MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004 - ACTIONSCRIPT User manual

ActionScript Reference Guide

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Macromedia, Inc. Part Number ZFL70M400

Acknowledgments

Director: Erick Vera

Project Management: Stephanie Gowin, Barbara Nelson

Writing: Jody Bleyle, Mary Burger, Kim Diezel, Stephanie Gowin, Dan Harris, Barbara Herbert, Barbara Nelson, Shirley Ong,

Tim Statler

Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato

Editing: Linda Adler, Mary Ferguson, Mary Kraemer, Noreen Maher, Antonio Padial, Lisa Stanziano, Anne Szabla

Production Management: Patrice O’Neill

Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Christopher Basmajian, Aaron Begley, John Francis, Jeff Harmon

First Edition: Septermber 2003

Macromedia, Inc.

600 Townsend St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: Getting Started with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Intended audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Using the documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Terms used in this document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

PART I: Welcome to ActionScript

CHAPTER 1: What’s New in Flash MX 2004 ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

New and changed language elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

New security model and legacy SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Porting existing scripts to Flash Player 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

ActionScript editor changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Debugging changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

New object-oriented programming model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

CHAPTER 2: ActionScript Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Differences between ActionScript and JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Unicode support for ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

About data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Assigning data types to elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

About variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Using operators to manipulate values in expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Specifying an object’s path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Using built-in functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Creating functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

4 Contents

CHAPTER 3: Writing and Debugging Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Controlling when ActionScript runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Using the Actions panel and Script window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Using the ActionScript editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Debugging your scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Using the Output panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Updating Flash Player for testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

PART II: Handling Events and Creating Interaction

CHAPTER 4: Handling Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Using event handler methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Using event listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Using button and movie clip event handlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Creating movie clips with button states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Event handler scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Scope of the “this” keyword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

CHAPTER 5: Creating Interaction with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

About events and interaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Controlling SWF file playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Creating interactivity and visual effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Deconstructing a sample script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

PART III: Working with Objects and Classes

CHAPTER 6: Using the Built-In Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

About classes and instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Overview of built-in classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

CHAPTER 7: Working with Movie Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

About controlling movie clips with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Calling multiple methods on a single movie clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Loading and unloading additional SWF files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Specifying a root Timeline for loaded SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Loading JPEG files into movie clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Changing movie clip position and appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Dragging movie clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Creating movie clips at runtime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Adding parameters to dynamically created movie clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Managing movie clip depths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Drawing shapes with ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Using movie clips as masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Contents 5

Handling movie clip events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Assigning a class to a movie clip symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Initializing class properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

CHAPTER 8: Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Using the TextField class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Creating text fields at runtime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Using the TextFormat class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Formatting text with Cascading Style Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Using HTML-formatted text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Creating scrolling text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

CHAPTER 9: Creating Classes with ActionScript 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Principles of object-oriented programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Using classes: a simple example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Creating and using classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Instance and class members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Creating and using interfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Understanding the classpath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Using packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Importing classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Implicit get/set methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Creating dynamic classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

How classes are compiled and exported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

PART IV: Working with External Data and Media

CHAPTER 10: Working with External Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Sending and loading variables to and from a remote source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Sending messages to and from Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Flash Player security features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

CHAPTER 11: Working with External Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Overview of loading external media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Loading external SWF and JPEG files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Loading external MP3 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Reading ID3 tags in MP3 files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Playing back external FLV files dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Preloading external media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

6 Contents

PART V: Reference

CHAPTER 12: ActionScript Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Sample entry for most ActionScript elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Sample entry for classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Contents of the dictionary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Accessibility class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Arguments class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Array class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Boolean class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Button class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Camera class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Color class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

ContextMenu class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

ContextMenuItem class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

CustomActions class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Date class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Error class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Function class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Key class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

LoadVars class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

LocalConnection class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Math class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Microphone class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Mouse class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

MovieClip class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

MovieClipLoader class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

NetConnection class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

NetStream class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

Number class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Object class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

PrintJob class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Selection class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607

SharedObject class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

Sound class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624

Stage class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640

String class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649

System class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661

System.capabilities object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

System.security object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

TextField class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680

TextField.StyleSheet class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703

TextFormat class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

TextSnapshot object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Video class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

XML class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

XMLNode class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

XMLSocket class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Contents 7

APPENDIX A: Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

APPENDIX B: Operator Precedence and Associativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

APPENDIX C: Keyboard Keys and Key Code Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789

Letters A to Z and standard numbers 0 to 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789

Keys on the numeric keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790

Function keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791

Other keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

APPENDIX D: Writing Scripts for Earlier Versions of Flash Player. . . . . . . . . . . 795

About targeting older versions of Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795

Using Flash MX 2004 to create content for Flash Player 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796

APPENDIX E: Object-Oriented Programming with ActionScript 1 . . . . . . . . . . . 799

About ActionScript 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807

8 Contents

INTRODUCTION

Getting Started with ActionScript

Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 are the professional standard

authoring tools for producing high-impact web experiences. ActionScript is the language you use

when you want to develop an application within Flash. You don’t have to use ActionScript to use

Flash, but if you want to provide user interactivity, work with objects other than those built into

Flash (such as buttons and movie clips), or otherwise turn a SWF file into a more robust user

experience, you’ll probably want to use ActionScript.

Intended audience

This book assumes that you already have Flash MX 2004 or Flash MX Professional 2004 installed

and know how to use it. You should know how to place objects on the Stage and manipulate them

in the Flash authoring environment. If you have written programs before, ActionScript will feel

familiar. But even if you haven’t, ActionScript isn’t hard to learn. It’s easy to start with very simple

commands and build more complexity as you go along.

System requirements

ActionScript does not have any system requirements in addition to Flash MX 2004 or Flash MX

Professional 2004. However, the documentation assumes that you are using the default

publishing settings for your Flash files: Flash Player 7 and ActionScript 2.0. If you change

either of these settings, explanations and code samples shown in the documentation may not

work correctly.

Using the documentation

This document provides an overview of ActionScript syntax, information on how to use

ActionScript when working with different types of objects, and details on the syntax and usage of

every language element. Start by learning the terminology and basic concepts used in the rest of

the document (see Chapter 2, “ActionScript Basics,” on page 25). Next, learn the mechanics of

writing and debugging Flash scripts (see Chapter 3, “Writing and Debugging Scripts,”

on page 55).

Before writing your own scripts, you should complete the lessons “Write Scripts with

ActionScript” and “Create a Form with Conditional Logic and Send Data,” which provide a

hands-on introduction to working with ActionScript. To find these lessons, select Help >

How Do I > Quick Tasks.

10 Introduction: Getting Started with ActionScript

After you understand the basics, you are ready to use the information in the rest of this document

as it applies to the specific effect you are trying to achieve. For example, if you want to learn how

to write a script that performs a certain action when a user clicks the mouse, see Chapter 4,

“Handling Events,” on page 83.

When you find information about a certain command you want to use, you can look up its entry

in Chapter 12, “ActionScript Dictionary,” on page 205; every language element is listed there in

alphabetical order.

Typographical conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

•Code font indicates ActionScript code.

•Code font italic indicates an element, such as an ActionScript parameter or object name,

that you replace with your own text when writing a script.

Terms used in this document

The following terms are used in this book:

•You refers to the developer who is writing a script or application.

•The user refers to the person who will be running your scripts and applications.

•Compile time is the time at which you publish, export, test, or debug your document.

•Runtime is the time at which your script is running in Flash Player.

ActionScript terms such as method and object are defined in Chapter 2, “ActionScript Basics,”

on page 25.

Additional resources

Specific documentation about Flash and related products is available separately.

•For information about working in the Flash authoring environment, see Using Flash Help. For

information about working with components, see Using Components Help.

•For information about creating communication applications with Flash Communication

Server, see Developing Communications Applications and Managing Flash Communication Server.

•For information about accessing web services with Flash applications, see Using Flash Remoting.

The Macromedia DevNet website (www.macromedia.com/devnet) is updated regularly with the

latest information on Flash, plus advice from expert users, advanced topics, examples, tips, and

other updates. Check the website often for the latest news on Flash and how to get the most out

of the program.

The Macromedia Flash Support Center (www.macromedia.com/support/flash) provides

TechNotes, documentation updates, and links to additional resources in the Flash community.

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