On Wednesday, Feb 19, 2003, at 11:21 US/Pacific, Mosh Teitelbaum wrote: > So, not to knock Flash UIs, but the same functionality could also be > coded > via CFML and HTML without requiring Flash.
Agreed. Just suggesting an alternative approach. > And, not being a Flash guy, I > would assume that there be a similar level of effort required to > prefill > Flash form fields as HTML form fields, etc. Prefill? Well, if you wanted to save a partially completed form to disk as Local Shared Objects and restore it when the user returned, yes, you would have to code all of that just like you would in CF (using whatever persistence mechanism you wanted). The benefit of Flash is not requiring a database schema to be set up for transient form data and not having to age off incomplete forms. If you don't persist from visit to visit, I'd contend that the Flash approach is simpler - form fields are just variables in Flash so they are automatically remembered during your session across however many 'views' your forms require and then you just parcel up the data at the end and send it in a single Flash Remoting call. And I'm not a Flash guy either. > The benefits of Flash would be > a single trip (vs. multiple trips) to the server and the ability to > make a > pretty UI while the benefits of HTML are universal compatibility and > familiarity (among others). Flash is probably more compatible with browsers across the globe than much of the HTML folks write - 98% of browsers have the plugin and it works the same way on all of those browsers. As for familiarity, I think the introduction of standard Flash UI Components has done a lot to mitigate the quirkiness of many earlier Flash apps. > [snip] > Granted, this requires some fairly repetitive coding, but it's pretty > simple > to build. Mind-numbing but effective 8^). Yes, I'll concede that this approach is effective (I hadn't thought of the JavaScript trick to change form actions!) and relatively straightforward. So I'll concede that for anyone not familiar with Flash, your approach is going to be much easier to build. More mind-numbing but easier :) I just want to make the point that Flash *is* a good match for this sort of problem and can produce a very effective solution... *if* you know Flash. I'm picking it up as I go and finding it's mostly straightforward, given my knowledge of scripting languages like CFScript... And of course I like to play Devil's Advocate :) Sean A Corfield -- http://www.corfield.org/blog/ "If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive." -- Margaret Atwood ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
