ActionScript 3 Tips

[hard_overclocker]

Hi people, we all like as3 but sometimes the easiest things can give us lots of headaches. This is why I open this thread. Here, myself and hopefully others will post tips on how to avoid headbanging

I would like to mention that I am also new to AS3 so if I say something stupid, don't hesitate to correct me.

[hard_overclocker]

When you have a dynamic text field inside a Movie clip that you want to use as a button and you set

our_mc.buttonMode = true;

so the hand cursor apears when you hover over it, make sure you set the following atributes to the text field:

our_mc.mouseChildren = false;
our_text.selectable = false;

This will disable the mouse for the children of our_mc. You could also use

our_text.mouseEnabled = false;
our_text.selectable = false;

to disable the mouse just for the text field.

[hard_overclocker]

This is not realy AS3 news but, its good practice.
When you name your variables, it is very helpfull to add a specific suffix their name in order for flash to give you code hinting (flash opens the popup list with the available commands for selected item).

Here are some usefull suffixes:

• myTextField_txt - for text boxes
• myClip_mc - for movie clips
• myButton_btn - for buttons
• myArray_array - you got it
• myXML_xml - for xml

Code hinting is very useful because it helps you prevent making some errors and keeps you on track. I like it

[Flep]

The importance of Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE:

[Flep]

Preventing cache in Flash Player

Just add this at the end of the call:

'?cachebuster='+new Date().getTime();

For example, if we want call info.xml:

'http://www.sitename.com/info.xml?cachebuster='+new Date().getTime();

[Flep]

MouseWheel on MAC

Gabriel Bucknall has resolved the issue:

pixelbreaker : AS3.0 MouseWheel on Mac OS X

[Flep]

Set focus to TextField
Let's say we have 2 TextFields: one_txt and two_txt.

If you want to give focus at one_txt:

stage.focus=one_txt;

[Flep]

Remove from the cache Flv video playback
Close the connection with the previous source and returns a player not more at cache.

my_flv_player.getVideoPlayer(my_flv_player.activeVideoPlayerIndex).close();

[Flep]

Many MovieClip to attach from library
Create an Array with all your linkage Classes:

var classes:Array=new Array(NameLinkage1,NameLinkage2,NameLinakge3,NameLinkage4);

Use a loop and MovieClip as datatype:

for(var i:int=0;i < classes.length;i++)
{
	var clip:MovieClip=new classes[i]();
}