Webmaster Forum / Flash / Data Integration / October 2006

My company has a database-driven system of web forms, each of which consists of
many questions in various layouts (2-column radio, 1 column checkbox, etc). The
forms are never hard-coded. Each HTTP request causes Java code to perform DB
queries to dynamically generate the various questions and answers. Those
questions are then rendered through JSP and Struts tiles into HTML.

The HTML also contains JavaScript functions to hide/show conditional questions
on the web page based on answers to earlier questions.

Now we're trying to figure out the best way to adapt this system to use a
Flash front-end instead of HTML/JavaScript.

My preliminary research suggests at least two possible approaches:

1. A pre-compiled SWF could send a request with certain parameters, and the
server could respond with an XML description of the form to build. Then the SWF
could parse that XML and dynamically generate the form using attachMovie for
each form element (with a lot of math to determine relative positions of
elements with variable sizes, like text labels).

2. Flex might reduce the code for placing elements, by using MXML to describe
the form structure as well as visual arrangement. I haven't used this yet, and
I'm wary of Flex 2 simply because it requires Flash Player 9 which is only at
50% browser penetration
(http://blog.flashforwardconference.com/2006/09/12/adobe-keynote-some-highlights
/) but I might try an earlier version of Flex if it helps.

Does anyone have a suggestion about the best approach to solving this problem?

Thanks in advance for any advice.