I'm thinking about starting to use Flash Forms, but before I do I would like to get some feedback from others who have implemented them in your sites. How are they working for you? Please comment on ease of coding versus regular forms. How do your users like them? Any comments from them regarding the usability? I assume that for Flash Forms to show up on the client side that the user has to have Flash installed...is this correct? What happens to visitors who don't have Flash installed?
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CF Flash Forms 2
- Thread starter RSedlacek
- Start date
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1
- #2
Hello buddy,
Flash forms are somthing i've been dabbling with quite alot recently and i'm quite pleased with some of the ways in which it can be used.
You are correct to assume that people without flash installed (i believe around 5%) will not be able to view the forms, you will need to get hold of some kind of detection script that should prompt the user to install flash.
Now the first benefit of a flash form is the speed in which they can be created, no fussing around organising your labels and fields in a table to get them layed out, flash will do all of that for you without any real issues.
The next benefit, or at least in my opinion is the way in which they look, when using styles and pannels you can achieve a very attractive looking form, again with very little effort and time.
Third benefit has to be the small bits of client side validation that can be added, i know standard CFforms produce this using Javascript but with the validation on the flash it all looks that little more attractive.
Another quite large benfit of flash forms is to be able to intergrate Action Scripting and FlashRemoting into the equasion, this allows you to have related select boxes, and Datagrids that can be filtered or re-populated from a query without the need to fresh the browser, your user can also sort and edit information without needing to refresh.
I'm a little short of hand of live examples of the things i've been working on so unfortunatly i cant really show you much.
There are obviously downsides to using them, mainly the lack of support on those 5% or clients, and also the loading speed can be a little fustrating.
If you're the type of developer that bassis a large amount of his work arounds 'accessibility' for his users, then i wouldnt reccomend flash forms, but if you're not too worried about that and are looking for a few new toys to play with, then most definatly give it a shot.
Here are a couple of links, one is ASFusion, an excelent FlashForm referance, and the other is a little work in progress i've got with a few small examples of forms i've dabbled with, notice the flash remoting for the products list... unfortunatly all my good gubbins is on my internal server at the moment, but i'll try and publish a little soon.
ASFusion -
Contact Form - - look at the client side validation on this, its only simple but REALLY easy to create too.
Product List - - see how it re-writes the query and returns results without the need to refresh the browser.
Like i say they are only very basic example, but thought i would let you have a look none the less.
Hope that helps,
Rob
Flash forms are somthing i've been dabbling with quite alot recently and i'm quite pleased with some of the ways in which it can be used.
You are correct to assume that people without flash installed (i believe around 5%) will not be able to view the forms, you will need to get hold of some kind of detection script that should prompt the user to install flash.
Now the first benefit of a flash form is the speed in which they can be created, no fussing around organising your labels and fields in a table to get them layed out, flash will do all of that for you without any real issues.
The next benefit, or at least in my opinion is the way in which they look, when using styles and pannels you can achieve a very attractive looking form, again with very little effort and time.
Third benefit has to be the small bits of client side validation that can be added, i know standard CFforms produce this using Javascript but with the validation on the flash it all looks that little more attractive.
Another quite large benfit of flash forms is to be able to intergrate Action Scripting and FlashRemoting into the equasion, this allows you to have related select boxes, and Datagrids that can be filtered or re-populated from a query without the need to fresh the browser, your user can also sort and edit information without needing to refresh.
I'm a little short of hand of live examples of the things i've been working on so unfortunatly i cant really show you much.
There are obviously downsides to using them, mainly the lack of support on those 5% or clients, and also the loading speed can be a little fustrating.
If you're the type of developer that bassis a large amount of his work arounds 'accessibility' for his users, then i wouldnt reccomend flash forms, but if you're not too worried about that and are looking for a few new toys to play with, then most definatly give it a shot.
Here are a couple of links, one is ASFusion, an excelent FlashForm referance, and the other is a little work in progress i've got with a few small examples of forms i've dabbled with, notice the flash remoting for the products list... unfortunatly all my good gubbins is on my internal server at the moment, but i'll try and publish a little soon.
ASFusion -
Contact Form - - look at the client side validation on this, its only simple but REALLY easy to create too.
Product List - - see how it re-writes the query and returns results without the need to refresh the browser.
Like i say they are only very basic example, but thought i would let you have a look none the less.
Hope that helps,
Rob
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks for your thoughts TamedTech! I'm definitely going to consider using Flash Forms. Even if I don't use them site-wide I may just use them for admin stuff.
Does anyone else have any thoughts regarding Flash Forms? Would love to hear how they are being used and liked or disliked.
Randy
Does anyone else have any thoughts regarding Flash Forms? Would love to hear how they are being used and liked or disliked.
Randy
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1
- #4
Randy,
When I saw flash forms for the first time i was really impressed. but trying to make them work in a practical environment in my opinion requires some compromises to be made. MM/Adobe were saying that they were a direct replacement for html forms etc, but flash forms don't allow a file upload, they don't allow you to create multiple fields with the same name without using the repeater element. if you do use the repeater element and are using a checkbox, then the checked attribute is ignored.
The load times of some of the forms are painful, and when clicking the back button causes a form that was there a second ago, to display the "The form data has expired" message.
Another problem at the moment which is not MM/Adobe's fault is the need to click the flash form twice, because of a patch to IE 6 that MS released in mid april, to tighten the security on activeX components.
if you are doing a simple form that doesn't contain many cfformgroups then the layout is fairly straightforward, but i've found that positioning elements on the screen horizontally is a pain, and requires some major fudges to be used.
there are some really nice elements, such as the calendars and the way that they look, but i just feel that they need some polishing
Hope this helps!
Tony
When I saw flash forms for the first time i was really impressed. but trying to make them work in a practical environment in my opinion requires some compromises to be made. MM/Adobe were saying that they were a direct replacement for html forms etc, but flash forms don't allow a file upload, they don't allow you to create multiple fields with the same name without using the repeater element. if you do use the repeater element and are using a checkbox, then the checked attribute is ignored.
The load times of some of the forms are painful, and when clicking the back button causes a form that was there a second ago, to display the "The form data has expired" message.
Another problem at the moment which is not MM/Adobe's fault is the need to click the flash form twice, because of a patch to IE 6 that MS released in mid april, to tighten the security on activeX components.
if you are doing a simple form that doesn't contain many cfformgroups then the layout is fairly straightforward, but i've found that positioning elements on the screen horizontally is a pain, and requires some major fudges to be used.
there are some really nice elements, such as the calendars and the way that they look, but i just feel that they need some polishing
Hope this helps!
Tony
Some of those are very valid points Tony,
Especialy your comment about the latest IE patch that means you have to click the form to select it and then click AGAIN to use it, but i think we can safly blame MS on that blunder.
I've not Found too many issues with layout, provided you play things by the rules then you can achieve some nice effects.
I've not attempted the multi-name functionality before, so i'll assume that is the case, and i can imagine it is a little fustrating.
Final point about "flash forms don't allow a file upload" simply isnt true. Admitadly its achievable through a 'hack' which uses an external SWF file which supports IO protocols, but its not very difficult to achieve, thanks to ASFusion for getting me started on that one.
Thanks,
Rob
Especialy your comment about the latest IE patch that means you have to click the form to select it and then click AGAIN to use it, but i think we can safly blame MS on that blunder.
I've not Found too many issues with layout, provided you play things by the rules then you can achieve some nice effects.
I've not attempted the multi-name functionality before, so i'll assume that is the case, and i can imagine it is a little fustrating.
Final point about "flash forms don't allow a file upload" simply isnt true. Admitadly its achievable through a 'hack' which uses an external SWF file which supports IO protocols, but its not very difficult to achieve, thanks to ASFusion for getting me started on that one.
Thanks,
Rob
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