What you will want to read are the details about ASUL (ActionScript User difinition language).
A good start will be the
category:ASUL in the WikiAt the bottom you'll find a summary of all relevant links with more detailed information.
For every pluing there is an ASUL definition file, like navigationbar.asul
Those files are located in the folder megazine/gui/
Using MZ3-Tool3 helps you in managing changes and getting access to the source versions of those ASUL files:
The "binaries" of the ASUL files are located in: software/MZ3/megazine/gui/
You should have MZ3-Tool3 create a customization path for you. You can configure that in setting the parameter <customizationpath> in the 'make' configuration file to such folder path.
We suggest to locate that folder in the software/ path, so one possible option could is:
<customizationpath>software/myAsulConfigs</customizationpath>
With the next run MZ3-Tool3 will create the folder software/myAsulConfigs/ and place more folders with data in that folder.
The one of interest will be software/myAsulConfigs/megazine/gui/, where you will find the 'source' versions of all ASUL files.
Open the navigationbar.asul file in a text editor like notepad++, and you'll see there are a lot of comments explaining what can be done.
If you configure notepad++ the way that .asul extensions are interpreted as XML files, those ASUL files become again much more readable. To do so I think to remember correctly ou should do these two steps:
1. In settings-options-links-customize add 'mz3' and 'asul' as supported extensions.
2. In settings-styles select XML as language, and then add 'mz3 asul' as custom extensions (in the bottom)
Save all, and you should see different elements now color coded.
<styles> are like CSS definitions. And you'll find similarities to HTML also. A <box> tag wraps content similar to a <div> tag. And then there are <button>, <text>, <togglebutton> tags and more.
Once you studied some of the ASUL files and read the WIKI, you'll get the concept.
More examples can be found in the _examples/ folder (open the zip files).
What you also will realize is that those ASUL files contain AS3 snippets, i.e. you even can include code within ASUL files. And nothing has to be compiled (no Adobe tools necessary).
All changes made to files in the <customizationfolder> will not be overwritten. The modified files will substitute those in the software/MZ3/ folder.
With this you can safely install a new version of MZ3-Tool3/MegaZine3.
Tips for doing such an update (just to to make a note here in the forum ;-):
The prefered approach is to create a new directory and start with the new MZ3-Tool3 version from scratch.
This minimizes risks of loosing modified files and having an inconsistent system. If you e.g. did not rename the 'make' and 'details' files, those will be overwritten with those provided with the new version.
If on the other hand you want to keep everything in one directory, you should
- Rename your config files, if not already done
- Delete the 'do-not-restore' file, so the new files can be installed
- Delete the software/MZ3 folder (it will be deleted by MZ3-Tool3, but sometimes due to timing issues the folder then is locked and the new files cannot be installed. And you had to run MZ3-Tool3 again.
- Start mz3_tool3.exe in dragging your 'make' config file over mz3_tool3.exe. This will build your MZ3 title with the new version during the first run; and not the Beginners manual
- Once mz3_tool3 finished, you can delete everything you do not need (like the default config files and the Beginners manuals)
- check the documentation in the _documentation/ folder; especially the version history. To be aware of potential changes, new features, incompatibilities, ...
Only if the conversion completed successfully, the file 'do-not-restore.txt' will be created, which then stops MZ3-Tool3 in future to again copy all files into your directories.
Watch the messages output by MZ3-Tool3. There might be hints that your config files are no more compatible or similar "problems".
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