Macromedia flex builder-using flex builder User Manual

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Appendix A:  Basic Flex Concepts

To escape an ActionScript block, enclose it within a CDATA block. A CDATA block is an XML 
technique used to escape character data from the XML parser. The block is created as follows in 
the code: 

<![CDATA[

...

]]>

The parser ignores everything in the CDATA block, including special symbols, strings, and 
numbers. The Flex compiler can still read and compile the ActionScript in the block. The 
following example shows the technique:

<mx:Script>

<![CDATA[

var myVar:Number;
function doSomething() {

myVar = myVar + 1;

}

]]>

</mx:Script>

Related topics

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Flex ActionScript Language Reference help

About Flex containers, components, and controls

Building a Flex user interface consists of inserting Flex containers, components, and controls in 
an MXML file. 

This section covers the following topics:

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Flex components 

Flex includes a component-based development model that you use to develop your application 
and its user interface. You can use the prebuilt components included with Flex, you can extend 
components to add new properties and methods, and you can create new components as required 
by your application.

Components are extremely flexible and allow you a large amount of control over the component’s 
appearance, how the component reacts to user interactions, the font and font size of any text 
included in the component, the size of the component in the application, and many other 
characteristics.