Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
site developers before they can relay it back to you. Depending on
how large of a company your client is, it could possibly be a day or
more before you get your answer. So let
sgobacktothequicker
option of getting the information directly from the forms on
their site. For that, I
'
m going to recommend one of two courses of
action. The first is to simply view the source of their forms, and the
second is to use a tool like Firebug or ServiceCapture. Just in case
you are unfamiliar with viewing the source of a Web site, follow
these steps:
1. Open your Web browser and navigate to the Web site from
which you need information.
2. Right-click and choose the option in the menu to view the
source of the page.
3. Search for a word or phrase that you know is next to a field in
the form from which you want to gather information.
4. Once you find the form in the code, you should see the name
and value pairs you need.
'
TIP
There are several different tools available that will allow you to monitor a
site
s CSS, JavaScript, DOM, and a number of other things. One of the
many things you can use these tools for is to discover the name and
value pairs of a form on a Web site. Just open up your monitoring tool of
choice, fill out and submit the form, and watch the tool report everything
back to you. As I mentioned in the main text, a couple of tools you may
want to check out are Firebug and ServiceCapture. I personally use and
switch back and forth between both.
'
Now that you have the name and value pairs, you can build out
your form and test it to make sure it works.
“
But Jason,
”
you say,
“
when I build the forms into my banners, my file size goes way up,
and I have to crunch the quality of my images so much that the
client will never approve them!
”
Ah yes, the file size consumption
of Flash components.
File Size Consumption
A key factor to keep in mind from the very beginning of a banner
that will contain a form is the amount of the file size that is taken
up by the Flash components you may need to use. Don
tgetme
wrong, I think the built-in Flash components are just fine. I just
wish they were less of a strain on file size. As a matter of fact,
unless you
'
re using the ComboBox from way back in Flash 6 or 7,
you can pretty much plan on it being too much file bloat to fit in a
standardbanner.Backinthoseversions,youcouldplanonthe
ComboBox taking up about 15k, but now you would be looking at
'
