Building Components with ActionScript 2.0 – part 1

This is the first in a series of tutorials about building components with ActionScript 2.0. In the first article, I’ll introduce you to the theory behind creating components and demonstrate a very simple example. Instead of building something from the ground up, we’ll learn about what you need in order to create a component. In the next article, we’ll create a component from scratch and I’ll walk you through the process in a little more detail so you have a chance to get your hands dirty.

In this tutorial, I’ll explain:

• What makes up a component
• How to create parameters for your component
• Structuring your component’s movie clip
• Creating an SWC file
• Creating an extension from your component

Before you can complete the tutorial, you’ll need to have a good understanding of creating class files in ActionScript 2.0. I’ve used Flash 8 for the sample files so you’ll need this version if you want to explore to completed example.

You can download the files referred to in this tutorial from the blue Properties box that contains the article PDF. There's a heading titled Code Download and you can click the Details link next to it to get the zip file.