless. I don’t know why this is featured on TC.
This looks great – but not easy…
Definitely gonna try this. I think this will be big.
So tell me why other sites should want to use my sprout on their pages?
Excellent Idea, could be good for affiliate networks
This means that we will see more terrible sites popping up by people who think that they now know how to make flash websites… This wouldn’t be a great tool for commercial use – I’ll tell you that much.
But don’t get me wrong, I’m sure this will be a very fun app for those who aren’t developing and just want some fancy things on their myspace or blog.
For the average person – good going.
For the developer – don’t put this on your resume.
I am a Ft Myers Photographer and anything that makes making a quick flash photo set easier I am all for! Not sure this fits the bill.