About Data Integration In The Sample Application - MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING COMPONENTS Use Manual

On the Checkout screen, click the Billing Information, Shipping Information, and Credit Card
Information headers to view the form fields for each of these items. To place an order, you can
add the appropriate information in each of these panes, and click Confirm at the bottom of the
Credit Card Information pane. You can also click Back to return to the main screen. Close the
SWF file when you finish examining the completed application. This screen includes several UI
components (Accordion, TextArea, and others) to display information and provide fields for user
input.
View the FLA file for the completed application
To view the FLA file for the application, open the first_app_v3.fla file in the
components_application folder (the same folder that contains the first_app_v3.swf file).
Examine the Stage, library, and Actions panel to see the content for the application. Notice that
all the components used in the application appear in the library (along with graphics files and
other assets used to create the application architecture). Drag the playhead to view the keyframes
labeled Home (Frame 1) and Checkout (Frame 10). Some components appear as instances on the
Stage. Some are referenced in the ActionScript code but do not appear until runtime.

About data integration in the sample application

The sample application uses features of the Flash data integration architecture to connect to
external data sources, manage the data from those sources, and map the data to UI components in
the application for display. The Flash data integration architecture enables you to work with
external data in different ways, using components and ActionScript classes. For general
information on Flash data integration features, see Chapter 14, "Data Integration (Flash
Professional Only)" in Using Flash.
The sample application uses both components and classes, to introduce you to different ways of
working with data:
•
The XMLConnector component connects to an external XML file. Using this component is
similar to loading an external XML file with
object). However, the XMLConnector component is far more powerful and versatile, because
the component makes the XML data available for display in a variety of UI components,
simply by binding component parameters in the Flash authoring environment. For more
information, see
•
The DataSet component manages and filters data from the XML file. You bind the
XMLConnector component to the DataSet component in the Flash authoring environment,
and then bind the DataSet component to a UI component. For more information, see
"DataSet component (Flash Professional only)" on page
•
The DataGrid component displays data from the XML file that has been filtered by the
DataSet. You bind the DataSet component to the DataGrid component. (You can also bind
the DataSet component to other UI components. The DataGrid component is just one
example.) For more information, see
on page 247.
22 Chapter 2: Creating an Application with Components (Flash Professional Only)
"XMLConnector component (Flash Professional only)" on page
"DataGrid component (Flash Professional only)"
(the
XML.load() load
301.
method of the XML
894.