GhostWire Menu This Flash component allows you to create pulldown and vertical menus of various styles. The default skin closely resembles that of the menus in Windows operating systems, and allows a variety of color settings. A "XP" style skin is also included to demonstrate the component's ability to use an alternative background for the menus.
Example
The GhostWire Menu component is used mainly to create "pulldown" menus. The following is an example (filesize 12KB):
Features Windows Lookalike
As the examples demonstrate, the menus created by the component closely resembles those seen in Windows operating system. This makes them valuable in Rich Internet Applications, as well as in "quick-and-dirty" Windows applications prototyping jobs.
Color Settings
The menu can be configured for a variety of settings, including colors of the background, fonts, rollover colors, etc. Take a look at the configurations available.
Auto-Placement
Each submenu will place itself at appropriate positions depending on space availability. This means that you can place the component at the bottom of the screen to create a "pullup" instead of "pulldown" menu:
Auto-Scroller
The component has a built-in scroller which is activated if there are too many menu items to display on the screen at once. You can see the scroller in action in the examples above (navigate to "View->Encoding->More"). Vertical Menu
You can also use the component to create vertical menu:
Menu Item Icons
Each menu item can be assigned its own icon. The component will attempt to load a movieclip symbol (exported in the library) and place it next to the label if the item's 'icon' property has been defined (with the symbol identifier). You can also embed two icons within the movieclip symbol, placing them in different frames labeled as "up" and "over" - these icons will be used onRollOut and onRollOver respectively (take a look at the last example on this page).
Built-in Handlers
The component has some built-in triggers - when the 'action' property of the component is set to 'GetURL', the 'data' property associated with a menu item is assumed to represent an URL and when the item is selected (clicked on), the URL will be loaded. When the 'action' is set to 'GotoAndPlay' or 'GotoAndStop', the 'data' property is assumed to be a frame number/label.
onSelect Events
The component has an onSelect event, which you can use to specify the action that should be executed when a menu item is selected by the user. This comes into play if you do not wish to use the built-in handlers (and set the 'action' property to 'Event').
Callback Events
Each item can also have a specific 'callback' method. If defined, this callback method supercedes the built-in handlers and onSelect event.
Snap to Pixel
The component snaps to pixel when published, ensuring that it looks crisp and sharp when the movie plays. Usually to achieve this, you need to ensure that you place your movieclips at integer coordinates (no decimal place) during authoring time. This is not necessary with GhostWire components, which will automatically snap to pixel when published. For example, if the component was placed at x coordinate 20.2, when published it will be placed at x coordinate 20.0 instead. In addition, the component also resizes itself to integer widths and heights.
Truly Skinnable
If the flexibility of the color settings still does not meet your requirments, you can change the 'skin' of the component. The following example shows an "XP" styled menu (in this case, the background of the menu has been changed, and the 'tmHasBase' property has been set to 'false' allowing you to place your own custom background behind the component instance if you wish):
The following example has the 'action' property set to 'GetURL', and 'submenuOnPress' property set to 'false', and uses dual-state icons (note that the icons are not included in the product):
