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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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The Components bundled with Flash are designed to make development easier for you. A Component is essentially a specialized movie clip with exposed parameters that you can modify. If you have developed with tools such as Visual Studio, it’s likely that you are already familiar with Controls, which are similar time-saving tools.

Components allow you to rapidly build applications and solutions. For example, if you are building a form with a drop down menu, checkboxes, radio buttons, and a calendar control, you could spend a lot of time developing the code for these movie clips, or you could simply use the pre-built Components that come with Flash to streamline your development pains.

Think of Components as the great little helpers you need in an application. Some do simple jobs, such as adding a UIScrollBar to a Text box. Others are more complex, such as the DateChooser and others rival enterprise tools such as the DataGrid.

A Brief History of Components

Components are not new to Flash. The first set of Components made its appearance in Flash 5 (at the time, Macromedia called them Smart Clips). The idea was right, but the execution was wrong. SmartClips died under the noon day sun and were quickly dismissed.

Flash MX—or Flash 6—introduced an enhanced version of ActionScript and formally introduced Components. Macromedia, and now Adobe, have been steadily improving the functionality and form of Components since their debut. Today I rely on them for all of my work because they help me get the job done, simply and efficiently.

Where to find Components

To view the Components Panel, open Flash and Choose Window > Components. There are five sets of Components in the Components Panel:

Data
FLV Playback — Player 8
FLV Playback Custom UI
Media Players 6-7
User Interface

These five groups, when expanded, contain over 30 Components that you can drop into a movie. The parameters of each Component can be controlled through the Properties Inspector, and both the interaction and presentation of Component can be controlled with ActionScript. Remember, this is Flash—if you do not like what you see, you can change it without damaging the integrity of the Component.

Every Component is data aware, meaning you can bind data from a Web Service, XML, or Array to it. The Data Components allow you to do this easily.

The FLV Playback—Player 8 Component is designer specifically to handle the new On2 video CODEC supported in Flash 8 Player, and can be easily customized. The FLV Playback Custom UI controls allow you to change the appearance of the FLV Playback—Player 8 Component. This is a clear example of Flash Components separating form from function. Brilliant.

The final set of Components listed in the Components Panel is the User Interface Components. There are over 20 Components in this one category alone. These Components each come with a rich level of complexity that could easily warrent individual sections in the guide. For example, the data-sensitive Components such as the List, Tree, Accordion, ComboBox, and DataGrid are extremely complex. Of particular note is the DataGrid. This is one of the most useful Components because it allows you to easily display large amounts of data in a simple and clear view, very similar in look and appearance to Microsoft's Excel.

In addition to the visual Components, there are two additional categories of Components: Managers and Screens. Managers allow you to control elements such as depth, style, system, and popup. Screens allow you to control forms and slides.

Using Components

Obviously, I do not have enough space to cover all of the Components in great detail, but I hope to give you a feel for how to use them by examining the humble UIScrollBar.

On the stage, draw a small Dynamic Text box with the Text Tool. Name it "myText."
Select frame one from the Timeline Panel.
Open the Actions Panel.
Add the following ActionScript: myText.text="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Integer sollicitudin metus ut nibh. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. In eget ante ac tortor tincidunt lobortis. Nunc egestas elit non ante. Morbi ut sem. Mauris ac nibh. Suspendisse dapibus, turpis sit amet tincidunt faucibus, arcu elit condimentum elit, eu iaculis odio ante eget mi. Praesent facilisis odio at elit. Vivamus blandit commodo orci. Ut ultrices aliquam enim. Fusce nonummy tortor in felis.";
Test the movie by pressing F12. You will notice that not all of your text fits onto the screen. To see all of the text easily, you must use the UIScrollBar from the Components Panel.
Select and drag an instance of the UIScrollBar from the Components Panel onto the Dynamic Text box called "myText" on the stage. Release your cursor. You will notice that a blue outlined scroll bar appears to the righthand side of the text area. Test your movie again and use the UIScrollBar to view your content.
Select the UIScrollBar and—in the Properties Inspector—name the Component "myScrollBar."

Open the Actions Panel and add the following ActionScript to modify additional parameters of the UIScrollBar

this.createTextField("my_txt", 10, 10, 20, 200, 100);
my_txt.wordWrap = true;

this.createClassObject(mx.controls.UIScrollBar, "my_sb", 20);

my_sb.setStyle("ThemeColor","haloOrange");

// Set the target text field.
my_sb.setScrollTarget(my_txt);

// Size it to match the text field.
my_sb.setSize(16, my_txt._height); 

// Scroll 2 lines per click on scroll arrow.
my_sb.lineScrollSize = 2;

// Scroll 5 lines per click on scroll track.
my_sb.pageScrollSize = 5;

// Move it next to the text field.
my_sb.move(my_txt._x + my_txt._width, my_txt._y);

// Scroll 2 lines per click of scroll arrow.
my_sb.lineScrollSize = 2;

// Scroll 5 lines per click of scroll track.
my_sb.pageScrollSize = 5;

// Load text to display and define onData handler.
var my_lv:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
my_lv.onData = function(src:String) {
  if (src != undefined) {
    my_txt.text = src;
  } else {
    my_txt.text = "Error loading text.";
  }
};
my_lv.load("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/lorem.txt");

Now test your movie again to see the affects of the modified Component.

Summary

Components are very useful. Here you have been introduced to Components and given a tour of one of the more simple Components: the UIScrollBar. You can find more information on Components in other sections of the Guide. Expect to find even more coverage of specialized Components coming in future issues of the Flash Guide. There is lot to discover.

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