Offline User Form

Question

Greetings flex community,
I've been tasked with designing a user form that will be
filled out offline (no net connection, no webserver, etc..) This
form is for signing up for an e-newsletter. I desided to use Flex
for this, however I've run into a bit of an issue. My goal is to
have the form fields saved locally to an .xml file (<mx:Model
source="enewsletter.xml" id="XMLFILE"/>). I've searched the
forums and am lead to believe this may not be possible? Are there
some imports that can be added to the
<mx:Script></mx:Script> to allow this functionality?
I'm fairly new to flex so forgive the noob'ness :) Here's the
code I have so far, any corrections are also welcome and
suggestions. Thanks in advance!
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="
http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
layout="absolute">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:Style source="theme.css"/>
<mx:Model source="enewsletter.xml" id="XMLFILE"/>
<mx:Panel width="640" height="480" layout="absolute"
verticalCenter="-31" horizontalCenter="-1" id="ui_main" title="Sign
Up for our E-Newsletter!" horizontalAlign="center"
verticalAlign="middle" fontWeight="bold" backgroundAlpha="1.0"
alpha="1.0" fontFamily="Arial" fontSize="12">
<mx:Label x="33" y="196" text="Zipcode:" width="69"/>
<mx:TextInput x="110" y="194" borderStyle="inset"
borderColor="#000000" enabled="true" id="ZIP"/>
<mx:Label x="33" y="313" text="Phone:" width="69"/>
<mx:TextInput x="110" y="311" borderStyle="inset"
borderColor="#000000" enabled="true" id="PHONENUM"/>
<mx:Label x="35" y="373" text="E-Mail:" width="44"/>
<mx:TextInput x="110" y="371" borderStyle="inset"
borderColor="#000000" enabled="true" id="EMAIL"/>
<mx:Label x="278" y="13" text="Last Name:"
width="69"/>
<mx:TextInput x="355" y="11" borderStyle="inset"
borderColor="#000000" enabled="true" id="LastName"/>
<mx:Label x="33" y="13" text="First Name:"
width="69"/>
<mx:TextInput x="110" y="11" borderColor="#000000"
enabled="true" id="FirstName"/>
<mx:Label x="33" y="128" text="Street / Mailing Address:"
width="148"/>
<mx:TextInput x="189" y="126" borderStyle="inset"
borderColor="#000000" enabled="true" width="326" id="ADDRESS"/>
<mx:Label x="303" y="164" text="State:" width="48"/>
<mx:ComboBox x="355" y="161" id="STATE"
enabled="true">
<mx:dataProvider>
<mx:Array>
</mx:Array>
</mx:dataProvider>
</mx:ComboBox>
<mx:Label x="33" y="161" text="City:" width="69"/>
<mx:TextInput x="110" y="161" borderStyle="inset"
borderColor="#000000" enabled="true" id="CITY"/>
<mx:Label x="33" y="42" text="Do you wish to recieve mail
about new vehicles and information, upcoming events and more?"
width="577"/>
<mx:Text x="33" y="97" text="Please enter your mailing
information below if you selected Yes." width="577"/>
<mx:Label x="33" y="227" text="Do you wish to recieve
phone calls about new vehicles and information, upcoming events and
more?" width="577"/>
<mx:Text x="33" y="282" text="Please enter your phone
number below if you selected Yes." width="577"/>
<mx:Label x="33" y="342" text="Please enter your E-Mail
Address to recieve our E-Newsletter." width="577"/>
<mx:RadioButtonGroup id="radiogroup1"/>
<mx:RadioButton x="54.0" y="71.0" label="YES"
groupName="USPSMAIL" fontWeight="bold" id="YES1"
enabled="true"/>
<mx:RadioButton x="132" y="71" label="NO"
groupName="USPSMAIL" fontWeight="bold" id="NO1" enabled="true"/>
<mx:RadioButtonGroup id="radiogroup2"/>
<mx:RadioButton x="54" y="256.0" label="YES"
groupName="PHONE" fontWeight="bold" id="YES2" enabled="true"/>
<mx:RadioButton x="132" y="256" label="NO"
groupName="PHONE" fontWeight="bold" id="NO2" enabled="true"/>
<mx:Button x="544" y="388" label="Submit" enabled="true"
id="SUBMIT" click="XMLFILE"/>
<mx:ControlBar>
</mx:ControlBar>
</mx:Panel>
<mx:Text text="No purchase necessary to sign up, must be
18 years old or older. Copyright (c) 2007 Kendall Automotive
Group." width="633" textAlign="center" horizontalCenter="0"
verticalCenter="227.5" fontFamily="Arial" fontSize="10"
color="#000000" height="21" fontStyle="italic"
fontWeight="bold"/>
<mx:SWFLoader width="640" horizontalCenter="-1"
verticalCenter="-295" source="Untitled-6.swf" autoLoad="true"/>
</mx:Application>

Answer 1

I'm sorry, but writing to the local file system is forbidden
by the security restrictions on both the browser, and especially,
the Flash Player.
Now, you CAN write to what is called a local SharedObject,
which is kinda like a "cookie on steroids". Then on connection,
write tht data to the server.
And again, you might consider using AIR(Apollo), which is
currently in beta. You write Flex code, but it uses a different
rendering engine than the Flash Player,and can access local assets.
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