Comments on: Reflections on FLA-based components

By: smackme

smackme — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:51:36 +0000

Thanks for posting this!
I’d like to help too, Adobe just doesn’t know about me yet B-)

By: Grant Skinner

Grant Skinner — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:37:08 +0000

At the risk of sounding defensive, everything people are complaining about here is not an architectural. While there is certainly a ton of room for improvement in the component architecture, I believe what we built was a major improvement over the v2 components, and much more flexible / extendible than the Flex framework (though this is continuing to improve). Of course, this is ham-stringed by other factors.

I agree 100% that the custom component development workflow *really* needs to be improved. It was a major hindrance to us while we developed the v3 components, and continues to cause us headaches today (ex. SPL components). I would love to see a flourishing third-party marketplace for custom components in Flash, but the current process is arcane, and the documentation is scattered. This sets up a large barrier to entry that most developers are unwilling or unable to hurdle.

I’d strongly encourage everyone posting here to let Adobe know how you feel. They do listen, and they apportion engineering time based partly on feedback. I try to help where I can, but it really isn’t my job to offer ongoing support for the components – that’s up to Adobe.

Two more for the list of grievances: Missing components (accordion, RTE, etc), and a bug that prevents setting custom component icons on Mac (only works on PC).

Just FYI – you should not have to restart Flash while doing component development, can you be more specific? Also, building a livepreview should only be a few steps (4?) – however they are weird, unintuitive steps.

By: MasterZ

MasterZ — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:56:42 +0000

Well I really expected a custom component built in FlexBuilder3 with AS3 as a SWC Library, to one at least show GUI adjusters for Inspectable Properties when added to the “Common” section. Nevermind ever/any subclass of UIComponent to either function normally with resizing bands or respond to an onUpdate or preferably something/anything like a livePreview method! I don’t think I would design or release it any other way, and will remain pissed until such time. FB4?

By: Bug and Feature Requests and for JSFL - Zeus Labs

Bug and Feature Requests and for JSFL - Zeus Labs — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:02:04 +0000

[...] useful. I’ve been using it for some time now to partially automate builds for Flash CS3 FLA-based components. I can create component shims, live preview SWFs, and many things of that nature which [...]

By: Robert Penner

Robert Penner — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:28:31 +0000

http://robertpenner.com/flashblog/2007/09/creating-as3-components-in-flash-lost.html

“[Flash CS3 has a] lack of documentation on how to develop custom components … Hopefully our screams for help will be heard.”
– Posted by SmackMe

Scream no more, Sir SmackMe. You just been smuck’d with an epic mini-series on component creation, now up on Adobe’s Developer Center.

By: P

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:30:35 +0000

Nice to hear someone giving them some stick by the way. Keep it up.

By: P

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:29:35 +0000

It really sucks. I’m sitting down to write my own component framework from scratch which is not something I have the time to do. Adobe are taking the piss and I can’t believe the Flash community is not up in arms about it. Flex is not a replacement for Flash. It is too cumbersome and bloated for most of the projects I work on, but it’s looking like the only way to go.

What really pisses me off is that having read/listened to Grant Skinner bang on about how easy these components are to extend, he (and Adobe) can go completely silent on the matter. Leaving so many Flash developers hanging.

I am an angry man. Grrrrrr

By: smackme

smackme — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:27:47 +0000

Thanks for the comments and support
We’ll just sit and wait for a new release or smth or may be a good update.
@Josh: Unfortunately refreshing component list won’t help with FLA based components It’s very sad

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:20:33 +0000

I’m with you on this one, to a certain degree. Creating a FLA-based component is a major pain, and there is no documentation that explains how to do it. There’s a great article on the Flash Brighton blog that I discovered a short time after I figured out all the details on my own through trial and error. I’m sure a quick search will find it, if you’re interested.

I recommend setting up some JSFL scripts if you can. I’ve been able to completely automate the creation of a component shim and the building of a live preview SWF. As for the restarting of Flash, are you aware that the Components Panel has a reload option in the menu? I’m not sure if it helps in your particular case, but it might.

How can it be fixed? Personally, I think that a new format for Flash components would be a good thing. SWC is great for fully compiled components, but as we’ve discovered, FLA-based components are hundreds of times more difficult to manage. Perhaps a zip-based format that contains the library assets, the raw (or compiled, if security is a concern) ActionScript files (with automated shim building for the compiled option, please!). SWC is already a zip format, maybe this format can be tweaked a bit to get the desired effect.

Now, I’m just rambling. I’m glad that someone else is as frustrated as I am.

By: Al

Al — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:14:20 +0000

One more for your list:

Try getting them to work in a runtime shared library (RSL), we gave up and bought a Flex license.