Exercise - Exporting the Traffic Cone Component

<sidebar>Sidebar: Flowcode Exercises:Ex3</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.

What next?

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