Collecting and formatting data

Applications depend on user interaction with the SWF file. Frequently, it depends on the user entering data into forms. Flash provides many ways you can enter and format data in Flash applications. This flexibility exists because of the capabilities you have with animation and creative control over the interface, and error checking and validation you can perform using ActionScript.

Benefits from using Flash to build forms to collect data include the following:

• Increased design control.

• Decreased or no need for page refreshing.

• Reuse of common assets.

  To save information that you collect from the user, save it in a shared object on the user’s computer. Shared objects let you store data on a user’s computer, which is similar to using a cookie. For more information on Shared objects, see the sharedObject class in ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference or ActionScript 3.0 Language and Components Reference.