my first component~

[black]

i was learning making custom components last night and finally i made it, not such difficult... thanx fara and other guys~;)

[senocular]

whats it do?

... gonna learn how to package it next? ;)

[black]

just drag..........you will find the answer;)

and package it to what ?:confused:

[tg]

Originally posted by black
and package it to what ?:confused:
.mxp

[annexion]

Might be smoother on a mouseMove. Good job though:cool:

[senocular]

Originally posted by annexion
Might be smoother on a mouseMove. Good job though:cool:

...avec un updateAfterEvent() :D

[annexion]

Naturally. Anything else would be uncivilized.:cool:

[senocular]

how true :cool:

[black]

Originally posted by tg
.mxp

how to plz ? that article didnt tell me anything about it :(

[senocular]

An .MXP is like a self-extracting .ZIP for your extension manager (http://www.macromedia.com/exchange/em_download) which "installs" actionscript, a component, a library, a panel or whathaveyou. I quoted "installs" because its not really installed like a normal program but rather its a basic "install" which does nothing more thant just extracts and copies the files out of the MXP file into some directory on your computer which Flash has access to.

MXPs themselves, though are created with the extension manager. The extension manager does this based on a set of guidelines you define in a file called an .MXI - which is just an XML file saying what the component is, a quick description, who wrote it, what files are involved and where they should be installed etc.

So what you do with a component is, first, make the component ;). Then you create an .MXI file and describe the component in that giving a description of what files are used etc. Then using the extension manager, you "Package" your extension (component). You can usually do this just by double-clicking on the .MXI file itself, otherwise you can open the extension manager and use File > Package Extension... That will bring up an open dialog which will let you choose a .MXI file and the extension manager will then create a .MXP based on that .MXI file, retaining the description and author information (seen after you install the MXP) and including those needed files which you specified within.

Now, with an MXP you have yourself a type of self installer for you component or extension (whatever it may be). Double-clicking on it will open up the extension manager and it will install the component into Flash. In doing this, it 1) copies the MXP into a directory with all installed MXP files, and 2) extracts all the included files into their appropriate directories (which are defined in your .MXI). Then when Flash runs, it is able to access those files in those directories and be able to use them as components, panels or whatever.

I have a basic panel extension here (as .MXP)
http://www.kirupaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23051
And the zip file included has the .MXI inside so you can see an example of what was used to create it. The thread metions a lot of other things too... the component Im talking about is in the panel.zip which I think is near the end of the first page.


helpful links:

flashcomponents (http://www.flashcomponents.net/tutorials.cfm?nav=4) has some tuts on components, one that mentions MXPs has it in the title I think...

Macromedia has details on the .MXI format which is used to create an MXP here:
http://www.macromedia.com/go/em_file_format/

Heres a good tool for helping you make an MXI
http://www.muzakdeezign.com/mxi_creator/index.asp
^The link may be down since hes currently changing hosts. I have a slightly older version here:
http://www.umbc.edu/interactive/files/mxi_creator.zip

Come to think of it AS.org here might have a tut on it all too. www.ultrashock.com might be another place to look as well.


just came accross farafiro's post with some good links too :)
http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=22179

[farafiro]

wow seno, a very good ..... article here

but can someone (the MOD) move it to the components section so we can easily find it and direct the others to it

[black]

really great work senocular;) thanx for that i'd put it in favorite folder so that i can find it anytime :D