User Guide
Table Of Contents
- Contents
- Working with Flash MX 2004
- Creating Basic Components in Flash MX 2004
- Creating Advanced Components in Flash MX 2004
- Contents
- About Creating components
- Writing the component’s ActionScript code
- Simple example of a class file
- General process for writing a class file
- Selecting a parent class
- Identifying the class, symbol, and owner names
- About the component instantiation life cycle
- Writing the constructor
- Specifying clip parameters
- Implementing the constructObject2() method
- Implementing the init() method
- Implementing the createChildren() method
- Implementing the commitProperties() method
- Implementing the measure() method
- Implementing the layoutChildren() method
- Implementing the draw() method
- Defining getters and setters
- Component metadata
- Defining component parameters
- Handling events
- Using the Event metadata
- About invalidation
- Skinning custom controls
- Adding styles
- Making components accessible
- Improving component usability
- Best practices when designing a component
- Using the ModalText example
- Troubleshooting
- Index
5
CHAPTER 1
Working with Flash MX 2004
This chapter describes how to set up and work in the Macromedia Flash environment when
creating components for Macromedia Flex. It helps familiarize you with setting the classpath in
Flash, working with symbols, and exporting component SWC files.
If you are an experienced Flash developer, you may be able to skip this chapter.
For a set of simple examples that illustrate the basics of component development, see Chapter 2,
“Creating Basic Components in Flash MX 2004,” on page 23. For a more in-depth look at
programming the ActionScript class files for components, see Chapter 3, “Creating Advanced
Components in Flash MX 2004,” on page 45.
Contents
About creating components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Working in the Flash environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Working with component symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Exporting components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
About creating components
You can create a new component for Flex in several ways. Depending on what kind of component
you want to create, you use different tools. To extend the class of an existing component and add
a new method, for example, you can write just a single ActionScript class file. To create a new tag
in MXML, you can create a component in MXML using a combination of MXML tags and
ActionScript. Or, to create a new component with new behaviors, graphics, and other interactive
elements, you can use the Flash MX 2004 Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
This section describes how to create a new component for Flex using the Flash environment.
You do this when you want to accomplish the following tasks:
• Generate SWC files. SWC files are component archive files that you add to your Flex
environment. They provide easy portability among Flash and Flex developers. This chapter
includes instructions on how to create and use a SWC file.
• Change the appearance of Flex components. By editing a component’s visual assets on the
Flash Stage, you can change a component’s appearance from styles and skins to the shape
and size.