Flash 8 ActionScript Bible

867 Pages·2006·11.788 MB·English

by  Joey Lott, Robert Reinhardt

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Flash® 8
ActionScript
Bible
Joey Lott and Robert Reinhardt
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Flash® 8
ActionScript
Bible
Joey Lott and Robert Reinhardt
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May there be peace within and among all beings.
This book is dedicated to the light that shines within you and without you.
—Joey
Flash®8 ActionScript Bible
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-77197-5
ISBN-10: 0-471-77197-X
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1O/SY/RS/QV/IN
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reinhardt, Robert, 1973–
Flash 8 ActionScript bible / Joey Lott and Robert Reinhardt.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-77197-5 (paper/website)
ISBN-10: 0-471-77197-X (paper/website)
1. Computer animation. 2. Web sites—Design. 3. Flash (Computer file) 4. ActionScript (Computer program language)
I. Lott, Joey. II. Title.
TR897.7.R464 2005
006.6'96—dc22
2005029253
Trademarks:Wiley, the Wiley logo, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its
affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Flash is a registered trademark of
Macromedia, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley
Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic
books.
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About the Authors
Joey Lotthas written several books on Flash and ActionScript. He lives in Los Angeles.
Robert Reinhardt, Director of Multimedia Applications for Schematic (www.schematic.com),
is internationally regarded as an expert on multimedia application development, particularly
in Macromedia Flash. Robert is the lead author of the Flash Bibleseries and Flash ActionScript
Bible(Wiley). He has developed multimedia courses for educational facilities in Canada and
the United States and has been a featured speaker at several Web conferences. Robert also
provides multimedia consulting through his company, [theMAKERS], and is a writing partner
for CommunityMX.com.
Credits
Executive Editor Vice President and
Chris Webb Executive Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert
Development Editor
Sara Shlaer Project Coordinator
Ryan Steffen
Technical Editor
J. Matthew Sutton Graphics and Production Specialists
Beth Brooks
Production Editor Denny Hager
Felicia Robinson Barbara Moore
Lynsey Osborn
Copy Editor Alicia B. South
Foxxe Editorial Services
Quality Control Technicians
Editorial Manager Laura Albert
Mary Beth Wakefield Leeann Harney
Production Manager Proofreading and Indexing
Tim Tate TECHBOOKS Production Services
Vice President and
Executive Group Publisher
Richard Swadley
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Contents at a Glance
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Part I: Getting Started with Flash 8 ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1: Introducing Flash 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2: Learning ActionScript Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 3: Constructing ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 4: Working with Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 5: Getting to Know Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 6: Debugging and Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Part II: Using Core Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Chapter 7: Working with Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Chapter 8: Using Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 9: Using Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Chapter 10: Working with Dates and Times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chapter 11: Working with Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Chapter 12: Applying Regular Expressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Part III: Working with Display Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Chapter 13: Using Display Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Chapter 14: Working with Movie Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Chapter 15: Drawing Programmatically. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Chapter 16: Transforming Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Chapter 17: Applying Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Chapter 18: Using the Bitmap API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Chapter 19: Working with Text Fields and Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Chapter 20: Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Part IV:Scripting Player Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Chapter 21: Managing Mouse and Key Interactivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Chapter 22:Working with the Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Chapter 23: Using Context Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Chapter 24: Understanding the Capabilities and Security Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Chapter 25: Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
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Part V: Working with Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Chapter 26: Programming Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Chapter 27: Managing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Part VI: Using Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Chapter 28: Using UI Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Chapter 29: Styling UI Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Chapter 30: Creating Custom Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Part VII: Managing Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Chapter 31: Using Shared Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
Chapter 32: Understanding LocalConnection Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Chapter 33: Programming with the XML and LoadVars Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
Chapter 34: Using Persistent Socket Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Chapter 35: Using Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Chapter 36: Introducing Flash Remoting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Chapter 37: Managing File Uploads and Downloads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Part VIII: Working with Flash in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Chapter 38: Working with Flash in the Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Chapter 39: Making Movies Accessible and Universal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771
Chapter 40: Scripting for the Flash Stand-Alone Player. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
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Contents
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Part I: Getting Started with Flash 8 ActionScript 1
Chapter 1: Introducing Flash 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Understanding the Capabilities of Flash 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Looking at What’s New in Flash 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Getting Started with Flash 8 ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 2: Learning ActionScript Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Introducing ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Learning What You Can Do with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Creating Your First ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Understanding the Event Model: How ActionScript Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Assigning Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Understanding the Actions Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Opening the Actions Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Working with the Actions Toolbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Working with the Script Navigator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Working with the Script Pane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Managing Scripts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Setting Actions Panel Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Working with Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using Code Hinting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Using the Help Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Chapter 3: Constructing ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Understanding Datatypes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Working with Strings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Working with Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Using Booleans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Understanding the undefined and null Datatypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Casting Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Using Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Declaring Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Naming Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Using Expressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33