Flex 3: Extending and Styling Components

In the 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 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-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 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