The Flash 4 Form sample below shows an order form that uses a server-side application to verify order and billing information. The form uses editable text fields to gather the order and billing information and store it in variables. The Checkout Button sends the variable values to an Active Server Page for processing and returns an appropriate confirmation or error message.

To view this demo, you need the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now.

This sample also has one action script that calculates price totals and another that converts numbers to a currency format. This is an advanced example of Flash actions. It assumes that you already have a sound understanding of basic drawing principles, using layers, and adding actions to buttons and frames in Flash.

Choose Macromedia Flash 4 > Sample Pages > Form > Form.fla to open the Form sample. To view the server-side functionality in the Form sample, copy the form.html, form.swf, and order.asp files to a Web server that supports ASP pages.

Note: Web servers that support ASP pages include Microsoft Internet Information Server on Windows NT Server or Microsoft Personal Web Server on Windows NT Workstation and Windows 95/98.

If you don't have Flash 4 installed, download the Flash 4 trial software.

Deconstructing the Flash 4 Form sample

Determining the movie's logic

Sending the order and billing variables to an Active Server Page

Calling the Calculate script

Calling the FormatCurrency script

Jody Bleyle Jody Bleyle writes instructional documentation for Macromedia Flash and has served as the Flash Technical Support team lead. 17 March 2000 action script, ASP, calculate script, Concatenate, format currency script, LoadVariable, shopping cart, Substring, action script, ASP, calculate script, Concatenate, format currency script, LoadVariable, shopping cart, Substring 9204