© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Building an Extension for Flash Professional Justin Putney | Co-founder, Ajar Productions

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Prerequisites  Familiarity with Flash Professional  Basic understanding of ECMAScripts (Javascript, Actionscript) or other programming languages

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Goals For This Session  Understanding the History Panel  Understanding the function of JSFL  Experience creating commands and SWF panels  Basic understanding of how to distribute an extension (time permitting)

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. About Me  Designer/Developer  Efficiency nerd  Released ~30 Flash extensions  Extensions available at  Short URL:

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. What is JSFL?  JS[JavaScript]FL[Flash]  JSFL is not Actionscript, but it is similar.  JSFL is JavaScript specifically written to interact with the Flash authoring environment.  Like Actionscript, JavaScript is based on the ECMAScript standard.  File extension is.jsfl  Created by selecting File > New… > Flash JavaScript File

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. What Can JSFL Do?  JSFL functions like a user. It can create layers, create objects, select frames, manipulate library items, open files, save files, etc.  JSFL in Flash can be used to create Commands, Panels, and Tools.

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Getting Started: The History Panel  Advanced undo/redo  Also shows JSFL for each (enabled) user action  Located under Window > Other Panels > History

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Getting Around: The Document Object Model (DOM)  Similar to DOM in HTML  DOM Structure of an object on the Flash stage: Flash > Document > Timeline > Layer > Frame > Element  Translates into the following JSFL: fl.documents[0].timelines[0].layers[0].frames[0].elements[0]

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Using The Help   Download it! The PDF is much faster to navigate offline.  Use it! It’s easier than memorization.

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Packaging Extensions for Distribution  MXI file is an XML file that contains information about the extension (title, author, version, copyright, license agreement, which files it includes, where to install the files, etc.)  Extension Manager is a free application that packages an MXI file (plus sources files) into an MXP (or ZXP) file that can be distributed  MXP (and ZXP) files are also installed using Extension Manager

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. More Resources  Extending Macromedia Flash MX 2004: Complete Guide and Reference to JavaScript Flash by Todd Yard & Keith Peters  Animation with Scripting for Adobe Flash CS5 Studio Techniques by Chris Georgenes & Justin Putney      

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. Questions?