Actionscript Cookbook

Building the Components

The four elements described in the previous section are all good candidates for components. In each case, the elements are discrete constituents that can be abstracted. For example, the toolbar is composed of multiple buttons that are responsible for different tasks. However, each of the buttons shares basic, core functionality. Likewise, each of the shape units that are drawn by the user may look different—different outline shapes, sizes, and fill colors—but the basic functionality of all shapes is the same. And it is the same with the text units as well. While there is only one color selector instance in the application, it is nonetheless a good candidate for a component because it is a distinct unit that can likely be reused in another application.

Creating the Superclass for the Components

The toolbar buttons, shape units, and text units all share some common functionality. Each of these three types of components needs to have the capability to define callback methods, including callback methods for when the component is selected, deselected, pressed, and released. While it is certainly possible to define the same methods individually in each of the component classes, you can also define a single superclass from which the component classes can inherit. This is advantageous because you can define the methods in one location.

Complete the following steps to define the custom PaintBase class from which three of the components inherit their methods: