Advanced Design provides Flash designers with prior ActionScript experience the knowledge and hands-on practice they need to build more flexible and dynamic design-based Flash content. This course focuses on teaching students more advanced ActionScript topics that will remove a reliance on Timeline-based visual tools. Students will learn to generate dynamic design and navigation elements that cannot be created without ActionScript.

Students build an application that contains elements of data binding, components, navigation, programming elements, and using ActionScript with MovieClips. Students also begin to explore the object-oriented nature of ActionScript.

Outline

Introducing Actionscript

• Actionscript versions – 1, 2, & 3
• Using the Actions window
• Placing scripts in Frames
• Actionscript 3 core syntax and structure
• Using trace() for debugging

Object-oriented Actionscript

• What is object oriented programming?
• How a frame script relates to Actionscript as
• an object oriented environment
• Properties and Methods
• Polymorphism
• Importing packages

Data types

• Core data types
• Arrays
• Variables
• Assigning values
• Pass by reference and pass by value
• Dynamic typing and run-time type checking
• Variable scope

 Branching & Looping

• Booleans for decision making
• Boolean operators
• Conditional statements using if/else
• Loops using while and for

Functions

• Functions, parameters and return values
• Local variables
• Functions as methods
• Method closures

Events

• Events and event listeners
• Listening to events
• The Display API
• The Display List
• The various Display Objects
• DisplayObject events
• Event low through the display list

Working with graphics

• Targeting DisplayObjects
• Moving and resizing DisplayObjects on the stage
• Creating basic animations with Actionscript
• Loading images and .swf movies
• Working with text
• Manipulating text ields
• Getting and using user input via text ields
• Scrolling text

Object-oriented Programming

• Properties and Methods
• Deining classes
• Constructors
• Polymorphism
• Inheritance
• Static properties and methods
• Importing packages

Reviewing Animation Basics with ActionScript

• Creating Timeline-based custom easing
• Animating with ActionScript
• Interacting with the mouse location
• Adding easing via ActionScript
• Creating a mask with ActionScript

Learning Advanced Animation with ActionScript

• Introducing the Tween class
• Handling Tween class events
• Introducing the Transition classes
• Using Delegate to create a component listener

Using Text UI Components

• Introducing components
• Using the TextInput component
• Validating input with the TextInput component
• Using the Label component
• Using the TextArea component
• Skinning components

Loading XML

• Introducing XML
• Loading XML using the XMLConnector component
• Binding XML data to UI components
• Handling responses from XML requests
• Loading XML with ActionScript
• Creating and populating an XML object
• Searching XML objects with XPath
• Building Multimedia Development Project 1