ActionScript 2.0 Garage

Enter your ActionScript 2.0 Garage -- where you kick your ActionScript 2.0 skills into high gear!

Find the code, master the skills, inflame your passion

Create Flashware built for speed and performance

Built to do the impossible… built to take their breath away

Where you become a lean, mean, ActionScriptin’ machine

Strap in. Meet your driver: Dan Livingston, ActionScripter to the stars (Apple, Charles Schwab, PacBell…)

Watch, do, learn–fast:

- forms and validation, styles and skins

- data in detail, XML and RSS

- classes and objects, events and listeners

- menu systems, stylesheets, masks, preloaders

- ActionScript 2.0 architecture, new UI components, and loads more

All with no-faking, real-deal, serious downloadable code

Example(s)

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Author's Site

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Praise For ActionScript 2.0 Garage

"Great book, I just got it and it is being tremendous help on getting the hang of ActionScript. I have been doing tutorials on line, but had been unable to tie up the pieces, plus the sense of humor is GREAT. Everybody at work has been cracking up about your way to explain functions that return numeric values with your wardrovemalfunction example. A friend of mine who happens to be from India thought that your suggestion about being good about documenting your code was also hilarious. I was blown away right away by the tip on page 9, how to switch back and forth using a function key from design view to code view by separating the action script editor from the main set up. I have been recommending it a lot. I'll be getting some more of your books soon, you really know your stuff." -- Edgar Ibarra.

Index

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Preface

Welcome to ActionScript 2.0 Garage . The goal of this book is to make learning ActionScript more fun. A lot more fun.

Okay, it's not a big dream, but it's my dream.

That, and I attempted to have something of a (gasp) personality (shriek) while talking about code. I'm aiming for "helpful smart-alec" (or "chaotic good" if you're old-school).

Who This Book Is For

This book is for beginning to intermediate ActionScript programmers who want a quick, friendly way to get deeper into ActionScript code. If you don't know what trace() is, put this book down right now before you hurt somebody. I'm not kidding. Right now!

Who This Book Isn't For

Junkies. Heiresses. Shepherds. I make fun of George Lucas a few times, and maybe Orlando Bloom too--I can't remember for sure. (He was great in Troy , you know. He did a wonderful job in the role of Helen.)

What's in the Book

This book has everything from arrays to objects to how to manipulate components: Component skins. Styles. Functions. Best practices. Lots and lots of code and working examples. You can download everything from www.wire-man.com/garage.

What's Not in the Book

Data components don't really involve ActionScript, so I left them out. I don't cover advanced object-oriented anything or how to use the animation bits of the Flash program.

About the Attitude

You may notice this tome's tone is a little rougher than other computer books you've read. That's because we want this book to make learning fun , so we decided to spice it up a bit. If you go through the book and don't learn a thing about ActionScript, I hope you're at least a little entertained. (Update: I just got word that my editor has toned down the profanity and numerous pornography references, so perhaps it's a tad less entertaining now.)

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Topic 1: What’s New in AS2? 1

Super-Short History 1

What Is AS2 Really? 1

Does AS1 Still Work? 2

Biggest Change: New Class Syntax 2

Components 2

General Changes 3

Language Changes 3

Topic 2: Strong Typing 5

Strong Typing and Code Hints 7

Tricking Flash 9

Topic 3: Function Return Typing 11

Part I: Forms 15

Topic 4: Forms: Flash or HTML? 17

Topic 5: Creating a Form Using Components 21

What Are Components? 21

Two Ways to Add Components 22

Topic 6: Creating a Form from Scratch 27

What We Did 32

Topic 7: Validating Form Data 35

ComboBoxes 35

Checkbox 38

Radio Buttons 38

Reading a DataGrid 39

TextInput, TextArea, and Regular Input Text Fields 41

Is the Right Thing Entered? 41

Alert 42

List 43

DateField 44

Topic 8: Submitting a Form and Getting Data Back 45

Checkboxes 47

Radio Buttons 48

List 48

Date Field 49

Topic 9: Form Screens 53

Overview 53

Code Fix! 55

Extras 56

Part II: Skinning Components 59

Topic 10: Setting Skins and Styles: Halo and Sample 61

Dealing with Halo’s themeColors 63

Topic 11: Setting Styles on a Single Component 65

Style Objects 69

MenuBar Misguiding 70

Topic 12: Setting Styles on a Certain Type of Component 71

Huh? 71

Those Darn Buttons 72

Topic 13: Setting Styles on All Components 77

Styles and Precedence 78

Topic 14: Skinning Components 81

Part III: Data 85

Topic 15: LoadVars Object 87

Code Fix! 87

Extra Geek 88

sendAndLoad() 89

Topic 16: Reading in Data 91

Name/Value Pairs 91

Loading XML 92

Topic 17: Sending and Receiving Data 95

getURL() 95

LoadVars.sendAndLoad() 96

XML.sendAndLoad() 97

Part IV: Loading Movies And Images 99

Topic 18: Loading and Unloading Movies 101

Loading Images 103

Unloading 103

Levels 104

Topic 19: Attaching Movies 105

Code Fix! 105

Syntax 106

Attaching to the Legs 113

Do the Fade 113

Topic 20: Loading JPEGs 117

Part V: XML 119

Topic 21: Reading and Parsing XML 121

Our XML 122

Looping through XML 124

Topic 22: RSS: Parse Me, You Fool 129

How the Function Does Its Function Thing 130

Topic 23: Creating an Internal XML Document 133

Basic Steps 134

Code Fix! 134

Title Nodes 135

Part VI: Sound 137

Topic 24: Using Simple Sound 139

Vital to Understand 139

Topic 25: MP3s and ActionScript 143

Code Fix! 143

onSoundComplete 144

ID3 144

attachSound() 145

Part VII: Video 147

Topic 26: Using Imported Video 149

Controlling the Clip 149

Exporting FLV Files 151

Topic 27: Video 153

Playback Using Media Components 154

Skipping the Component 155

Part VIII: Menus Components 159

Topic 28: Menu Component 161

Code Fix! 162

Types of Menu Items 164

Submenus 166

Menus and XML 167

Submenus and an External XML File 169

Topic 29: MenuBar 171

Do It 171

Topic 30: Accordion Panel 173

Populating the Accordion 173

Code Fix! 174

Reading from the Accordion 175

Reacting to Changing Movies 175

Part IX: Styles and Stylesheets 177

Topic 31: Stylesheets 179

CSS 179

Code Fix! 180

Some Extra Stuff 183

Topic 32: Stylesheets and XML 185

Topic 33: TextFormat 189

Part X: Random Stuff 193

Topic 34: Using Masks 195

Code Fix! 196

Another Example 196

Topic 35: Preloaders 199

Code Fix! 200

ProgressBar Component 200

Preloading and Components 201

Topic 36: Calling JavaScript 203

fscommand() 203

Topic 37: Date and Time 207

Finding How Long From Now Until Then 208

Time 209

Topic 38: Drawing with ActionScript 211

Code Fix! 211

Drawing Shapes 212

Drawing Curves 213

Topic 39: _global 217

Code Fix! 217

Part XI: Classes 219

Topic 40: Classes and Objects: An Introduction 221

Actual Code 223

Topic 41: Your First Class 225

Topic 42: Extending the Movie Clip Class 229

Classes and Subclasses 229

Code Fix! 230

Topic 43: Adding Methods to Built-in Classes 233

arrayShuffle.as 233

Part XII: Events and Listeners 237

Topic 44: Events, Handlers, and Listeners 239

Broadcasters 240

Event Handler Methods 241

Listeners 241

Topic 45: on() and onClipEvent() 245

on() 245

onClipEvent() 246

Topic 46: Event Methods 247

Code Fix! 247

Topic 47: MovieClipLoader 249

Topic 48: addListener() 251

Code Fix! 251

Events 252

removeListener() 252

Topic 49: addEventListener() 253

Code Fix! 253

Part XIII: Some New UI Components 255

Topic 50: DataGrid Component 257

Code Fix! 257

Code Fix! 260

Topic 51: Label Component 263

Styles 264

Code Fix! 265

Topic 52: Loader 265

Topic 53: Numeric Stepper 267

Topic 54: Tree 269

Code Fix! 270

Populating the Tree with an Internal XML Document 272

Topic 55: Window Component 275

Pop-Up Window 276

Close the Window 277

Issues 279

Part XIV: Data Binding 281

Topic 56: Yes, Data Binding 283

No, Really—What’s Data Binding? 283

Code Fix! 284

Getting Deeper 285

Index 287

Downloadable Sample Chapter

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