I have been getting a number of requests about getting the source files to the examples. I was hesitant in doing so just because of shear file size. But I will give it a go. I guess it should concern me when the videos reach these numbers as well. Just trying to manage the bandwidth :). I will start working on producing some videos that will demonstrate basic usage and how some methods that may not be as visible. Download the source files here.
In order to appreciate the thought and time that went into the final solution, it is first and foremost important to understand:
A Brief Overview
We all know Flash is an amazing tool for both designing interactive media and developing Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Over the past decade, Adobe (formerly, Macromedia) has done a great job at enhancing the player while keeping compatible with previous player versions (no small task). However, like most things, there are only so many new enhancements that you can add before it is time to do a “do-over”. Think of it like this. You could keep extending the life of your computer by upgrading the memory or hard drive, perhaps a better video card. But as more time elapses, it profits you less to do the upgrades and more to purchase a new computer. The same is true of software. (Read on …)
The Flash Player 9 runs in a new ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM). Though many new projects can be developed ground up using Flash 9 or Flex, it is likely that your projects will still be using elements and SWFs that have been published for the Flash 8 player or lower. Flash has always offered the ability to load up one SWF inside of the other and then you could treat that SWF as if it resided as a native inside the loading SWF, communicating and driving it directly within your application. Communicating between the two AVMs is no longer that simple.
FlashInterface is a set of AS2.0 and AS3.0 classes that offer a solution to communicate between the AVMs with a common API. FlashInterface will allow you to move forward, building Flash 9 player applications while still using existing SWF resources from previous Flash player versions.
In the next few blogs I will go into further detail with examples and scenarios for using FlashInterface in your Flash and Flex projects. The APIs for the classes are fully documented, and there are online examples. Other examples will be available shortly.
Description: Flex provides the means to automatically build projects. This tip details how.