Chapter 2: Creating An Application With Components (Flash Professional Only); About Working With Components - MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING COMPONENTS Use Manual

Creating an Application with Components (Flash
Components in Flash are prebuilt elements that you can use when creating Flash applications, to
add user interface controls, data connectivity, and other functionality. Components can save you
work when you're building an application, because you don't have to create all the design and
functionality from scratch.
This tutorial shows how to build a Flash application using components available in Macromedia
Flash MX Professional 2004, including a variety of user interface and data connectivity
components. You'll learn how to work with components by using panels and other interface
features in the Flash authoring environment and by using ActionScript.

About working with components

All components are listed in the Components panel. To use a component, you add an instance of
the component to a Flash application.
You can add a component instance in several ways:
•
To add a component instance to an application while authoring, drag the component from the
Components panel onto the Stage. This also places the component in the library. You can add
additional instances of the component by dragging the component from the library onto the
Stage. For more information, see
components during authoring" on page
•
To create a component instance dynamically, first add the component to the library: drag the
component from the Components panel onto the Stage and then delete the instance on the
Stage (the component remains in the library). Then add ActionScript to the application to
create the instance, as you would create an instance of a movie clip or other object in the
library. For more information on adding components dynamically, see
runtime with ActionScript" on page
Once the component is added to the library, you can create instances either by dragging to the
Stage or by writing ActionScript.
"The Components panel" on page 44
44.
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CHAPTER 2
Professional Only)
and "Adding
"Adding components at
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