Flash MX - Frustration!!!

[Allen]

I am working on putting together a 9 page question form.
Each page is a movie clip - page1, page2, page3, ect..
On my main timeline i have a Next Page button w/ the following actionScript attached to it:

on (release) {
status = "";
if (clientName !="" && address !="" && email !="" && phone !="" && fax !="" && teamContacts !="" && showName !="" && showLocation !="" && boothNumber !="" && shipDate !="" && setUpDate !="" && showdate !="") {
gotoAndPlay(35);

} else {
status = "Please fill in required fields"
}
}

The only thing is it does not work!!! arghh.
It keeps jumping to frame 35 regardless of any fields being filled out!!
Any ideas?

Thanks!!

[Allen]

I have tried everything I could possibly think of but to no avail!!

I have a button "Next Page" on the main timeline that is suppose to check if the entries on my "pageOneElements" moviesclip have been filled in and if not to stay put till required fields are filled in.

I have tried using the actionscript on my "Next Page" button to:

on (release) {
status = "";
if (pageOneElements.clientName !="" ); gotoAndPlay(35);


} else {
status = "Please fill in required fields";
}
}

All it seems to do is ignore the statement completely, whether there is input in the text firld or not.
I have tried:

(_root.pageOneElements.clientName !="" );
(clientName !="" );

Any experts out there :)
i am ready to start doing damage to my machine

[sbeener]

might be a pathing issue, try tracing the content of the field.

[Allen]

How do I use tracing?

[sbeener]

on (release) {
status = "";
trace("clientName="+pageOneElements.clientName);
if (pageOneElements.clientName !="" ){
gotoAndPlay(35);
} else {
status = "Please fill in required fields";
}
}

[Allen]

sbeener,

You are awesome!! Thank you! After all this it came down to a replacing the quotes "" with null!
Thanks for all your help!

[sbeener]

ah yes, the subtle differences between "", null, undefined, and false have caused many headaches.

just as tracing variables has solved more problems than i care to count.