Creating Fireworks Panels – Part 1: Introduction to Custom Panels

Understanding SWF Panel Interactions

Custom panels in Fireworks are made with Flash. They consist simply of a Flash SWF file, which Fireworks plays using an internal Flash player embedded within a panel window that looks and operates like any other panel that's native to the application. The SWF provides the panel with its own interface and a means for interacting with Fireworks using ActionScript. If you've ever used the Align panel in Fireworks, you've seen a custom SWF panel at work (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Fireworks Align panel

A custom panel window is capable of receiving commands from the SWF it's playing through ActionScript. One ActionScript command in particular instructs the window to relay information—or, more specifically, a JavaScript command—from the SWF to the main Fireworks application. This command is the MMExecute() command:

MMExecute( JavaScriptCommand:String ) : String; 

MMExecute has one parameter, a string representing a Fireworks JavaScript command that is to be sent to Fireworks. When Fireworks receives this command, it runs it just as though it were on the Commands menu. When the command has completed, MMExecute also returns any result of that command back to Flash in the form of a string. This allows the SWF to react to any command sent by MMExecute if needed (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Program flow from panel to Fireworks back to panel

In its simplest form, MMExecute is about all you need to create a simple panel and use it to interact with Fireworks. You can see how simple it is with the first example, the Create Ellipse panel.

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