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| Page (1) of 2 - 03/14/06 |
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To get the most out of Macromedia Flash, you need to learn ActionScript. This scripting language provides the power to create applications and more using Flash technology. Now if you’ve never utilized ActionScript in Flash, then you’re going to need a guide to help you get through the structure.
Learning ActionScript 2.0 for Macromedia Flash 8 was written to help you not only learn the basics of ActionScripting but to also teach you some of the more advanced features that you can incorporate into your projects. Here’s a closer look at Learning ActionScript 2.0 for Macromedia Flash 8 from authors Jen deHaan, Peter deHaan and Macromedia Press.
A Scripting We Will Go
This 19 chapter, 847-page book assumes that you have some familiarity with the Flash interface. The book begins quickly with the introduction of the new features and security issues in ActionScript 2.0. Beginning in chapter two, the book quickly changes focus to the structure of ActionScripting, using the Actions and Script panels, coding structure and ActionScript publish settings. Oddly, chapter three begins to explain what ActionScript is (shouldn’t this have been chapter one?), the differences between ActionScript version one and the latest version 2.0. This chapter teaches you everything you need to know in understanding ActionScript and the Flash Media Player. Chapter four begins you introduction to data and data types. Learn what a data type is, creating variables, how to organize data in objects and casting. Chapter five covers the fundamentals of syntax and language structure. Here is where you learn to write proper statements, expressions, setup constants, arrays and operators.
Chapter six is a short chapter and shows you the proper use of functions and methods. Chapter seven is an important chapter covering the use of classes. Now classes are very important to ActionScripting so you need to pay close attention to the information here. The chapter begins with an introduction to object oriented programming and its relation to Flash. Then it jumps into more sophisticated topics such as creating your own class, using classes in your Flash application, assigning a class to a symbol in Flash, how to compile and export your Flash project and the various types of classes. If this sounds overwhelming to you, don’t fear because the author provides a couple of examples that you can reference. Chapter eight is another short chapter that explains what inheritance means in Flash. It teaches you how to write subclasses in Flash and how to use a polymorphism in an application. Chapter nine shows how to create interfaces, the understanding between interfaces and inheritances and this chapter also provides a couple of examples in using interfaces and creating a complex interface. Chapter ten demonstrates the use of event handling. Here is where you will learn about using event handlers with components, button and movie clip handlers, how to broadcast events from component interfaces, creating movie clips with button states and how to use the delegate class.
Chapter eleven teaches the use of movie clips in Flash. Learn how to control movies using ActionScript, how to call multiple methods using a single movie, how to load and unload movie files, changing movie clip position and appearance, dragging movie clips, creating movie clips at runtime, how to add parameters to dynamically generated movie files, how to manage movie clip depths, using movie clips as masks, how to handle movie clip events, how to assign a movie clip to a class and how to initialize class properties. Chapter twelve covers the use of text and strings in your Flash project. Some of the topics covered include loading text and variables into text fields, fonts and text fields, font rendering and anti-alias text, text layout and formatting, use of cascading style sheets to format text and there’s even an example on how to create scrolling text. Chapter thirteen shows how ActionScript 2.0 can be utilized to script animation. Learn bitmap caching, scrolling, tween and TransitionManager classes, how to use filter effects, using filters with ActionScript, how to manipulate filter effects through code, create bitmaps with BitmapData class, blending mode, drawing with ActionScript and what you need to know about scaling and slice guides. Chapter fourteen shows how you can create interaction using ActionScript 2.0. Using ActionScript, you can control Flash SWF file playback, create interactivity and visual effects and create runtime data bindings. Chapter fifteen shows how you can work with sounds, images and even video using ActionScript 2. Learn how to load and unload external media, load external SWF files and images, using MP3 audio files in your projects, how to assign linkage to library items, how to utilize FLV video and how to create progress animations for media files.
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