Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for Rich Internet Applications

Chapter 12. Using Components

Although you have most likely seen and used some of the components that ship with Macromedia Flash MX 2004, you probably can't say that you've fully exploited them yet. In fact, even the developers who created components are just now scratching the surface. They're built with extensibility in mind. Almost like an erector set, components are cool because you know you can build something cool with them. In the case of components, however, it's their ease of use that makes them even more compelling. This chapter covers using components. Specifically, this chapter covers the following topics:

• Populating components with your content

• Accessing component properties and methods to control their behavior

• The dataProvider data structure

• Tying components to your applications so that they can trigger your code

• A few neat tricks that save tons of time

Note that this chapter deals only with the user interface (UI) components that ship with Flash MX 2004. You'll be able to apply this knowledge to any future components that use the same architecture as these.