AdvancED ActionScript Components: Mastering the Flash Component Architecture

Macromedia's architecture is like a chest filled with precious jewels, and this book is quite simply the key to open it! One of the most important tools provided with Flash is the Macromedia Component Architecture: a framework of components written in ActionScript 2, based on established design patterns, that provides a wealth of functionality you can just bolt on to your Flash applications when desired. This can save you an enormous amount of time during application development and help you improve the quality of your code. Whats more, the source code is included, so if you cant find the component you need within the component architecture, you can just modify existing components to create your own! Expert Flash developer and author Antonio De Donatis gives you everything you need to master Flash components. In the first part, he shows you how the architecture works, how to create effective component-based applications, and how to create your own custom components from whats already provided. The second part shows how XML can be used to effectively describe and dynamically create not only single component instances, but whole applications based on any number of components. The last part of the book is a comprehensive reference to using all of the components already available in the Macromedia Component Architecture. It includes a specific chapter dedicated to each of the UI components like basic usage, component management, customization, and practical examples showing usage of each component. Summary of Contents:

    * PART ONE INTRODUCING THE ARCHITECTURE
          o Chapter 1 OOP in Component Design
          o Chapter 2 Core Classes and Component Design
          o Chapter 3 Exploring the UI Components
          o Chapter 4 Building Component-based Applications
    * PART TWO EXPLOITING THE ARCHITECTURE
          o Chapter 5 Architecture-based Development
          o Chapter 6 XML for Defining User Interfaces
          o Chapter 7 Extending the Application Framework
          o Chapter 8 Making Your XML Life Easier
          o Chapter 9 The Customization Process
    * PART THREE CUSTOMIZING THE COMPONENTS
          o Chapter 10 The Accordion Component
          o Chapter 11 The Button Component
          o Chapter 12 The CheckBox and RadioButton Components
          o Chapter 13 The List, ComboBox, and DataGrid Components
          o Chapter 14 The DateChooser and DateField Components
          o Chapter 15 The Loader, ScrollPane, and ProgressBar Components
          o Chapter 16 The Menu and MenuBar Components
          o Chapter 17 The NumericStepper Component
          o Chapter 18 The TextArea, TextInput, and Label Components
          o Chapter 19 The Tree Component
          o Chapter 20 The Window and Alert Components
          o Chapter 21 Handling the Scrollbars
    * PART FOUR APPENDIXES
          o Appendix A Locating the Source Code of the Component Architecture
          o Appendix B Transitions and Easing Classes