Exercise - Exporting the Traffic Cone Component

<sidebar>Sidebar: Component Exercises</sidebar> Now that we have created the traffic cone component in the previous Exercise - Building a Complex Component article we can now export the component (which also contains the 'newLED' component we created earlier) for use elsewhere.

Preliminaries

• Create a traffic cone component as shown in the Exercise - Building a Complex Component - the Traffic Cone article.

Declaring the interface

Before you export a component, you need to 'declare the interface'.

• Move the mouse cursor over the System Panel, and right-click.

• Select the option 'Export component' to open the 'Component Management' window.

• Configure this for the traffic cone component as follows:

• Click on the 'Setup' tab.

• Don't assign a category. As a result, the traffic cone will appear in the 'Misc' toolbox.
• Give the component a 'Cosmetic name' of "traffic cone", which then becomes the name given to it in the 'Misc' toolbox.
• Click on the check-box next to the 'Use an image of the panel' label.

• Click on the 'Interface' tab.

• Set the 'flash' macro as a simulation macro, by clicking on 'Simulation macro' in the 'Type of macro' drop-down menu.

• In this case, there are no additional files to save with the component, and so you don't need to use the 'Resources' tab.

• Click on 'OK'.

Saving the component

• You may be asked to save the current flowchart. There is no need to do so.

• For the component, the 'Save As' dialogue box opens. This will automatically point to a destination used by Flowcode for components. Select a suitable name for the component.

• Click 'Save'. The component file is saved with a '*.fcpx' extension.

Testing the component

Open a new flowchart from the main menu in the usual way.

Go to the 'Misc' component category and locate the traffic cone component.

Click on the down arrow next to it, and select 'Add to system panel'.

Create a Flowcode flowchart to test the component, such as the one given in the next exercise Importing and Testing the Traffic Cone