Flashthusiast

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:

• For basic information on creating a button in ActionScript 3.0, see this post: http://flashthusiast.com/2008/02/25/making-a-button-work-in-flash-cs3-with-actionscript-30-its-not-too-bad/
• If you have MORE THAN ONE BUTTON and want to add that to your FLA file, please continue on to this post about adding multiple buttons to your file.
• For info on targeting different windows with your button code (such as the same window instead of a new window), see this post: http://flashthusiast.com/2009/07/24/controlling-the-window-a-button-click-opens-using-actionscript-30-in-flash/
• For information on creating MovieClip buttons in Flash, see this: http://flashthusiast.com/2008/10/19/movie-clip-buttons-in-a-fight-its-as2-vs-as3-again/
• For information on controlling the browser window target that opens when a button is clicked, see: http://flashthusiast.com/2008/10/19/movie-clip-buttons-in-a-fight-its-as2-vs-as3-again/
• For info on creating buttons that go to the next frame or previous frame on the timeline, see: http://flashthusiast.com/2010/05/05/buttons-in-flash-using-actionscript-3-0-going-to-next-frame-and-previous-frame/