Introduction: Getting Started With Actionscript; Intended Audience; Using The Documentation - MACROMEDIA FLEX-FLEX ACTIONSCRIPT LANGUAGE Reference

Macromedia Flex developers can use ActionScript to extend the functionality of their Flex
applications. ActionScript is an ECMAScript-based language that provides support for object-
oriented development. You are not required to use ActionScript to use Flex, but it provides flow
control and object manipulation features that are not available in strict MXML.

Intended audience

This manual assumes that you already installed Macromedia Flex and know how to use it. If you
have written programs before, ActionScript will seem familiar. But if you're new to programming,
ActionScript isn't hard to learn. It's easy to start with simple commands and build more
complexity as you progress.

Using the documentation

This manual provides an overview of ActionScript syntax, information on how to use
ActionScript when working with different types of objects, and details on the syntax and usage of
every language element. The following list summarizes the contents of this manual.
•
Chapter 1, "ActionScript Basics," on page 9
in the rest of the manual.
•
Chapter 2, "Creating Custom Classes with ActionScript 2.0," on page 45
create custom classes and objects for manipulating data in your applications.
•
Chapter 3, "Working with External Data," on page 67
external sources using server- or client-side scripts in your applications.
•
Chapter 4, "About the ActionScript Language Reference," on page 77
the second part of the manual, which describes the elements that comprise the ActionScript
language.
•
Chapter 5, "ActionScript Core Language Elements," on page 80
the ActionScript language that are not related to a particular class or to a particular
Macromedia product.
•
Chapter 6, "ActionScript Core Classes," on page 232
ActionScript language that are not related to a particular Macromedia product.
Getting Started with ActionScript
describes the terminology and basic concepts used
INTRODUCTION
describes how to
describes how to process data from
provides an overview of
explains all of the elements of
documents all of the classes of the
5