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Flex Styling Components

Flex

Extending and Styling Components

Course Information

In the 2-day Flex 3: Extending and Styling Components course, students will use their object-oriented skills to create custom classes that programmatically draw skins and extend the functionality of built-in Flex classes. Experienced Flex developers will have an opportunity to explore hands-on, practical code examples for creating drag-and-drop user interfaces that also incorporate user-triggered transitions and smart components that resize based on available space. Other learning objectives include creating popups, embedding fonts, implementing custom application look-and-feel and positioning stage- and mouse-aware elements.

Duration

2 Days

Cost

Please call

Prerequisites

To gain the most from this class, you should:

    • Have attended the Flex 3: Developing Rich Client Applications course.
    • Have equivalent knowledge of the topics covered in Flex 3: Developing Rich Client Applications

Additional Notes

Courses can be run on Windows and Macintosh platforms and tailored to meet customers’ requirements.

Courses run in Edinburgh and at client sites in Glasgow, Scotland and throughout the UK.

Related Courses

Course Outline

Flex – Extending and Styling Components

Introducing Flex 3: Extending and Styling Components

      • Programming the Visual Experience
      • Understanding Project Roles
      • Introducing Mastery Learning
      • Understanding the Course Format
      • Reviewing the Course Prerequisites
      • Reviewing the Course Outline

Embedding Images and Fonts

      • Embedding Images at Compile-Time
      • Layering Content Using Absolute Layout
      • Creating a Reusable Embedded Image
      • Creating Instances of an Embedded Image Class
      • Understanding Device Font Limitations
      • Embedding Fonts with Absolute File Paths
      • Embedding Fonts using Adobe Flash

Modifying the Look and Feel of Flex Components

      • Exploring Filters
      • Applying Blends
      • Modifying the Look-and-Feel of Flex Components using MXML Styles
      • Modifying Graphical Skins using Flex Skin Design Extensions for CS3
      • Installing the Flex Skin Design Extensions for Flash
      • Selecting which component to modify in Flash
      • Importing the Flex skins artwork

Creating Popups

      • Creating a Popup Window
      • Passing Data to the Popup Window

Extending Flex Components

      • Exploring Display Object Basics
      • Extending Flex Components
      • Implementing the createChildren() Method
      • Implementing the updateDisplayList() Method
      • Improving Custom Component Reusability with Stylesheets

Drawing Shapes and Skinning Programmatically

      • Understanding the Relationship Between Display List Objects and the Graphics Class
      • Calling the clear() Method
      • Drawing Lines
      • Creating a Visual Element as an ActionScript Class
      • Creating Shapes
      • Defining Fill Methods
      • Implementing a ButtonSkin from the mx.skins.halo Package
      • Implementing a Programmatic Skin

Animating Components and View States

      • Creating Behaviors in ActionScript
      • Reviewing View States and Transitions
      • Using the CurrentStateChange Event

Creating Mouse-Aware Applications

      • Detecting the Mouse Position
      • Detecting the Stage Dimensions

Implementing Drag and Drop Functionality

      • Understanding the DragManager
      • Specifying the Data to Display in a List Control
      • Enabling Dragging on Non-List-Based Controls
      • Controlling Dropping with Formats
      • Handling Data in Drag and Drop Operations