====== List of Feathers Features ======

Feathers is a user interface component library built on the Starling Framework, a GPU-accelerated 2D library for the Adobe Flash Runtimes. Here are just a few of the features that Feathers offers.

===== Overview =====

  * Designed with mobile devices in mind.
    * Optimized for performance on phones and tablets.
    * Supports multi-touch input.
    * Scrolling with optional pages, "throw" physics and elastic, springy edges (and you can select traditional desktop scrollbar and mouse wheel input, if needed).
    * Easy to scale for different screen dimensions and DPIs.
  * Simple, but powerful, component architecture.
    * Invalidation. Queues property changes until Starling render phase.
    * No vague getStyle()/setStyle() look-ups with string keys. Strictly-typed properties for all skins and visual properties.
    * Factories and interfaces allow you to customize sub-components. For instance, select the type best suited for phone, tablet, or desktop.
    * Easy to understand for anyone familiar with Adobe Flex or the Flash Pro AS3 components.
  * All components are fully skinnable using Starling display objects.
    * If no width or height is provided, components will resize themselves automatically based on the provided skin and dimensions of sub-components.
    * Sub-components may be easily skinned through their parent, nesting infinitely.
    * Supports "themes" that separate all skinning code from the rest of the application. Example themes are easily extended.
    * Add one of the example themes with one line of code.
    * Scale 9, scale 3, and tiled image types provide fluid resizing for skins.
    * Smart image management that can improve performance by swapping textures without creating new image objects.
  * Plus a lot more.
    * Choice of text rendering between bitmap fonts or vector fonts drawn to textures.
    * Create your own custom text renderers (Flash Text Engine or TLF, perhaps?) using a simple interface.
    * A powerful screen/menu navigation system with transitions.
    * Drag and drop.
    * Pop-up management (with or without modality).

===== Components =====

Feathers includes [[start#feathers_components|many different components]], including buttons, sliders, toggle switches, check boxes, radio buttons, lists and grouped lists, progress bars, text inputs, tab bars, navigators, scrolling and layout containers, callouts/popovers, and others. Take a look at a few noteworthy features available for some of these components.

  * Button
    * Appearance may be customized for each touch/mouse state, including up, hover, down, and disabled.
    * Optional toggle/selection behavior. Doubles the number of states.
    * Customizable skins, icons, and label properties for each state, including the ability to specify defaults when some states will not be uniquely skinned.
  * TextInput
    * Uses the operating system's native input controls for seamless selection and copy/paste behavior.
  * ScrollContainer
    * Provides scrolling for any kind of content.
    * Supports a variety of built-in layouts, plus your own custom layouts.
  * List
    * A scrolling list of items with optional selection.
    * Swappable, customizable, layout algorithms.
    * Layout virtualization for improved performance (creates and reuses renderers only for visible data).
    * Variable item renderer dimensions.
    * Custom item renderers.
    * A robust default item renderer with label, icon, and "accessory" views with all the states that buttons provide.
    * A ListCollection class with data descriptors to support any type of data. Supports Array, Vector, and XMLList out of the box.
  * GroupedList
    * Everything that List provides, plus more.
    * Groups or sections with optional headers and footers.
    * Separate renderer types/factories for headers, footers, and items.
    * Multi-dimensional HierarchicalCollection with data descriptors.
  * ScreenNavigator
    * Use events or, optionally, [[https://github.com/robertpenner/as3-signals|as3-signals]] to trigger navigation between screens (such as game menus).
    * Pass properties into screens, such as a shared settings object or other assets.
    * Specify animated transitions for switching screens.

To learn more about Feathers, return to the [[start|Feathers Documentation]].