Book Description
The book will start out rather simply, explaining what can be done with the new extensibility tools, going through the categories mentioned above, expanding a bit more on each. The next few sections take each separate area in depth and cover what can be done with it, in tutorial form, so that as one works through each section, a few custom extensions will be created and available for use—this maintains the practical focus of the book.
The emphasis in the earlier chapters, particularly on Commands and Tools is on time saving and efficiency—taking those simple but tedious tasks and creating something that automates them. As the book moves into Timeline Effects and Behaviors, the emphasis switches to having the power to do very complex things with the push of a button.
All of these extensibility tools rely mainly on two new features: the JavaScript API (JSFL) and the XML to UI API. Although these are essentially based on JavaScript and XML, there are so many new objects, methods, and properties that it is actually like learning a new language (there are over 270 methods in the JS API.) As the book progresses through the sections, parts of the APIs will be introduced as needed. No particular knowledge of JavaScript or XML should be necessary, although some level of experience with programming or ECMA scripting, i.e. anyone beyond the beginner levels of ActionScript should be fine.
By the end of the behaviors section, you should be quite comfortable with both APIs, the syntax, the overall object model, and concept of how to program in JSFL or XMLtoUI. The final section of the book is an in-depth reference guide to all of the objects, methods, and properties contained in both APIs, and a DOM (Document Object Model) chart of the JavaScript API—a ‘family tree’ showing how it all fits together.
The fundamental idea of this is that the book is not only an ‘early adopter’ guide to a new technology, but also a valuable reference guide that you can refer to as they are writing new extensions.
Synopsis
Get up to speed with the latest Flash technology Create new Flash extensions Enhance your production workflow Background: With the release of Flash MX 2004, Macromedia has given us a brand-new Extensibility architecture layer, which lets us look under the hood of Flash and extend its functionality. With the extensibility tools, which include behaviors, custom-made tools and commands, the JavaScript API (or JSFL), and the XML-to-UI API, you can literally extend Flash to do things it cannot do out of the box. Things such as adding new custom commands to the menu and customizing the tool bar, adding brand new, custom created tools. The commands could be as simple as drawing a commonly used shape on the stage, or as complex as creating an entire new Flash movie from scratch. These new features will not only allow users to share code and effects more easily within the community or a production environment, but will also allow developers to package up and reuse more within Flash than was ever possible before, increasing productivity and decreasing production times.We now have the ability to take our designs further than ever before--if you have an idea for a new feature, you can just create it yourself and "plug it in".
This is the future of Flash! About the book: Extending Macromedia Flash MX 2004 covers the entire spectrum of the new extensibility architecture in Flash MX 2004. It includes in-depth tutorials on each new area--commands, tools, timeline effects, behaviors, use of the MMExecute command, executing Flash from the command line, and full coverage of XML to UI, which enables you to easily create custom user interfaces for your Flash Extensions. The final section of this book contains a comprehensive desktop reference to JavaScript Flash (JSFL), the new language that you'll use to create your Flash extensions. These new features allow you to share code and design effects more effectively within a community or a production environment, and they also enable you to package up and reuse code within Flash, with a view to increasing productivity and decreasing production times. Extending Macromedia Flash MX 2004 will show you how to: ? Speed up repetitive tasks in Flash with custom commands ?Add new tools to the toolbar for drawing any kind of shape or object on the stage ? Create automated tweens for any object onstage with Timeline Effects ?
Define scripted behaviors that can easily be applied to any object ? Use these advanced extensibility tools to make Flash perform better than ever! Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introduction to Flash Extensibility Chapter 2: Custom Commands Chapter 3: Custom Tools Chapter 4: Timeline Effects Chapter 5: XML to UI Chapter 6: Behaviors Chapter 7: WindowSWF and MMExecute Chapter 8: Flash from the Command Line JSFL Reference Section: 140 page syntax reference!
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£24.99
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