So I am trying to build out a custom SimpleMp3player component. Here is a screen shot of what the current design for this looks like:
http://storage.duromedia.com/mp3_player_ui.jpg I want to create a custom component that will contain all the functionality that the above UI illustrates, but I want to make the component as easily skinable for the future as possible. Preferably skinable by a designer, and not a developer. I have considered a few routes. 1) The one I am most comfortable with is building a custom component with the Flash IDE, and custom AS3 classes, then export out using the Flex Component Kit. As far as I can see, the draw back to that is the skin has to be customized using the Flash IDE from then on out. 2) The other route I considered was building the whole thing in Flex, and using a style attribute to feed in a SWF based skin file. This is something I'm starting to get more familiar with, but I'm still a long ways off from mastering the art of pure Flex custom components. First off, if anyone has any opinions on which of the above two routes would be best, please speak up. If there are other routes to take, do tell. Second, If anyone has any good resources (besides the Flex 3 LiveDocs) on building out custom components that utilize Skins as outlined in option 2, please pass those along. Third, if anyone feels like tackling any of these specific questions, I would love some help: - When creating a skinnable ActionScript component, do I have to create a style property for each UI element? (ie. playButtonUp, playButtonDown, seekBarTrack, seekBar, etc.) - Can I use the skin file to put together the layout of the component, or do I have to do that programatically with ActionScript? I would love if I could do a layout in Illustrator that had all the elements of the MusicPlayer component positioned where I want them, and then feed in a single Symbol (containing the other symbols) so that the UI component maintained the layout as it was set in Illustrator. Any help with any of the above would be met with great appreciation. Best, Adam Duro DuroMedia: Web Developer W: www.duromedia.com
