By: Paul Newman

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Documentation Updates

According to Mike Chambers, Product Manager for Developer Relations: "Documentation was at the top of the list of Flash users' complaints with Flash MX 2004. For this reason, we've focused on the documentation from the beginning in the Ellipsis planning process. The documentation included with Ellipsis is a massive update that includes new chapters, twice as many code samples, and complete rewrites of a couple chapters."

Mike's not kidding. The documentation updates to Flash MX 2004 7.2 are extensive, and include:

1. An 85% increase in the amount of ActionScript documentation.
2. Over 400 new code examples.
3. Over twice as many entries with examples (from 43% to 98%).
4. 21 new example FLA files demonstrating common application functionality. The Flash HowDoI Help files are installed here (on Windows XP):

   C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\language\Configuration\HelpPanel\HowDoI

   Additional sample ActionScript and FLA files can be found here:

   C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\Samples\HelpExamples

   My favorites include the "Fix Your Mistake" sample application (in the components_application folder), and the sample movies in the following folders: array, strings, textsize, and xmlmenu.

5. Fixes to over 2000 documentation bugs from sources like LiveDocs, beta lists, direct customer feedback, and reviews by the development team.
6. Two new chapters about working with Flash components:
   • Using Components > Handling Component Events
   • Using Components > Creating an Application with Components.
7. Two extensively rewritten component chapters:
   • Using Components > Customizing Components (see Using styles to customize component color and text and About skinning components)
   • Using Components > Creating Components
8. Updated styles info for every component
9. Data type information in each Usage section (for strict typing in ActionScript 2.0)
10. The entire component documentation now lists inherited APIs

In addition, Macromedia has moved one of their engineers to a permanent position on the documentation team to ensure that they continue to produce top-quality, accurate documentation.

Conclusion

In this article, you learned about the changes and new features introduced in Flash MX 2004 7.2. For more information about the Flash updater, you may want to check out the following Macromedia Developer Center articles:

• What Is the Significance of Ellipsis?
• Flash MX 2004 Documentation: Responding to Users
• Introducing the JSFL File API
• Proxying Events with the mx.utils.Delegate Class
• Skinning Flash MX 2004 Components

Enjoy the new release!

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Keywords
flash mx 2004 7.2, updater, macromedia, ellipsis