Still working in flex3, now want to move to flex4, have some queries, Help Needed?

Question

I am flex developer, and from last few months, i am continuously working on projects, so i was not getting enough time to migrate to flex4

I am well comfortable in flex3, as im doing the whole flex projects designing by myself, normally i prefer graphical skinning. i am using adobe flash for this.

But now i want to move to flex4 environment, but facing the same problem, how do i do skinning for the buttons and other components?

Do Flex4 allow same old graphical skinning?

i did googled for this , but couldn't extract ne thing useful? and also please tell help me with some gud links, so that i will be able to start my new project development in flex4 now,

I did studied flex4 tutorials on adobe etc, but they support some sort of making some skinnig classes, and do everything thru coding, i guess thats real hard?

i feel like, making up, over, down and disabled skin of a button in flash, and then importing them to flex, that was much easier.

Can ne eone also tell me, why there are few halo components still there in flex4, whose spark replacements are not avaialble?

is flex4.5 version includes all spark components which were halo in flex3

Well, lots of questions this time :)

Thanks everyone in advance

Answer 1

Flex4 has improved skinning and states.

It is easy to auto generate skin classes.

Specify a skinClass :

<s:Button skinClass="ExampleSkin" />

You can [command/control]+[space-bar] inside the skinClass property and choose "Create skin..." option from the context menu to generate an appropriate skin class.

Properties may be set by state, for example:

<!-- states -->
<s:states>
    <s:State name="up" />
    <s:State name="over" />
    <s:State name="down" />
    <s:State name="disabled" />
</s:states>

        <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" 
                         color.down="0xFFFFFF"

For the Spark Button GradientEntry above, color is black except for the down state which is white.

Auto generated skin class for a Button would be:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!--

    ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED
    Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated
    All Rights Reserved.

    NOTICE: Adobe permits you to use, modify, and distribute this file
    in accordance with the terms of the license agreement accompanying it.

-->

<!--- The default skin class for the Spark Button component.  

       @see spark.components.Button

      @langversion 3.0
      @playerversion Flash 10
      @playerversion AIR 1.5
      @productversion Flex 4
-->
<s:SparkButtonSkin xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
             xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
             xmlns:fb="http://ns.adobe.com/flashbuilder/2009"
             minWidth="21" minHeight="21" 
             alpha.disabled="0.5">

    <fx:Metadata>
        <![CDATA[ 
        /** 
         * @copy spark.skins.spark.ApplicationSkin#hostComponent
         */
        [HostComponent("spark.components.Button")]
        ]]>
    </fx:Metadata>

    <fx:Script fb:purpose="styling">
        <![CDATA[         
            import spark.components.Group;
            /* Define the skin elements that should not be colorized. 
            For button, the graphics are colorized but the label is not. */
            static private const exclusions:Array = ["labelDisplay"];

            /** 
             * @private
             */     
            override public function get colorizeExclusions():Array {return exclusions;}

            /**
             * @private
             */
            override protected function initializationComplete():void
            {
                useChromeColor = true;
                super.initializationComplete();
            }  

            /**
             *  @private
             */
            override protected function updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number) : void
            {
                var cr:Number = getStyle("cornerRadius");

                if (cornerRadius != cr)
                {
                    cornerRadius = cr;
                    shadow.radiusX = cornerRadius;
                    fill.radiusX = cornerRadius;
                    lowlight.radiusX = cornerRadius;
                    highlight.radiusX = cornerRadius;
                    border.radiusX = cornerRadius;
                }

                if (highlightStroke) highlightStroke.radiusX = cornerRadius;
                if (hldownstroke1) hldownstroke1.radiusX = cornerRadius;
                if (hldownstroke2) hldownstroke2.radiusX = cornerRadius;

                super.updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);
            }

            private var cornerRadius:Number = 2;

        ]]>        
    </fx:Script>

    <!-- states -->
    <s:states>
        <s:State name="up" />
        <s:State name="over" />
        <s:State name="down" />
        <s:State name="disabled" />
    </s:states>

    <!-- layer 1: shadow -->
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="shadow" left="-1" right="-1" top="-1" bottom="-1" radiusX="2">
        <s:fill>
            <s:LinearGradient rotation="90">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" 
                                 color.down="0xFFFFFF"
                                 alpha="0.01"
                                 alpha.down="0" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" 
                                 color.down="0xFFFFFF" 
                                 alpha="0.07"
                                 alpha.down="0.5" />
            </s:LinearGradient>
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>

    <!-- layer 2: fill -->
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="fill" left="1" right="1" top="1" bottom="1" radiusX="2">
        <s:fill>
            <s:LinearGradient rotation="90">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xFFFFFF" 
                                 color.over="0xBBBDBD" 
                                 color.down="0xAAAAAA" 
                                 alpha="0.85" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xD8D8D8" 
                                 color.over="0x9FA0A1" 
                                 color.down="0x929496" 
                                 alpha="0.85" />
            </s:LinearGradient>
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>

    <!-- layer 3: fill lowlight -->
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="lowlight" left="1" right="1" top="1" bottom="1" radiusX="2">
        <s:fill>
            <s:LinearGradient rotation="270">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" ratio="0.0" alpha="0.0627" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" ratio="0.48" alpha="0.0099" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" ratio="0.48001" alpha="0" />
            </s:LinearGradient>
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>

    <!-- layer 4: fill highlight -->
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="highlight" left="1" right="1" top="1" bottom="1" radiusX="2">
        <s:fill>
            <s:LinearGradient rotation="90">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xFFFFFF"
                                 ratio="0.0"
                                 alpha="0.33" 
                                 alpha.over="0.22" 
                                 alpha.down="0.12"/>
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xFFFFFF"
                                 ratio="0.48"
                                 alpha="0.33"
                                 alpha.over="0.22"
                                 alpha.down="0.12" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xFFFFFF"
                                 ratio="0.48001"
                                 alpha="0" />
            </s:LinearGradient>
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>

    <!-- layer 5: highlight stroke (all states except down) -->
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="highlightStroke" left="1" right="1" top="1" bottom="1" radiusX="2" excludeFrom="down">
        <s:stroke>
            <s:LinearGradientStroke rotation="90" weight="1">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xFFFFFF" alpha.over="0.22" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xD8D8D8" alpha.over="0.22" />
            </s:LinearGradientStroke>
        </s:stroke>
    </s:Rect>

    <!-- layer 6: highlight stroke (down state only) -->
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="hldownstroke1" left="1" right="1" top="1" bottom="1" radiusX="2" includeIn="down">
        <s:stroke>
            <s:LinearGradientStroke rotation="90" weight="1">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" alpha="0.25" ratio="0.0" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" alpha="0.25" ratio="0.001" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" alpha="0.07" ratio="0.0011" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" alpha="0.07" ratio="0.965" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" alpha="0.00" ratio="0.9651" />
            </s:LinearGradientStroke>
        </s:stroke>
    </s:Rect>
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="hldownstroke2" left="2" right="2" top="2" bottom="2" radiusX="2" includeIn="down">
        <s:stroke>
            <s:LinearGradientStroke rotation="90" weight="1">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" alpha="0.09" ratio="0.0" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" alpha="0.00" ratio="0.0001" />
            </s:LinearGradientStroke>
        </s:stroke>
    </s:Rect>

    <!-- layer 7: border - put on top of the fill so it doesn't disappear when scale is less than 1 -->
    <!--- @private -->
    <s:Rect id="border" left="0" right="0" top="0" bottom="0" width="69" height="20" radiusX="2">
        <s:stroke>
            <s:LinearGradientStroke rotation="90" weight="1">
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" 
                                 alpha="0.5625"
                                 alpha.down="0.6375" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0x000000" 
                                 alpha="0.75" 
                                 alpha.down="0.85" />
            </s:LinearGradientStroke>
        </s:stroke>
    </s:Rect>

    <!-- layer 8: text -->
    <!--- @copy spark.components.supportClasses.ButtonBase#labelDisplay  -->
    <s:Label id="labelDisplay"
             textAlign="center"
             maxDisplayedLines="1"
             horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="1" verticalAlign="middle"
             left="10" right="10" top="2" bottom="2">
    </s:Label>

</s:SparkButtonSkin>

Flash Catalyst provides design authoring, or Flash Professional has the Flex Component Kit.

You could create a skin that loads embedded Flash library symbols by state.

MX architecture is generally deprecated by Spark. Use Spark components if available.