Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Custom Components
As I mentioned earlier, a Flash component brings its assets into
your file when you place it on the stage and that increases your file
size by a relatively large amount. If you are able to take the time to
build your own component, you can save a large amount of that
file size, and you
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ll be able to customize and reuse it elsewhere.
ALERT!
Component creation is a large enough subject that entire topics could be
(and have been) written on that subject alone, so I won
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tgointothe
actual process myself.
The amount of time it takes you to create your own custom com-
ponent will depend on the component itself. Some may take under
an hour to build, and others may take days to perfect. The good news
is that if a component is built correctly, you won
t have to go back to
rebuild it when you need it on another future project. Instead, you
would be able to simply place your component on the stage, assign
values to its parameters (if it requires any), and move on with your
work. Much like a built-in Flash component is heavy with the first use
and less thereafter, the bulk of the amount of time involved in creat-
ing and using a custom component is up front as well.
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Collecting and Passing Data
Now that you have your form put together and you know where it
s
taking users, you need to pass their input to the target location.
The details of how you collect the information might vary from
form to form, but how you pass it will generally remain the same
in most cases. The vast majority of the time you won
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tbestoring
the information directly from the banner itself, but it may be cap-
tured and stored once it reaches the destination site. On the other
hand, the information may only be used to display the correct page
or data once a user has made it to the destination.
Sending the Data
Once a user has filled out the form and hit the submit button, you
ll
need to do some quick processing behind the scenes to get the
information packaged up and sent over to the correct destination.
Granted,youcouldcreateastringthatismadeofthelandingpage
URL plus the concatenated values of the text fields (and you may
actually have to in some cases), but it would be better practice and
easier to work with if you separated the target URL from the name
and value pairs that you
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re sending. This is where the combination
of the URLRequest and URLVariables classes comes in quite handy.
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