Adobe Captivate 5 – Widgets and the Widget API

One of the things that has recieved an overhaul in Adobe Captivate 5 is the Widget API. I’ll try and give you some examples of the new things and the changes here in this post.

Changes / Enhancements in Adobe Captivate 5 with Widgets:

AS3 only

Adobe Captivate 5 will only be able to use AS3 widgets. Actually it will only be able to use AS3 anything so this will give you a problem if you are using third-party content from for example Articulate or Rapitivity since they are pure AS2 at the moment.

New Widget classes

One of the biggest changes in the Widget API are the new events. These event based classes will allow you to access and use information from Captivate much better than with the old structure.

The classes are imported into your widget along with the flash.external.ExternalInterface and then you are ready to start coding

import com.adobe.captivate.widgets.*;
import com.adobe.captivate.events.*;

The com.adobe.captivate.widget classes are:

The com.adobe.captivate.events classes are:

Basically these classes lets you communicate with your widget and Captivate but it will now also be possible to have individual widgets communicate with eachother. This is a very interesting perspective and can open up for a lot of interesting developments.

Widget Parameters

The Widget parameters are now called Widget Properties. One of the good things about this is that it is no longer a small box in which you had to stuff all your parameters inside. Now the Widget Properties is a self contained window that “floats” on top of the stage when you insert the widget. This makes it easier for the developer to work with the widget in Captivate but also makes it easier for the widget developer to create a nice interface.

Additional changes / enhancements / restrictions

- The updating of an existing widget used in a Adobe Captivate 5 project is now easier than what it was in CP4.

- The new Widget API uses proxies to prevent widget developers to access objects on the stage / slide at runtime. This was implemented to prevent Widget developers of gaining too much control of a Captivate project and potentially delete and mess up other peoples projects. In my personal opinion it’s a wrong move but luckily it won’t be such a big problem after all as this can easily be circumvented according to Whyves. I’m sure that he will post more details on this on his blog here.

Adobe Captivate 5 stock widgets

Adobe Captivate 5 will also ship with a number of stock widgets. Some of them are actually pretty good and prove to be useful in your projects. Personally I really like the new Arrow Widget. I would probably still create my arrows in Photoshop using shapes and styles as I am used to do, but this widget does give a pretty good idea about the capabilities of Widgets in Adobe Captivate 5.

Click the image below to see some more information about the Widget API and stock Widgets in Adobe Captivate 5.

Buy Adobe Captivate 5 here on the Adobe website