Chapter 25. Image Viewer/Slideshow

Loading images at runtime is a powerful feature of Flash, and it is not a particularly difficult skill to acquire. However, there remain several subtleties that practice and experience will help you to master. This chapter is devoted to the creation of an image viewer/slideshow application that highlights some of the following key skills:

  • Loading JPEG content at runtime

  • Monitoring the download of the content using a progress bar

  • Loading XML data and using it to populate a UI component

  • Extensive use of the drawing API

  • Creating drag-and-drop functionality within a menu

  • Using intervals to automate timed tasks

  • Watching for keyboard activity

The application that you create in this chapter includes the following features:

  • URLs to available images are loaded from an XML document.

  • Each image has a title as well as a thumbnail, low resolution, and full image URL.

  • The titles of available images are used to populate a list box.

  • Users can preview the low-resolution images in a preview pane. Each preview image opens up in its own window that can be moved and resized within the preview pane.

  • Users can add images to a sequence of thumbnails, the order of which can be rearranged by dragging and dropping the thumbnail images.

  • The full versions of the images can be played back in the same order as the thumbnails.



    Part I: Local Recipes
    Part II: Remote Recipes