Extending Flash MX 2004

• Get up to speed with the latest Flash technology
• Create new Flash extensions
• Enhance your production workflow

With the release of Flash MX 2004, Macromedia gave us a brand-new Extensibility architecture layer, which let us look under the hood of Flash and extend its functionality. With the extensibility tools, which include behaviors, custom-made tools and commands, the JavaScript API (or JSFL), and the XML-to-UI API, you can literally extend Flash to do things it cannot do out of the box. Things such as adding new custom commands to the menu and customizing the tool bar, adding brand new, custom created tools. The commands could be as simple as drawing a commonly used shape on the stage, or as complex as creating an entire new Flash movie from scratch.

These features not only allow users to share code and effects more easily within the community or a production environment, but will also allow developers to package up and reuse more within Flash than was ever possible before, increasing productivity and decreasing production times. We now have the ability to take our designs further than ever before—if you have an idea for a new feature, you can just create it yourself and “plug it in”. This is the future of Flash!

Extending Macromedia Flash MX 2004 covers the entire spectrum of the extensibility architecture in Flash MX 2004. It includes in-depth tutorials on each new area—commands, tools, timeline effects, behaviors, use of the MMExecute command, executing Flash from the command line, and full coverage of XML to UI, which enables you to easily create custom user interfaces for your Flash Extensions. The final section of this book contains a comprehensive desktop reference to JavaScript Flash (JSFL), the new language that you'll use to create your Flash extensions.

From the reviews:

"For those who know ActionScript, JavaScript or XML, this book is extremely interesting – it shows you exactly how to expand Flash’s toolset to suit your needs." - Computer Arts

"Great stuff. The narrow scope of the subject matter has given the authors the space to thoroughly cover this important new feature of Flash MX 2004." - Flashmagazine.com

"The purpose of this book is to introduce … new extensibility API. … If you plan to develop a lot of your own tools or extensions … then this reference is going to get well thumbed. … The writing team really knows their subject and has the experience to write … . the source code is available on Friends of Ed’s website. … Great stuff." (John Dalziel, flashmagazine.com, March, 2004)

"The latest title from the omnipresent friends of ED … is aimed at those very much familiar with the app and its inner workings, bringing a guide to extending its features. These include timeline effects, behaviours … providing coders with a way to add elements and create add-on tools. … For those who know ActionScript, JavaScript or XML, this book is extremely interesting – it shows you exactly how to expand Flash’s toolset to suit your needs." (Computer Arts, Issue no. 95, April, 2004)

Keith Peters lives in the vicinity of Boston with his wife, Kazumi, and their daughter, Kristine. He has been working with Flash since 1999, and has co-authored many books for friends of ED, including Flash MX Studio, Flash MX Most Wanted, and the ground-breaking Flash Math Creativity. In 2001, he started the experimental Flash site, BIT-101 (BIT-101.com), which strives for a new, cutting edge, open-source experiment each day. The site won an award at the Flashforward 2003 Flash Film Festival in the Experimental category. In addition to the experiments on the site, there are several highly regarded Flash tutorials which have been translated into many languages and are now posted on web sites throughout the world. Keith is currently working full time doing freelance and contract Flash development and various writing projects.