making forms in flash is pretty friggin easy not mention the validation just kicks azz!
where did u see the best of blackstone list at? i musta missed it but was always curious. ---------------------------------------- From: Mike Nimer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 3:34 PM To: CF-Talk <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Any sites using the new Flash foms? Gotta love how these threads take shape and how they branch. Considering that the forms feature in CF is near and dear I thought I would jump in. There are 3 things that I've seen this thread cover, 1) Blank screen, We've had reports about this and narrowed it down to 3 things (2 are configuration). 1) Actionscript errors. If you are using custom actionscript in the different onClick,onChange events of the form and there is a syntax error the compiler will throw an error. Because of the way we compile the flash swf's we can't output these errors to the screen. However, for development you can turn on the switch to tell us to output these errors. This switch is in the CF ADMIN debugging page. There is a performance hit (we have to do a double compile) to see these errors, so it's only available when debugging is on. We think this is fine, since you should only have debugging on during development anyways. 2) Directory path issues. The CFFORM needs access to the /CFIDE/scripts folder (you can move this folder, just update the path in the admin). In this folder we store the different .js files for the html/xml/flash forms, the .xsl files for the xml forms, and the .swc file for the flash forms. If the browser can't access this folder then the different forms won't finish loading. If your having this problem, make sure your webserver has a mapping to the /CFIDE folder. 3) CF6 uninstall. Some people have installed CF7 against IIS so the CFIDE folder was placed in the INETPUT\WWWROOT folder. However this is also were they installed CF6 at some point in the past. What happens is it turns out if the install is done this way and there is overlap. When they run the CF6 uninstall after they install CF7 the uninstaller thinks the CFIDE folder under the INETPUB\WWWROOT is the CF6 one, so it removes the folder with CF6. Causing the same problem as #2, we can't access the different .js, .xsl, ...swc files needed for cfform (all flavors) to work. 2) flash, why use it? usability? A real love/hate relationship. Honestly it's just another tool in the toolbox that is ColdFusion. Some of you will never like flash, that's fine, I'm not going to try to change your mind. Personally I don't think that flash forms (regular or cfform) are meant to replace every form in every application. But as some people have pointed out they found it really usable. And I believe there is definitely a place and time to use these. I've seen some amazing example, which unfortunately are all in development or on intranets so I can't post any URL's. Perhaps others can post what they have done as a showcase. The benefits start to appear as the forms get more complex or has your are using more them, providing consistency in the application and getting the full benefits of the caching used. One interesting side fact, all of the "best of blackstone" finalist used flash forms in their applications, some were so creative I even had to do a double take to figure out how they did what they did with the flash forms in CF. kudos to those of you who submitted apps. For one example check out the Business Card example, written by Brad Fetter, in the getting started code snippet explorer. 3) Flash vs. DHTML - this is just a religious war. If you know js and you've built up a library of dhtml controls. I will agree there is nothing you can do in flash you can't do in dhtml. The differences is how you do it, and the problems you'll encounter. And if you don't already have this library, putting it together is a lot of work. What we have tried to do is create a consistent look and feel for a form, regardless of how bad your engineer art is. (mine is horrendous.) If you have this library, check out the xml forms. Wrap your libraries into some xsl skins for the xml forms and please share. The main thing we tried to solve with the new form features is the division of presentation and form logic. We wanted to get rid of all that html you have to code to wrap your form. The font tags, the table tags, the table cells, the label tags, and so on and so on. Personally I hated the fact that 8 form fields could span 40+ lines of html code. It's bringing the power of layout managers to the web. You can use flash, and get a rich consistent experience out of the box. Or you can use the XML Forms and make the look and feel you want with 110% control. Knowing that all the forms you build from now on will have a single consistent look and feel. Without having to duplicate the same html on every page. Allowing you to focus back on the functionality. Isn't that were we all want to focus our time anyways? If anyone is having any problems with the forms (flash, xml, or html) don't hesitate to email me personally. Also I would love to see how you are using the forms (any flavor), if you want to share email me as well. ---nimer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:194864 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
