Chapter 10: Creating Components

Overview

The components discussed so far touch on nearly every possible type, from user interfaces and text effects to animations and games. However, what do you do when you come up with a new component idea that you would like to see in action? Now the spotlight is on you; it is time to use your imagination to think of some original ideas, or to just reexamine projects you have created in the past and see what elements could be "componentized."

Knowing how to make a component will be a substantially useful tool to have under your belt. You will see that anything worth building once is in fact not worth building twice. When you have taken time to create an element, you should consider creating a generalized version, in the form of a component.

In this chapter, we explore something quite different from the previous. You will become familiar with the workflow involved in creating a component and learn how to use nearly every feature Flash offers in component creation. This chapter is abstract and complicated all at once, and it's by far the most advanced work that you'll encounter in the entire book, so pay close attention.

• The component creation process

• Modules of a component

• The architecture of a professional component

• Code of a component