Flash Forms are a visually stunning new feature of ColdFusion 7.0. All the end user needs to view Flash Forms is the free Flash Player. According to macromedia.com 90% of users already have this installed.

Since Coldfusion 7.0 is fairly new, the hosting company used by csimmons.net has not upgraded to it, yet. However, csimmons.net has executed a project using Flash Forms. Below are screen shots illustrating the benefits of the Flash Forms.

Click any image to view the larger sized image.

Figure 1.0 (Above): Tabbed forms allow you to categorize data.

Figure 1.1 (Above): As you can see the forms have a very polished, professional style. Spiffy looks aside, Flash Forms are also very functional. They support the creation of tabbed forms, which allows grouping of data entry. Note how the form above has 3 tabs. Also, note the red asterisk, which indicates required fields.

Figure 1.2 (Above): The second tab has been clicked in this example to illustrate "tabbed forms".

Figure 1.3 (Above): Flash Forms provide advanced features for data validation without JavaScript. Once you tab through a required field and leave it blank the field is highlighted in red. Additionally, hovering the mouse over a "red field" provides a "hint," which the programmer has defined in the page's coding.

Figure 1.4 (Above): If the user ignores the field requirements and tries to submit the form with errors the Flash Form rejects the submission and again provides the hints specified by the programmer .