1. Create a new Library Project and name it “Metaliq”. Make sure to check “Create directory for project”.
2. In the Project Explorer, open up the properties panel for the project. Under “Test Movie”, change the pulldown option to “New Window”.
3. Go to the Build tab and delete the Post-Build Command Line text and hit Apply.
4. Go to the Compiler Options tab and click on IncludePackages. A button with a “…” will appear, click on that. Delete the text in that window and hit OK.
5. Set UseMain to true.
6. Set TraceMode to FlashOut. Hit OK and close out of the properties panel.
7. Find where your Metaliq source code is and copy the “com” folder over to the “classes” directory of your new project. Make sure to copy it and not move it since we will be editing the source.
8. From the Metaliq source, go to the “flas” directory and copy Button.fla to the “library” directory of your new project.
9. Open Button.fla in Flash (there should be nothing on the stage). Go to the publish settings and add the following class path: “../classes/” (without the quotes). Save, compile and close.
10. In the “classes” directory of your project, create a new class named “ButtonTest.as” and add the following code:

    			import com.metaliq.controls.Button;
    			import com.metaliq.skins.FocusRect;
    			import com.metaliq.skins.gskin1.ButtonBackground;
    
    			class ButtonTest {
    				// content holder
    				var content:MovieClip;
    
    				function ButtonTest() {
    					// create dummy variables to pull in required classes for mtasc
    					var fr:FocusRect;
    					delete fr;
    					var bb:ButtonBackground;
    					delete bb;
    
    					content = ButtonTest.parent.createEmptyMovieClip("content", 0);
    
    					var sample_btn:Button = content.createClassObject(Button, "sample_btn", content.getNextHighestDepth(), {
    						icon:"icon1",
    						label:"Hello world!",
    						labelPlacement:"right",
    						selected:false,
    						toggle:true,
    						enabled:true,
    						visible:true,
    						minWidth:15,
    						minHeight:15,
    						_x:10,
    						_y:10,
    						_width:150
    					});
    
    					configButton();
    				}
    
    				private function configButton():Void {
    					content.sample_btn.addEventListener("click", onButtonClick);
    				}
    
    				private function onButtonClick(evtObj:Object):Void {
    					if (evtObj.target._name == "sample_btn") {
    						trace("you clicked the button");
    					}
    				}
    
    				// APPLICATION INITIALIZATION
    
    				static var application:ButtonTest;
    				static var parent:MovieClip
    
    				/**
    				* Application entry point
    				*/
    				static function main(scope:MovieClip) {
    					parent = scope;
    
    					// create the content
    					application = new ButtonTest();
    				}
    			}
    			

    If you look at the class above, you will notice a main method that gets called by mtasc. This main method creates an instance of the ButtonTest class which in turn begins the setup for instantiating a Metaliq component through code. We are using the createClassObject method to instantiate the Button component. The parameters passed are className, instanceName, depth, and an initObject which sets the defaults for the component. Besides the Button class, two other classes are imported in for mtasc. Once you get through with the following steps, remove those imports and the instantiations of those classes to see the error that mtasc throws. It will clearly ask you to force compilation of those classes. The easiest way to do that is by adding in the import statement for each class and then creating a reference to the class by instantiating it. I immediately delete the instance so it doesn’t take up memory.

11. In FlashDevelop’s Project Explorer, right-click on ButtonTest.as and select “Always Compile”. And right-click on Button.swf and select “Add to Library”.

1. Hit F5 (Test Movie). You should see an error pop up. Double click on the error to bring up the class that is causing the error.
2. The error is “unknown variable” in FocusRect.as. If you look in the constructor, there is an onEnterFrame function. Within this function, a call to the draw method is made. The simplest way to fix this is to add “this.” in front of “draw()” to scope the method properly.
3. Hit F5 again and then do the same for the next error.
4. The next error is “return type cannot be Void”. If you double click on this error, it will open up UIObject to around line 90 within the glicInit method. If you notice, the return type for glicInit is Boolean but the first line returns nothing. mtasc doesn’t like this. To fix it, change if (initted) to if (!initted) , delete the return and put the rest of the method within the brackets.
5. Your next error will go back to “unknown variable”. You know how to fix these.
6. Another error you will get is “Object should be MovieClip”. This is an easy one to fix. Wrap the object that is causing the error in MovieClip() to typecast it.
7. The next error is “Object should be String”. Just add String() around the offending objects.
8. The next error is “unknown variable m”. If you look above the error, you will see that m gets declared within an if statement. To fix the error, declare the m above the if statement and set m in the if statement.
9. The next time you hit F5, mtasc should finally compile nicely. The button probably will just be text at this point (text acting as a button with no background). To see the background behind the button, you have to do something very random. I have gone through and converted all of the classes to be mtasc-friendly and this was the only part that still doesn’t make complete sense to me, but it works. In BaseButton.as, add the following code to around line 88:

   			public function set background(p_bg:String):Void { super.background = p_bg; };
   			

   For some reason, even though BaseButton extends UIObject, without the above statement the call to set background does not automatically go up the chain to UIObject without explicitly forcing it to. If you compile now, you should see the background behind the button. You now have a fully working example of a Metaliq component being compiled with mtasc.

10. Continue along with these steps and slowly and surely you will start to make headway through the rest of the classes. Be forewarned there are a lot of errors to fix to make the entire component set mtasc compliant. But once you do, your life will be much simpler and your compiling will be MUCH faster.

1. Added Vista info
2. Updated the path to flashlog.txt for Linux
3. Split Step 4 into two steps
4. Added optional OSX step for creating aliases

1. Uninstall your Flash Player
   Find the uninstaller here:
   Adobe Flash Player Uninstallers.
   Even though this is the first step, this is the one that you’re going to question the most, should I really uninstall my Flash Player and install the Debug Player? The answer is an emphatic “yes”. The Flash Debug Player is the exact same player with a very nice extra feature.
2. Install the Flash Debug Player
   Find the installer here:
   Adobe Flash Debug Players
3. Verify installation of the Flash Debug Player
   Restart your browser and right-click (ctrl-click) on a swf.
   You should have the “Debugger” option in the context menu, like the example below.
   
4. Create a text file named “mm.cfg” and save it here:
   • OSX
     MacHD:Library:Application Support:Macromedia:mm.cfg
   • Windows Vista
     C:\Users\username\mm.cfg
   • Windows XP
     C:\Documents and Settings\username\mm.cfg
   • Windows 2000
     C:\mm.cfg
   • Linux
     home/username/mm.cfg
5. Add the following properties to mm.cfg
   • ErrorReportingEnable=0
   • TraceOutputFileEnable=1
   • MaxWarnings=0

   FLASH DEBUG PLAYERS 9,0,28,0 AND NEWER

   The property TraceOutputFileName is no longer needed in mm.cfg. The default location of flashlog.txt has changed and cannot be modified from the following locations:

   • OSX
     MacHD:Users:username:Library:Preferences:Macromedia:Flash Player:Logs:flashlog.txt
   • Windows Vista
     C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\Logs\flashlog.txt
   • Windows XP and 2000
     C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\Logs\flashlog.txt
   • Linux
     home/username/.macromedia/Flash_Player/Logs/flashlog.txt

   FLASH DEBUG PLAYERS 9,0,16,0 AND OLDER

   Add the property TraceOutputFileName to mm.cfg

   • OSX
     TraceOutputFileName=MacHD:Users:username esktop:flashlog.txt
   • Windows
     TraceOutputFileName=C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\flashlog.txt
6. Test the Flash Debug Player
   Restart your browser and either publish a swf that uses trace() and view it in the browser, or surf around and find out what other people have been tracing in their movies (that’s one of my favorite options).
   The traces have been output from the browser to flashlog.txt.
   Open up flashlog.txt and see for yourself, you know you want to.

NEW STEP

7. View the text file updating in real time
   • OSX
     • Open Terminal
     • At the prompt type:
       cd <path to flashlog's directory>
tail -f flashlog.txt
   • Windows
     Go to Windows Server 2003 Tools, and download Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools near the bottom of the page.
     Although it says Windows Server 2003 all over the page, its also made for Windows XP.
     • Install
     • Open Command Prompt
     • At the prompt type:
       cd <path to flashlog's directory>
tail -f flashlog.txt

OPTIONAL STEP

8. Create a shortcut to quickly load up flashlog
   • OSX
     • Create aliases
       • Open Terminal
       • At the prompt type:
         cd ~
ls -a
       • Make sure there is a file named “.bash_profile”
       • If there isn’t, create one by typing the following at the prompt:
         touch .bash_profile
       • Open .bash_profile to edit it
       • Add the following content to .bash_profile:
         alias trace='open -a /Volumes/MacHD/Applications/Utilities/Console.app/ /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/Logs/flashlog.txt'

alias cleartrace='cat /dev/null > /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/Logs/flashlog.txt'
       • Save .bash_profile
       • Restart Terminal
       • To open up Console displaying the active flashlog.txt file, type the following at the prompt:
         trace
       • To clear flashlog.txt, at the prompt type:
         cleartrace
   • Windows
     1. Create a batch file
        • Create a text file and rename it flashlog.bat
        • Right-click on the batch file and select “Edit”
        • Add the following content to flashlog.bat:
          cd <path to flashlog's directory>
tail -f flashlog.txt
        • Double-click on the batch file to see it working.
     2. Create a shortcut to the batch file to set the Command Prompt colors and options
        • Right-click on the batch file and select “Create Shortcut”
        • Right-click on the shortcut and select “Properties”
        • To view the Command Prompt maximized change the pulldown under “Run:”
        • To change the colors of the Command Prompt select the “Colors” tab
        • Unfortunately the “Font” tab options are very limited
        • Under the “Options” tab, select “QuickEdit mode” to be able to easily select and copy and paste
        • Tip for copying and pasting in the Command Prompt:
        • Select the text you want to copy and then right-click it, this puts the selected text into the clipboard … now just hit ctrl-v or paste in any other program.
        • Close out of the properties and double-click on the shortcut to see the flashlog with your colors and options.