Flash CS3 Documentation

Using ActionScript 2.0 Components > Creating Components > Creating the ActionScript class file > About core functions > About invalidation

About invalidation

Adobe recommends that a component not update itself immediately in most cases, but that it instead should save a copy of the new property value, set a flag indicating what is changed, and call the invalidate() method. (This method indicates that just the visuals for the object have changed, but size and position of subobjects have not changed. This method calls the draw() method.)

You must call an invalidation method at least once during the instantiation of your component. The most common place for you to do this is in the createChildren() or layoutChildren() methods.

Flash CS3