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Flash Tutorial: When to use Components?

Free Flash Tutorial

Do you want to know when to use Flash Components and when to hand building your Flash Movie? I go over some the basic differences here.

Below are two files which are very similar. They are taken from other tutorials on this site. They are both preloaders that load an external Flash animation. One file is made with the use of Components and the other is hand made (or at least as hand made as you get on a computer). I will use these files as examples:

What are Components?
Since Flash MX you will find that Flash contains a Components Panel. You should be able to find this under the Window Menu. Flash Pro has a more extended Components Panel:

Flash 8 Components:	Flash 8 Pro Components:

You will probably recognise many of the above components. Things like Check box, Radio Button and Volume Bar should be familiar:

Components have a predefined function. For example the Volume Bar will do exactly what you think it will do.

Why use Components: Because they are Easy
This is the big reason to use Components. It is much easier to make Flash Movies with Components than to hand build them. For example both the example Movies demonstrated at the top of this page do the same thing but the second Movie is much easier to make. You can tell this simply by looking at the length of the tutorials. This one is 1500 words and the previous tutorial is nearly 3000 words.

150 Hand Made: 2900 words   This is the hand built tutorial and is nearly twice as long!

151 Uses Components: 1500 words   The shorter tutorial uses components.

File Size
The downside is that the file size is larger. The Flash Movie (SWF file) sizes are as follows:

150 Hand Made: 2KB   That's right 2KB - this is not a typing error!!

151 Uses Components:32KB   The Component SWF Movie is much bigger.

File Size: Multiple Components
It is worth noting that using one Component or using many Components in a Flash Movie makes little difference to the overall file size. Components use a common set of assets from the Library. So using an array of different Components in the same Movie does not increase the file size much more than using only one Component.

Compatibility: Flash 8/MX04 and ActionScript 2 only
With Flash 8 or Flash MX04 you will need to use ActionScript 2 as the Component script will not work in ActionScript 1. This is usually fine but very occasionally causes problems with other scripts that you may want to use in your Flash file. In which case you will need to update the older ActionScript to AS2.

Compatibility: Flash MX Vs Flash 8/MX04
If you have Flash MX you can use components but the ActionScript is quite different to the newer versions of Flash. Flash MX Components are not compatible with Flash 8/MX Components. I suspect that if you have a Flash MX file that uses Components and you open it in a newer version of Flash it will not work.

Flash MX Users
If you are still using Flash MX I would not recommend using the MX Components as this will make the file difficult to update. There is no need to use components as there is always another way to build the Movie. For this reason this site has no Flash MX Component tutorials. Use one of the non component tutorials instead or ask for help on the: forum

Flash 5
Flash 5 does not support Components.

Design
When you hand build a Flash Movie you tend to have more options over how the Movie looks. The Components have a specific look. Having said that it is not difficult to change the skin (look) of a component. I hope to soon have a tutorial on how to skin components. In the meantime ask on the: forum


When to Use Components
If you are not very experienced with Flash, components maybe a good option. For us experienced Flashers - use Components when you want an easy life!!

Tutorials on this site that use Components:

• Alert Box Components   Members Tutorial
• Buttons Component   Members Tutorial
• Check Box Components - Active   Members Tutorial
• Check Box Components - Passive   Members Tutorial
• Loading External Images using Flash Components   Free Tutorial 
• Loading External Flash Files with Components   Free Tutorial
• Preloading External Flash Movies using Movie Clips   Free Tutorial
• Preload External Jpegs with Scroll Bars using Components   Free Tutorial
• Preload External Jpegs or SWFs with Components   Free Tutorial
• Preloader: Progress Bar Component   Free Tutorial
• Radio Button Components - Active   Members Tutorial
• Radio Button Components - Passive   Members Tutorial
  
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