1. Using Macromedia Flash MX Components for Rapid Application Development Jeff Tapper Chief Technologist Tapper.net Consulting

2. 2 Introduction Jeff Tapper Chief Technologist – Tapper.net Consulting Certified Macromedia Instructor Certified Macromedia Professional Co-Author : Allaire Spectra e-Business Construction Kit; Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Development, Dynamic Publishing with ColdFusion MX

3. 3 Objectives of this session Recognize the Benefits of Components Identify Different Kinds of Components Use Components Accessing Properties and Methods Plugging in Data Changing Appearance through Skins & Styles Accessing Component Documentation Component Tips and Tricks

4. 4 Benefits of Flash Components Rapid Development Advanced Functionality easily available Drag and Drop behavior Customization through Properties Panel or ActionScript

5. 5 Benefits of Flash Components Leverage Advanced Flash Developer Talents Satisfy complex tasks with existing components Empower Flash Community Bringing advanced functionality to designers and novice developers Consistent User Interfaces Industry standards for Flash UI

6. 6 Benefits of Components Components vs. SmartClips SmartClips were great for Flash 5, but lacked: Ability to reliably interact with other SmartClips Easy manipulation of properties Components extend the model of SmartClips, and offer completed, customizable functionality, rather than frameworks for building functionality

7. 7 Available Components Macromedia has released 3 UI Toolkits, as well as Components for Datagrids, Communications, Charting, and Media Offer standard UI components to all Flash Developers

8. 8 Available Components Components available on Macromedia Exchange….

9. 9 Available Components Today’s Featured Component: Datagrid – From the Developers Resource Kit We’ll examine the use and customization of this in the next section

10. 10 Available Components Building your own components Each Component is built as a.fla file, so advanced developers can build their own. New Components inherit from the FUIComponent Class Component Creator Dialog Box

11. 11 Customizing Components Properties Each component has properties which can be customized either via the properties panel in flash, or via ActionScript

12. 12 Customizing Components Calling Methods Most methods of components are documented in reference files which are downloaded with the component. Action script can be used to call methods on instance of components, using the instanceName.methodName() syntax Methods are available from both Normal and Expert modes

13. 13 Customizing Components Adding Data DataProvider Class Flash Remoting with DataGlue Many components have their own methods to add / edit content

14. 14 Customizing Components Formatting and Skinning Components FUI Component Class Global and Granular Style Objects Re-skinning

15. 15 Tips and Tricks Discovering undocumented properties and methods for (i in songs_dg) { trace (i + "=" + songs_dg[i]); }

16. 16 Tips and Tricks DataProvider and Recordset Classes function getUpcoming_result( res_rs ){ songs_dg.setDataProvider(res_rs); }

17. 17 Tips and Tricks Code Hint suffixes XML files for each set of components, includes codehint data \Application Data\Macromedia\Flash MX\Configuration\ActionsPanel\CustomActions\

18. 18 Recap Components offer fully functional drag and drop pieces which can be used across all applications. Some components ship with Flash, many more are available Common API for interfacing with style elements for all components

19. 19 Question and Answer