Flex 3: Extending and Styling Components
2 days - € 1.095
Description
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.
Audience
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 Application
This course targets experienced Adobe Flex developers who:
• Want to use the built-in Flex components as a basis for their own custom component development.
• Want to incorporate interactive, position- and size-aware elements into their applications.
• Need to skin Flex applications to meet corporate marketing demands.
Course Outline
1 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
2 Embedding Images and Fonts
Embedding Images at Compile-Time22
Layering Content Using Absolute Layout27
Creating a Reusable Embedded Image29
Creating Instances of an Embedded Image Class30
Understanding Device Font Limitations32
Embedding Fonts with Absolute File Paths35
Embedding Fonts using Adobe Flash39
3 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
4 Creating Popups
Creating a Popup Window
Passing Data to the Popup Window
5 Extending Flex Components
Exploring Display Object Basics
Extending Flex Components
Implementing the createChildren() Method
Implementing the updateDisplayList() Method
Improving Custom Component Reusability with Stylesheets
6 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
7 Animating Components and View States
Creating Behaviors in ActionScript
Reviewing View States and Transitions
Using the CurrentStateChange Event
8 Creating Mouse-Aware Applications
Detecting the Mouse Position
Detecting the Stage Dimensions
9 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
