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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

£TBC (ex VAT)

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, Glasgow and at client sites throughout the UK.

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    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