Components Learning Guide for Flash: Examining ActionScript 2 components

The ActionScript 2 components in Adobe Flash Professional consist of Data, Media, User Interface, and Video components. The Data components allow you to connect to and manage data sources. The WebServiceConnector and XMLConnector let you connect to a web service method and to an XML data source, respectively. The Media components allow you to stream and control audio and video data. The User Interface components provide building blocks to build the user interface for your web page. These building blocks include buttons, check boxes, labels, lists, combo boxes, data grids, and more. The Video components include the FLVPlayback (video player) component and the FLVPlayback custom UI components that provide custom playback controls for the FLVPlayback component.

Note: The Data components group has been removed from the ActionScript 2 Components panel in Flash Professional CS5.

Read About components in the Using ActionScript 2 Components online documentation for an introduction to the types of ActionScript 2 components that are available in the Components panel and to learn about the benefits and features of using components.

The Working with components section shows you how to add components to your application, set their parameters, and manage them. If you're ready to build a simple application with components, try the TipCalculator application in the Flash samples archive (Samples > ComponentsAS2 > TipCalculator):

• Samples.zip (ZIP, 8.96 MB)

For a comprehensive tutorial that introduces you to several components and to using ActionScript 2 with them, see Creating an application with components.

As you work with each of the ActionScript 2 components, find an introduction on how to use it and some illustrative examples in the ActionScript 2 components language reference. This document describes how to use and customize each of the ActionScript 2 components and also defines each component's ActionScript class, including its properties, methods, and events. If you want to create your own ActionScript 2 component, you can read how to do it in Creating components.

For information on customizing ActionScript 2 components, read Customizing components to get an overview on using styles, skins, and themes. For information on customizing a particular component, read the section on customizing it in the ActionScript 2 components language reference. For information on customizing the DataGrid, for example, read Customizing the DataGrid component. And for information on skinning the ActionScript 2 FLVPlayback component, read Dan Carr's article, Customizing the ActionScript 2 FLVPlayback component. Waleed Anbar's article, Exploring the version 2 architecture in Flash 8, is still relevant for ActionScript 2 components.

ActionScript 2 resources

• Using ActionScript 2 components
• ActionScript 2 components language reference
• Adobe Flash samples