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
8 Chapter 1: Working with Flash MX 2004
Symbols and MovieClips
In Flash, most assets are also known as symbols, and each symbol must have a unique name. You
can store symbols anywhere in the FLA file, because Flex accesses the assets by the symbol name
rather than by the Timeline or Stage.
A symbol is a graphic, button, or movie clip that you create in Flash MX 2004. You create the
symbol only once; you can then reuse it throughout your document or in other documents. Any
symbol that you create automatically becomes part of the Library for the current document.
Each symbol has its own Timeline. You can add frames, keyframes, and layers to a symbol
Timeline, just as you can to the main Timeline. Movie clips are symbols that can play animation
in a Flash application. If the symbol is a movie clip or a button, you can control the symbol with
ActionScript. Flex abstracts the idea of the MovieClip, so you may not be familiar with them.
However, they are the foundation of the Flash environment, and you use them when creating
components for Flex in Flash.
Compiled clips
Symbols can be compiled in Flash and converted into a compiled clip symbol. The compiled clip
symbol behaves just like the movie clip symbol from which it was compiled, but compiled clips
appear and publish much faster than regular movie clip symbols. Compiled clips cannot be
edited, but they do have properties that appear in the Property Inspector and in the Component
Inspector panel and they include a live preview.
The components included with Flash MX 2004 have already been converted to compiled clips.
Classes
The ActionScript class file specifies the properties, methods, and events for the component, and
defines which, if any, classes that your component inherits from. It also includes other class files
and packages that your component uses.
You must use the .as file naming convention for ActionScript source code, and name the source
code file after the component itself. For example, the MyComponent.as file contains the source
code for the MyComponent component.
The FLA file includes a reference to the ActionScript class file for the component. This is known
as binding the component to the class file. The binding is also known as a linkage identifier.
Class files can reside at the top level of the directory structure, or you can create a directory
structure that mirrors your ActionScript class file’s package name and store the ActionScript class
file there.
Adding Flex classes and components to the Flash IDE
The Flex components and the Flash components share the same names and most of the same
functionality. However, Flex has enhanced and upgraded the Flash component set. Therefore, you
must add the Flex components to the Flash environment using the instructions in this section in
order to compile new components for Flex.