Colin Moock

This article explains how to completely change the graphical appearance of (i.e., "to skin") the V2 ProgressBar component. Before we begin, a warning: the techniques described in this article apply to the ProgressBar and to many other V2 components, but not to all. Some compo-nents require advanced skinning techniques not discussed in this article. For example, the Button component's skin, perhaps surprisingly, is primarily code-based. Skinning a Button component requires a thorough understanding of the Button skin code. Likewise, the specific steps required to skin components made up of multiple subcomponents, such as the DataGrid or the List, are not covered in this article. This article will help you get started with skinning and will give you the skills to skin many V2 components, but for some components you should expect to do further research (see Further Stud... (more)

Skinning the V2 ProgressBar Component, Part 2

In Part One of this two-part article ("Skinning the V2 ProgressBar component " MXDJ vol 3 issue 4) we did what we set out to do, but I just can't bear to leave the skinning-a-Button issue unresolved. The warning at the beginning of last month's article pointed out that the Button component is surprisingly difficult to skin because its skin is made up of code, not graphics. As a last exercise, then, let's take a quick look at an alternative approach: skinning SimpleButton instead of Button. The SimpleButton class is the superclass of Button, and is accordingly less complex. Specif... (more)