Palyne, Billy is right, you could write the entire thing in VB using WDDX and COM, but you can also accomplish exactly what you're looking to do using Javascript, IE, a little bit of COM and some javascript based XML parsers and ColdFusion's WDDX. You can do the same thing using Netscape, but it's more difficult and I haven't had the need to implement this kind of functionality in Netscape, so I've never bothered (the app I'm developing is IE specific).
You can use WDDX to serialize a ColdFusion query object into a WDDX recordset, send the recordset as a series of Javascript Arrays (created by ColdFusion) to the browser. Using Microsoft's COM object (Scripting.FileSystemObject) you can have IE save the contents of any form field, etc., (ie., those javascript arrays) to a text file. If you're never initially connected to a ColdFusion webserver you can use WDDX to serialize any javascript variable or array into WDDX. In either case, you can manipulate the WDDX recordset offline inside the browser (add, edit, delete records) and then post the changes back to a ColdFusion webserver when the user re-connects to the internet, or re-save the recordset back to the text file. Using WDDX makes the whole thing very easy, however, if you're not really comfortable with Javascript, the entire thing may seem a little overwhelming. You're looking for client side functionality in a browser, and it requires a lot of javascript to get a slick application. To be honest, it would be easier to write the app in VB. But, if that isn't an option, it can be done (and isn't extremely difficult, but still challenging) to implement in IE. But, this ties your user down to a single browser vendor (unless you take the extra steps to make it cross-browser compatible). However, you said your customer doesn't have much money to spend on this project, and unless you have an experienced staff that could develop this quickly, getting your team spun up on WDDX, COM, javascript, etc., may cost the customer more money than he/she is willing to spend. Trade offs, I guess. But, if you decide to go this route, I highly recommend reading Chapter 15 of Ben Forta's "Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Application Development". Chapter 15 is about WDDX and will walk you step-by-step on how to set up the application I described above. It's very easy to follow and is how I learned to build the same type of app. Hope this helps. If you have more questions you can e-mail me offline and I'll be happy to help where I can. Regards, Charles F. McLean III Principal Member of the Technical Staff Northrop Grumman Information Technologies ----- Original Message ----- From: "Palyne Gaenir" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 6:16 PM Subject: Re: Is this possible? > Thanks Billy. I didn't mean that I wanted to try and run CF offline. I meant I > wanted to make the whole thing static pages, with forms (or even javascripted > Q&A would be fine), but one way or another, need to get their submitted data > to a .dat file or something that I could have them upload/import next time they > were online, that would be read-into the system. > > Assuming I can't use access/excel, would a javascript be able to write to a > line item text file that could function as a .csv? That, I could have them > upload, and loop into the system. I thought javascript only worked 'in' the > page... can it write to files? Palyne > > On 16 Jan 2002 at 16:51, Billy Cravens wrote: > > > Without a HTTP server, you'll have a bunch of problems. CF isn't > > designed to run in a desktop environment. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This email server is running an evaluation copy of the MailShield anti- > spam software. Please contact your email administrator if you have any > questions about this message. MailShield product info: www.mailshield.com > > ----------------------------------------------- > To post, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To subscribe / unsubscribe: http://www.dfwcfug.org > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email server is running an evaluation copy of the MailShield anti- spam software. Please contact your email administrator if you have any questions about this message. MailShield product info: www.mailshield.com ----------------------------------------------- To post, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe / unsubscribe: http://www.dfwcfug.org
