Adobe, you missed a chance by shipping the wrong components set with Flash CS3
May 14th, 2007 by 
Jaap Kooiker
I’m sorry to say the above out loud, but I just have to.
Personally I don’t like the standard flash components. Why? They are heavy and mostly unusable because we use flash to build custom interfaces and the standard components aren’t made to be custom easily. Take for instance a button and try to make a fade between off state and on state. Anyway, once in every couple of years I grab a component (as with the FLVPlayback in an earlier post) and start playing with it. The conclusion: I always get a little disappointed.
I know, I know, in a moment I’m going to tell you what I want, keep reading
Now with Flash CS3 Adobe has thrown away the one component that could be of any use and that’s the accordion component. Well that said…. I still think the components set shipped with Flash CS3 is wrong. I have my own custom AS2 components which do exactly what I want, when I want. I name a few: Button, DropDown, Accordion, List, Pane (which is Box in Flex), Scroll, Pager, and so on…. You noticed something? There are similarities in the standard Flash components set and mine! But I still (and many others out there) create my own, mine are very customizable and do exactly what I want. So for me the flash components are obsolete and ready to be thrown overboard.
So, what do I want…
…the basic, but apparently unappealing (I mean not selling) layout components (which are shipped with Adobe Flex Builder). I think these would be helpful. I know these would be heavy to, but at least they are usefull and I will use them. The layout components could have sober functionality and they probably do what I want anyway, layout other displayObjects. The great thing is that skinning is not needed. Though the components have to be somewhat extendable, like in Adobe Flex. A few important components I’d like to see in the standard Flash Components Library: Container, Box, VBox, HBox. Devider… So Adobe, if you please could make these suitable for flash (or tell me why they can’t, please), I would be a happy man. For now I will just create my own layout components…again.
Jaap Kooiker
EDIT
Here’s a button sample in reaction to Serge (my component isn’t in the swf because currently I don’t have them at home, but I tried to make it clear what I want: fading, state transition, etc.)
EDIT EDIT
I had comment from some people who worked in this branche for a long time now and which I respect. One day I hope to be one of them….
For now, there isn’t anyone saying this is a good idea, isn’t there enough information (maybe sitting around a table with a few guru’s and me helps :)). Or is it nearly impossible to create good layout “components”?
Posted in Actionscript 2.0, Actionscript 3.0, Components, Did you know?, Flash 8, Flash CS3, Flex, Interaction Design | 
May 14th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Hey Jaap,
Have you actually tried double clicking on the included components?
Just put a button on the stage, double click it and you will be able to skin the components. They have also been totally re-written from the ground up and are a lot lighter than in previous versions.
Give it a try.
Take care,
Serge
May 14th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Serge,
I’m glad to hear that the button components are re-written from ground up and that they are lighter as before. So don’t see my post as an attack. I also think the approuch for skinning is better than before but, a cool feature that I have is that the component checks if a skin has more frames. This way (for instance) on rollover the component plays the frames from the skin which makes it a nicer effect. Another cool thing would be that it could fade between states (on - over - press - disabled. See the sample at the bottom of the post) Anyway, I know you thought it trough, there are just a lot of things I would like to see in a component and another designer/developer maybe would like to see other options in a component. So my point is, the components delivered with flash are to custom to create for general use. That’s why I’d like to see (other) layout components…
Thanx for your time Serge….
May 14th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
But i want to use the Layout component of flex such as Panel, Accordion, hrule, vrle etc, so i still believe Adobe has really missed a chance.
Now please i hope no one will ask me to create the file as AS2.0 so that i can use old fat accordion and buttons etc
May 15th, 2007 at 12:33 am
I expect that the new component set in Flash CS3 will be used far more often in real-world projects. They’re very lightweight and they’re easily skinnable. Sure, there will be situations where they’re not the right choice (such as the state-to-state fades you mentioned), but I believe they’ll be the right choice more often.
They’re also very extendable (part of the design, actually), so those state-to-state fades you want might be easy to add. :)
May 15th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Ok,
you all convinced me that the current components are better, lightweight and skinnable :) . But still…what about the lay-out components. Isn’t that a great idea? These are much more for general use and need no skin. Maybe this is an idea for the next release, update or as mxp download.
Adobe…Let me know.
May 15th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
The hard part about layout components in Flash is that the live preview doesn’t allow for components to resize automatically. This would have to be fixed before layout components were useful. They would only resize correctly at run-time. Also, layout components are container components. You need to put stuff inside them. So in Flash you really couldn’t have them components, just classes that you’re movieclips subclass. Flex’s enviroment is perfect for this, but Flash would not be so easy.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Jacob,
Live preview is a problem, especially when nesting the layout components, and probably can’t be solved as in Flex. When not nesting components we normal use a bounding box which can be resized live on stage (but not automatically), this way the size and place of the component can be better directed on-stage. It indeed get’s harder when nesting components or movieclips in components. In case of a grid you will use actionscript to fill it and live preview isn’t an issue.
I agree that the layout components in essence are movieclips with sub-classes behind them, but they can be compiled into a component which makes the property inspector available and the structure of the classes is saved. Also there’s a possibility to create mxp which makes including a helpfile possible. I know working out the concept isn’t easy, my colleagues and I already had a lot of headaches about this.
Thanx for your time Jacob…
May 16th, 2007 at 9:58 am
[…] Jaap Kooiker discusses the cs 3 components […]
December 16th, 2007 at 2:49 am
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
May 4th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Yup I’m also looking at a white square for my custom component on the Stage built as an AS3 SWC in FlexBuilder3.
I’m asking myself where are my custom Common GUI editable Inspectable properties, and of course why the component doesn’t respond on the stage as it does when running normally. I mean at least give me a drawLivePreview method or something to go with? (that isn’t overly retarded) It’s kind of an embarrassing situation for everybody.
I suppose the idea of it functioning as it does in normal usage on the stage is impossible and a serious design flaw of flex! no?