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

3
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

9
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.