Part IX: Integrating Components and Data-Binding

Chapter List

Chapter 33: Using Components

Chapter 34: Binding Data and Events to Components

Chapter 35: Building an Image Gallery Component

Part Overview

Components are the secret weapon that Flash developers employ to quickly prototype data-enabled projects and to integrate media elements with ready-made interface controls. In Chapter 33, you learn how to add and modify the User Interface components that ship with Flash 8. Chapter 34 introduces the steps for getting components to work with external data sources and respond to ActionScript and user-triggered events. Chapter 35 takes you through the steps for creating an extensible Gallery component that makes use of the ScrollPane and Loader components to support externally-loaded JPEG thumbnails and full-size images with PHP scripts. The graphic polish is up to you, but the sample site provides a good foundation for building projects that reduce the need for manual updates and scale gracefully as new content is added.