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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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All of your visual development will be created in either Flash MX 2004 or Flash MX 2004 Professional. Both tools use the same methodology for creating movies that interact with Flash Communication Server. To begin with you will be using Flash Communication Components to quickly build your solutions. Components replace the need to have learn and test extensive amounts of ActionScript. The Components encapsulates a specialized program that will create all of the code you need.

When you open Flash MX 2004 you will need to open the Components Panel. From the Components Panel you will need to select the Communication Components.

Creating the graphical Elements

You will see there are sixteen different Communication Components. The most important Component is the SimpleConnect Component.

The Simple Connect Component binds all of the Components together on the Stage. The SimpleConnect has simply three jobs: connect the Flash Movie with your application code running on the Flash Communication Server, bind all of the Communication Server Components together on the stage and to allow a user to their name.

The best way to see this in action is to build the chat room.

Begin by creating a new movie in Flash MX 2004. Save the movie as myChatRoom.fla
Open the Components Panel and choose the Communication Components from the drop down list.
Select the SimpleConnect component and drag it onto the stage. Name the Component myConnect. You will not be using the name for any interaction with ActionScript, however is good to get into the habit of naming your Components and Movie Clips as you add them to the Stage.
Select the myConnect SimpleConnect Component. In the Propties panel locate the Application Directory and add rtmp:/localhost/myChat. This binds the Flash Movie to the Flash Communication Server application.
Drag onto the Stage the ConnectionLight. In the Properties Panel name the ConnectionLight myLight.
Drag onto the Stage the Chat Component. Name the Chat component myChat.
Select the SimpleConnect Component named myConnect. From the Properties Panel Parameters tab select the Communication Components Parameter. This will open an Arrary Window. Select the plus symbol and add myLight and myChat to the list.
Preview your movie.

You have now successfully created your first application. Here you can see clearly how Flash Communication Server is a powerful solution. Leveraging the Components and a single line of Server-Side ActionScript you have built an application.

The application itself can now be easily extended through using the remaining Communication Components.

Re-open myChat.fla. Drag from the Communication Components the UserColor Component. Name the Component myColor.
Drag onto the Stage the PeopleList Component and name it myList.
Drag onto the Stage the WhiteBoard Component and name it myWhiteBoard.
Select the myConnect Component. In the Properties Panel add the following items to the Communication Components Parameter: myList, myWhiteBoard and myColor.
Preview the movie.

Now what you have is a groupware tool. User can log in to the system. As a user logs in each person connected will see their name appear in the myList Component. In addition, each user will be able to change the color of their text. This will allow each user to clearly see who is speaking. Finally, the myWhiteBoard Component is now a shared object that all of the connected users can interact with.

The final thing you need to do is make the whole thing look nice. Right now you have a very functional Flash Movie. I think that the Communication Components are graphically more pleasing than the standard UI Components, but they are not as nice as the new Halo Theme used for the version 2.0 Components in Flash MX 2004 2004.

You can, however, make things look nicer. After all, making things look nice is what Flash is all about.

Generally, I place all of my Components onto the same layer in the Timeline. I name the layer Components. Above this layer I add an additional layer named Actions. I place all of my ActionScript in the Actions layer. I then lock both of these layers.

Below the Components I add an additional layer. This I label Design. This is, as you might expect, where I add the design elements for the application.

Adding the ActionScript

In the above demonstration you have used the Components to build your movie. But what if you wanted more control?

In addition Communication Components you also have a rich set of ActionScript methods and properties you can to access your Communication Server.

ActionScript gives you a great level of control because you are separated from the graphics. With the Components you are tied to the graphical presentation of the components unless you want to start digging through the Library and re-skinning the Components (this is something for only the strong of heart).

Once you have established a connection you can begin doing al sorts of tricks.

Connecting the to the server

As you have probably realized by now, I have a layer in the Timeline in each of my movies called Actions. The Actions layer is where I add all my ActionScript.

Select the Actions layer and add the following line:

myConnect_nc = new NetConnection();

myConnect_nc.connect(rtmp://http://www.myDomain.com/myChat);

The first of the two lines creates a new object that instantiates the NetConnection object. The NetConnection Object is the tool you want. It connects directly to the Communication Server.

The second line opens the connection to a specific server. Now you can connect movie clips and other objects to the Communication Server.

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