[thelist] Laying out components in Flash

[Thomas Klepl]

Just thought I'd mention for those that don't know about it - Macromedia has
a new product called Flex which is basically an XML language and serverside
software for creating flash pieces. It does not require using the Flash IDE
and is targeted at programmers. The bad part is that it's very expensive
(for now anyway..I think they will have to drop the price by a lot to get
people to use it) 

http://www.macromedia.com/software/flex/

Tom
 

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Marcus Andersson
Sent: May 18, 2004 3:45 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: [thelist] Laying out components in Flash

First, I'm pretty new on Flash so go easy on me.

I'm trying to do the following in Flash:

Load an XML file of the form:

<application name="An Application" description="etc" ...>
   <toolbar .../>
   <content>
     <panel layout="column" name="panelTest">
       <column>
         <textfield label="The label" name="aTextfield" .../>
         <textfield label="Another field" name="anotherField" .../>
       </column>
       ... more columns etc...
     </panel>
   </content>
</application>

I have mostly figured out how to get the XML from the server and do the
tree-walking and have also figured out how to create instances of components
on-the-fly. The problem comes when I want to lay out the components.

I need a way to position components relative to other components (the way
you mostly do in HTML) and also inside parent containers (a la divs) which
would result in that if you move the container you also move it's children.
I should also say that it must be possible to do this from script (if
possible). Is it possible or do I have to do some layout manager stuff (a la
layout managers in Java)? All I seem to be able to do is position the
components absolute :(

Any help/pointers is much appreciated.

Regards,

/Marcus
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