Archive for ‘ActionScript 3.0’

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July 31st, 2008

Creating buttons that link to different scenes, and within a scene, using ActionScript 3.0

by Jen deHaan

A common request in the comments is for information on how to create a button that links to a scene using ActionScript 3.0 in Flash CS4 or CS3. Luckily, it’s largely the same as creating a normal button that links to whatever, and uses the same gotoAndPlay format as in ActionScript 2.0. So hopefully it’ll make sense once you see it.

So if you’re unsure on general button code, see this post here: Making a button work in AS3. More links about writing button code at the end of this post.

Now you’re ready for some scenes-with-buttons action. Here’s some code:

stop();button1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler);function mouseDownHandler(event:MouseEvent):void {
 
gotoAndStop(1, "Scene 2");
 
}

So that code assumes that you have a button with the instance name button1, and a scene in your document called Scene 2 in the Scenes panel. The number "1" in that code points to frame 1 of the scene.

So what if you want to, say, link to a particular frame? Let’s link to frame 5 of a scene called monkeyScene:

stop();button2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, monkeyDownHandler);
 
function monkeyDownHandler(event:MouseEvent):void {
 
gotoAndStop(5, "monkeyScene");
 
}

Hope that answers the question. I’ve put an FLA file online that links each scene using buttons so you can see this in action.

Linking to buttons within a scene

There have also been questions about linking to frames within a scene. I’m not positive what the specific problem is, but I’ll take a stab at it (or at least show what seems to work for me.

Now, what causes many of the problems with Scenes in Flash (and why they are officially discouraged from use in Flash best practices – I never use ‘em unless I have next to no code in a FLA), is as follows. From what I understand, when you publish your SWF file, all of the scenes in a FLA are made into one big giant string of frames. Kind of like sticking all of your scenes into one big timeline (one big scene, essentially) and pushing it out as a SWF. Therefore, this can mess up your code. If you’re pointing to a frame 56… which one? To you it may be frame 56 of scene 3, but to Flash that may be frame 56 of the giant new timeline in the SWF that’s published.

So, it’s good to avoid scenes.

But I digress. So if you’re linking to buttons within the same scene, you could specify what scene you’re pointing to in each button. So if you’re in a scene called monkeyScene, you could make your button that’s on frame 1 point to frame 2 of monkeyScene as follows:

stop();
 
mbutton1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, monkeyHandler1);
 
function monkeyHandler1(event:MouseEvent):void {
 
gotoAndStop(2, "monkeyScene");
 
}

I’ve uploaded another real ugly FLA file that links multiple buttons to frames within a single scene. Check out monkeyScene in the FLA file.

MORE INFORMATION ON BUTTONS:

Posted in ActionScript 3.0, Flash CS3, Flash CS4, Flash CS5, Migration, buttons | 76 Comments »

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March 13th, 2008

Adding more than one button to a FLA file while rocking it in ActionScript 3.0

by Jen deHaan

So there have been a number of questions on my kinda recent post about making a button in Flash CS3 or Flash CS4 using ActionScript 3.0. I will do the next couple posts on how to do the things in the questions (and actually check em out in Flash, and make an FLA to download). Update: More links about buttons and button code at the end of this post.

So if you haven’t already read or don’t know how to make a single button, head on over to the post linked above. Here, I’ll continue on to multiple buttons.

Say you have a couple buttons on a page, and you want one to go to one URL, and the second one to go to a different URL – you need to change your function names in your code so you don’t have multiples with the same name. So, you would need to do something like this:

thumbsdown_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, thumbDownHandler);
function thumbDownHandler(event:MouseEvent):void {
 navigateToURL(new URLRequest("http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/silverlight/default.aspx"));
}
thumbsup_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, thumbUpHandler);
function thumbUpHandler(event:MouseEvent):void {
 navigateToURL(new URLRequest("http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/"));
}

Note the thumbDownHandler and thumbupHandler in the code.

The source file: Mutliple buttons to URLs

So some people are instead targeting multiple frames. In that case, the code would look like this:

stop();
first_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler1);
function mouseDownHandler1(event:MouseEvent):void {
 gotoAndStop(5);
}
 
second_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler2);
function mouseDownHandler2(event:MouseEvent):void {
 gotoAndStop(10);
}

The source file: Mutliple buttons to frames

MORE INFORMATION ON BUTTONS:

Posted in ActionScript 3.0, Flash CS3, Flash CS4, Migration, buttons | 132 Comments »

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March 2nd, 2008

Loading and displaying video in Flash CS3 using ActionScript 3.0, no more video objects

by Jen deHaan

A pretty common thing to do with Flash is to play an FLV file. In ActionScript 2.0, you would do the following:

1. Create a new Video object in your Library (choose New Video from the Library’s Options menu).
2. Drag the video onto the Stage, and give it an instance name.
3. Add the following code to frame 1 of your document:

// ActionScript 2.0
var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
nc.connect(null);
var ns:NetStream = new NetStream(nc);
 
ns.onMetaData = function(item:Object):Void  {
 trace("metaData");
 // Resize video instance.
 myVideo._width = item.width;
 myVideo._height = item.height;
 // Center video instance on Stage.
 myVideo._x = (Stage.width-myVideo._width)/2;
 myVideo._y = (Stage.height-myVideo._height)/2;
};
 
ns.onCuePoint = function(item:Object):Void  {
 trace("cuePoint");
 trace(item.name+"\t"+item.time);
};
 
myVideo.attachVideo(ns);
ns.play("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/video/cuepoints.flv");

That will play your video and also trace a couple cuepoints. Sample file: Load video with ActionScript 2.0

It’s kind of cool in ActionScript 3.0 in that you can open an empty AS3 FLA file, paste this code onto frame 1 of your document, and you’re off to the races (meaning, that’s all you have to do). As you can see, the code isn’t that much different either – so if you added video in AS2, things should seem pretty familiar. This is the same thing as above — it will also play a video and trace some cuepoints.

// ActionScript 3.0
 
var video:Video = new Video();
addChild(video);
 
var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
nc.connect(null);
 
var ns:NetStream = new NetStream(nc);
ns.client = {onMetaData:ns_onMetaData, onCuePoint:ns_onCuePoint};
 
video.attachNetStream(ns);
ns.play("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/video/cuepoints.flv");
 
function ns_onMetaData(item:Object):void {
 trace("metaData");
 // Resize video instance.
 video.width = item.width;
 video.height = item.height;
 // Center video instance on Stage.
 video.x = (stage.stageWidth - video.width) / 2;
 video.y = (stage.stageHeight - video.height) / 2;
}
 
function ns_onCuePoint(item:Object):void {
 trace("cuePoint");
 trace(item.name + "\t" + item.time);
}

Sample file: Load video with ActionScript 3.0

Posted in ActionScript 2.0, ActionScript 3.0, FLV, Flash CS3, Migration, Video | 30 Comments »

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February 25th, 2008

Making a button work in Flash CS3, CS4 or CS5 with ActionScript 3.0 – it’s not too bad

by Jen deHaan

So I used to monitor comments coming in from the CS3 Video Workshop, which contains a few hundred video tutorials on the CS3 products. Some of the comments that came in regarding the Flash videos was how people were having frustrations about how to set up button code with ActionScript 3.0. I thought that’s where I’d start out, with a simple example that compares the two. So I’ll show you how to make a button work in Flash CS3 or Flash CS4 using ActionScript 3.0.

Luckily, the set up is pretty much the same assuming you put code on the Timeline. If you didn’t, it will be a bit of a change and you’ll need to follow the steps below.

read more »

Posted in ActionScript 2.0, ActionScript 3.0, Flash CS3, Flash CS4, Flash CS5, buttons | 376 Comments »

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