Flash :: Referencing Instance Names From Linked Class In AS3?
Jun 28, 2011
I've got a linked class, with an external .as file, tied to a movie clip called "Menu" in an encompassing fla. In this actionscript file, I am trying to pull some information from a few things I made with the flash authoring tool. There are a few symbols on stage in the fla that I drew with instance names "greensboro" and "birmingham", and I want to get their x-position inside some functions of the linked class. I've tried returning a value from "greensboro.x" but of course it says the variable greensboro doesn't exist, because I haven't defined it in the class. Surely there is some way of getting that info in a variable of my linked class!
Edit: here is some code to show what I've tried(cutting everything else). This is in the .as file of the linked class:
I have a series of clips with instance names like box1, box2 etc. Altogether there are about two dozen. Is there any way I can run something like "box#.x = 0" where # would be a wildcard to place all instances starting in "box"?I'd also love to be able to set their y position where box#.y = (#-1)*2. For that I believe I need to do a count function, but I was hoping there was another way. For other reasons I need to be able to control the instance names and not have that be automated in any way.
Is this possible? Searches in these forums as well as Google and a few other places have turned up nothing. It would save me a huge amount of time and work if either of these were possible without having to rework all of my instance names that are already in use.If it's relevant, I'm doing this all in Flash CS4.
I am completely new to actionscript although I do come from a OOP background. I have been asked to trial Flash and Actionscript 3 in particular - so I do come with a few preconceptions on how I expect actionscript to behave. I have a problem I donot understand. I have created a new class and to test it I use a simple test harness in the form of a .fla file.
The issue I have is when I create a new instance of the class and assign it to a variable, subsequent background changes to that instance of the class are not 'picked-up' when referenced through the variable. I would expect that given instance of class could be assigned to many different variables and any updates using one variable would accessible using any of the other variables.
I created a dynamic TextField on stage as instance name is "tf". I have converted this TextField as a class, the name is "MyText" in their linkage options panel. And i have also create New as file in the same folder name is "MyText". So how to declare the TextField instance name in as file.
I started a thread about a reference to a symbol House, in the output window, which was: House_1. A lot of people said some useful things about that. All day I've been thinking about it, and I came to the conclusion that I don't understand things, at a very basic level.
Consider:I make a movieclip which I give the Symbol name Drawer. (I don't export it for AcitonScript.)On the stage I manually place two instances of this Symbol. The first one I give the Instance Name drawer (in the properties panel). The second one I leave nameless.Now if I trace the names of both these clips, by
Now I know that the so-called "instance name" which I gave in the Properties Panel (drawer) is, in reality, a variable name which Flash gives my first instance behind the scenes. And instance2 is a name that Flash gives my second instance. What exactly the nature of that name is, I do not know.My point is: both names (drawer and instance2) are the .name property of these movieclips. Otherwise I could not have traced them through asking for the .name property, in the above. Yet only the first of these two can be manipulated:
drawer.x can be set; instance2.x can (as we know) not be set.
But...why? What is the real difference between these two kinds of names? How can they both be the .name property of their underlying movieclip, yet be of such a different nature? What IS the nature of the instance2 name? If it's a String, how come the .name property of one movieclip can be a variable name, while the .name property of another (but identical) movieclip is a String?
I've searched every bit of web page on the net I could find. But it looks as if nobody addresses this issue. We all just work with it - but it makes no bloody sense. A name property = a name property, you'd think. Whether Flash set it or I set it should not make a difference. The x property of a clip, for example, does not change in nature according to who set it - me or Flash.So, again, just to emphasize the problem: how can a property (the name property) of a movieclip change in NATURE depending on who set it? After it's been set, shouldn't the name property of a clip be of exactly the same nature as the name property of another clip?
I'm using a library that has a function that returns an instance of some class Engine.
I'd like to tack on some interfaces to Engine, so I subclass it class InterfacedEngine extends Engine implements AwesomeInterface. but when I change the code that uses the classes from this:
var engine:Engine = generateEngine();
to this: var interfacedEngine:InterfacedEngine = generateEngine();
It gives me a runtime error (elision mine):
TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert ...::Engine@1bc2bf11 to ....InterfacedEngine.
I've got another problem (similar to my last), although this time it's movie clip names, rather than variables.[code]I've created some movieclips as such ^ so for each user there are 2 empty movie clips, and now I'm trying to reference to these movie clips, but am having some trouble in doing that, for example:[code]While the last one doesn't bring any errors, it still doesn't seem to work.[code]
I have a Flash CS4 FLA throwing the following error when I hit Ctrl+Enter to test the movie: WARNING: Multiple 3D objects on the same frame have the same instance name. 3D instance names must be unique. All but one of the instances will be renamed during export. On my layers, I can't see any duplicate instance names, and Flash doesn't give me ANY indication as to which names are causing the problem. I know it's to do with two layers making use of 3D Tween. When I hide them, the problem goes. I've even tried removing and replacing the Symbols. First of all, I have to have the objects on those layers Tween in 3D, and I have to give them instance names as I refer to them from ActionScript code.
I've created a button in Flash, and inside that I have a TextField and a MovieClip, both with instance names set. They cover all 4 frames of the button, with no keyframes.I found I couldn't access the objects using the instance names I'd set, so I used this piece of code to see what's going on:
var obj:DisplayObject = this.m_graphics.btnChange.upState; for ( var i:int = 0; i < obj.numChildren; i++ ) {
using the same event for 8 buttons. i have instance names b1,b2,b3..b8 im loading external swf with replacing instance names p1.swf... that code is in the hovernewStr= StringUtil.replace(evt.target.name, "b", "");when hover i get external swf name myswf="p"+newStr+".swf";there is no problems here. but i have problem with click function. my instance name b1 is changing by flash with instance19.
I worked again on a new Project and stumbled while trying Arrays. I have two cubes(cube_mc, cube2_mc) in my scene.
My code: var gy:Number = 0; var gravity:Number = .2 var moving:Array = new Array(cube_mc, cube2_mc); this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, gravityFUNC); function gravityFUNC(event:Event):void{ gy+=gravity; moving.y+=gy; };
I was trying to put both cubes into the array, and then affecting the whole Array with gravity. When I test it nothing happens, and it shows no errors.
Ive been using adobe flash cs4 for a while now and have had little trouble giving things instance names. Now though, whenever I double click on something like i normally do to give it an instance name, the blue box no longer comes around it, I click on properties, and change the instance name. I now get a dashed line along the lines of the picture. And when I go to properties, it just says shape, and I cant edit the instance name. Just position and size, then the fill and stroke. What is going on?
How can find out the linked url of the image in the flash of a website? I looked for the image url some time. but couldn't find itif find the linked url of the image, and i want to alter an image linked url address. where is the code in?
I have a folder full of SWF files. Each SWF is its own animation. I have several people submitting their animations for this project. I would like to embed all these SWF's into my project and use .play() .stop() and other movieclip related commands on them as a whole. By this I mean, the artist sends me the SWF, my AS3 script embeds it, then I can access it with say animation_1.stop(); without the artist ever having to enter a instance name, or export for ActionScript name.
I plan to create a shell script which will take all the swf's in a folder and create a AS3 file with all the embed statements. The instance name that will be given to each one by the shell script will be the file name. Is this possible to embed a SWF and access it without giving any movie clips instance names or exporting for Actionscript? UPDATE: @annonymously answer below helped a lot. Here are some other resources that helped me: Great Resource - [URL]
(Spoiler alert: It's not an issue of my package statement not reflecting the location of my class file.) When I have a class linked to a MovieClip in my library and that class takes an argument in its constructor method. That class will compile properly ONLY when it's located in my top-level directory (same dir as the .fla and Document.as files). If I move that class to a deeper directory, say com.place, the compiler will generate error "1136: Incorrect number of arguments. Expected 0.
I have a base class which is being created via remote_object [RemoteClass alias] from the server.I have other specialized classes that are derived from this baseclass, but serialization with the server always happens with the base class.The base class has meta data that defines what the derived class is, for example
[RemoteClass (alias="com.myco...')] public Class Base {
and I want to add multiple buttons, not just this one. I figured out by trial and error that I couldn't just consecutively list the instances, I also found I couldn't just replicate the code and change the instance names. I just need to know how to go about having multiple buttons/clips.
I have to admit I pretty much ran away from Flash when AS2 came along and only used it for animation purposes over the last 5 years.So I'm having a major crash course in AS3 in Flash CS3 and I'm not enjoying it one bit. I'm getting maybe 10mins of finished work per hour as I try to figure out the limits and rules of AS3. Quite often it seems that AS3 simply can't do what I want it to. Anyway: Characterchecks.as is the main class and it loads a bunch of XML into four arrays. The file starts like this:[code]If I trace the value of, say, cc._Categories from the main FLA, it's empty. I'm guessing that the next line of AS in the main FLA doesn't wait for the previously called function to complete? (This may tie in to my next problem)My next step is that I want to display various things based on the data in the array. I have another class, Display.as which will hold all the functions to create the items on display. I thought it would be best for these to be a separate object. I wonder if I'm right?
So I declare an instance of Characterchecks in the main FLA and call it cc, and then run the functions to populate the arrays... Now I create an instance of Display and call it cd. How can I get functions in cd to see the values of the variables in cc? And if the main timeline can't tell that the functions aren't finished filling the arrays, how is cd supposed to know?I might be asking dumb questions, or maybe I'm doing things ***-backwards, I don't know. I'd appreciate any help, I really would. This whole thing has me at the end of my tether... being the most technically advanced person in my circle of co-workers and web design friends means I have no-one to explain why things need to be done a certain way or what the best way is.
Running Flash CS3, I've reviewed the lynda.com tutorial on building particle systems in ActionScript 3.0 to try and build some shooting sparks in an animation.I'm getting stuck at what I think is a really elementary point, but I can't seem to get past it.
Basically, all I'm trying to do at this point is create a class called Particle (which I will teach to do things that particles do a little later) link it to a MovieClip on the stage in my .fla file and use the particle's update function to move it across the stage in a manner defined in the instance (so I can later give different movement properties to each AS generated instance of the MC). I know there are easier ways to accomplish my base task without loading an external package, but this seems so strightforward that I must be doing something very simple wrong I just can't see so I thought I'd post the code here and see what I'm missing.
I start with a file called Particle.as in the same folder as my Spark Test.fla file.
In Particle.as I have the following code:
package{ import flash.display.*; public class Particle extends MovieClip { public xVelocity:Number; public yVelocity:Number; public function Particle() { xVelocity = 0; yVelocity = 0; } public function update():void { this.x += xVelocity; this.y += yVelocity; } }}
So I'm declaring that all particles are built with no motion, but if they are explicitly granted an x or y velocity, they will move by that much when the instance's update function is called in the timeline.
Then in my Spark Test.fla file, I have a small shape in a MovieClip called Spark. In the Linkage properties of Spark I have chosen to Export for ActionScript and Export in FIrst Frame. The class is called Spark and the Base class is Particle. For testing purposes I've dropped an instance on the stage and called it spark. Then in the actions layer in the first frame (the timeline is just the spark layer and the actions layer, one frame long each with no "stop();" so it should run forever) I have included the following code:
spark.xVelocity = 5;spark.yVelocity = -1; function updateSpark(event:Event):void{ spark.update();} addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, updateSpark);
What it looks like this should do is on each ENTER_FRAME Flash should call updateSpark which is a function that runs the update() event for the spark instance which is a instance of a movieclip that has an update event which moves x and y position by their relative velocity variables. This all seems pretty straightforward to me, but when I ctrl-Enter to test the movie, I get the following 3 compiler errors:
Particle.as Line 1: 5000: The class 'Particle' must subclass 'flash.display.MovieClip' since it is linked to a library symbol of that type. Particle.as Line 7: 1071: Syntax error: expected a definition keyword (such as function) after attribute public, not xVelocity. Particle.as Line 7: 1084: Syntax error: expecting rightbrace before semicolon.
I am having an issue with compiling a .swf. I get the following error on what seems to be related to the images. There is about 40 that are all very similar the the error code listed below:
5000: The class 'com.decalmywall.Emb_EMB_BORDER' must subclass 'flash.display.BitmapData' since it is linked to a library symbol of that type.
I have this following class attached to some of my buttons to simply control the roll over and out states, as well as the click event. But i want to use the same class on my buttons but would like to control a movieclip outside of the button somewhere else on the stage etc.
put simply: Clicking my button 'moveLeft' will move a movieclip left let say:
I have a media player that I am codging together, one that will play either videos or MP3s depending on the variables it is passed. The video player part works fine. The MP3 player controls are all actual physical MCs on the stage; each one has its own AS class file as part of the package, but there is also a lot of AS that is happening in the main FLA as well. Messy, I know, but it mostly works great.The MC on the stage in the main FLA is properly linked to the class file via Actionscript linkage, and the control itself worksHowever, I am trying to make some aspects of the control respond to variables that are set within the AS on the timeline of the main FLA, and I cannot seem to pass values to the control no matter what I do.The following variable is set in the main AS:Code:var notPlayedYet:Boolean = true;I also have some flashVars being passed in from the html, and these I can reference with no trouble from the main AS - the relevant one is:
I'm creating a little game - The player controls a character that follows the mouse. Pigs run away from the player, and the player has to get them all into a pen. To make the game a little more difficult I'm trying to add an enemy - wolves, that attempt to perform a 'hunt' method every x seconds. This method sends a reference of the wolf instance to Main (my document class) and Main then loops through the pigs on stage to see if there's any nearby. Now as far as I know this works - my problem is I'm unsure how to send the pig instance reference back to the wolf that called the hunt method, so it can then 'target' the pig, and then attempt to pounce on it.
I'm trying to reference an instance through the use of a variable in my call to a prototype. The variable is myVar and contains the instance name to which I want to apply the resizeTo prototype. My syntax is incorrect.
Code: on(release){ //disregard this line this.swapDepths(this._parent.getNextHighestDepth()); //this is calling a prototype named resizeTo this.resizeTo(150, -100, -100); //Setting instance name of another movie myVar = "green"; //Trying to drop that instance name into my next prototype call this._parent.myVar.resizeTo(100, _parent.old_X, _parent.old_Y); }
I make a movie clip in the library ( a button with a text field on it ) and export it for actionscript. Then I create an instance of the object using code ( myButton = new Button1(); ).And then I want to access and change the text field ( whose instance name is "myField" in Flash ) afterwards.Is that possible, or I have to create a custom class for the object, or just create an entire button dynamically?
Because what I have tried until now doesn't work.
Code: var button1:button_test1 = new button_test1(); button1.x = stage.width / 2; button1.y = stage.width / 2;
[code]....
This questions is for all movie clips: is there a way to access a movie clip's objects with actionscript after you have created (with code) an instance of that object (which was designed in flash, and exported for AS) ?
Is there a way to generate an instance of a class that implements an interface based on the name of the class?
I am trying:
var ClassReference:Object = getDefinitionByName("movement.OuterSpaceMovement") as IMovement; var m:IMovement = new ClassReference as IMovement; trace("startup..." + m);
-But I am getting an error message ReferenceError: Error #1065 (OuterSpaceMovement) not defined.
I have several classes that implement the same interface (IMovement) but I need to be able to generate new instances of these classes and then pass these instances as a datatype (IMovement datatype) to other classes...
So then I tried:
var ClassReference:Class = getDefinitionByName("OuterSpaceMovement") as Class; var m:IMovement = new ClassReference() as IMovement; and this doesn't seem to work...but the following var m:IMovement = new OuterSpaceMovement();
I have a grid 8 columns, 3 rows.I used instance names such as 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, ect to easily identify each cell. I can call the movieclips within them without a problem by doing this["1-1"].gotoAndPlay(1); but how do I go about calling them when I can't use "this"? "1-1".gotoAndPlay(1); does not work.
