MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-USING FLASH Use Manual page 443

You can create custom data types. The number of data types allowed is unlimited. Data types
are defined by XML files found in the Flash Professional 8 Configuration/DataTypes folder.
The definition includes the following metadata:
An ActionScript class that will be instantiated for validation and type conversion
A Validation Options dialog box
The name of the standard formatter, which you can override using the
property
Initial values for required, read-only, and default values
When to edit schema item settings
You can edit anything within the Schema Attributes pane, even schemas that come from an
external source, such a web service WSDL file. You can always change any value for any field
of any schema, with the following restrictions:
If you change the type, all the other schema item attributes are reset to the default values
for the new data type.
If you select to completely reload the schema for a component property, you will lose all
the edits that had previously been made within the Schema Attributes pane.
There are several ways to reload the schema for a component property, including
entering a new WSDL URL, selecting a different operation for a web service, or
importing a new XML schema from a sample XML file.
When you build an application using data components and/or data binding, you need to
apply schema item settings to some, but not necessarily all, fields of the components in your
application. The following table summarizes the most common uses of schema item settings
and can help you determine when these settings need to be edited:
Component Property/field
Any connector
params
sub-fields)
results
sub-fields)
Settings
(and its Validation Options,
Read-Only, Required
(and its Formatter, Formatter
Options
Default value
formatter
When to use
If validation is desired.
For fields that need
formatting for display as
text.
For fields whose value is
sometimes undefined.
Advanced topics in data integration 443