One Stop Web Dev't Buckets: December 2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

New features
The following features are new to Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional.

CS3 Interface
The Flash user interface is updated to share a common interface with other Adobe Creative Suite CS3 components. A consistent appearance across all Adobe software helps users work more easily with multiple applications. See Workspace.

Adobe Bridge and Version Cue
Organize and browse Flash and other creative assets using Adobe Bridge, an independent file-management system that you can launch from within Flash. Through Adobe Bridge, you can automate workflows across Adobe Creative Suite components, apply consistent color settings across Adobe software, and access version control features and online stock photo purchase services. A Welcome screen provides centralized control of settings, as well as ongoing access to tips and tutorials in Adobe Design Center. See Adobe Version Cue.

Bitmap Symbol Library Item dialog box
The Bitmap Symbol Library Item dialog box has been enlarged to provide a larger preview of the bitmap. See Using symbols, instances, and library assets.

Multicolored bounding boxes
You can change the selection color of specific types of elements to identify each element easily. See Get information about instances on the Stage.

Adobe Device Central
A new way to test content created with Adobe products on emulated mobile devices, Device Central lets you select a target device from the beginning of the development process, and gives you a clear idea of what a device’s limitations are. See Developing applications for mobile devices.

Active content detections
To eliminate the need to first activate Flash Player so that users can interact with Flash content, Flash publishes HTML templates that you can use to embed Flash SWF files. Using these templates, embedded SWF files are activated seamlessly without the need for an additional mouse click or other user activation. See Publishing Flash documents.

9-slice onstage preview
Because 9-slice scaling now provides onstage preview, you can see changes and adjustments to 9-slice scaled movie clips on stage. See About 9-slice scaling and movie clip symbols.

Filter copy and paste
You can now copy and paste graphic filter settings from one instance to another. See Apply filters.

Copy and paste motion
Copy and paste motion lets you copy a motion tween and paste (or apply) the frames, tween, and symbol information to another object. When pasting the motion tween to another object, you can choose to paste all properties associated with the motion tween, or choose specific properties to apply to the other object. See Copy and paste a motion tween.

Copy motion as ActionScript 3.0
In addition to copying the properties of one motion tween and applying those properties to another object, you can copy the properties that define a motion tween in the Timeline as ActionScript 3.0 and apply that motion to another symbol, either in the Actions panel or in the source files (such as class files) for a Flash document that uses ActionScript 3.0. See Copy motion as ActionScript.
Pen tool enhancements

The Pen tool has been improved.

1. The Pen tool now behaves similarly to the Illustrator Pen tool to provide a more consistent user experience across Adobe software

2. The cubic-to-quadratic conversion is now more efficient, resulting in better accuracy and fewer points.

Adobe Photoshop import
You can now import Adobe Photoshop PSD files directly into Flash documents. Most Photoshop data types are supported, and several import options are provided so that you can find the best balance of image fidelity and editability within Flash.

Adobe Illustrator import
You can now import Adobe Illustrator AI files directly into Flash documents. Most Illustrator data types are supported, and several import options are provided so that you can find the best balance of image fidelity and editability within Flash.

Primitive Rectangle and Oval drawing tools
New Rectangle and Oval drawing tools let you create rectangles and ovals whose properties (such as stroke or corner radius) you can edit at any time in the Property inspector. See Draw rectangles and ovals.

Enhanced Quicktime video support
QuickTime export is intended for users who want to distribute Flash content, such as animation, in the QuickTime video format. This release improves the quality of the exported QuickTime video file, which you can distribute as streaming video or on a DVD, or import into a video-editing application such as Adobe® Premiere Pro®.

Save and load cue points for Flash video
Save and load functionality has been added to the Cue Points tab to allow you to save the cue points added to one file and apply them to another. You can generate a cue points XML file based on known time codes and import it into the encoder before encoding, eliminating the need to manually add each cue point through the Flash

Video Encoder user interface.
Script Assist mode has been updated to include support for ActionScript 3.0.

Improvements in ActionScript
Flash has a new, improved version of ActionScript. ActionScript 3.0 offers a robust programming model familiar to developers with a basic knowledge of object-oriented programming. ActionScript 3.0 facilitates the creation of highly complex applications with large data sets and object-oriented, reusable code bases. While ActionScript 3.0 is not required for content that runs in Adobe Flash Player 9, it allows performance improvements that are available only with the new ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM2). ActionScript 3.0 code can execute up to ten times faster than legacy ActionScript code.

The older version of ActionScript Virtual Machine, AVM1, executes ActionScript 1.0 and ActionScript 2.0 code. Flash Player 9 supports AVM1 for backward compatibility with existing and legacy content.

Source: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/UsingFlash/

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Adobe Flash CS3 - ActionScript 3.0 - Beyond The Basics

The ActionScript scripting language lets you add complex interactivity, playback control, and data display to your application. You can add ActionScript in the authoring environment by using the Actions panel, Script window, or an external editor.

ActionScript follows its own rules of syntax, reserved keywords, and lets you use variables to store and retrieve information. ActionScript includes a large library of built‑in classes that let you create objects to perform many useful tasks. For more information on ActionScript, see Programming ActionScript 3.0, Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash, or the ActionScript Language References.

You don't need to understand every ActionScript element to begin scripting; if you have a clear goal, you can start building scripts with simple actions.

ActionScript and JavaScript are both rooted in the ECMA-262 standard, the international standard for the ECMAScript scripting language. For this reason, developers who are familiar with JavaScript should find ActionScript immediately familiar. For more information about ECMAScript, go to ecma-international.org.
Using the ActionScript documentation

Because there are multiple versions of ActionScript (2.0 and 3.0), and multiple ways of incorporating it into your FLA files, there are several different ways to learn ActionScript.

This help system describes the graphical user interface for working with ActionScript. This interface includes the Actions panel, Script window, Script Assist mode, Behaviors panel, Output panel, and Compiler Errors panel. These topics apply to all versions of ActionScript.

Other ActionScript documentation from Adobe will help you learn about the individual versions of ActionScript; see Programming ActionScript 3.0, Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash, Developing Flash Lite 1.x Applications or Developing Flash Lite 2.x Applications. For information about the ActionScript vocabulary, see the ActionScript Language Reference for the version you are working with.

For video tutorials about ActionScript 3.0, the Flash workflow, and components, see the following:

1. Getting started with ActionScript 3.0: www.adobe.com/go/vid0129
2. Creating interactivity with ActionScript 3.0: www.adobe.com/go/vid0130
3. Flash workflow: www.adobe.com/go/vid0132
4. Using components: www.adobe.com/go/vid0133

For text tutorials about ActionScript, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_tutorials. The following tutorials are available:

1. Create an Application
2. Add Interactivity
3. Work with Objects and Classes

ActionScript versions
Flash includes more than one version of ActionScript to meet the needs of different kinds of developers and playback hardware.

1. ActionScript 3.0 executes extremely fast. This version requires somewhat more familiarity with object-oriented programming concepts than the other ActionScript versions. ActionScript 3.0 is fully compliant with the ECMAScript specification, offers better XML processing, an improved event model, and an improved architecture for working with onscreen elements. FLA files that use ActionScript 3.0 cannot include earlier versions of ActionScript.

2. ActionScript 2.0 is simpler to learn than ActionScript 3.0. Although Flash Player runs compiled ActionScript 2.0 code slower than compiled ActionScript 3.0 code, ActionScript 2.0 is still useful for many kinds of projects that are not computationally intensive; for example, more design-oriented content. ActionScript 2.0 is also based on the ECMAScript spec, but is not fully compliant.

3. ActionScript 1.0 is the simplest form of ActionScript, and is still used by some versions of the Flash Lite Player. ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0 can coexist in the same FLA file.

4. Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript is a subset of ActionScript 2.0 that is supported by Flash Lite 2.x running on mobile phones and devices.

5. Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript is a subset of ActionScript 1.0 that is supported by Flash Lite 1.x running on mobile phones and devices.

Ways of working with ActionScript
There are several ways to work with ActionScript.

1. Script Assist mode lets you add ActionScript to your FLA file without writing the code yourself. You select actions, and the software presents you with a user-interface for entering the parameters required for each one. You must know a little about what functions to use to accomplish specific tasks, but you don’t have to learn syntax. Many designers and non-programmers use this mode.

2. Behaviors also let you add code to your file without writing it yourself. Behaviors are prewritten scripts for common tasks. You can add a behavior and then easily configure it in the Behaviors panel. Behaviors are available only for ActionScript 2.0 and earlier.

3. Writing your own ActionScript gives you the greatest flexibility and control over your document, but it requires you to become familiar with the ActionScript language and conventions.

4. Components are prebuilt movie clips that help you implement complex functionality. A component can be a simple user interface control, such as a check box, or it can be a complicated control, such as a scroll pane. You can customize a component’s functionality and appearance, and you can download components created by other developers. Most components require you to write some ActionScript code of your own to trigger or control a component. For more information, see About ActionScript 3.0 Components in Using ActionScript 3.0 Components or About Components in Using ActionScript 2.0 Components.

Writing ActionScript
When you write ActionScript code in the authoring environment, you use the Actions panel or Script window. The Actions panel and Script window contain a full-featured code editor that includes code hinting and coloring, code formatting, syntax highlighting, syntax checking, debugging, line numbers, word wrapping, and support for Unicode.

1. Use the Actions panel to write scripts that are part of your Flash document (that is, scripts that are embedded in the FLA file). The Actions panel provides features such as the Actions toolbox, which gives you quick access to the core ActionScript language elements, and Script Assist mode, in which you are prompted for the elements needed to create scripts.

2. Use the Script window if you want to write external scripts—that is, scripts or classes that are stored in external files. (You can also use a text editor to create an external AS file.) The Script window includes code-assistance features such as code hinting and coloring, syntax checking, and auto-formatting.

Source: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/UsingFlash/

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