Chapter 1: Working With Flash Mx 2004; About Creating Components - MACROMEDIA FLEX - DEVELOPING COMPONENTS AND THEMES Manual

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
"Creating Basic Components in Flash MX 2004," on page
programming the ActionScript class files for components, see
Components in Flash MX 2004," on page
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.
Working with Flash MX 2004
45.
CHAPTER 1
23. For a more in-depth look at
Chapter 3, "Creating Advanced
Chapter 2,
5