Subtitles of the Movie

In addition to many of the visual enhancements that we've looked at in previous chapters of Flash MX, Macromedia has also released several enhancements to the scripting environment known as "action script." In this chapter we are going to take a look at some of those features and then we'll discuss them in greater detail in the chapters that follow. Also for this chapter in order to outline the changes we'll use the Flash MX template for presentations. I've already saved and exported this file into a swf file and you can see down here I have the file running. One of the new changes to the action script environment is the use of enhance scripting tools. There have been many improvements such as the usefulness of the actions panel, the functionality of the expert mode has been enhanced greatly, as well as allowing more user customization than ever before. You can now adjust the editor to your preferences including font size and coloring and many other changes to your liking. Macromedia has also released an improved debugger. Flash 5's debugger was an important addition to development environment but they had many problems of its own which often led to more frustration then it was worth. Flash MX's debugger has come to the rescue by strengthening and enhancing it's capabilities. For example you can now set break points in your code and single step through your code line by line. These two features alone will save you hours of development time locating those nasty little bugs which so often crop up in your scripting. Built in code reference guide; if you're like me being able to search an online reference for syntax and for other structures of the language is much more helpful than having to reference several books that may or may not have the appropriate references to what you're looking for. I find the code reference guide to be very useful because you can highlight a action script command and by hitting the shift F1 the reference panel will open and it will go directly to the code reference guide for that command. This can give you syntax in various uses and in many cases example code so you can see exactly how to use it in your scripting environment. One of the most important additions to action script and Flash in general is customizable components. These reusable code containers are very similar in theory to OCS controls in Visual Basic or Java beans in Java but they are 100% Flash code with externally exposed interface elements. What this means to a Flash developer is that you can now rapidly build your application or Flash movie using standard UI tools such as scroll bars, list boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, combo boxes and many more. Components accelerate your web development by providing reusable drag and drop interface elements and to allow you to customize the look and feel of these components through the process known as "skinning." We'll take a look at the customization possible through components when we get to the chapter on developing your own components. Each one of these new features combined are helping to make Flash MX the visual development tool of choice for web developers. By using the Flash player developers can count on predictable graphic output, vector imaging versus bitmaps, true type font capabilities and now in MX, streaming video, promote database communication abilities and rapid prototyping in development. Hopefully by the end of this course you will agree with me that Flash MX offers a very compelling argument for web development in the 21st century. l agree with me that Flash MX offers a very compelling argument for web development in the 21st century.