Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Unleashed

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Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2005-10-10
Publisher(s): Sams Publishing
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Summary

Macromedia Flash is a key technology for designing and delivering low-bandwidth animations, presentations, and web sites. More recently it has become development environment, complete with scripting capabilities and server-side connectivity. Flash has the ability to easily integrate with, and add interactivity to, complex media types with powerful and intuitive tools. Developers can rapidly develop high performance, accessible content using pre-assembled building blocks and expand their authoring capabilities with custom extensions from independent developers. Macromedia Flash MX Unleashedcovers these high-end topics, providing you with a solid and complete reference for building Flash websites and applications. Fundamentals are covered quickly in the first part of the book, with the majority of the content devoted to coverage of ActionScript and how Flash works with varied middleware. You'll also learn how to integrate Flash with several other technologies, including XML and PHP.

Author Biography

David Vogeleer is a Flash ActionScript instructor who has been working in Flash since version 4. His focus has been on ActionScript and data integration. A co-author for Flash MXand Flash MX 2004 Unleashed, Vogeleer has published numerous articles about advanced usage of Flash. He has presented Flash talks at many venues, including Macromedia user groups, Microsoft user groups, and colleges. He is a certified Flash developer with years of experience in developing rich Internet applications.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1(4)
Part I Getting Started
What's New?
5(16)
The Interface
5(6)
Tabs on the Mac
5(1)
Tabs in Panels Are Back
5(1)
One Library to Rule Them All
6(1)
Bigger Pasteboard
7(1)
Two Levels of Undo
7(1)
Object Drawing---The New Grouping
8(1)
Content on the Go
9(1)
Hide and Seek Is Over
9(2)
Welcome Back, Normal Mode
11(1)
The Fastest Flash Player Ever
11(1)
Flash Type
12(1)
Cache as Bitmap
12(1)
Blending
12(2)
Filters
14(1)
Stroke Improvements
15(1)
Video in Flash
15(1)
New Dynamic Content
16(1)
BitmapData
17(2)
File Upload
19(1)
Summary
20(1)
Getting Started with Flash Professional 8
21(26)
Humble Beginnings---Where Flash Came From
21(1)
The Interface
22(11)
The Stage
23(1)
The Properties Inspector Panel
24(2)
Flash Panels
26(6)
Check Your Spelling
32(1)
Preferences
33(8)
The General Category
33(3)
The ActionScript and Auto Format Categories
36(1)
The Clipboard Category
36(2)
The Drawing Category
38(1)
The Text Category
39(1)
The Warnings Category
39(2)
Shortcuts
41(2)
Making a Better Workspace
43(3)
Summary
46(1)
Creating Graphics in Flash
47(24)
The Toolbar
47(17)
The Colors Section
48(1)
The View Section
49(1)
The Tools Section
50(14)
Colors and Gradients
64(2)
The Color Swatches Panel
65(1)
The Color Mixer Panel
65(1)
Grouping and Drawing Objects
66(2)
Groupies
66(1)
Drawing Objects
66(2)
Stacking Groups
68(1)
Importing and Working with Bitmaps
68(2)
Creating a Bitmap Fill
68(1)
Tracing Bitmaps
69(1)
Swap Bitmap
70(1)
Summary
70(1)
Flash Animation
71(12)
Welcome to the Timeline
71(5)
The Layers Section
71(2)
The Frames Section
73(3)
Frame by Frame
76(2)
Your First Animation
76(2)
Tweening
78(4)
Your First Tween
78(2)
Shape Hints
80(2)
Summary
82(1)
Symbols, Instances, and the Library
83(20)
What Is a Symbol?
83(1)
What Is an Instance?
83(1)
The Graphic Symbol
84(3)
When Should You Use a Graphic?
84(3)
Converting to a Symbol
87(1)
The Button Symbol
87(5)
An Interactive Button
89(1)
Memoirs of an Invisible Button
90(2)
The Movie Clip Symbol
92(2)
The Library
94(2)
Back to the Timeline
96(5)
Your First Motion Tween
96(1)
The Tween Editor
96(1)
Nested Animation
97(1)
Motion Guides
98(2)
The Mask Layer
100(1)
Summary
101(2)
Working with Sound and Video
103(20)
Why Sound?
103(1)
Adding Sound
104(2)
Sound in the Properties Inspector
106(3)
Sound Effects
107(1)
Creating a Custom Effect
107(2)
Syncing and Looping
109(1)
Compressing Sound
110(2)
Sound with ActionScript
112(2)
Video in Flash
114(8)
Importing Video into Flash
114(8)
Summary
122(1)
Publishing
123(20)
The Publish Settings
123(1)
Publishing Profiles
123(1)
The Formats Tab
124(1)
For the Web
125(1)
Graphics
125(1)
Projectors and QuickTime
125(1)
Flash Player 8 and SWFs
125(2)
The Flash Tab
127(3)
The Version Field
128(1)
The Sound Settings
128(2)
The HTML Tab
130(4)
Detect Flash Version
132(2)
The GIF Tab
134(2)
The PNG Tab
136(1)
The JPEG Tab
137(1)
The QuickTime Tab
138(2)
Summary
140(3)
Part II ActionScript
Welcome to ActionScript 2.0
143(36)
What Is ActionScript?
143(1)
Object-Oriented Programming
144(4)
What Is an Object?
144(1)
Properties of an Object
145(1)
Methods of an Object
145(2)
Events of an Object
147(1)
Where Do Objects Come From?
148(6)
Prototyping an Object
154(1)
Introduction to ActionScript 2.0
155(2)
Declaring Variables and Instance Names
156(1)
Strict Data Typing Variables
157(1)
Strict Data Typing with Functions
158(2)
The Actions Panel
160(4)
Actions Panel Preferences
164(2)
Reference/Help Panel
166(1)
Behaviors and the Behaviors Panel
167(2)
ActionScript Fundamentals
169(1)
Comments
169(1)
Code Hints and Naming Conventions
170(3)
ActionsPanel.xml
171(1)
Triggering Code Hints with Comments
172(1)
Strict Data Typing to Trigger Code Hints
173(1)
Dot Syntax
173(2)
The Movie Clip Object
175(1)
Functions
176(1)
Conditionals
176(1)
Loop Statements
177(1)
Summary
178(1)
Strings, Numbers and Variables---In Depth
179(38)
Types of Data Types
179(1)
The String Data Type
180(3)
Creating a String
180(1)
Empty Strings
181(1)
Quotes
181(1)
Escape Sequences
182(1)
Manipulating Strings
183(11)
Joining Strings
183(2)
Indexing Characters in Strings
185(8)
Unicode-Style Strings
193(1)
The Number Data Type
194(4)
Creating a Number
194(1)
Solving the Problem of Repeating Decimal Points
195(1)
Predefined Values for Numbers
195(2)
Bonus Numbers
197(1)
Boolean Data Type
198(1)
Null Data Type
198(1)
Undefined Data Type
199(1)
Array Data Type
199(1)
Variables
199(16)
Making a Variable
200(1)
Changing Data in Variables
201(1)
Incrementing and Decrementing Variables
202(2)
Empty Variables
204(1)
Comparing Variables
204(2)
Combining Types of Values in Variables
206(2)
Converting Variables Using Functions and Methods
208(2)
The Scope of a Variable
210(4)
An Applied Example
214(1)
Summary
215(2)
Arrays
217(26)
What Is an Array and How Does It Work?
217(1)
Deconstructing an Array
217(1)
Creating an Array
218(3)
Retrieving Information from an Array
221(1)
Adding Elements to Arrays
221(8)
The push Method
223(2)
The unshift Method
225(1)
The splice Method
226(2)
The concat Method
228(1)
Naming Array Elements
229(1)
Removing Array Elements
230(3)
The delete Operator
230(1)
Removing Elements Using the length Property
231(1)
The splice Method Revisited
231(1)
The pop Method
232(1)
The shift Method
232(1)
Changing Elements in Arrays
233(1)
Advanced Nested Arrays
233(2)
Additional Array Methods
235(2)
The toString Method
235(1)
The join Method
236(1)
The slice Method
236(1)
The reverse Method
237(1)
Sorting Arrays
237(2)
The sortOn Method
238(1)
Applied Example
239(3)
Summary
242(1)
Statements and Expressions
243(34)
Statement Syntax
245(2)
Statement Block
246(1)
Object Statements
247(3)
The with Statement
247(1)
The for in Statement
248(2)
Flow Modifiers
250(25)
Conditional Statements
251(1)
Comparison Operators
251(3)
The if Statement
254(6)
The else Statement
260(2)
The else if Statement
262(1)
switch, case, default, and break
262(4)
Loop Statements
266(9)
Summary
275(2)
Functions
277(28)
Creating a Function
277(1)
Running the Function
278(1)
Using Parameters in Functions
279(2)
Functions That Return Values
281(1)
Nested Functions
282(1)
Function Scope
283(1)
Mapping to a Function
284(1)
The _global Identifier
284(2)
Variables and Functions
286(2)
The Arguments Class
288(1)
The length Property
288(3)
Functions as Objects
291(3)
Functions as Methods
294(2)
Functions Built In to Flash
296(8)
The call Function
296(2)
Conversion Functions
298(1)
Mathematical Functions
299(1)
Deprecated Functions
300(4)
Summary
304(1)
The Movie Clip Object
305(38)
Creating Movie Clips
305(2)
Creating Movie Clips Manually
305(1)
Creating Movie Clips with ActionScript
306(1)
Manipulating Movie Clips
307(22)
Animating Movie Clips with ActionScript
308(3)
The cacheAsBitmap Property
311(1)
Using Math to Help Animate Movie Clips
311(2)
Using the Color Object
313(3)
The blendMode Property
316(2)
Filters
318(2)
Depth and the Stacking Order
320(4)
Duplicating Movie Clips
324(5)
Removing Movie Clips
329(1)
The removeMovieClip() Method
329(1)
The Drawing API
330(11)
The lineStyle() Method
330(1)
The moveTo() Method
331(1)
The lineTo() Method
332(2)
The lineGradientStyle() Method
334(2)
The beginFill() Method
336(1)
The beginGradientFill() Method
337(2)
The curveTo() Method
339(2)
Summary
341(2)
Events
343(20)
Handling Events
344(8)
The Callback
344(3)
Listeners
347(4)
Duplicating Effort
351(1)
Callbacks Versus Listeners---The Showdown
351(1)
Button Events
352(2)
Movie Clip Events
354(4)
Movie Clips Handling Button Events
356(2)
Events of the Mouse Object
358(1)
Events of the Key Object
359(1)
Events of the TextField Object
360(1)
Cross-Object Events
361(1)
Summary
362(1)
Working with Text
363(36)
The Text Field Interface
363(5)
Spell Checking Text Fields
366(2)
Creating Text Fields
368(3)
Static Text
368(1)
Dynamic Text
368(2)
Input Text
370(1)
Creating Text Fields in ActionScript
371(2)
Formatting the Text in Text Fields
373(9)
The TextFormat Object
374(4)
Cascading Style Sheets
378(4)
Scrolling Text Fields
382(3)
The Mouse Wheel Event
383(2)
HTML Text in Text Fields
385(10)
The Image Tag
390(3)
HTML Text Fields and JavaScript
393(2)
Multilanguage Text
395(2)
Unicode-encoded Strings
395(1)
The Strings Panel
395(2)
Summary
397(2)
Components
399(34)
What Is a Component?
399(1)
Getting Started with Components
400(17)
The Components Panel
400(1)
Adding Components to the Stage
400(1)
The attachMovie() Method
400(2)
Setting Parameters
402(1)
The Properties Inspector
403(6)
Changing the Parameters of a Component
409(1)
The Component Inspector Panel
410(1)
ActionScript
411(2)
Capturing Component Events
413(3)
Getting Data from Components
416(1)
Skinning Components
417(3)
Manually Skinning a Component
417(1)
Using the style Property
418(2)
The dataProvider Property
420(3)
Data Binding
423(2)
Creating a Version 2.0 Component
425(6)
Summary
431(2)
Debugging
433(18)
What Is Debugging?
433(1)
Planning Ahead
434(4)
Names That Make Sense
434(1)
Documentation
435(1)
Strict Data Typing
436(1)
Prototyping and Testing
437(1)
Tools of the Trade
438(9)
The trace Function
438(1)
List Options
439(1)
The Error Object
440(1)
Sizing Up Your Project
441(3)
The Debugger
444(2)
Remote Debugging
446(1)
Summary
447(4)
Part II Outside of Flash
External ActionScript
451(20)
Why Use External ActionScript?
452(1)
#include Versus Classpath
453(3)
Getting Started with External Class Files
456(10)
Defining a Class
457(1)
Public, Private, and Static
458(2)
Declaring Properties with a Constructor Function
460(1)
Creating Methods
460(1)
Creating Getter/Setter Methods
461(2)
Creating Events
463(1)
Creating Callback Events
463(1)
Creating Listener Events
464(2)
Bringing It All Together
466(3)
Summary
469(2)
Loading Visual Content
471(26)
Why Load External Content?
471(1)
What Content Can Be Loaded and Where?
472(2)
Loading Images Dynamically
474(10)
The loadMovie() Method
474(3)
Inheritance
477(2)
The loadMovieNum() Method
479(1)
The unloadMovie() Method
480(1)
The removeMovieClip() Method
481(1)
The unloadMovieNum() Function
482(1)
The Loader Component
483(1)
Loading SWF Files into Flash
484(3)
Manipulating Loaded SWF Files
485(2)
Loading External Content into Text Fields
487(3)
Manipulating Embedded Content in Text Fields
489(1)
Preloaders
490(5)
The getBytesTotal() and getBytesLoaded() Methods
490(3)
The ProgressBar Component
493(2)
Summary
495(2)
Introduction to Data Integration
497(22)
Why Dynamic Content?
497(1)
The getURL() Method
498(3)
The MIME Format
501(1)
The escape() and unescape() functions
501(1)
The loadVariables Method
502(5)
The onData Event
503(4)
The loadVariablesNum() Method
507(1)
The LoadVars Object
508(5)
The load() Method
508(1)
The onLoad Event
509(1)
The Undocumented onData a Event
510(3)
The ExternalInterface API
513(4)
The Call Method
513(2)
The addCallback Method
515(2)
Summary
517(2)
ASP and Flash
519(24)
What Is ASP?
519(1)
How Does ASP Work?
520(1)
Getting the Server
520(1)
Intro to ASP Scripting
521(1)
Your First ASP Page
522(2)
Sending and Receiving Data
524(5)
Receiving Data in ASP
525(1)
Sending and Receiving in Flash
526(3)
Accessing Access
529(12)
Summary
541(2)
PHP and Flash
543(24)
Setting Up Your Server
543(3)
Installing Apache Server
544(1)
Installing PHP
544(1)
Installing MySQL
545(1)
Now That It's All Installed
545(1)
Learning More About PHP
546(1)
PHP and Flash---Receiving Data
546(8)
Example 1---Hello World
546(1)
Example 2---Hello, Goodbye World
547(2)
Example 3---Multiple Values and Multiple Variables
549(2)
Example 4---Sending Mail with Flash and PHP
551(3)
PHP and Flash---Sending and Receiving Data
554(2)
Example 5---Confirming sentMail
555(1)
Incorporating a MySQL Database
556(7)
Example 6---Address Book
556(7)
File Uploads---Flash 8 Specific
563(3)
Example 7---File Upload
564(2)
Summary
566(1)
Flash Remoting with ColdFusion
567(28)
What Is Flash Remoting?
568(1)
The Application Server
568(1)
Technical Requirements
569(1)
ColdFusion and Flash Flowchart
570(1)
Flash Remoting Setup Process
570(1)
Setting Up the Server
571(2)
Installing IIS
571(2)
Installing ColdFusion MX7
573(1)
Setting Up Your Database
573(1)
Creating a ColdFusion Data Source
573(1)
Reviewing the Application
574(2)
Let's Begin: ColdFusion Components (CFCs)
576(1)
Flash Remoting and ActionScript 2.0
577(6)
Import Flash Remoting ActionScript Classes
578(1)
Establish a Gateway Connection and Service
579(1)
Communicate with the CFC and Handle the Results
580(3)
Building Your Application
583(10)
Summary
593(2)
XML and Flash
595(28)
What Is XML?
595(1)
Formatting XML
596(6)
Rules of XML
598(1)
Attributes
599(3)
Elements Versus Attributes
602(1)
XML and Flash
602(15)
The XML Object
603(14)
The XML Connector Component
617(3)
The trigger() Method
618(1)
The result Event
618(2)
The Tree Component
620(2)
Summary
622(1)
Web Services and Flash
623(18)
What Is a Web Service?
623(1)
Why Use Web Services?
623(1)
Creating a Web Service
624(5)
Consuming Web Services with Flash
629(1)
Using the XML Object
629(1)
Flash Remoting
630(1)
The Web Services Panel
631(1)
The WebServiceConnector Component
632(1)
Data Binding
633(4)
Consuming Outside Web Services
637(1)
Absorbing the Amazon Web Service
638(2)
Summary
640(1)
Streaming Media
641(18)
Why Stream Media?
641(1)
Creating a Flash Video
642(3)
The NetConnection Object
645(1)
The NetStream Object
645(3)
The play() Method
645(1)
The pause() Method
646(1)
The close () Method
646(1)
The seek() Method
646(1)
The setBufferTime() Method
647(1)
The onStatus Event
647(1)
Properties of the NetStream Object
648(1)
The Video Object
648(1)
The attachVideo() Method
649(1)
Streaming Video
649(3)
The FLVPlayback Component
652(3)
The Camera Object
655(2)
The get() Method
655(1)
The activityLevel Property
656(1)
Summary
657(2)
Extending Flash
659(32)
Why Extend Flash?
659(1)
Commands
660(5)
The History Panel
660(2)
Saving Commands from the History Panel
662(1)
Creating Commands Manually with JSFL
663(2)
Managing Commands
665(1)
XML-to-UI Controls
665(4)
Creating Behaviors
669(4)
Creating Your Own Panels
673(2)
Creating Custom Tools
675(6)
Creating Custom Effects
681(3)
File I/O in JSFL
684(6)
Summary
690(1)
Beyond Flash
691(14)
Flash Alternatives
691(7)
SWiSHmax
691(2)
SWiSHpix
693(1)
PowerCONVERTER
694(1)
Wildform FlixPro
694(1)
Sorenson Squeeze
695(1)
Swift 3D
695(2)
Captivate
697(1)
Enhancing Flash Files
698(1)
Optimaze
698(1)
Action Script Viewer 4.0
698(1)
SWF Encrypt™
699(1)
Beyond the Web
699(3)
ScreenTime
699(1)
SWF2Video
700(1)
SWF Studio 3.0
700(1)
MakingThings
701(1)
Summary
702(3)
Part IV Appendix
A. ActionScript Reference
705(90)
The BitmapData Class
705(20)
Properties
706(1)
Methods
707(18)
The External Interface Class
725(2)
Properties
725(1)
Methods
726(1)
The BevelFilter Class
727(3)
Methods
729(1)
The BlurFilter Class
730(1)
Methods
731(1)
The ColorMatrixFilter Class
731(2)
Methods
732(1)
The ConvolutionFilter Class
733(2)
Methods
734(1)
The DisplacementMapFilter Class
735(2)
Methods
736(1)
The DropShadowFilter Class
737(3)
Methods
739(1)
The GlowFilter Class
740(2)
Methods
741(1)
The GradientBevelFilter Class
742(2)
Methods
743(1)
The GradientGlowFilter Class
744(2)
Methods
745(1)
The ColorTransform Class
746(3)
Properties
747(1)
Methods
748(1)
The Matrix Class
749(7)
Methods
750(6)
The Point Class
756(6)
Properties
757(1)
Methods
757(5)
The Rectangle Class
762(10)
Properties
763(2)
Methods
765(7)
The Transform Class
772(3)
Properties
772(3)
The FileReference Class
775(12)
Properties
775(1)
Methods
776(5)
Events
781(6)
The FileReferenceList Class
787(6)
Properties
788(1)
Methods
788(3)
Events
791(2)
The TextRenderer Class
793(2)
Properties
793(1)
Methods
794(1)
Index 795

Excerpts

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