What language to use?

[doof]

I need to write some form of web script for a display monitor. Basically i want something that is nice to look at with all sorts of information, from weather forcasts (taken from another website dynamically?) to the status of our conference rooms, booking times etc etc.

I was initially thinking flash as i know this can really look good but have since been told the power of javascript and DHTML. I dont know anything about either so ease of understanding would be nice as i dont want to have to learn this for 6 months before i get anything usable.

Because this will be displayed on a big plasma monitor it needs to be changing every few seconds to stop the image burning in, which is another reason i thought flash...

Can anyone give me any pointers, maybe pros and cons of both?

Summary:-

Good looking
Constantly changing images
Dynamic content - such as weather from external sites, and internal information
Relatively easy to get something decent

Thanks for any input and i hope this is the right place to post.

Lewis.

[BigMoosie]

No point suggesting good looking, thats your job.

AJAX will be able to dynamically grab content from your server but not from others (security issues) so you will probably have to have php grab whatever rss feeds or whatever it is you have in mind and make a duplicate for referencing.

If you have a page set up, and the XML files ready I may just write you up something...

[doof]

Agreed, my job is to make it look nice, shame im such a bad artist :)

I dont have anything set up at the minute and i couldn't possibly take you up on your offer, its my job to do some work here :D

So, i'd have to use php to get information from outside then deal with it from a file. Flash would be able to do this as well as DHTML i guess so either are still options.

Its really hard knowing what language to use because i currently know nothing about either so i dont know their capabilities.

Flash is looking the most tempting because of its ease of use, its just wether it could be used dynamically....

C'mon guys, pull me away from flash to javascript/DHTML, anyone got any demo sites that would entice me?

[A1ien51]

Ajax can be run off the desktop directly and access information from other sites.

Eric