About the Component
===================

Thank you for considering our component. We hope youll find it useful.

The Plasmaplugs Table Renderer component provides an advanced HTML table rendering engine for Flash, complete with CSS support and advanced features such as row and column spans.

The component can render all common types of content (text, SWF files, images and Flash library objects) and allows embedding custom fonts and offers advanced text rendering controls.

This component is available for:
Flash MX 2004, Flash Mx Professional 2004 and Flash 8.


(i) This document refers to the full retail version of the component.
    The demo version functionality and feature set can be reduced.



Features
========

- Support for all common HTML tags and attributes

- Supports percentage or fixed widths/heights for table or individual cells

- Alpha levels for backgrounds and borders

- CSS support

- Images/SWF/library object inclusion into table cells

- Run-time control for table or individual cells through ActionScript

- Send/receive tables to/from a server side script (eg: PHP,ASP,CFM)

- Links to custom ActionScript functions from within the table

- Font embedding

- Advanced text formatting

- Built in Help Book that can be accessed via the Flash Help Panel



Installation
============

Follow the steps below to setup your component.

(i) Plasmaplugs Flash Components are installed by using the Macromedia Extension Manager. You need to have this software installed before continuing with the component setup.
    You can download the Extension Manager from http://www.adobe.com/exchange/em_download/

(1) Extract the contents of the .ZIP pack you received to a location on your hard drive.

(2) Start the Macromedia Extension Manager using one of these methods:

    - Double-click the component (.MXP) file in Windows Explorer (Windows) or in the Finder (Macintosh).
    - In Flash, select (m) Help / Manage Extensions.
    - In Windows, select (m) Macromedia / Macromedia Extension Manager from the Start menu.
    - On the Macintosh, double-click the Extension Manager icon in the Applications/Macromedia Extension Manager folder.

(3) From the Product pop-up menu in the Extension Manager toolbar, select Flash.

(4) Select (m) File / Install Extension in the Extension Manager.

(5) In the file-selection dialog box that appears, select the component (.MXP) file and click Install.

(6) Read the component license and select Accept to continue with the installation, or select Decline to cancel the installation.

(7) If you have a trial or previous version of the component already installed, youll be asked if you would like to replace one or more existing files, select Yes or Yes to All to accept the version or version included in the component file, or No to keep the existing version of the component.
    If you click Cancel, the installation will be cancelled and no files will be installed or replaced.



Getting started
===============

Your component should now be installed and ready to use in Flash. Outlined below is a simple, generic use scenario that you may wish to perform to get familiarized with the component.
The goal for the following example is to set up a simple table. 


1 Start Macromedia Flash and open a new document

2 Open the Components Panel ( (m) Window/Components). You will find the component in the Plasmaplugs folder.

3 Drag the component (PlasmaplugsTableRenderer) from the Components Panel to the stage. The component graphic symbol should now be displayed on the stage.

4 Create an XHTML file which includes a table definition using your preffered HTML editor (eg. Dreamweaver) or make a copy of the table.html file found in the component archive.
	          
5 Switch back to Macromedia Flash, select the component on the stage and configure its parameters in the Parameters Panel or in the Component Inspector Panel ( (m) Window/Component Inspector):
  - Instruct the component to use the newly created html file as the (I) XML/HTML source file.

6 Test the scene (Control/Test Movie). 


(!) Make sure the html source is properly formatted (the tags and attributes need to be closed and lowercase) and the cells colspan need to be valid for the table to render correctly. 



FAQ
===


How can I access the component's Flash Help Book ?

The component comes with a built in Help Book with all the supported methods/properties and events explained and you can access the files via the Flash Help Panel. You will find the book under the name Plasmaplugs Table Renderer or you can perform a search under the plasmaplugs or adjacent keyword and the documentation files will be automatically displayed. 



Why isnt table rendered?

The html source file must be properly formatted (the tags and attributes need to be closed and lowercase) and the cells colspan need to be valid for the table to render correctly. 



Why doesnt the image in the <img> tag display properly?

For the <img> tag the width and height attributes need to be specified to properly display the content. ( <img src="myimg.jpg" width="50" height="50"/>



Why isnt my image properly aligned when using the "align" attribute ?

You should use the "hspace" and "vspace" <img> tag attributes ( <td><img src="images/myimage.swf" height="50" width="50" hspace="5" vspace="5"><td> ) because the "align" attribute works only if the cell content is text only.


How many images are alowed per table cell ?

Only one image/SWF/movie clip can be loaded in a cell due to the Flash text fields images embedding mechanism. 



Can I access and manipulate the table and cells using ActionScript ?

You can dynamically control the table and cells using the component's ActionScript API. You can check the component's Flash Help Book for a full list of all the supported methods/properties and events. 



Further Reference
=================

This Guide offers limited information. To learn more about the component, for the complete list of features, capabilities and more detailed guides, please consult the full documentation.
For further reference you can check the built in documentation files that are automatically installed with the product. You can access the embeded component's help files directly in Flash via the Flash Help Panel/Plasmaplugs Table Renderer folder.
You can also check the available online samples that can be found in the Plasmaplugs Table Renderer trial package and the FAQ area of the site. These section are constantly updated with new samples and answers.