User Guide

About version 2 component architecture 15
Categories of components
Components included with Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 fall into the
following five categories (the locations of their ActionScript source files roughly correspond to
these categories as well and are listed in parentheses):
• User interface components (mx.controls.*)
User interface components allow you to interact with an application; for example, the
RadioButton, CheckBox, and TextInput components are user interface controls.
• Data components (mx.data.*)
Data components allow you to load and manipulate information from data sources; the
WebServiceConnector and XMLConnector components are data components.
Note: The source files for the data components aren’t installed with Flash. However, some of the
supporting ActionScript files are installed.
• Media components (mx.controls.*)
Media components let you play back and control streaming media; MediaController,
MediaPlayback, and MediaDisplay are media components.
• Managers (mx.managers.*)
Managers are nonvisual components that allow you to manage a feature, such as focus or
depth, in an application; the FocusManager, DepthManager, PopUpManager, StyleManager,
and SystemManager components are manager components.
• Screens (mx.screens.*)
The screens category includes the ActionScript classes that allow you to control forms and
slides in Flash MX Professional 2004.
For a complete list of each category, see Chapter 6, “Components Dictionary,” on page 91.
About version 2 component architecture
You can use the Property inspector or the Component inspector to change component parameters
to make use of the basic functionality of components. However, if you want greater control over
components, you need to use their APIs and understand a little bit about the way they were built.
Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 components are built with version 2 of the
Macromedia Component Architecture. Version 2 components are supported by Flash Player 6.79
and Flash Player 7. These components are not always compatible with components built using
version 1 architecture (all components released before Flash MX 2004). Also, the original version
1 components are not supported by Flash Player 7. For more information, see “Upgrading version
1 components to version 2 architecture” on page 53.
Note: Flash MX UI components have been updated to work with Flash Player 7. These updated
components are still based on version 1 architecture. You can download them from the Macromedia
Flash Exchange at www.macromedia.com/cfusion/exchange/
index.cfm#loc=en_us&view=sn106&viewName=Exchange%20Search%20Details&authorid=606
39501&page=0&scrollPos=0&subcatid=0&snid=sn106&itemnumber=0&extid=1009423&catid=0.