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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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Forms are not graphically pleasing. The boxes and fields simply are often boxy and laid out poorly. Flash MX 2004 comes with the tools that you can use to make forms more attractive.

In this section of the guide, you'll learn how to apply your branding skills to forms and use the forms controls, called components, which come with Flash MX 2004.

Form Basics

The first step you should take when building a form is to brand it with your own design. Here is a simple form that has been placed in a movie without any branding elements added to it.

Not too pretty, is it? Sure, the form has all the elements you need to eek out basic information from a customer, but it lacks the color, font, and style elements you've used to brand your site. Let's try this again.

As you can see, the content remains the same, but the look is all different. First, the font has been changed to Sans, which is a default font in Flash. My personal experience has shown me that a Sans font is easier to read on a computer screen than Times or Times Roman.

Secondly, you'll notice that the form has been broken up into two visual areas. I'm applying the blocking skills covered in the second part of this guide. The use of the dark gray background allows the customers to easily see the two areas that need focus.

I also included a yellow bar alongside the required form fields, which replaces the typical red "*".

Finally, and this may seem obvious, I use the Align tool in Flash to align the objects in the movie. Both of the headers are aligned together as are the form label names and form fields.

Using Flash Components

Flash MX 2004 has a panel called "Components," which are specialized movies that you can use in your own Flash movies. Many of the components are designed for use with forms. You can find the Components panel by selecting Windows > Development Panels > Components.

The basic field elements in the Shipping Information section of the form are now replaced with four form components.

The new components being used are: Combo Box, Numeric Stepper, Date Field, and Text Input. You'll notice that these components are very similar to HTML form elements that you may have used in traditional Web applications. Flash, however, brings you some additional functionality that traditional HTML forms do not provide.

First, unlike with HTML, Flash is not restricted to a specific number of form elements. In the above example you can see that, along with a traditional Combo Box, I also used a non-traditional Date Field selector. When you select the Date Field, a calendar appears allowing you to choose a date. This is not done easily on an HTML-based Web page.

In addition to these form elements, other components include: Data Grid, Accordion, Accordion Tabs, Alert, Check Box, Radio Group, Color Picker, Date Field, Labels, Lists, Menu, Menu Bar, Scroll Pane, Tree, and Window. Third-party designers, such as ActionScript.com, are designing even more components to spice up your Flash forms.

Flash holds another advantage over HTML-based forms in that it lets you apply color styles to your form elements. The easiest way to do this is to use one of the pre-designed styles developed for Flash. To apply the changes, open the ActionScript editor by selecting F9 and enter the following ActionScript:

styleName = "haloOrange";
BT.setStyle("themeColor", styleName);
CBX.setStyle("themeColor", styleName);
NM.setStyle("themeColor", styleName);
TI.setStyle("themeColor", styleName);

When you run your Flash movie, you'll see that when you interact with the form elements, the color scheme has changed to an orange theme. There are several styles you can use including haloBlue, haloGreen, and haloRed, with haloGreen being the default.

Another benefit to using form components is that they're data aware in Flash. This means that you can bind XML, Web Service, or Array data to the fields. This is important when you're building applications with your Flash movies. You no longer need to write complex ActionScript to bind data to elements in your movies.

In addition to being data aware, all of the components can be controlled through ActionScript. The following ActionScript, for example, takes data from the form fields and posts the results to the Output panel to create the foundation for your first rich Internet application:

function click(evt) {
        trace("Carrier is "+CBX.selectedItem.label);
        trace("The Number of Passengers is "+NM.target.value);
        trace("Departure Date is "+DF.text);
        trace("Accomodation is "+TI.text);
}
BT.addEventListener("click", this);

Thanks to Flash's form components, forms don't need to be boring. The same branding principles used for the main site should be used with your forms to make them look as approachable and easy to navigate as the rest of your site.

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