MACROMEDIA FLASHLITE2 ACTIONSCRIPT-LANGUAGE, Flash Lite 2 Reference

Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript Language Reference

Trademarks

1 Step RoboPDF, ActiveEdit, ActiveTest, Authorware, Blue Sky Software, Blue Sky, Breeze, Breezo, Captivate, Central, ColdFusion, Contribute, Database Explorer, Director, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, FlashCast, FlashHelp, Flash Lite, FlashPaper, Flash Video Endocer, Flex, Flex Builder, Fontographer, FreeHand, Generator, HomeSite, JRun, MacRecorder, Macromedia, MXML, RoboEngine, RoboHelp, RoboInfo, RoboPDF, Roundtrip, Roundtrip HTML, Shockwave, SoundEdit, Studio MX, UltraDev, and WebHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words, or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, service marks, or trade names of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally.

Third-Party Information

This guide contains links to third-party websites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites.

Sorenson™ Spark™ video compression and decompression technology licensed from Sorenson Media, Inc.

Fraunhofer-IIS/Thomson Multimedia: MPEG Layer-3 audio compression technology licensed by Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson Multimedia (http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/)

Independent JPEG Group: This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

Nellymoser, Inc.: Speech compression and decompression technology licensed by Nellymoser, Inc. (http:www.nellymoser.com).

Visual SourceSafe is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Copyright © 2006 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without written approval from Macromedia, Inc. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the owner or authorized user of a valid copy of the software with which this manual was provided may print out one copy of this manual from an electronic version of this manual for the sole purpose of such owner or authorized user learning to use such software, provided that no part of this manual may be printed out, reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted for any other purposes, including, without limitation, commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this documentation or providing paid-for support services.

Acknowledgments

Project Management: Mary Leigh Burke

Writing: Denise Green

Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato

Editing: Linda Adler, Evelyn Eldridge, Mark Nigara, Lisa Stanziano, Anne Szabla, Jessie Wood

Production Management: Adam Barnett, Kristin Conradi

Media Design and Production: Yuriko Ando, Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman. John Francis, Geeta Karmarkar, Masayo Noda, Paul Rangel, Arena Reed, Mario Reynoso

Special thanks to Lisa Friendly, Luciano Arruda, Erick Vera, the beta testers, and the entire Flash Lite engineering and QA teams.

First Edition: January 2006

Macromedia, Inc. 601 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94103

Contents

Chapter 1: ActionScript language elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Compiler Directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

#endinitclip directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

#include directive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

#initclip directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

false constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Infinity constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

-Infinity constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

NaN constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

newline constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

null constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

true constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

undefined constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Global Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Array function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Boolean function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

call function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

chr function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

clearInterval function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

duplicateMovieClip function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

escape function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

eval function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

fscommand function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

fscommand2 function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

getProperty function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

getTimer function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

getURL function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

getVersion function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

gotoAndPlay function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

gotoAndStop function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

ifFrameLoaded function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

int function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

isFinite function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

isNaN function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

length function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

loadMovie function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

loadMovieNum function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

loadVariables function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

loadVariablesNum function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

mbchr function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

mblength function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

mbord function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

mbsubstring function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

nextFrame function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

nextScene function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Number function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Object function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

on handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

onClipEvent handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

ord function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

parseFloat function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

parseInt function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

play function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

prevFrame function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

prevScene function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

random function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

removeMovieClip function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

setInterval function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

setProperty function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

startDrag function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

stop function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

stopAllSounds function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

stopDrag function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

String function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

substring function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

targetPath function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

tellTarget function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

toggleHighQuality function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

trace function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

unescape function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

unloadMovie function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

unloadMovieNum function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Global Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

$version property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

_cap4WayKeyAS property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

_capCompoundSound property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

_capEmail property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

_capLoadData property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

_capMFi property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

_capMIDI property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

_capMMS property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

4Contents

_capSMAF property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

_capSMS property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

_capStreamSound property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

_focusrect property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

_forceframerate property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

_global property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

_highquality property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

_level property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

maxscroll property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

_parent property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

_quality property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

_root property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108

scroll property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108

_soundbuftime property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

this property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

+ addition operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

+= addition assignment operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

[] array access operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

= assignment operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123

& bitwise AND operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124

&= bitwise AND assignment operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

<< bitwise left shift operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

<<= bitwise left shift and assignment operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

~ bitwise NOT operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

| bitwise OR operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130

|= bitwise OR assignment operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

>> bitwise right shift operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132

>>= bitwise right shift and assignment operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

>>> bitwise unsigned right shift operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134

>>>= bitwise unsigned right shift and assignment operator . . . . . . . .135

^ bitwise XOR operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

^= bitwise XOR assignment operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

/* block comment delimiter operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

, comma operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

add concatenation (strings) operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140

?: conditional operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

-- decrement operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

/ division operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

/= division assignment operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

. dot operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

== equality operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145

eq equality (strings) operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

> greater than operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

gt greater than (strings) operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148

Contents 5

>= greater than or equal to operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

ge greater than or equal to (strings) operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

++ increment operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

!= inequality operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

<> inequality operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

instanceof operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

< less than operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

lt less than (strings) operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

<= less than or equal to operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

le less than or equal to (strings) operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

// line comment delimiter operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

&& logical AND operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

and logical AND operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

! logical NOT operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

not logical NOT operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

|| logical OR operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

or logical OR operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

% modulo operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

%= modulo assignment operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

* multiplication operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

*= multiplication assignment operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

new operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

ne not equal (strings) operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

{} object initializer operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

() parentheses operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

=== strict equality operator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

!== strict inequality operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

" string delimiter operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

- subtraction operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

-= subtraction assignment operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

: type operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

typeof operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

void operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

break statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

case statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181

class statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

continue statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

default statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

delete statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

do..while statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

dynamic statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

else statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

else if statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

extends statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

6Contents

for statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196

for..in statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

function statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198

get statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

if statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201

implements statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

import statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

interface statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

intrinsic statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

private statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

public statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

return statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

set statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210

set variable statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

static statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213

super statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214

switch statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215

throw statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216

try..catch..finally statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217

var statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221

while statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

with statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

fscommand2 Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

ExtendBacklightDuration fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . 227

FullScreen fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

GetBatteryLevel fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

GetDevice fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

GetDeviceID fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

GetFreePlayerMemory fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

GetMaxBatteryLevel fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

GetMaxSignalLevel fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

GetMaxVolumeLevel fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231

GetNetworkConnectionName fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . .231

GetNetworkConnectStatus fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . 232

GetNetworkGeneration fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

GetNetworkName fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

GetNetworkRequestStatus fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . 234

GetNetworkStatus fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

GetPlatform fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

GetPowerSource fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

GetSignalLevel fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

GetTotalPlayerMemory fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

GetVolumeLevel fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Quit fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

ResetSoftKeys fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Contents 7

SetFocusRectColor fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

SetInputTextType fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

SetSoftKeys fscommand2 Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

StartVibrate fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243

StopVibrate fscommand2 Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243

Chapter 2: ActionScript classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

callee (arguments.callee property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246

caller (arguments.caller property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246

length (arguments.length property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247

Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247

Array constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

CASEINSENSITIVE (Array.CASEINSENSITIVE property) . . . . .252

concat (Array.concat method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252

DESCENDING (Array.DESCENDING property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

join (Array.join method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

length (Array.length property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .255

NUMERIC (Array.NUMERIC property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .256

pop (Array.pop method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .256

push (Array.push method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257

RETURNINDEXEDARRAY

(Array.RETURNINDEXEDARRAY property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257

reverse (Array.reverse method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258

shift (Array.shift method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258

slice (Array.slice method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258

sort (Array.sort method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

sortOn (Array.sortOn method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262

splice (Array.splice method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265

toString (Array.toString method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267

UNIQUESORT (Array.UNIQUESORT property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267

unshift (Array.unshift method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .268

Boolean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .268

Boolean constructor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269

toString (Boolean.toString method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270

valueOf (Boolean.valueOf method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270

Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

_alpha (Button._alpha property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .274

enabled (Button.enabled property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275

_focusrect (Button._focusrect property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .276

getDepth (Button.getDepth method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

_height (Button._height property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278

_highquality (Button._highquality property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278

_name (Button._name property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278

onDragOut (Button.onDragOut handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .279

8Contents

onDragOver (Button.onDragOver handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

onKeyDown (Button.onKeyDown handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

onKeyUp (Button.onKeyUp handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281

onKillFocus (Button.onKillFocus handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

onPress (Button.onPress handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

onRelease (Button.onRelease handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

onReleaseOutside (Button.onReleaseOutside handler). . . . . . . . 284

onRollOut (Button.onRollOut handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

onRollOver (Button.onRollOver handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

onSetFocus (Button.onSetFocus handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

_parent (Button._parent property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

_quality (Button._quality property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

_rotation (Button._rotation property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

_soundbuftime (Button._soundbuftime property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

tabEnabled (Button.tabEnabled property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

tabIndex (Button.tabIndex property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

_target (Button._target property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

trackAsMenu (Button.trackAsMenu property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291

_url (Button._url property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

_visible (Button._visible property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

_width (Button._width property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

_x (Button._x property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

_xmouse (Button._xmouse property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

_xscale (Button._xscale property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

_y (Button._y property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

_ymouse (Button._ymouse property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

_yscale (Button._yscale property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

capabilities (System.capabilities) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

audioMIMETypes (capabilities.audioMIMETypes property) . . . . 304

avHardwareDisable

(capabilities.avHardwareDisable property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

has4WayKeyAS (capabilities.has4WayKeyAS property) . . . . . . 305

hasAccessibility (capabilities.hasAccessibility property) . . . . . . . 305

hasAudio (capabilities.hasAudio property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

hasAudioEncoder (capabilities.hasAudioEncoder property) . . . . 306

hasCMIDI (capabilities.hasCMIDI property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

hasCompoundSound

(capabilities.hasCompoundSound property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

hasDataLoading (capabilities.hasDataLoading property) . . . . . . 307

hasEmail (capabilities.hasEmail property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

hasEmbeddedVideo

(capabilities.hasEmbeddedVideo property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

hasMappableSoftKeys

(capabilities.hasMappableSoftKeys property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

hasMFI (capabilities.hasMFI property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Contents 9

hasMIDI (capabilities.hasMIDI property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

hasMMS (capabilities.hasMMS property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

hasMouse (capabilities.hasMouse property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

hasMP3 (capabilities.hasMP3 property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

hasPrinting (capabilities.hasPrinting property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

hasQWERTYKeyboard

(capabilities.hasQWERTYKeyboard property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

hasScreenBroadcast

(capabilities.hasScreenBroadcast property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311

hasScreenPlayback

(capabilities.hasScreenPlayback property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311

hasSharedObjects (capabilities.hasSharedObjects property) . . . .311

hasSMAF (capabilities.hasSMAF property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

hasSMS (capabilities.hasSMS property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

hasStreamingAudio

(capabilities.hasStreamingAudio property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

hasStreamingVideo

(capabilities.hasStreamingVideo property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

hasStylus (capabilities.hasStylus property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

hasVideoEncoder (capabilities.hasVideoEncoder property) . . . . 313

imageMIMETypes (capabilities.imageMIMETypes property). . . . 314

isDebugger (capabilities.isDebugger property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

language (capabilities.language property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

localFileReadDisable

(capabilities.localFileReadDisable property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

MIMETypes (capabilities.MIMETypes property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

os (capabilities.os property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

screenOrientation (capabilities.screenOrientation property) . . . . 317

screenResolutionX (capabilities.screenResolutionX property) . . 318 screenResolutionY (capabilities.screenResolutionY property) . . 318

softKeyCount (capabilities.softKeyCount property) . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

version (capabilities.version property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

videoMIMETypes (capabilities.videoMIMETypes property) . . . . . 319

Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Color constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

getRGB (Color.getRGB method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

getTransform (Color.getTransform method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

setRGB (Color.setRGB method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .322

setTransform (Color.setTransform method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323

Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .324

Date constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

getDate (Date.getDate method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

getDay (Date.getDay method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .332

getFullYear (Date.getFullYear method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .332

getHours (Date.getHours method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333

10 Contents

getLocaleLongDate (Date.getLocaleLongDate method) . . . . . . 334

getLocaleShortDate (Date.getLocaleShortDate method). . . . . . 334

getLocaleTime (Date.getLocaleTime method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

getMilliseconds (Date.getMilliseconds method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

getMinutes (Date.getMinutes method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

getMonth (Date.getMonth method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

getSeconds (Date.getSeconds method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

getTime (Date.getTime method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

getTimezoneOffset (Date.getTimezoneOffset method). . . . . . . . 338

getUTCDate (Date.getUTCDate method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

getUTCDay (Date.getUTCDay method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

getUTCFullYear (Date.getUTCFullYear method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

getUTCHours (Date.getUTCHours method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

getUTCMilliseconds (Date.getUTCMilliseconds method) . . . . . . .341

getUTCMinutes (Date.getUTCMinutes method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341

getUTCMonth (Date.getUTCMonth method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

getUTCSeconds (Date.getUTCSeconds method) . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

getUTCYear (Date.getUTCYear method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

getYear (Date.getYear method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

setDate (Date.setDate method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

setFullYear (Date.setFullYear method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

setHours (Date.setHours method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

setMilliseconds (Date.setMilliseconds method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

setMinutes (Date.setMinutes method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

setMonth (Date.setMonth method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

setSeconds (Date.setSeconds method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

setTime (Date.setTime method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

setUTCDate (Date.setUTCDate method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

setUTCFullYear (Date.setUTCFullYear method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

setUTCHours (Date.setUTCHours method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351

setUTCMilliseconds (Date.setUTCMilliseconds method) . . . . . . 352

setUTCMinutes (Date.setUTCMinutes method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

setUTCMonth (Date.setUTCMonth method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

setUTCSeconds (Date.setUTCSeconds method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

setYear (Date.setYear method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

toString (Date.toString method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

UTC (Date.UTC method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

valueOf (Date.valueOf method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Error. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Error constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

message (Error.message property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

name (Error.name property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

toString (Error.toString method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .361

Contents 11

ExtendedKey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362

SOFT1 (ExtendedKey.SOFT1 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .364

SOFT10 (ExtendedKey.SOFT10 property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .364

SOFT11 (ExtendedKey.SOFT11 property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .364

SOFT12 (ExtendedKey.SOFT12 property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .364

SOFT2 (ExtendedKey.SOFT2 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

SOFT3 (ExtendedKey.SOFT3 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

SOFT4 (ExtendedKey.SOFT4 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

SOFT5 (ExtendedKey.SOFT5 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

SOFT6 (ExtendedKey.SOFT6 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

SOFT7 (ExtendedKey.SOFT7 property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

SOFT8 (ExtendedKey.SOFT8 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .366

SOFT9 (ExtendedKey.SOFT9 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .366

Function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .366

apply (Function.apply method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .367

call (Function.call method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .369

Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .370

addListener (Key.addListener method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .372

BACKSPACE (Key.BACKSPACE property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .373

CAPSLOCK (Key.CAPSLOCK property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374

CONTROL (Key.CONTROL property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374

DELETEKEY (Key.DELETEKEY property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374

DOWN (Key.DOWN property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .375

END (Key.END property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .376

ENTER (Key.ENTER property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .376

ESCAPE (Key.ESCAPE property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

getAscii (Key.getAscii method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

getCode (Key.getCode method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .378

HOME (Key.HOME property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

INSERT (Key.INSERT property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

isDown (Key.isDown method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

LEFT (Key.LEFT property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .382

_listeners (Key._listeners property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383

onKeyDown (Key.onKeyDown event listener). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383

onKeyUp (Key.onKeyUp event listener) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .384

PGDN (Key.PGDN property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .384

PGUP (Key.PGUP property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385

removeListener (Key.removeListener method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385

RIGHT (Key.RIGHT property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386

SHIFT (Key.SHIFT property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

SPACE (Key.SPACE property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .387

TAB (Key.TAB property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .388

UP (Key.UP property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389

12 Contents

LoadVars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

addRequestHeader

(LoadVars.addRequestHeader method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

contentType (LoadVars.contentType property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

decode (LoadVars.decode method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

getBytesLoaded (LoadVars.getBytesLoaded method) . . . . . . . . 395

getBytesTotal (LoadVars.getBytesTotal method). . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

load (LoadVars.load method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

loaded (LoadVars.loaded property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

LoadVars constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

onData (LoadVars.onData handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

onLoad (LoadVars.onLoad handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401

send (LoadVars.send method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

sendAndLoad (LoadVars.sendAndLoad method). . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

toString (LoadVars.toString method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Locale (mx.lang.Locale) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

addDelayedInstance (Locale.addDelayedInstance method). . . . 408

addXMLPath (Locale.addXMLPath method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

checkXMLStatus (Locale.checkXMLStatus method) . . . . . . . . . 408

initialize (Locale.initialize method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

loadLanguageXML (Locale.loadLanguageXML method) . . . . . . 409

loadString (Locale.loadString method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

setDefaultLang (Locale.setDefaultLang method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

setLoadCallback (Locale.setLoadCallback method) . . . . . . . . . . .410

Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .410

abs (Math.abs method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .413

acos (Math.acos method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .414

asin (Math.asin method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .414

atan (Math.atan method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415

atan2 (Math.atan2 method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .416

ceil (Math.ceil method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .416

cos (Math.cos method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

E (Math.E property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .418

exp (Math.exp method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .418

floor (Math.floor method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .419

LN10 (Math.LN10 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

LN2 (Math.LN2 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

log (Math.log method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

LOG10E (Math.LOG10E property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .421

LOG2E (Math.LOG2E property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .421

max (Math.max method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

min (Math.min method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

PI (Math.PI property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

pow (Math.pow method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

random (Math.random method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Contents 13

round (Math.round method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

sin (Math.sin method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .426

sqrt (Math.sqrt method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .427

SQRT1_2 (Math.SQRT1_2 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .428

SQRT2 (Math.SQRT2 property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

tan (Math.tan method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

addListener (Mouse.addListener method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .432

onMouseDown (Mouse.onMouseDown event listener). . . . . . . . .433

onMouseMove (Mouse.onMouseMove event listener) . . . . . . . . .435

onMouseUp (Mouse.onMouseUp event listener) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .436

removeListener (Mouse.removeListener method) . . . . . . . . . . . . .437

MovieClip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

_alpha (MovieClip._alpha property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .447

attachMovie (MovieClip.attachMovie method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .448

beginFill (MovieClip.beginFill method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

beginGradientFill (MovieClip.beginGradientFill method). . . . . . . 450

clear (MovieClip.clear method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .453

createEmptyMovieClip

(MovieClip.createEmptyMovieClip method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

createTextField (MovieClip.createTextField method) . . . . . . . . . 455

_currentframe (MovieClip._currentframe property) . . . . . . . . . . . . .457

curveTo (MovieClip.curveTo method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457

_droptarget (MovieClip._droptarget property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

duplicateMovieClip (MovieClip.duplicateMovieClip method) . . . . 461

enabled (MovieClip.enabled property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .462

endFill (MovieClip.endFill method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .463

focusEnabled (MovieClip.focusEnabled property) . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

_focusrect (MovieClip._focusrect property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

_framesloaded (MovieClip._framesloaded property) . . . . . . . . . . .465

getBounds (MovieClip.getBounds method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .466

getBytesLoaded (MovieClip.getBytesLoaded method) . . . . . . . .467

getBytesTotal (MovieClip.getBytesTotal method) . . . . . . . . . . . . .468

getDepth (MovieClip.getDepth method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

getInstanceAtDepth

(MovieClip.getInstanceAtDepth method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .470

getNextHighestDepth

(MovieClip.getNextHighestDepth method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

getSWFVersion (MovieClip.getSWFVersion method) . . . . . . . . . 472

getURL (MovieClip.getURL method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .473

globalToLocal (MovieClip.globalToLocal method). . . . . . . . . . . . .474

gotoAndPlay (MovieClip.gotoAndPlay method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

gotoAndStop (MovieClip.gotoAndStop method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .478

_height (MovieClip._height property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .478

_highquality (MovieClip._highquality property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479

14 Contents

hitArea (MovieClip.hitArea property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

hitTest (MovieClip.hitTest method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

lineStyle (MovieClip.lineStyle method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

lineTo (MovieClip.lineTo method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

loadMovie (MovieClip.loadMovie method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

loadVariables (MovieClip.loadVariables method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

localToGlobal (MovieClip.localToGlobal method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

_lockroot (MovieClip._lockroot property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

moveTo (MovieClip.moveTo method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

_name (MovieClip._name property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

nextFrame (MovieClip.nextFrame method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

onData (MovieClip.onData handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

onDragOut (MovieClip.onDragOut handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

onDragOver (MovieClip.onDragOver handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

onEnterFrame (MovieClip.onEnterFrame handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

onKeyDown (MovieClip.onKeyDown handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

onKeyUp (MovieClip.onKeyUp handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

onKillFocus (MovieClip.onKillFocus handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

onLoad (MovieClip.onLoad handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

onMouseDown (MovieClip.onMouseDown handler). . . . . . . . . . . .501

onMouseMove (MovieClip.onMouseMove handler) . . . . . . . . . . . .501

onMouseUp (MovieClip.onMouseUp handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

onPress (MovieClip.onPress handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

onRelease (MovieClip.onRelease handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

onReleaseOutside (MovieClip.onReleaseOutside handler). . . . . 503

onRollOut (MovieClip.onRollOut handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

onRollOver (MovieClip.onRollOver handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

onSetFocus (MovieClip.onSetFocus handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

onUnload (MovieClip.onUnload handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

_parent (MovieClip._parent property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

play (MovieClip.play method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

prevFrame (MovieClip.prevFrame method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

_quality (MovieClip._quality property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

removeMovieClip (MovieClip.removeMovieClip method) . . . . . . 509

_rotation (MovieClip._rotation property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .510

setMask (MovieClip.setMask method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

_soundbuftime (MovieClip._soundbuftime property) . . . . . . . . . . . .512

startDrag (MovieClip.startDrag method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .512

stop (MovieClip.stop method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .513

stopDrag (MovieClip.stopDrag method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .514

swapDepths (MovieClip.swapDepths method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .515

tabChildren (MovieClip.tabChildren property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .516

tabEnabled (MovieClip.tabEnabled property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

tabIndex (MovieClip.tabIndex property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

_target (MovieClip._target property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .518

_totalframes (MovieClip._totalframes property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .519

Contents 15

trackAsMenu (MovieClip.trackAsMenu property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

unloadMovie (MovieClip.unloadMovie method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

_url (MovieClip._url property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

_visible (MovieClip._visible property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .522

_width (MovieClip._width property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .523

_x (MovieClip._x property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .523

_xmouse (MovieClip._xmouse property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

_xscale (MovieClip._xscale property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

_y (MovieClip._y property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .526

_ymouse (MovieClip._ymouse property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .526

_yscale (MovieClip._yscale property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .527

MovieClipLoader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .528

addListener (MovieClipLoader.addListener method) . . . . . . . . . 530

getProgress (MovieClipLoader.getProgress method) . . . . . . . . . .532

loadClip (MovieClipLoader.loadClip method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .533

MovieClipLoader constructor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .535

onLoadComplete

(MovieClipLoader.onLoadComplete event listener) . . . . . . . . .535

onLoadError (MovieClipLoader.onLoadError event listener). . . .537

onLoadInit (MovieClipLoader.onLoadInit event listener) . . . . . . .538

onLoadProgress

(MovieClipLoader.onLoadProgress event listener) . . . . . . . . . 539

onLoadStart (MovieClipLoader.onLoadStart event listener) . . . . 541

removeListener (MovieClipLoader.removeListener method). . . 542

unloadClip (MovieClipLoader.unloadClip method) . . . . . . . . . . . . .543

Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

MAX_VALUE (Number.MAX_VALUE property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .546

MIN_VALUE (Number.MIN_VALUE property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .546

NaN (Number.NaN property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .547

NEGATIVE_INFINITY

(Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .547

Number constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .548

POSITIVE_INFINITY

(Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .548

toString (Number.toString method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

valueOf (Number.valueOf method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

addProperty (Object.addProperty method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

constructor (Object.constructor property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

hasOwnProperty (Object.hasOwnProperty method) . . . . . . . . . . 555

isPropertyEnumerable (Object.isPropertyEnumerable method) 555

isPrototypeOf (Object.isPrototypeOf method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .556

Object constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .557

__proto__ (Object.__proto__ property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .557

prototype (Object.prototype property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .558

16 Contents

registerClass (Object.registerClass method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

__resolve (Object.__resolve property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

toString (Object.toString method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

unwatch (Object.unwatch method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

valueOf (Object.valueOf method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

watch (Object.watch method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

security (System.security) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

allowDomain (security.allowDomain method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

allowInsecureDomain

(security.allowInsecureDomain method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

loadPolicyFile (security.loadPolicyFile method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

addListener (Selection.addListener method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

getFocus (Selection.getFocus method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

onSetFocus (Selection.onSetFocus event listener) . . . . . . . . . . . 578

removeListener (Selection.removeListener method) . . . . . . . . . . 580

setFocus (Selection.setFocus method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .581

SharedObject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

addListener (SharedObject.addListener method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586

clear (SharedObject.clear method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

data (SharedObject.data property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

flush (SharedObject.flush method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

getLocal (SharedObject.getLocal method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .591

getMaxSize (SharedObject.getMaxSize method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

getSize (SharedObject.getSize method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

onStatus (SharedObject.onStatus handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

removeListener (SharedObject.removeListener method) . . . . . . 595

Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

attachSound (Sound.attachSound method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

duration (Sound.duration property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

getBytesLoaded (Sound.getBytesLoaded method). . . . . . . . . . . 600

getBytesTotal (Sound.getBytesTotal method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

getPan (Sound.getPan method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

getTransform (Sound.getTransform method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

getVolume (Sound.getVolume method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

id3 (Sound.id3 property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607

loadSound (Sound.loadSound method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

onID3 (Sound.onID3 handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .610

onLoad (Sound.onLoad handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611

onSoundComplete (Sound.onSoundComplete handler) . . . . . . . .612

position (Sound.position property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .612

setPan (Sound.setPan method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .613

setTransform (Sound.setTransform method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .613

setVolume (Sound.setVolume method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .615

Sound constructor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .616

Contents 17

start (Sound.start method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616

stop (Sound.stop method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618

addListener (Stage.addListener method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620

align (Stage.align property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620

height (Stage.height property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

onResize (Stage.onResize event listener) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .622

removeListener (Stage.removeListener method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .623

scaleMode (Stage.scaleMode property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .624

width (Stage.width property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .625

String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .626

charAt (String.charAt method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .628

charCodeAt (String.charCodeAt method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .629

concat (String.concat method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

fromCharCode (String.fromCharCode method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

indexOf (String.indexOf method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

lastIndexOf (String.lastIndexOf method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .632

length (String.length property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .633

slice (String.slice method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .634

split (String.split method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .635

String constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

substr (String.substr method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .637

substring (String.substring method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .638

toLowerCase (String.toLowerCase method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .639

toString (String.toString method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640

toUpperCase (String.toUpperCase method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

valueOf (String.valueOf method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .642

onStatus (System.onStatus handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .643

useCodepage (System.useCodepage property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644

TextField . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .645

addListener (TextField.addListener method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

_alpha (TextField._alpha property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651

autoSize (TextField.autoSize property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .652

background (TextField.background property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .654

backgroundColor (TextField.backgroundColor property) . . . . . . .654

border (TextField.border property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .655

borderColor (TextField.borderColor property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .655

bottomScroll (TextField.bottomScroll property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .655

condenseWhite (TextField.condenseWhite property) . . . . . . . . . .656

embedFonts (TextField.embedFonts property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .657

getDepth (TextField.getDepth method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .658

getNewTextFormat (TextField.getNewTextFormat method). . . 659

getTextFormat (TextField.getTextFormat method) . . . . . . . . . . . 659

_height (TextField._height property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661

18 Contents

_highquality (TextField._highquality property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .661

hscroll (TextField.hscroll property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .661

html (TextField.html property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

htmlText (TextField.htmlText property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663

length (TextField.length property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663

maxChars (TextField.maxChars property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664

maxhscroll (TextField.maxhscroll property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664

maxscroll (TextField.maxscroll property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

multiline (TextField.multiline property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

_name (TextField._name property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

onChanged (TextField.onChanged handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

onKillFocus (TextField.onKillFocus handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667

onScroller (TextField.onScroller handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668

onSetFocus (TextField.onSetFocus handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

_parent (TextField._parent property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

password (TextField.password property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

_quality (TextField._quality property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672

removeListener (TextField.removeListener method) . . . . . . . . . . 673

removeTextField (TextField.removeTextField method) . . . . . . . . 674

replaceText (TextField.replaceText method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674

_rotation (TextField._rotation property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

scroll (TextField.scroll property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

selectable (TextField.selectable property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677

setNewTextFormat (TextField.setNewTextFormat method). . . . 678

setTextFormat (TextField.setTextFormat method) . . . . . . . . . . . . 679

_soundbuftime (TextField._soundbuftime property) . . . . . . . . . . . .681

styleSheet (TextField.styleSheet property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .681

tabEnabled (TextField.tabEnabled property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

tabIndex (TextField.tabIndex property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684

_target (TextField._target property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

text (TextField.text property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686

textColor (TextField.textColor property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

textHeight (TextField.textHeight property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

textWidth (TextField.textWidth property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

type (TextField.type property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

_url (TextField._url property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

variable (TextField.variable property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

_visible (TextField._visible property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690

_width (TextField._width property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690

wordWrap (TextField.wordWrap property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .691

_x (TextField._x property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692

_xmouse (TextField._xmouse property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692

_xscale (TextField._xscale property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

_y (TextField._y property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694

_ymouse (TextField._ymouse property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694

_yscale (TextField._yscale property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

Contents 19

TextFormat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

align (TextFormat.align property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .697

blockIndent (TextFormat.blockIndent property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .698

bold (TextFormat.bold property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699

bullet (TextFormat.bullet property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699

color (TextFormat.color property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .700

font (TextFormat.font property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

getTextExtent (TextFormat.getTextExtent method). . . . . . . . . . . . 701

indent (TextFormat.indent property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .704

italic (TextFormat.italic property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .704

leading (TextFormat.leading property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .705

leftMargin (TextFormat.leftMargin property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .705

rightMargin (TextFormat.rightMargin property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .706

size (TextFormat.size property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .706

tabStops (TextFormat.tabStops property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707

target (TextFormat.target property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707

TextFormat constructor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .708

underline (TextFormat.underline property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

url (TextFormat.url property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

close (Video.close method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

onStatus (Video.onStatus handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

pause (Video.pause method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

play (Video.play method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

resume (Video.resume method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

stop (Video.stop method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716

addRequestHeader (XML.addRequestHeader method). . . . . . . . 719

contentType (XML.contentType property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .720

createElement (XML.createElement method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

createTextNode (XML.createTextNode method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

docTypeDecl (XML.docTypeDecl property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .723

getBytesLoaded (XML.getBytesLoaded method) . . . . . . . . . . . . .724

getBytesTotal (XML.getBytesTotal method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .725

ignoreWhite (XML.ignoreWhite property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .725

load (XML.load method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727

loaded (XML.loaded property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .729

onData (XML.onData handler). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .729

onLoad (XML.onLoad handler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .730

parseXML (XML.parseXML method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

send (XML.send method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

sendAndLoad (XML.sendAndLoad method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .733

status (XML.status property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .735

XML constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .736

xmlDecl (XML.xmlDecl property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737

20 Contents

XMLNode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

appendChild (XMLNode.appendChild method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

attributes (XMLNode.attributes property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

childNodes (XMLNode.childNodes property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

cloneNode (XMLNode.cloneNode method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

firstChild (XMLNode.firstChild property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

hasChildNodes (XMLNode.hasChildNodes method) . . . . . . . . . . 747

insertBefore (XMLNode.insertBefore method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

lastChild (XMLNode.lastChild property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

nextSibling (XMLNode.nextSibling property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

nodeName (XMLNode.nodeName property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

nodeType (XMLNode.nodeType property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752

nodeValue (XMLNode.nodeValue property) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

parentNode (XMLNode.parentNode property). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

previousSibling (XMLNode.previousSibling property) . . . . . . . . . 755

removeNode (XMLNode.removeNode method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756

toString (XMLNode.toString method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756

XMLUI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

accept (XMLUI.accept method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

cancel (XMLUI.cancel method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

get (XMLUI.get method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

set (XMLUI.set method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

Chapter 3: Deprecated ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

Deprecated Function summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .761

Deprecated Property summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763

Deprecated Operator summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763

Chapter 4: Unsupported ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Unsupported Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Unsupported Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Unsupported Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Unsupported Global Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Unsupported Event Handlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Unsupported fscommands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .767

Contents 21

22 Contents

CHAPTER 1

ActionScript language elements

This section provides syntax, usage information, and code samples for global functions and properties (those elements that do not belong to an ActionScript class); compiler directives; and for the constants, operators, statements, and keywords used in ActionScript and defined in the ECMAScript (ECMA-262) edition 4 draft language specification.

Compiler Directives

This section contains the directives to include in your ActionScript file to direct the compiler to preprocess certain instructions.

Compiler Directives summary

Directive Description

#endinitclip Compiler directive; indicates the end of a block of initialization

actions.

#include Compiler directive: includes the contents of the specified file, as if the

commands in the file are part of the calling script.

#initclip Compiler directive; indicates the beginning of a block of initialization

actions.

#endinitclip directive

#endinitclip

Compiler directive; indicates the end of a block of initialization actions.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Example

#initclip ...initialization actions go here... #endinitclip

#include directive

#include "[path]filename.as" — Do not place a semicolon (;) at the end of the line that

contains the #include statement.

Compiler directive: includes the contents of the specified file, as if the commands in the file are part of the calling script. The you make any changes to an external file, you must save the file and recompile any FLA files that use it.

#include directive is invoked at compile time. Therefore, if

If you use the Check Syntax button for a script that contains

#include statements, the syntax

of the included files is also checked.

You can use

#include in FLA files and in external script files, but not in ActionScript 2.0

class files.

You can specify no path, a relative path, or an absolute path for the file to be included. If you don't specify a path, the AS file must be in one of the following locations:

■ The same directory as the FLA file. The same directory as the script containing the

#include statement

■ The global Include directory, which is one of the following:

--Windows 2000 or Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\user \Local Settings\ Application Data\Macromedia\Flash 8\language\Configuration\Include

--Macintosh OS X: Hard Drive/Users/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/Flash 8/ language/Configuration/Include

■ The Flash 8 program\language\First Run\Include directory; if you save a file here, it is

copied to the global Include directory the next time you start Flash.

To specify a relative path for the AS file, use a single dot (.) to indicate the current directory, two dots (

..) to indicate a parent directory, and forward slashes (/) to indicate subdirectories.

See the following example section.

To specify an absolute path for the AS file, use the format supported by your platform (Macintosh or Windows). See the following example section. (This usage is not recommended because it requires the directory structure to be the same on any computer that you use to compile the script.)

If you place files in the First Run/Include directory or in the global Include directory, back up these files. If you ever need to uninstall and reinstall Flash, these directories might be deleted and overwritten.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

24 ActionScript language elements

Parameters

[path]filename.as - filename.asThe filename and optional path for the script to add to

the Actions panel or to the current script; .as is the recommended filename extension.

Example

The following examples show various ways of specifying a path for a file to be included in your script:

// Note that #include statements do not end with a semicolon (;) // AS file is in same directory as FLA file or script // or is in the global Include directory or the First Run/Include directory #include "init_script.as"

// AS file is in a subdirectory of one of the above directories // The subdirectory is named "FLA_includes" #include "FLA_includes/init_script.as" // AS file is in a subdirectory of the script file directory // The subdirectory is named "SCRIPT_includes" #include "SCRIPT_includes/init_script.as" // AS file is in a directory at the same level as one of the above

directories // AS file is in a directory at the same level as the directory // that contains the script file // The directory is named "ALL_includes" #include "../ALL_includes/init_script.as"

// AS file is specified by an absolute path in Windows // Note use of forward slashes, not backslashes #include "C:/Flash_scripts/init_script.as"

// AS file is specified by an absolute path on Macintosh #include "Mac HD:Flash_scripts:init_script.as"

#initclip directive

#initclip order — Do not place a semicolon (;) at the end of the line that contains the

#initclip statement.

Compiler directive; indicates the beginning of a block of initialization actions. When multiple clips are initialized at the same time, you can use the initialization occurs first. Initialization actions execute when a movie clip symbol is defined. If the movie clip is an exported symbol, the initialization actions execute before the actions on Frame 1 of the SWF file. Otherwise, they execute immediately before the frame actions of the frame that contains the first instance of the associated movie clip symbol.

order parameter to specify which

Compiler Directives 25

Initialization actions execute only once when a SWF file plays; use them for one-time initializations, such as class definition and registration.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

order - A non-negative integer that specifies the execution order of blocks of #initclip

code. This is an optional parameter. You must specify the value by using an integer literal (only decimal—not hexidecimal—values are allowed), and not by using a variable. If you include multiple last

order value specified in that movie clip symbol for all #initclip blocks in that symbol.

#initclip blocks in a single movie clip symbol, then the compiler uses the

Example

In the following example, ActionScript is placed on Frame 1 inside a movie clip instance. A variables.txt text file is placed in the same directory.

#initclip

trace("initializing app");

var variables:LoadVars = new LoadVars();

variables.load("variables.txt");

variables.onLoad = function(success:Boolean) {

trace("variables loaded:"+success);

if (success) { for (i in variables) { trace("variables."+i+" = "+variables[i]); } } };

#endinitclip

26 ActionScript language elements

Constants

A constant is a variable used to represent a property whose value never changes. This section describes global constants that are available to every script.

Constants summary

Modifiers Constant Description

false A unique Boolean value that represents the

opposite of true.

Infinity Specifies the IEEE-754 value representing

positive infinity.

-Infinity Specifies the IEEE-754 value representing

negative infinity.

NaN A predefined variable with the IEEE-754 value for

NaN (not a number).

newline Inserts a carriage return character (\r) that

generates a blank line in text output generated by your code.

null A special value that can be assigned to variables or

returned by a function if no data was provided.

true A unique Boolean value that represents the

opposite of false.

undefined A special value, usually used to indicate that a

variable has not yet been assigned a value.

false constant

A unique Boolean value that represents the opposite of true.

When automatic data typing converts

false to a string, it becomes "false".

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

false to a number, it becomes 0; when it converts

Constants 27

Example

This example shows how automatic data typing converts false to a number and to a string:

var bool1:Boolean = Boolean(false);

// converts it to the number 0 trace(1 + bool1); // outputs 1

// converts it to a string trace("String: " + bool1); // outputs String: false

Infinity constant

Specifies the IEEE-754 value representing positive infinity. The value of this constant is the same as

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

See also

POSITIVE_INFINITY (Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY property)

Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY.

-Infinity constant

Specifies the IEEE-754 value representing negative infinity. The value of this constant is the same as

Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

See also

NEGATIVE_INFINITY (Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY property)

NaN constant

A predefined variable with the IEEE-754 value for NaN (not a number). To determine if a number is NaN, use

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

See also

isNaN function, NaN (Number.NaN property)

isNaN().

28 ActionScript language elements

newline constant

Inserts a carriage return character (\r) that generates a blank line in text output generated by your code. Use statement in your code.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

The following example shows how newline displays output from the trace() statement on multiple lines.

var myName:String = "Lisa", myAge:Number = 30; trace(myName+myAge); trace("-----"); trace(myName+newline+myAge); // output: Lisa30

----Lisa 30

See also

newline to make space for information that is retrieved by a function or

trace function

null constant

A special value that can be assigned to variables or returned by a function if no data was provided. You can use data type.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

In a numeric context, null evaluates to 0. Equality tests can be performed with null. In this statement, a binary tree node has no left child, so the field for its left child could be set to

null.

if (tree.left == null) { tree.left = new TreeNode(); }

null to represent values that are missing or that do not have a defined

Constants 29

true constant

A unique Boolean value that represents the opposite of false. When automatic data typing converts

"true".

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

The following example shows the use of true in an if statement:

var shouldExecute:Boolean; // ... // code that sets shouldExecute to either true or false goes here // shouldExecute is set to true for this example:

shouldExecute = true;

if (shouldExecute == true) { trace("your statements here"); }

// true is also implied, so the if statement could also be written: // if (shouldExecute) { // trace("your statements here"); // }

true to a number, it becomes 1; when it converts true to a string, it becomes

The following example shows how automatic data typing converts true to the number 1:

var myNum:Number; myNum = 1 + true; trace(myNum); // output: 2

See also

false constant, Boolean

undefined constant

A special value, usually used to indicate that a variable has not yet been assigned a value. A reference to an undefined value returns the special value

typeof(undefined) returns the string "undefined". The only value of type undefined is undefined.

In files published for Flash Player 6 or earlier, the value of empty string). In files published for Flash Player 7 or later, the value of is

"undefined" (undefined is converted to a string).

undefined. The ActionScript code

String(undefined) is "" (an

String(undefined)

30 ActionScript language elements

In files published for Flash Player 6 or earlier, the value of Number(undefined) is 0. In files published for Flash Player 7 or later, the value of

Number(undefined) is NaN.

The value undefined is similar to the special value null. When null and undefined are compared with the equality (

undefined are compared with the strict equality (===) operator, they compare as not equal.

==) operator, they compare as equal. However, when null and

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

In the following example, the variable x has not been declared and therefore has the value

undefined.

In the first section of code, the equality operator (

undefined, and the appropriate result is sent to the Output panel. In the first section of code,

the equality operator (

==) compares the value of x to the value undefined, and the

==) compares the value of x to the value

appropriate result is sent to the log file.

In the second section of code, the equality (

undefined.

// x has not been declared trace("The value of x is "+x);

if (x == undefined) { trace("x is undefined"); } else { trace("x is not undefined"); }

trace("typeof (x) is "+typeof (x));

if (null == undefined) { trace("null and undefined are equal"); } else { trace("null and undefined are not equal"); }

==) operator compares the values null and

The following result is displayed in the Output panel.

The value of x is undefined x is undefined typeof (x) is undefined null and undefined are equal

Constants 31

Global Functions

This section contains a set of built-in functions that are available in any part of a SWF file where ActionScript is used. These global functions cover a wide variety of common programming tasks such as working with data types ( producing debugging information ( browser (

fscommand()).

trace()), and communicating with Flash Player or the

Global Functions summary

Modifiers Signature Description

Boolean(), int(), and so on),

Array([numElements], [elementN]) : Array

Boolean(expression:Object) : Boolean Converts the parameter

call(frame:Object) Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

chr(number:Number) : String Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

clearInterval(intervalID:Number) Cancels an interval created by a call

duplicateMovieClip(target:Object,

newname:String, depth:Number)

Creates a new, empty array or converts specified elements to an array.

expression to a Boolean value and returns true or false.

This action was deprecated in favor of the function statement. Executes the script in the called frame without moving the playhead to that frame.

This function was deprecated in favor of String.fromCharCode(). Converts ASCII code numbers to characters.

to setInterval().

Creates an instance of a movie clip while the SWF file is playing.

escape(expression:String) : String Converts the parameter to a string

eval(expression:Object) : Object Accesses variables, properties,

32 ActionScript language elements

and encodes it in a URL-encoded format, where all nonalphanumeric characters are replaced with % hexadecimal sequences.

objects, or movie clips by name.

Modifiers Signature Description

fscommand(command:String,

parameters:String)

Lets a SWF file communicate with the Flash Lite player or the environment for a mobile device (such as an operating system).

fscommand2(command:String,

parameters:String)

Lets the SWF file communicate with the Flash Lite player or a host application on a mobile device.

getProperty(my_mc:Object,

property:Object) : Object

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of the dot syntax, which was introduced in Flash Player 5. Returns the value of the specified property for the movie clip my_mc.

getTimer() : Number Returns the number of milliseconds

that have elapsed since the SWF file started playing.

getURL(url:String, [window:String],

[method:String])

Loads a document from a specific URL into a window or passes variables to another application at a defined URL.

getVersion() : String Returns a string containing Flash

Player version and platform information.

gotoAndPlay([scene:String],

frame:Object)

Sends the playhead to the specified frame in a scene and plays from that frame.

gotoAndStop([scene:String],

frame:Object)

ifFrameLoaded([scene:String],

frame:Object, statement(s):Object)

Sends the playhead to the specified frame in a scene and stops it.

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function has been deprecated. Macromedia recommends that you use the MovieClip._framesloaded property. Checks whether the contents of a specific frame are available locally.

Global Functions 33

Modifiers Signature Description

int(value:Number) : Number Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

This function was deprecated in favor of Math.round(). Converts a decimal number to an integer value by truncating the decimal value.

isFinite(expression:Object) : Boolean Evaluates expression and returns

true if it is a finite number or false

if it is infinity or negative infinity.

isNaN(expression:Object) : Boolean Evaluates the parameter and returns

true if the value is NaN (not a

number).

length(expression:String,

variable:Object) : Number

loadMovie(url:String, target:Object,

[method:String])

loadMovieNum(url:String,

level:Number, [method:String])

loadVariables(url:String,

target:Object, [method:String])

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function, along with all the string functions, has been deprecated. Macromedia recommends that you use the methods of the String class and the String.length property to perform the same operations. Returns the length of the specified string or variable.

Loads a SWF or JPEG file into Flash Player while the original SWF file plays.

Loads a SWF or JPEG file into a level in Flash Player while the originally loaded SWF file plays.

loadVariablesNum(url:String,

level:Number, [method:String])

34 ActionScript language elements

Reads data from an external file, such as a text file or text generated by a ColdFusion, CGI script, ASP, PHP, or Perl script, and sets the values for variables in a Flash Player level.

Modifiers Signature Description

mbchr(number:Number) Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

This function was deprecated in favor of the String.fromCharCode() method. Converts an ASCII code number to a multibyte character.

mblength(string:String) : Number Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

This function was deprecated in favor of the String.length property. Returns the length of the multibyte character string.

mbord(character:String) : Number Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

This function was deprecated in favor of String.charCodeAt() method. Converts the specified character to a multibyte number.

mbsubstring(value:String,

index:Number, count:Number) : String

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of String.substr() method. Extracts a new multibyte character string from a multibyte character string.

nextFrame() Sends the playhead to the next

frame.

nextScene() Sends the playhead to Frame 1 of

the next scene.

Number(expression:Object) : Number Converts the parameter

expression to a number.

Object([value:Object]) : Object Creates a new empty object or

converts the specified number, string, or Boolean value to an object.

on(mouseEvent:Object) Specifies the mouse event or

keypress that triggers an action.

onClipEvent(movieEvent:Object) Triggers actions defined for a

specific instance of a movie clip.

Global Functions 35

Modifiers Signature Description

ord(character:String) : Number Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

This function was deprecated in favor of the methods and properties of the String class. Converts characters to ASCII code numbers.

parseFloat(string:String) : Number Converts a string to a floating-point

number.

parseInt(expression:String,

[radix:Number]) : Number

play() Moves the playhead forward in the

Converts a string to an integer.

Timeline.

prevFrame() Sends the playhead to the previous

frame.

prevScene() Sends the playhead to Frame 1 of

the previous scene.

random(value:Number) : Number Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

This function was deprecated in favor of Math.random(). Returns a random integer between 0 and one less than the integer specified in the value parameter.

removeMovieClip(target:Object) Deletes the specified movie clip.

setInterval(functionName:Object,

interval:Number, [param:Object], objectName:Object, methodName:String) : Number

Calls a function or a method or an object at periodic intervals while a SWF file plays.

setProperty(target:Object,

property:Object, expression:Object)

startDrag(target:Object,

[lock:Boolean], [left,top,right,bottom:Number])

stop() Stops the SWF file that is currently

stopAllSounds() Stops all sounds currently playing in

36 ActionScript language elements

Changes a property value of a movie clip as the movie clip plays.

Makes the target movie clip draggable while the movie plays.

playing.

a SWF file without stopping the playhead.

Modifiers Signature Description

stopDrag() Stops the current drag operation.

String(expression:Object) : String Returns a string representation of

the specified parameter.

substring(string:String,

index:Number, count:Number) : String

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of String.substr(). Extracts part of a string.

targetPath(targetObject:Object) : String

tellTarget(target:String,

statement(s):Object)

Returns a string containing the target path of movieClipObject.

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. Macromedia recommends that you use dot (.) notation and the with statement. Applies the instructions specified in the statements parameter to the Timeline specified in the target parameter.

toggleHighQuality() Deprecated since Flash Player 5.

This function was deprecated in favor of _quality. Turns anti-aliasing on and off in Flash Player.

trace(expression:Object) Evaluates the expression and

outputs the result.

unescape(string:String) : String Evaluates the parameter x as a

string, decodes the string from URL-encoded format (converting all hexadecimal sequences to ASCII characters), and returns the string.

unloadMovie(target) Removes a movie clip that was

loaded by means of loadMovie() from Flash Player.

unloadMovieNum(level:Number) Removes a SWF or image that was

loaded by means of loadMovieNum() from Flash Player.

Global Functions 37

Array function

Array(): Array Array(numElements:Number): Array Array( [element0:Object [,

element1, element2, ...elementN] ]) : Array

Creates a new array of length zero or more, or an array populated by a list of specified elements, possibly of different data types.

Lets you create one of the following:

■ an empty array

■ an array with a specific length but whose elements have undefined values

■ an array whose elements have specific values.

Using this function is similar to creating an array with the Array constructor (see "Constructor for the Array class").

You can pass a number ( types (

element0, element1, ... elementN).

numElements) or a list of elements comprising one or more different

Parameters that can accept more than one data type are listed as in the signature as type

Object.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

numElements [optional] - A positive integer that specifies the number of elements in the

array. You can specify either numElements or the list of elements, not both.

elementN [optional] - one or more parameters, element0, element1, ... , elementN,

the values of which can be of any type. Parameters that can accept more than one data type are listed as type

Object. You can specify either numElements or the list of elements, not both.

Returns

Array - An array.

Example

var myArray:Array = Array(); myArray.push(12); trace(myArray); //traces 12 myArray[4] = 7; trace(myArray); //traces 12,undefined,undefined,undefined,7

Usage 2: The following example creates an array of length 4 but with no elements defined:

var myArray:Array = Array(4); trace(myArray.length); // traces 4 trace(myArray); // traces undefined,undefined,undefined,undefined

38 ActionScript language elements

Usage 3: The following example creates an array with three defined elements:

var myArray:Array = Array("firstElement", "secondElement", "thirdElement"); trace (myArray); // traces firstElement,secondElement,thirdElement

Unlike the Array class constructor, the Array() function does not use the

keyword new .

See also

Array

Boolean function

Boolean(expression:Object) : Boolean

Converts the parameter expression to a Boolean value and returns a value as described in the following list:

■ If expression is a Boolean value, the return value is expression.

■ If expression is a number, the return value is true if the number is not zero; otherwise

the return value is

If expression is a string, the return value is as follows:

■ In files published for Flash Player 6 or earlier, the string is first converted to a number; the

value is

true if the number is not zero, false otherwise.

false.

■ In files published for Flash Player 7 or later, the result is true if the string has a length

greater than zero; the value is

false for an empty string.

If expression is a string, the result is true if the string has a length greater than zero; the value is

■ If expression is undefined or NaN (not a number), the return value is false.

■ If expression is a movie clip or an object, the return value is true.

false for an empty string.

Unlike the Boolean class constructor, the Boolean() function does not use the keyword new . Moreover, the Boolean class constructor initializes a Boolean object to false if no parameter is specified, while the Boolean() function returns undefined if no parameter is specified.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0 - Behavior changed in Flash Player 7.

Parameters

expression:Object - An expression to convert to a Boolean value.

Returns

Boolean - A Boolean value.

Global Functions 39

Example

trace(Boolean(-1)); // output: true trace(Boolean(0)); // output: false trace(Boolean(1)); // output: true

trace(Boolean(true)); // output: true trace(Boolean(false)); // output: false

trace(Boolean("true")); // output: true trace(Boolean("false")); // output: true

trace(Boolean("Craiggers")); // output: true trace(Boolean("")); // output: false

If files are published for Flash Player 6 and earlier, the results differ for three of the preceding examples:

trace(Boolean("true")); // output: false trace(Boolean("false")); // output: false trace(Boolean("Craiggers")); // output: false

This example shows a significant difference between use of the Boolean() function and the Boolean class. The

Boolean() function creates a Boolean value, and the Boolean class creates

a Boolean object. Boolean values are compared by value, and Boolean objects are compared by reference.

// Variables representing Boolean values are compared by value var a:Boolean = Boolean("a"); // a is true var b:Boolean = Boolean(1); // b is true trace(a==b); // true

// Variables representing Boolean objects are compared by reference var a:Boolean = new Boolean("a"); // a is true var b:Boolean = new Boolean(1); // b is true trace(a == b); // false

See also

Boolean

call function

call(frame)

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This action was deprecated in favor of the function statement.

40 ActionScript language elements

Executes the script in the called frame without moving the playhead to that frame. Local variables do not exist after the script executes.

■ If variables are not declared inside a block ({}) but the action list was executed with a

call() action, the variables are local and expire at the end of the current list.

■ If variables are not declared inside a block and the current action list was not executed

with the call() action, the variables are interpreted as Timeline variables.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

frame:Object - The label or number of a frame in the Timeline.

See also

function statement, call (Function.call method)

chr function

chr(number) : String

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of

String.fromCharCode().

Converts ASCII code numbers to characters.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

number:Number - An ASCII code number.

Returns

String - The character value of the specified ASCII code.

Example

The following example converts the number 65 to the letter A and assigns it to the variable

myVar: myVar = chr(65);

See also

fromCharCode (String.fromCharCode method)

Global Functions 41

clearInterval function

clearInterval(intervalID:Number) : Void

Cancels an interval created by a call to setInterval().

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

intervalID:Number - A numeric (integer) identifier returned from a call to setInterval().

Example

The following example first sets and then clears an interval call:

function callback() { trace("interval called: "+getTimer()+" ms."); }

var intervalID:Number = setInterval(callback, 1000);

You need to clear the interval when you have finished using the function. Create a button called

clearInt_btn and use the following ActionScript to clear setInterval():

clearInt_btn.onRelease = function(){ clearInterval( intervalID ); trace("cleared interval"); };

See also

setInterval function

duplicateMovieClip function

duplicateMovieClip(target:String, newname:String, depth:Number) :

VoidduplicateMovieClip(target:MovieClip, newname:String, depth:Number) :

Void

Creates an instance of a movie clip while the SWF file is playing. The playhead in duplicate movie clips always starts at Frame 1, regardless of where the playhead is in the original movie clip. Variables in the original movie clip are not copied into the duplicate movie clip. Use the

removeMovieClip() function or method to delete a movie clip instance created with duplicateMovieClip().

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

42 ActionScript language elements

Parameters

target:Object - The target path of the movie clip to duplicate. This parameter can be either

a String (e.g. "my_mc") or a direct reference to the movie clip instance (e.g. my_mc). Parameters that can accept more than one data type are listed as type

newname:String - A unique identifier for the duplicated movie clip.

depth:Number - A unique depth level for the duplicated movie clip. The depth level is a

Object.

stacking order for duplicated movie clips. This stacking order is similar to the stacking order of layers in the Timeline; movie clips with a lower depth level are hidden under clips with a higher stacking order. You must assign each duplicated movie clip a unique depth level to prevent it from replacing SWF files on occupied depths.

Example

In the following example, a new movie clip instance is created called img_mc. An image is loaded into the movie clip, and then the called

newImg_mc, and this new clip is moved on the Stage so it does not overlap the original

img_mc clip is duplicated. The duplicated clip is

clip, and the same image is loaded into the second clip.

this.createEmptyMovieClip("img_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()); img_mc.loadMovie("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg"); duplicateMovieClip(img_mc, "newImg_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()); newImg_mc._x = 200; newImg_mc.loadMovie("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg");

To remove the duplicate movie clip, you could add this code for a button called

myButton_btn.

this.myButton_btn.onRelease = function(){ removeMovieClip(newImg_mc); };

See also

removeMovieClip function, duplicateMovieClip (MovieClip.duplicateMovieClip

method)

, removeMovieClip (MovieClip.removeMovieClip method)

escape function

escape(expression:String) : String

Converts the parameter to a string and encodes it in a URL-encoded format, where all nonalphanumeric characters are replaced with % hexadecimal sequences. When used in a URL-encoded string, the percentage symbol (%) is used to introduce escape characters, and is not equivalent to the modulo operator (%).

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Global Functions 43

Parameters

expression:String - The expression to convert into a string and encode in a URL-encoded

format.

Returns

String - URL-encoded string.

Example

The following code produces the result someuser%40somedomain%2Ecom:

var email:String = "someuser@somedomain.com"; trace(escape(email));

In this example, the at symbol (@) was replaced with %40 and the dot symbol (.) was replaced with

%2E. This is useful if you're trying to pass information to a remote server and the data has

special characters in it (for example,

var redirectUrl = "http://www.somedomain.com?loggedin=true&username=Gus"; getURL("http://www.myothersite.com?returnurl="+ escape(redirectUrl));

& or ?), as shown in the following code:

See also

unescape function

eval function

eval(expression:Object) : Objecteval(expression:String) : Object

Accesses variables, properties, objects, or movie clips by name. If expression is a variable or a property, the value of the variable or property is returned. If expression is an object or movie clip, a reference to the object or movie clip is returned. If the element named in expression cannot be found, undefined is returned.

In Flash 4, class to simulate arrays.

In Flash 4, you can also use instance name. However, you can also do this with the array access operator (

eval() was used to simulate arrays; in Flash 5 or later, you should use the Array

eval() to dynamically set and retrieve the value of a variable or

[]).

44 ActionScript language elements

In Flash 5 or later, you cannot use eval() to dynamically set and retrieve the value of a variable or instance name, because you cannot use

eval() on the left side of an equation. For

example, replace the code

eval ("var" + i) = "first";

with this:

this["var"+i] = "first"

or this:

set ("var" + i, "first");

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0 - Flash Player 5 or later for full functionality. You can use the

eval() function when exporting to Flash Player 4, but you must use slash

notation and can access only variables, not properties or objects.

Parameters

expression:Object - The name of a variable, property, object, or movie clip to retrieve. This

parameter can be either a String or a direct reference to the object instance (i.e use of quotation marks (" ") is optional.)

Returns

Object - A value, reference to an object or movie clip, or undefined .

Example

The following example uses eval() to set properties for dynamically named movie clips. This ActionScript sets the

square2_mc, and square3_mc.

for (var i = 1; i <= 3; i++) { setProperty(eval("square"+i+"_mc"), _rotation, 5); }

_rotation property for three movie clips, called square1_mc,

You can also use the following ActionScript:

for (var i = 1; i <= 3; i++) { this["square"+i+"_mc"]._rotation = -5; }

See also

Array, set variable statement

Global Functions 45

fscommand function

fscommand(command:String, parameters:String) : Void

The fscommand() function lets a SWF file communicate with the Flash Lite player or the environment for a mobile device (such as an operating system). The parameters define the name of the application being started and the parameters to it, separated by commas.

Command Parameters Purpose

launch application-path, arg1,

arg2,..., argn

This command launches another application on a mobile device. The name of the application its parameters are passed in as a single argument. Note: This feature is operating-system dependent. Please use this command carefully as it can call on the host device to perform an unsupported operation. Using it in this way could cause the host device to crash. This command is supported only when the Flash Lite player is running in stand-alone mode. It is not supported when the player is running in the context of another application (for example, as a plug-in to a browser).

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Parameters

command:String - A string passed to the host application for any use, or a command passed

to the Flash Lite player.

parameters:String - A string passed to the host application for any use, or a value passed to

the Flash Lite player.

Example

In the following example, fscommand() would open wap.yahoo.com on the services/Web browser on Series 60 phones:

on(keyPress "9") { status = fscommand("launch",

"z:\\system\\apps\\browser\\browser.app,http://wap.yahoo.com"); }

46 ActionScript language elements

fscommand2 function

fscommand2(command:String, parameter1:String,...parameterN:String) : Void

Lets the SWF file communicate with the Flash Lite player or a host application on a mobile device.

The

fscommand2() function is similar to the fscommand() function, with the following

differences:

■ The fscommand2()function can take any number of arguments. By contrast,

fscommand() can take only one argument.

■ Flash Lite executes fscommand2() immediately (in other words, within the frame),

whereas

■ The fscommand2() function returns a value that can be used to report success, failure, or

the result of the command.

To u s e fscommand2() to send a message to the Flash Lite player, you must use predefined commands and parameters. See the "fscommand2 Commands" section under "ActionScript language elements" for the values you can specify for the and parameters. These values control SWF files that are playing in the Flash Lite player.

fscommand() is executed at the end of the frame being processed.

fscommand() function's commands

Note: None of the

fscommand2() commands are available in Web players.

Deprecated fscommand2() commands

Some

fscommand2() commands from Flash Lite 1.1 have been deprecated in Flash Lite 2.0.

The following table shows the deprecated

Command Deprecated By

Escape escape global function

GetDateDay getDate() method of Date object

GetDateMonth getMonth() method of Date object

GetDateWeekday getDay() method of Date object

GetDateYear getYear() method of Date object

GetLanguage System.capabilities.language property

GetLocaleLongDate getLocaleLongDate() method of Date object

GetLocaleShortDate getLocaleShortDate() method of Date object

GetLocaleTime getLocaleTime() method of Date object

GetTimeHours getHours() method of Date object

fscommand2() commands:

GetTimeMinutes getMinutes() method of Date object

Global Functions 47

Command Deprecated By

GetTimeSeconds getSeconds() method of Date object

GetTimeZoneOffset getTimeZoneOffset() method of Date object

SetQuality MovieClip._quality

Unescape unescape() global function

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Parameters

command:String - A string passed to the host application for any use, or a command passed

to the Flash Lite player.

parameters:String - A string passed to the host application for any use, or a value passed to

the Flash Lite player.

getProperty function

getProperty(my_mc:Object, property:Object) : Object

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of the dot syntax, which was introduced in Flash Player 5.

Returns the value of the specified property for the movie clip

my_mc.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

my_mc:Object - The instance name of a movie clip for which the property is being retrieved.

property:Object - A property of a movie clip.

Returns

Object - The value of the specified property.

Example

The following example creates a new movie clip someClip_mc and shows the alpha value

_alpha) for the movie clip someClip_mc in the Output panel:

(

this.createEmptyMovieClip("someClip_mc", 999); trace("The alpha of "+getProperty(someClip_mc, _name)+" is:

"+getProperty(someClip_mc, _alpha));

48 ActionScript language elements

getTimer function

getTimer() : Number

Returns the number of milliseconds that have elapsed since the SWF file started playing.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Returns

Number - The number of milliseconds that have elapsed since the SWF file started playing.

Example

In the following example, the getTimer() and setInterval() functions are used to create a simple timer:

this.createTextField("timer_txt", this.getNextHighestDepth(), 0, 0, 100,

22); function updateTimer():Void { timer_txt.text = getTimer(); }

var intervalID:Number = setInterval(updateTimer, 100);

getURL function

getURL(url:String [, window:String [, method:String] ]) : Void

Loads a document from a specific URL into a window or passes variables to another application at a defined URL. To test this function, make sure the file to be loaded is at the specified location. To use an absolute URL (for example, need a network connection.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0 - The and later versions.

Parameters

url:String - The URL from which to obtain the document.

window:String [optional] - Specifies the window or HTML frame into which the document

should load. You can enter the name of a specific window or select from the following reserved target names:

■ _self specifies the current frame in the current window.

■ _blank specifies a new window.

■ _parent specifies the parent of the current frame.

http://www.myserver.com), you

GET and POST options are available only in

■ _top specifies the top-level frame in the current window.

Global Functions 49

method:String [optional] - A GET or POST method for sending variables. If there are no

variables, omit this parameter. The and is used for small numbers of variables. The

GET method appends the variables to the end of the URL,

POST method sends the variables in a separate

HTTP header and is used for sending long strings of variables.

Example

This example loads an image into a movie clip. When the image is clicked, a new URL is loaded in a new browser window.

var listenerObject:Object = new Object(); listenerObject.onLoadInit = function(target_mc:MovieClip) { target_mc.onRelease = function() { getURL("http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/flashpro/", "_blank"); }; }; var logo:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader(); logo.addListener(listenerObject); logo.loadClip("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg", this.createEmptyMovieClip("macromedia_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()));

In the following example, getURL() is used to send an e-mail message:

myBtn_btn.onRelease = function(){ getURL("mailto:you@somedomain.com"); };

You can also use GET or POST for sending variables. The following example uses GET to append variables to a URL:

var firstName:String = "Gus"; var lastName:String = "Richardson"; var age:Number = 92; myBtn_btn.onRelease = function() { getURL("http://www.macromedia.com", "_blank", "GET"); };

The following ActionScript uses POST to send variables in the HTTP header. Make sure you test your documents in a browser window, because otherwise your variables are sent using

GET:

var firstName:String = "Gus"; var lastName:String = "Richardson"; var age:Number = 92; getURL("http://www.macromedia.com", "_blank", "POST");

See also

loadVariables function, send (XML.send method), sendAndLoad (XML.sendAndLoad

method)

50 ActionScript language elements

getVersion function

getVersion() : String

Returns a string containing Flash Player version and platform information. The getVersion function returns information only for Flash Player 5 or later versions of Flash Player.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Returns

String - A string containing Flash Player version and platform information.

Example

The following examples trace the version number of the Flash Player playing the SWF file:

var flashVersion:String = getVersion(); trace(flashVersion); // output: WIN 8,0,1,0 trace($version); // output: WIN 8,0,1,0 trace(System.capabilities.version); // output: WIN 8,0,1,0

The following string is returned by the getVersion function:

WIN 8,0,1,0

This returned string indicates that the platform is Microsoft Windows, and the version number of Flash Player is major version 8, minor version 1 (8.1).

See also

os (capabilities.os property), version (capabilities.version property)

gotoAndPlay function

gotoAndPlay( [scene:String,] frame:Object) : Void

Sends the playhead to the specified frame in a scene and plays from that frame. If no scene is specified, the playhead goes to the specified frame in the current scene. You can use the parameter only on the root Timeline, not within Timelines for movie clips or other objects in the document.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

scene:String [optional] - A string specifying the name of the scene to which the playhead is

sent.

frame:Object - A number representing the frame number, or a string representing the label

of the frame, to which the playhead is sent.

scene

Global Functions 51

Example

In the following example, a document has two scenes: sceneOne and sceneTwo. Scene one contains a frame label on Frame 10 called

myOtherBtn_btn. This ActionScript is placed on Frame 1, Scene 1 of the main Timeline.

stop(); myBtn_btn.onRelease = function(){ gotoAndPlay("newFrame"); };

myOtherBtn_btn.onRelease = function(){ gotoAndPlay("sceneTwo", 1); };

newFrame and two buttons, myBtn_btn and

When the user clicks the buttons, the playhead moves to the specified location and continues playing.

See also

gotoAndPlay (MovieClip.gotoAndPlay method), nextFrame function, play

function

, prevFrame function

gotoAndStop function

gotoAndStop( [scene:String,] frame:Object) : Void

Sends the playhead to the specified frame in a scene and stops it. If no scene is specified, the playhead is sent to the frame in the current scene.You can use the

scene parameter only on

the root Timeline, not within Timelines for movie clips or other objects in the document.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

scene:String [optional] - A string specifying the name of the scene to which the playhead is

sent.

frame:Object - A number representing the frame number, or a string representing the label

of the frame, to which the playhead is sent.

52 ActionScript language elements

Example

In the following example, a document has two scenes: sceneOne and sceneTwo. Scene one contains a frame label on Frame 10 called

myOtherBtn_btn. This ActionScript is placed on Frame 1, Scene 1 of the main Timeline:

stop();

myBtn_btn.onRelease = function(){ gotoAndStop("newFrame"); };

myOtherBtn_btn.onRelease = function(){ gotoAndStop("sceneTwo", 1); };

newFrame, and two buttons, myBtn_btn and

When the user clicks the buttons, the playhead moves to the specified location and stops.

See also

gotoAndStop (MovieClip.gotoAndStop method), stop function, play function,

gotoAndPlay function

ifFrameLoaded function

ifFrameLoaded( [scene,] frame) { statement(s); }

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function has been deprecated. Macromedia recommends that you use the

Checks whether the contents of a specific frame are available locally. Use start playing a simple animation while the rest of the SWF file downloads to the local computer. The difference between using

_framesloaded lets you add custom if or else statements.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

scene:String [optional] - A string that specifies the name of the scene that must be loaded.

frame:Object - The frame number or frame label that must be loaded before the next

statement is executed.

statement(s):Object - The instructions to execute if the specified scene, or scene and

frame, are loaded.

MovieClip._framesloaded property.

ifFrameLoaded to

_framesloaded and ifFrameLoaded is that

Global Functions 53

See also

addListener (MovieClipLoader.addListener method)

int function

int(value) : Number

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of Math.round().

Converts a decimal number to an integer value by truncating the decimal value. This function is equivalent to

value parameter is negative.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

value:Number - A number to be rounded to an integer.

Returns

Number - The truncated integer value.

Math.floor() if the value parameter is positive and Math.ceil() if the

See also

round (Math.round method), floor (Math.floor method), ceil (Math.ceil method)

isFinite function

isFinite(expression:Object) : Boolean

Evaluates expression and returns true if it is a finite number or false if it is infinity or negative infinity. The presence of infinity or negative infinity indicates a mathematical error condition such as division by 0.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

expression:Object - A Boolean value, variable, or other expression to be evaluated.

Returns

Boolean - A Boolean value.

54 ActionScript language elements

Example

The following example shows return values for isFinite:

isFinite(56) // returns true

isFinite(Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY) //returns false

isNaN function

isNaN(expression:Object) : Boolean

Evaluates the parameter and returns true if the value is NaN(not a number). This function is useful for checking whether a mathematical expression evaluates successfully to a number.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

expression:Object - A Boolean, variable, or other expression to be evaluated.

Returns

Boolean - A Boolean value.

Example

The following code illustrates return values for the isNaN() function:

trace( isNaN("Tree") ); // returns true

trace( isNaN(56) ); // returns false

trace( isNaN(Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY) ) // returns false

Global Functions 55

The following example shows how you can use isNAN() to check whether a mathematical expression contains an error:

var dividend:Number; var divisor:Number; divisor = 1; trace( isNaN(dividend/divisor) ); // output: true // The output is true because the variable dividend is undefined. // Do not use isNAN() to check for division by 0 because it will return

false.

// A positive number divided by 0 equals Infinity

(Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY).

// A negative number divided by 0 equals -Infinity

(Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY).

See also

NaN constant, NaN (Number.NaN property)

length function

length(expression)length(variable)

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function, along with all the string functions, has been deprecated. Macromedia recommends that you use the methods of the String class and the

String.length property to perform the same operations.

Returns the length of the specified string or variable.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

expression:String - A string.

variable:Object - The name of a variable.

Returns

Number - The length of the specified string or variable.

Example

The following example returns the length of the string "Hello": length("Hello"); The result is 5.

See also

" string delimiter operator, String, length (String.length property)

56 ActionScript language elements

loadMovie function

loadMovie(url:String, target:Object [, method:String]) :

VoidloadMovie(url:String, target:String [, method:String]) : Void

Loads a SWF or JPEG file into Flash Player while the original SWF file plays. JPEG files saved in progressive format are not supported.

Tip: If you want to monitor the progress of the download, use

MovieClipLoader.loadClip() instead of this function.

The

loadMovie() function lets you display several SWF files at once and switch among SWF

files without loading another HTML document. Without the Player displays a single SWF file.

loadMovie() function, Flash

If you want to load a SWF or JPEG file into a specific level, use

loadMovie().

loadMovieNum() instead of

When a SWF file is loaded into a target movie clip, you can use the target path of that movie clip to target the loaded SWF file. A SWF file or image loaded into a target inherits the position, rotation, and scale properties of the targeted movie clip. The upper left corner of the loaded image or SWF file aligns with the registration point of the targeted movie clip. Alternatively, if the target is the root Timeline, the upper left corner of the image or SWF file aligns with the upper left corner of the Stage.

Use

unloadMovie() to remove SWF files that were loaded with loadMovie().

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1 - Loading JPEG files requires Flash Player 6 or later.

Parameters

url:String - The absolute or relative URL of the SWF or JPEG file to be loaded. A relative

path must be relative to the SWF file at level 0. Absolute URLs must include the protocol reference, such as http:// or file:///.

target:Object - A reference to a movie clip object or a string representing the path to a

target movie clip. The target movie clip is replaced by the loaded SWF file or image.

method:String [optional] - Specifies an HTTP method for sending variables. The parameter

must be the string

GET method appends the variables to the end of the URL and is used for small numbers of

variables. The

GET or POST . If there are no variables to be sent, omit this parameter. The

POST method sends the variables in a separate HTTP header and is used for

long strings of variables.

Global Functions 57

Example

Usage 1: The following example loads the SWF file circle.swf from the same directory and replaces a movie clip called

loadMovie("circle.swf", mySquare); // equivalent statement (Usage 1): loadMovie("circle.swf",

_level0.mySquare);

// equivalent statement (Usage 2): loadMovie("circle.swf", "mySquare");

mySquare that already exists on the Stage:

The following example loads the SWF file circle.swf from the same directory, but replaces the main movie clip instead of the

loadMovie("circle.swf", this); // Note that using "this" as a string for the target parameter will not work // equivalent statement (Usage 2): loadMovie("circle.swf", "_level0");

mySquare movie clip:

The following loadMovie() statement loads the SWF file sub.swf from the same directory into a new movie clip called

this.createEmptyMovieClip("logo_mc", 999); loadMovie("sub.swf", logo_mc);

logo_mc that's created using createEmptyMovieClip():

You could add the following code to load a JPEG image called image1.jpg from the same directory as the SWF file loading sub.swf. The JPEG is loaded when you click a button called

myBtn_btn. This code loads the JPEG into logo_mc. Therefore, it will replace sub.swf with

the JPEG image.

myBtn_btn.onRelease = function(){ loadMovie("image1.jpg", logo_mc); };

Usage 2: The following example loads the SWF file circle.swf from the same directory and replaces a movie clip called

loadMovie("circle.swf", "mySquare");

mySquare that already exists on the Stage:

See also

_level property, loadMovieNum function, loadMovie (MovieClip.loadMovie

method)

, loadClip (MovieClipLoader.loadClip method), unloadMovie function

loadMovieNum function

loadMovieNum(url:String, level:Number [, method:String]) : Void

Loads a SWF or JPEG file into a level in Flash Player while the originally loaded SWF file plays.

Tip: If you want to monitor the progress of the download, use

MovieClipLoader.loadClip() instead of this function.

58 ActionScript language elements

Normally, Flash Player displays a single SWF file and then closes. The loadMovieNum() action lets you display several SWF files at once and switch among SWF files without loading another HTML document.

If you want to specify a target instead of a level, use

loadMovieNum().

loadMovie() instead of

Flash Player has a stacking order of levels starting with level 0. These levels are like layers of acetate; they are transparent except for the objects on each level. When you use

loadMovieNum(), you must specify a level in Flash Player into which the SWF file will load.

When a SWF file is loaded into a level, you can use the syntax,

_levelN, where N is the level

number, to target the SWF file.

When you load a SWF file, you can specify any level number and you can load SWF files into a level that already has a SWF file loaded into it. If you do, the new SWF file will replace the existing SWF file. If you load a SWF file into level 0, every level in Flash Player is unloaded, and level 0 is replaced with the new file. The SWF file in level 0 sets the frame rate, background color, and frame size for all other loaded SWF files.

The

loadMovieNum() action also lets you load JPEG files into a SWF file while it plays. For

images and SWF files, the upper left corner of the image aligns with the upper left corner of the Stage when the file loads. Also in both cases, the loaded file inherits rotation and scaling, and the original content is overwritten in the specified level.

Note: JPEG files saved in progressive format are not supported.

Use

unloadMovieNum() to remove SWF files or images that were loaded with

loadMovieNum().

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1 - Flash 4 files opened in Flash 5 or later are converted to use the correct syntax. Loading JPEG files requires Flash Player 6 or later.

Parameters

url:String - The absolute or relative URL of the SWF or JPEG file to be loaded. A relative

path must be relative to the SWF file at level 0. For use in the stand-alone Flash Player or for testing in test mode in the Flash authoring application, all SWF files must be stored in the same folder and the filenames cannot include folder or disk drive specifications.

level:Number - An integer specifying the level in Flash Player into which the SWF file will

load.

Global Functions 59

method:String [optional] - Specifies an HTTP method for sending variables. The parameter

must be the string

GET method appends the variables to the end of the URL and is used for small numbers of

variables. The

GET or POST . If there are no variables to be sent, omit this parameter. The

POST method sends the variables in a separate HTTP header and is used for

long strings of variables.

Example

The following example loads the JPEG image tim.jpg into level 2 of Flash Player:

loadMovieNum("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg", 2);

See also

unloadMovieNum function, loadMovie function, loadClip

(MovieClipLoader.loadClip method)

, _level property

loadVariables function

loadVariables(url:String, target:Object [, method:String]) : Void

Reads data from an external file, such as a text file or text generated by ColdFusion, a CGI script, Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP, or Perl script, and sets the values for variables in a target movie clip. This action can also be used to update variables in the active SWF file with new values.

The text at the specified URL must be in the standard MIME format application/x-www- form-urlencoded (a standard format used by CGI scripts). Any number of variables can be specified. For example, the following phrase defines several variables:

company=Macromedia&address=600+Townsend&city=San+Francisco&zip=94103

In SWF files running in a version earlier than Flash Player 7, url must be in the same superdomain as the SWF file that is issuing this call. A superdomain is derived by removing the leftmost component of a file's URL. For example, a SWF file at www.someDomain.com can load data from a source at store.someDomain.com because both files are in the same superdomain of someDomain.com.

In SWF files of any version running in Flash Player 7 or later,

url must be in exactly the same

domain as the SWF file that is issuing this call (see "Flash Player security features" in Using ActionScript in Flash). For example, a SWF file at www.someDomain.com can load data only

from sources that are also at www.someDomain.com. If you want to load data from a different domain, you can place a cross-domain policy file on the server hosting the SWF file that is being accessed. For more information, see "About allowing cross-domain data loading" in Using ActionScript in Flash.

60 ActionScript language elements

If you want to load variables into a specific level, use loadVariablesNum() instead of

loadVariables().

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1 - Behavior changed in Flash Player 7.

Parameters

url:String - An absolute or relative URL where the variables are located. If the SWF file

issuing this call is running in a web browser,

url must be in the same domain as the SWF file;

for details, see the Description section.

target:Object - The target path to a movie clip that receives the loaded variables.

method:String [optional] - Specifies an HTTP method for sending variables. The parameter

must be the string

GET method appends the variables to the end of the URL and is used for small numbers of

variables. The

GET or POST . If there are no variables to be sent, omit this parameter. The

POST method sends the variables in a separate HTTP header and is used for

long strings of variables.

Example

The following example loads information from a text file called params.txt into the

target_mc movie clip that is created using createEmptyMovieClip(). The setInterval()

function is used to check the loading progress. The script checks for a variable in the params.txt file named

done.

this.createEmptyMovieClip("target_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()); loadVariables("params.txt", target_mc); function checkParamsLoaded() { if (target_mc.done == undefined) { trace("not yet."); } else { trace("finished loading. killing interval."); trace("-------------"); for (i in target_mc) { trace(i+": "+target_mc[i]); } trace("-------------"); clearInterval(param_interval); } } var param_interval = setInterval(checkParamsLoaded, 100);

The external file, params.txt, includes the following text:

var1="hello"&var2="goodbye"&done="done"

Global Functions 61

See also

loadVariablesNum function, loadMovie function, loadMovieNum function, getURL

function

(MovieClip.loadVariables method)

, loadMovie (MovieClip.loadMovie method), loadVariables

, load (LoadVars.load method)

loadVariablesNum function

loadVariablesNum(url:String, level:Number [, method:String]) : Void

Reads data from an external file, such as a text file or text generated by ColdFusion, a CGI script, ASP, PHP, or a Perl script, and sets the values for variables in a Flash Player level. You can also use this function to update variables in the active SWF file with new values.

The text at the specified URL must be in the standard MIME format

form-urlencoded

(a standard format used by CGI scripts). Any number of variables can be

application/x-www-

specified. For example, the following phrase defines several variables:

company=Macromedia&address=601+Townsend&city=San+Francisco&zip=94103

In SWF files running in a version of the player earlier than Flash Player 7, url must be in the same superdomain as the SWF file that is issuing this call. A superdomain is derived by removing the leftmost component of a file's URL. For example, a SWF file at www.someDomain.com can load data from a source at store.someDomain.com, because both files are in the same superdomain of someDomain.com.

In SWF files of any version running in Flash Player 7 or later,

url must be in exactly the same

domain as the SWF file that is issuing this call (see "Flash Player security features" in Using ActionScript in Flash). For example, a SWF file at www.someDomain.com can load data only

from sources that are also at www.someDomain.com. If you want to load data from a different domain, you can place a cross-domain policy file on the server hosting the SWF file. For more information, see "About allowing cross-domain data loading" in Using ActionScript in Flash.

If you want to load variables into a target MovieClip, use

loadVariablesNum().

loadVariables() instead of

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1 - Behavior changed in Flash Player 7. Flash 4 files opened in Flash 5 or later are converted to use the correct syntax.

Parameters

url:String - An absolute or relative URL where the variables are located. If the SWF file

issuing this call is running in a web browser, for details, see the Description section.

level:Number - An integer specifying the level in Flash Player to receive the variables.

62 ActionScript language elements

url must be in the same domain as the SWF file;

method:String [optional] - Specifies an HTTP method for sending variables. The parameter

must be the string

GET method appends the variables to the end of the URL and is used for small numbers of

variables. The

GET or POST . If there are no variables to be sent, omit this parameter. The

POST method sends the variables in a separate HTTP header and is used for

long strings of variables.

Example

The following example loads information from a text file called params.txt into the main Timeline of the SWF at level 2 in Flash Player. The variable names of the text fields must match the variable names in the params.txt file. The

setInterval() function is used to

check the progress of the data being loaded into the SWF. The script checks for a variable in the params.txt file named

loadVariablesNum("params.txt", 2); function checkParamsLoaded() { if (_level2.done == undefined) { trace("not yet."); } else { trace("finished loading. killing interval."); trace("-------------"); for (i in _level2) { trace(i+": "+_level2[i]); } trace("-------------"); clearInterval(param_interval); } } var param_interval = setInterval(checkParamsLoaded, 100);

done.

// Params.txt includes the following text var1="hello"&var2="goodbye"&done="done"

See also

getURL function, loadMovie function, loadMovieNum function, loadVariables

function

(MovieClip.loadVariables method)

, loadMovie (MovieClip.loadMovie method), loadVariables

, load (LoadVars.load method)

mbchr function

mbchr(number)

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of the

String.fromCharCode() method.

Converts an ASCII code number to a multibyte character.

Global Functions 63

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

number:Number - The number to convert to a multibyte character.

See also

fromCharCode (String.fromCharCode method)

mblength function

mblength(string) : Number

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of the String.length property.

Returns the length of the multibyte character string.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

string:String - The string to measure.

Returns

Number - The length of the multibyte character string.

See also

String, length (String.length property)

mbord function

mbord(character) : Number

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of

String.charCodeAt() method.

Converts the specified character to a multibyte number.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

character:String - character The character to convert to a multibyte number.

64 ActionScript language elements

Returns

Number - The converted character.

See also

charCodeAt (String.charCodeAt method)

mbsubstring function

mbsubstring(value, index, count) : String

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of String.substr() method.

Extracts a new multibyte character string from a multibyte character string.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

value:String - The multibyte string from which to extract a new multibyte string.

index:Number - The number of the first character to extract.

count:Number - The number of characters to include in the extracted string, not including

the index character.

Returns

String - The string extracted from the multibyte character string.

See also

substr (String.substr method)

Global Functions 65

nextFrame function

nextFrame() : Void

Sends the playhead to the next frame.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Example

In the following example, when the user presses the Right or Down arrow key, the playhead goes to the next frame and stops. If the user presses the Left or Up arrow key, the playhead goes to the previous frame and stops. The listener is initialized to wait for the arrow key to be pressed, and the playhead returns to Frame 1.

stop();

if (init == undefined) { someListener = new Object(); someListener.onKeyDown = function() { if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT) || Key.isDown(Key.UP)) { _level0.prevFrame(); } else if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT) || Key.isDown(Key.DOWN)) { _level0.nextFrame(); } }; Key.addListener(someListener); init = 1; }

init variable is used to prevent the listener from being redefined if the

See also

prevFrame function

nextScene function

nextScene() : Void

Sends the playhead to Frame 1 of the next scene.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

66 ActionScript language elements

Example

In the following example, when a user clicks the button that is created at runtime, the playhead is sent to Frame 1 of the next scene. Create two scenes, and enter the following ActionScript on Frame 1 of Scene 1.

stop();

if (init == undefined) { this.createEmptyMovieClip("nextscene_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()); nextscene_mc.createTextField("nextscene_txt", this.getNextHighestDepth(),

200, 0, 100, 22); nextscene_mc.nextscene_txt.autoSize = true; nextscene_mc.nextscene_txt.border = true; nextscene_mc.nextscene_txt.text = "Next Scene"; this.createEmptyMovieClip("prevscene_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()); prevscene_mc.createTextField("prevscene_txt", this.getNextHighestDepth(),

00, 0, 100, 22); prevscene_mc.prevscene_txt.autoSize = true; prevscene_mc.prevscene_txt.border = true; prevscene_mc.prevscene_txt.text = "Prev Scene"; nextscene_mc.onRelease = function() { nextScene(); };

prevscene_mc.onRelease = function() { prevScene(); };

init = true; }

Make sure you place a stop() action on Frame 1 of Scene 2.

See also

prevScene function

Global Functions 67

Number function

Number(expression) : Number

Converts the parameter expression to a number and returns a value as described in the following list:

■ If expression is a number, the return value is expression.

■ If expression is a Boolean value, the return value is 1 if expression is true, 0 if

expression is false.

■ If expression is a string, the function attempts to parse expression as a decimal

number with an optional trailing exponent (that is, 1.57505e-3).

■ If expression is NaN, the return value is NaN.

■ If expression is undefined, the return value is as follows:

- In files published for Flash Player 6 or earlier, the result is 0.

- In files published for Flash Player 7 or later, the result is NaN.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0 -

Parameters

expression:Object - An expression to convert to a number. Numbers or strings that begin

with 0x are interpreted as hexadecimal values. Numbers or strings that begin with 0 are interpreted as octal values.

Returns

Number - A number or NaN (not a number).

Example

In the following example, a text field is created on the Stage at runtime:

this.createTextField("counter_txt", this.getNextHighestDepth(), 0, 0, 100,

22); counter_txt.autoSize = true; counter_txt.text = 0; function incrementInterval():Void { var counter:Number = counter_txt.text; // Without the Number() function, Flash would concatenate the value instead // of adding values. You could also use "counter_txt.text++;" counter_txt.text = Number(counter) + 1; } var intervalID:Number = setInterval(incrementInterval, 1000);

See also

NaN constant, Number, parseInt function, parseFloat function

68 ActionScript language elements

Object function

Object( [value] ) : Object

Creates a new empty object or converts the specified number, string, or Boolean value to an object. This command is equivalent to creating an object using the Object constructor (see "Constructor for the Object class").

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

value:Object [optional] - A number, string, or Boolean value.

Returns

Object - An object.

Example

In the following example, a new empty object is created, and then the object is populated with values:

var company:Object = new Object(); company.name = "Macromedia, Inc."; company.address = "600 Townsend Street"; company.city = "San Francisco"; company.state = "CA"; company.postal = "94103"; for (var i in company) { trace("company."+i+" = "+company[i]); }

See also

Object

on handler

on(mouseEvent:Object) { // your statements here }

Specifies the mouse event or keypress that triggers an action.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0 - Flash 2. Not all events are supported in Flash 2.

Global Functions 69

Parameters

mouseEvent:Object - A mouseEvent is a trigger called an event . When the event occurs, the

statements following it within curly braces ({ }) execute. Any of the following values can be specified for the

■ press The mouse button is pressed while the pointer is over the button.

■ release The mouse button is released while the pointer is over the button.

■ releaseOutside While the pointer is over the button, the mouse button is pressed, rolled

outside the button area, and released. Both the precede a

mouseEvent parameter:

press and the dragOut events always

releaseOutside event.

Note: This event is supported in Flash Lite only if System.capabilities.hasMouse is

true or System.capabilities.hasStylus is true.

■ rollOut The pointer rolls outside the button area.

Note: This event is supported in Flash Lite only if System.capabilities.hasMouse is

true or System.capabilities.hasStylus is true.

■ rollOver The mouse pointer rolls over the button.

■ dragOut While the pointer is over the button, the mouse button is pressed and then rolls

outside the button area.

■ dragOver While the pointer is over the button, the mouse button has been pressed, then

rolled outside the button, and then rolled back over the button.

■ keyPress "<key> " The specified keyboard key is pressed. For the key portion of the

parameter, specify a key constant, as shown in the code hinting in the Actions Panel. You can use this parameter to intercept a key press, that is, to override any built-in behavior for the specified key. The button can be anywhere in your application, on or off the Stage. One limitation of this technique is that you can't apply the

on() handler at runtime; you

must do it at authoring time. Make sure that you select Control > Disable Keyboard Shortcuts, or certain keys with built-in behavior won't be overridden when you test the application using Control > Test Movie.

For a list of key constants, see the Key class.

70 ActionScript language elements

Example

In the following script, the startDrag() function executes when the mouse is pressed, and the conditional script is executed when the mouse is released and the object is dropped:

on (press) { startDrag(this); } on (release) { trace("X:"+this._x); trace("Y:"+this._y); stopDrag(); }

See also

onClipEvent handler, Key

onClipEvent handler

onClipEvent(movieEvent:Object) { // your statements here }

Triggers actions defined for a specific instance of a movie clip.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

movieEvent:Object - The movieEvent is a trigger called an event . When the event occurs,

the statements following it within curly braces ({}) are executed. Any of the following values can be specified for the

■ load The action is initiated as soon as the movie clip is instantiated and appears in the

movieEvent parameter:

Timeline.

■ unload The action is initiated in the first frame after the movie clip is removed from the

Timeline. The actions associated with the

Unload movie clip event are processed before

any actions are attached to the affected frame.

■ enterFrame The action is triggered continually at the frame rate of the movie clip. The

actions associated with the

enterFrame clip event are processed before any frame actions

that are attached to the affected frames.

■ mouseMove The action is initiated every time the mouse is moved. Use the _xmouse and

_ymouse properties to determine the current mouse position.

Note: This event is supported in Flash Lite only if System.capabilities.hasMouse is

true.

Global Functions 71

■ mouseDown The action is initiated when the left mouse button is pressed.

Note: This event is supported in Flash Lite only if System.capabilities.hasMouse is

true or System.capabilities.hasStylus is true.

■ mouseUp The action is initiated when the left mouse button is released.

Note: This event is supported in Flash Lite only if System.capabilities.hasMouse is

true or System.capabilities.hasStylus is true.

■ keyDown The action is initiated when a key is pressed. Use Key.getCode() to retrieve

information about the last key pressed.

■ keyUp The action is initiated when a key is released. Use the Key.getCode() method to

retrieve information about the last key pressed.

■ data The action is initiated when data is received in a loadVariables() or loadMovie()

action. When specified with a when the last variable is loaded. When specified with a

loadVariables() action, the data event occurs only once,

loadMovie() action, the data

event occurs repeatedly, as each section of data is retrieved.

Example

The following example uses onClipEvent() with the keyDown movie event and is designed to be attached to a movie clip or button. The more methods and properties of the Key object. The following script uses find out which key the user has pressed; if the pressed key matches the the playhead is sent to the next frame; if the pressed key matches the

keyDown movie event is usually used with one or

Key.getCode() to

Key.RIGHT property,

Key.LEFT property, the

playhead is sent to the previous frame.

onClipEvent (keyDown) { if (Key.getCode() == Key.RIGHT) { this._parent.nextFrame(); } else if (Key.getCode() == Key.LEFT) { this._parent.prevFrame(); } }

The following example uses onClipEvent() with the load and mouseMove movie events.

xmouse and _ymouse properties track the position of the mouse each time the mouse

The _ moves, which appears in the text field that's created at runtime.

onClipEvent (load) { this.createTextField("coords_txt", this.getNextHighestDepth(), 0, 0, 100,

22); coords_txt.autoSize = true; coords_txt.selectable = false; } onClipEvent (mouseMove) { coords_txt.text = "X:"+_root._xmouse+",Y:"+_root._ymouse; }

72 ActionScript language elements

See also

Key, _xmouse (MovieClip._xmouse property), _ymouse (MovieClip._ymouse

property)

, on handler

ord function

ord(character) : Number

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of the methods and properties of the String class.

Converts characters to ASCII code numbers.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

character:String - The character to convert to an ASCII code number.

Returns

Number - The ASCII code number of the specified character.

See also

String, charCodeAt (String.charCodeAt method)

parseFloat function

parseFloat(string:String) : Number

Converts a string to a floating-point number. The function reads, or parses, and returns the numbers in a string until it reaches a character that is not a part of the initial number. If the string does not begin with a number that can be parsed, space preceding valid integers is ignored, as are trailing nonnumeric characters.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

string:String - The string to read and convert to a floating-point number.

Returns

Number - A number or NaN (not a number).

parseFloat() returns NaN. White

Global Functions 73

Example

The following examples use the parseFloat() function to evaluate various types of numbers:

trace(parseFloat("-2")); // output: -2 trace(parseFloat("2.5")); // output: 2.5 trace(parseFloat(" 2.5")); // output: 2.5 trace(parseFloat("3.5e6")); // output: 3500000 trace(parseFloat("foobar")); // output: NaN trace(parseFloat("3.75math")); // output: 3.75 trace(parseFloat("0garbage")); // output: 0

See also

NaN constant, parseInt function

parseInt function

parseInt(expression:String [, radix:Number]) : Number

Converts a string to an integer. If the specified string in the parameters cannot be converted to a number, the function returns numbers. Integers beginning with 0 or specifying a radix of 8 are interpreted as octal numbers. White space preceding valid integers is ignored, as are trailing nonnumeric characters.

NaN. Strings beginning with 0x are interpreted as hexadecimal

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

expression:String - A string to convert to an integer.

radix:Number [optional] - An integer representing the radix (base) of the number to parse.

Legal values are from 2 to 36.

Returns

Number - A number or NaN (not a number).

Example

The examples in this section use the parseInt() function to evaluate various types of numbers.

The following example returns 3:

parseInt("3.5")

The following example returns NaN:

parseInt("bar")

74 ActionScript language elements

The following example returns 4:

parseInt("4foo")

The following example shows a hexadecimal conversion that returns 1016:

parseInt("0x3F8")

The following example shows a hexadecimal conversion using the optional radix parameter that returns 1000:

parseInt("3E8", 16)

The following example shows a binary conversion and returns 10, which is the decimal representation of the binary 1010:

parseInt("1010", 2)

The following examples show octal number parsing and return 511, which is the decimal representation of the octal 777:

parseInt("0777") parseInt("777", 8)

See also

, parseFloat function

play function

play() : Void

Moves the playhead forward in the Timeline.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Example

In the following example, there are two movie clip instances on the Stage with the instance names

stop_mc movie clip instance is clicked. Playback resumes when the play_mc instance is

clicked.

this.stop_mc.onRelease = function() { stop(); }; this.play_mc.onRelease = function() { play(); }; trace("frame 1");

See also

stop_mc and play_mc. The ActionScript stops the SWF file's playback when the

gotoAndPlay function, gotoAndPlay (MovieClip.gotoAndPlay method)

Global Functions 75

prevFrame function

prevFrame() : Void

Sends the playhead to the previous frame. If the current frame is Frame 1, the playhead does not move.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Example

When the user clicks a button called myBtn_btn and the following ActionScript is placed on a frame in the Timeline for that button, the playhead is sent to the previous frame:

stop(); this.myBtn_btn.onRelease = function(){ prevFrame(); };

See also

nextFrame function, prevFrame (MovieClip.prevFrame method)

prevScene function

prevScene() : Void

Sends the playhead to Frame 1 of the previous scene.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

See also

nextScene function

random function

random(value) : Number

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of Math.random().

Returns a random integer between 0 and one less than the integer specified in the value parameter.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Parameters

value:Number - An integer.

76 ActionScript language elements

Returns

Number - A random integer.

Example

The following use of random() returns a value of 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4: random(5);

See also

random (Math.random method)

removeMovieClip function

removeMovieClip(target:Object)

Deletes the specified movie clip.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

target:Object - The target path of a movie clip instance created with duplicateMovieClip() or the instance name of a movie clip created with MovieClip.attachMovie(), MovieClip.duplicateMovieClip(), or MovieClip.createEmptyMovieClip().

Example

The following example creates a new movie clip called myClip_mc and duplicates the movie clip. The second movie clip is called When a button,

this.createEmptyMovieClip("myClip_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()); myClip_mc.loadMovie("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg"); duplicateMovieClip(this.myClip_mc, "newClip_mc",

this.getNextHighestDepth());

newClip_mc.loadMovie("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/

image1.jpg"); newClip_mc._x = 200; this.button_mc.onRelease = function() { removeMovieClip(this._parent.newClip_mc); };

button_mc, is clicked, the duplicated movie clip is removed from the Stage.

newClip_mc. Images are loaded into both movie clips.

Global Functions 77

See also

duplicateMovieClip function, duplicateMovieClip

(MovieClip.duplicateMovieClip method)

method)

createEmptyMovieClip (MovieClip.createEmptyMovieClip method)

, removeMovieClip (MovieClip.removeMovieClip method),

, attachMovie (MovieClip.attachMovie

setInterval function

setInterval(functionName:Object, interval:Number [, param1:Object, param2, ..., paramN]) : Number setInterval(objectName:Object, methodName:String, interval:Number [, param1:Object, param2, ..., paramN]) : Number

Calls a function or a method or an object at periodic intervals while a SWF file plays. You can use an interval function to update variables from a database or to update a time display.

interval is greater than the SWF file's frame rate, the interval function is only called each

time the playhead enters a frame; this minimizes the impact each time the screen is refreshed.

Note: In Flash Lite 2.0, the interval passed into this method is ignored if it is less than the SWF file's frame rate and the interval function is called on the SWF file's frame rate interval only. If the interval is greater than the SWF file's frame rate, the event is called on the next frame after the interval has elapsed.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

functionName:Object - A function name or a reference to an anonymous function.

interval:Number - The time in milliseconds between calls to the functionName or

methodName parameter.

param:Object [optional] - Parameters passed to the functionName or methodName

parameter. Multiple parameters should be separated by commas:

...,paramN

objectName:Object

methodName:String - A method of objectName .

- An object containing the method methodName.

param1,param2,

Returns

Number - An identifying integer that you can pass to clearInterval() to cancel the interval.

78 ActionScript language elements

Example

Usage 1: The following example calls an anonymous function every 1000 milliseconds (1 second).

setInterval( function(){ trace("interval called"); }, 1000 );

Usage 2: The following example defines two event handlers and calls each of them. The first call to The second call to

callback2() as a parameter.

function callback1() { trace("interval called"); }

function callback2(arg) { trace(arg); }

setInterval( callback1, 1000 ); setInterval( callback2, 1000, "interval called" );

setInterval() calls the callback1() function, which contains a trace() statement.

setInterval() passes the "interval called" string to the function

Usage 3: This example uses a method of an object. You must use this syntax when you want to call a method that is defined for an object.

obj = new Object(); obj.interval = function() { trace("interval function called"); }

setInterval( obj, "interval", 1000 );

obj2 = new Object(); obj2.interval = function(s) { trace(s); } setInterval( obj2, "interval", 1000, "interval function called" );

You must use the second form of the setInterval() syntax to call a method of an object, as shown in the following example:

setInterval( obj2, "interval", 1000, "interval function called" );

Global Functions 79

When working with this function, you need to be careful about the memory you use in a SWF file. For example, when you remove a movie clip from the SWF file, it will not remove any

setInterval() function running within it. Always remove the setInterval() function

by using

clearInterval() when you have finished using it, as shown in the following

example:

// create an event listener object for our MovieClipLoader instance var listenerObjectbject = new Object(); listenerObject.onLoadInit = function(target_mc:MovieClip) { trace("start interval"); /* after the target movie clip loaded, create a callback which executes about every 1000 ms (1 second) and calls the intervalFunc function. */ target_mc.myInterval = setInterval(intervalFunc, 1000, target_mc); }; function intervalFunc(target_mc) { // display a trivial message which displays the instance name and arbitrary

text. trace(target_mc+" has been loaded for "+getTimer()/1000+" seconds."); /* when the target movie clip is clicked (and released) you clear the

interval and remove the movie clip. If you don't clear the interval before deleting the movie clip, the function still calls itself every second even though

the movie clip instance is no longer present. */ target_mc.onRelease = function() { trace("clear interval"); clearInterval(this.myInterval); // delete the target movie clip removeMovieClip(this); }; } var jpeg_mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader(); jpeg_mcl.addListener(listenerObject); jpeg_mcl.loadClip("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg", this.createEmptyMovieClip("jpeg_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()));

If you work with setInterval() within classes, you need to be sure to use the this keyword when you call the function. The members if you do not use the keyword. This is illustrated in the following example. For a FLA file with a button called

var me:User = new User("Gary"); this.deleteUser_btn.onRelease = function() { trace("Goodbye, "+me.username); clearInterval(me.intervalID); delete me; };

80 ActionScript language elements

setInterval()function does not have access to class

deleteUser_btn, add the following ActionScript to Frame 1:

Then create a file called User.as in the same directory as your FLA file. Enter the following ActionScript:

class User { var intervalID:Number; var username:String; function User(param_username:String) { trace("Welcome, "+param_username); this.username = param_username; this.intervalID = setInterval(this, "traceUsername", 1000, this.username); } function traceUsername(str:String) { trace(this.username+" is "+getTimer()/1000+" seconds old, happy

birthday."); } }

See also

clearInterval function

setProperty function

setProperty(target:Object, property:Object, expression:Object) : Void

Changes a property value of a movie clip as the movie clip plays.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

target:Object - The path to the instance name of the movie clip whose property is to be set.

property:Object - The property to be set.

expression:Object - Either the new literal value of the property, or an equation that

evaluates to the new value of the property.

Example

The following ActionScript creates a new movie clip and loads an image into it. The _xand _y coordinates are set for the clip using

right_btn, the _x coordinate of a movie clip named params_mc is incremented by 20 pixels.

this.createEmptyMovieClip("params_mc", 999); params_mc.loadMovie("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg"); setProperty(this.params_mc, _y, 20); setProperty(this.params_mc, _x, 20); this.right_btn.onRelease = function() { setProperty(params_mc, _x, getProperty(params_mc, _x)+20); };

setProperty(). When you click the button called

Global Functions 81

See also

getProperty function

startDrag function

startDrag(target:Object [, lock:Boolean, left:Number, top:Number,

right:Number, bottom:Number]) : Void

Makes the target movie clip draggable while the movie plays. Only one movie clip can be dragged at a time. After a draggable until it is explicitly stopped by another movie clip is called.

startDrag() operation is executed, the movie clip remains

stopDrag() or until a startDrag() action for

Note: This method is supported in Flash Lite only if

true or System.capabilities.hasStylus is true.

System.capabilities.hasMouse is

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

target:Object - The target path of the movie clip to drag.

lock:Boolean [optional] - A Boolean value specifying whether the draggable movie clip is

locked to the center of the mouse position ( clicked the movie clip (

left,top,right,bottom:Number [optional] - Values relative to the coordinates of the movie

false ).

true ) or locked to the point where the user first

clip's parent that specify a constraint rectangle for the movie clip.

Example

The following example creates a movie clip, pic_mc, at runtime that users can drag to any location by attaching the is loaded into

var pic_mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader(); pic_mcl.loadClip("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg", this.createEmptyMovieClip("pic_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth())); var listenerObject:Object = new Object(); listenerObject.onLoadInit = function(target_mc) { target_mc.onPress = function() { startDrag(this); }; target_mc.onRelease = function() { stopDrag(); }; }; pic_mcl.addListener(listenerObject);

pic_mc using the MovieClipLoader class.

startDrag() and stopDrag() actions to the movie clip. An image

82 ActionScript language elements

See also

stopDrag function, _droptarget (MovieClip._droptarget property), startDrag

(MovieClip.startDrag method)

stop function

stop() : Void

Stops the SWF file that is currently playing. The most common use of this action is to control movie clips with buttons.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

See also

gotoAndStop function, gotoAndStop (MovieClip.gotoAndStop method)

stopAllSounds function

stopAllSounds() : Void

Stops all sounds currently playing in a SWF file without stopping the playhead. Sounds set to stream will resume playing as the playhead moves over the frames in which they are located.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Example

The following code creates a text field, in which the song's ID3 information appears. A new Sound object instance is created, and your MP3 is loaded into the SWF file. ID3 information is extracted from the sound file. When the user clicks the user clicks

this.createTextField("songinfo_txt", this.getNextHighestDepth, 0, 0,

Stage.width, 22); var bg_sound:Sound = new Sound(); bg_sound.loadSound("yourSong.mp3", true); bg_sound.onID3 = function() { songinfo_txt.text = "(" + this.id3.artist + ") " + this.id3.album + " - " +

this.id3.track + " - " + this.id3.songname; for (prop in this.id3) { trace(prop+" = "+this.id3[prop]); } trace("ID3 loaded."); }; this.play_mc.onRelease = function() {

play_mc, the song resumes from its paused position.

stop_mc, the sound is paused. When

Global Functions 83

/* get the current offset. if you stop all sounds and click the play

button, the MP3 continues from where it was stopped, instead of restarting from the beginning. */ var numSecondsOffset:Number = (bg_sound.position/1000); bg_sound.start(numSecondsOffset); }; this.stop_mc.onRelease = function() { stopAllSounds(); };

See also

Sound

stopDrag function

stopDrag() : Void

Stops the current drag operation.

Note: This method is supported in Flash Lite only if

true or System.capabilities.hasStylus is true.

System.capabilities.hasMouse is

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Example

The following code, placed in the main Timeline, stops the drag action on the movie clip instance

my_mc.onPress = function () { startDrag(this); }

my_mc.onRelease = function() { stopDrag(); }

my_mc when the user releases the mouse button:

See also

startDrag function, _droptarget (MovieClip._droptarget property), startDrag

(MovieClip.startDrag method)

, stopDrag (MovieClip.stopDrag method)

84 ActionScript language elements

String function

String(expression:Object) : String

Returns a string representation of the specified parameter, as described in the following list:

■ If expression is a number, the return string is a text representation of the number.

■ If expression is a string, the return string is expression.

■ If expression is an object, the return value is a string representation of the object

generated by calling the string property for the object or by calling no such property exists.

■ If expression is a Boolean value, the return string is "true" or "false".

■ If expression is a movie clip, the return value is the target path of the movie clip in slash

(/) notation.

If expression is undefined, the return values are as follows:

■ In files published for Flash Player 6 or earlier, the result is an empty string ("").

■ In files published for Flash Player 7 or later, the result is undefined.

Note:Slash notation is not supported by ActionScript 2.0.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0 - Behavior changed in Flash Player 7.

Object.toString() if

Parameters

expression:Object - An expression to convert to a string.

Returns

String - A string.

Example

In the following example, you use ActionScript to convert specified expressions to a string:

var string1:String = String("3"); var string2:String = String("9"); trace(string1+string2); // output: 39

Because both parameters are strings, the values are concatenated rather than added.

See also

toString (Number.toString method), toString (Object.toString method), String,

" string delimiter operator

Global Functions 85

substring function

substring("string", index, count) : String

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of String.substr().

Extracts part of a string. This function is one-based, whereas the String object methods are zero-based.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

string:String - The string from which to extract the new string.

index:Number - The number of the first character to extract.

count:Number - The number of characters to include in the extracted string, not including

the index character.

Returns

String - The extracted substring.

See also

substr (String.substr method)

targetPath function

targetpath(targetObject:Object) : String

Returns a string containing the target path of a MovieClip, Button, or TextFieldobject. The target path is returned in dot (.) notation. To retrieve the target path in slash (/) notation, use the

_target property.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0 - Support for Button and TextField objects added in Flash Player 6.

Parameters

targetObject:Object - Reference (for example, _root or _parent ) to the object for which

the target path is being retrieved. This can be a MovieClip, Button, or TextField object.

86 ActionScript language elements

Returns

String - A string containing the target path of the specified object.

Example

The following example traces the target path of a movie clip as soon as it loads:

this.createEmptyMovieClip("myClip_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth()); trace(targetPath(myClip_mc)); // _level0.myClip_mc

See also

eval function

tellTarget function

tellTarget("target") { statement(s); }

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. Macromedia recommends that you use dot (.) notation and the

with statement.

Applies the instructions specified in the the

target parameter. The tellTarget action is useful for navigation controls. Assign

tellTarget to buttons that stop or start movie clips elsewhere on the Stage. You can also

statements parameter to the Timeline specified in

make movie clips go to a particular frame in that clip. For example, you might assign

tellTarget to buttons that stop or start movie clips on the Stage or prompt movie clips to

jump to a particular frame.

In Flash 5 or later, you can use dot (.) notation instead of the the

with action to issue multiple actions to the same Timeline. You can use the with action to

target any object, whereas the

tellTarget action can target only movie clips.

tellTarget action. You can use

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

target:String - A string that specifies the target path of the Timeline to be controlled.

statement(s):Object - The instructions to execute if the condition is true.

Global Functions 87

Example

This tellTarget statement controls the movie clip instance ball on the main Timeline. Frame 1 of the ball instance is blank and has a stop() action so it isn't visible on the Stage. When you click the button with the following action, tellTarget tells the playhead in ball to go to Frame 2, where the animation starts:

on(release) { tellTarget("_parent.ball") { gotoAndPlay(2); } }

The following example uses dot (.) notation to achieve the same results:

on(release) { _parent.ball.gotoAndPlay(2); }

If you need to issue multiple commands to the ball instance, you can use the with action, as shown in the following statement:

on(release) { with(_parent.ball) { gotoAndPlay(2); _alpha = 15; _xscale = 50; _yscale = 50; } }

See also

with statement

toggleHighQuality function

toggleHighQuality()

Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This function was deprecated in favor of _quality.

Turns anti-aliasing on and off in Flash Player. Anti-aliasing smooths the edges of objects and slows down SWF playback. This action affects all SWF files in Flash Player.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

88 ActionScript language elements

Example

The following code could be applied to a button that, when clicked, would toggle antialiasing on and off:

on(release) { toggleHighQuality(); }

See also

_quality property

trace function

trace(expression:Object)

You can use Flash Debug Player to capture output from the trace() function and write that output to the log file.

Statement; evaluates the expression and displays the result in the Output panel in test mode.

Use this statement to record programming notes or to display messages in the Output panel while testing a SWF file. Use the or to display values in the Output panel. The function in JavaScript.

expression parameter to check whether a condition exists,

trace() statement is similar to the alert

You can use the Omit Trace Actions command in the Publish Settings dialog box to remove

trace()actions from the exported SWF file.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0

Parameters

expression:Object - An expression to evaluate. When a SWF file is opened in the Flash

authoring tool (using the Test Movie command), the value of the

expression parameter is

displayed in the Output panel.

Global Functions 89

Example

The following example uses a trace() statement to display in the Output panel the methods and properties of the dynamically created text field called

this.createTextField("error_txt", this.getNextHighestDepth(), 0, 0, 100,

22); for (var i in error_txt) { trace("error_txt."+i+" = "+error_txt[i]); } /* output: error_txt.styleSheet = undefined error_txt.mouseWheelEnabled = true error_txt.condenseWhite = false ... error_txt.maxscroll = 1 error_txt.scroll = 1 */

error_txt:

unescape function

unescape(x:String) : String

Evaluates the parameter x as a string, decodes the string from URL-encoded format (converting all hexadecimal sequences to ASCII characters), and returns the string.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 2.0

Parameters

string:String - A string with hexadecimal sequences to escape.

Returns

String - A string decoded from a URL-encoded parameter.

Example

The following example shows the escape-to-unescape conversion process:

var email:String = "user@somedomain.com"; trace(email); var escapedEmail:String = escape(email); trace(escapedEmail); var unescapedEmail:String = unescape(escapedEmail); trace(unescapedEmail);

The following result is displayed in the Output panel.

user@somedomain.com user%40somedomain%2Ecom user@somedomain.com

90 ActionScript language elements

unloadMovie function

unloadMovie(target:MovieClip) : Void unloadMovie(target:String) : Void

Removes a movie clip that was loaded by means of loadMovie() from Flash Player. To unload a movie clip that was loaded by means of of

unloadMovie().

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Parameters

target - The target path of a movie clip. This parameter can be either a String (e.g.

"my_mc") or a direct reference to the movie clip instance (e.g. my_mc). Parameters that can accept more than one data type are listed as type

Example

The following example creates a new movie clip called pic_mc and loads an image into that clip. It is loaded using the MovieClipLoader class. When you click the image, the movie clip unloads from the SWF file:

var pic_mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader(); pic_mcl.loadClip("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg", this.createEmptyMovieClip("pic_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth())); var listenerObject:Object = new Object(); listenerObject.onLoadInit = function(target_mc) { target_mc.onRelease = function() { unloadMovie(pic_mc); /* or you could use the following, which refers to the movie clip

referenced by 'target_mc'. */ //unloadMovie(this); }; }; pic_mcl.addListener(listenerObject);

loadMovieNum(), use unloadMovieNum() instead

Object.

See also

loadMovie (MovieClip.loadMovie method), unloadClip

(MovieClipLoader.unloadClip method)

unloadMovieNum function

unloadMovieNum(level:Number) : Void

Removes a SWF or image that was loaded by means of loadMovieNum() from Flash Player. To unload a SWF or image that was loaded with

unloadMovie() instead of unloadMovieNum().

MovieClip.loadMovie(), use

Global Functions 91

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Parameters

level:Number - The level (_level N ) of a loaded movie.

Example

The following example loads an image into a SWF file. When you click unload_btn, the loaded content is removed.

loadMovieNum("yourimage.jpg", 1); unload_btn.onRelease = function() { unloadMovieNum(1); }

See also

loadMovieNum function, unloadMovie function, loadMovie (MovieClip.loadMovie

method)

Global Properties

Global properties are available in every script, and are visible to every Timeline and scope in your document. For example, global properties allow access to the timelines of other loaded movie clips, both relative ( expand (

super) scope. And, you can use global properties to adjust runtime settings like

_parent) and absolute (_root). They also let you restrict (this) or

screen reader accessibility, playback quality, and sound buffer size.

Global Properties summary

Modifiers Property Description

$version Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.version property. Contains the version number of Flash Lite.

_cap4WayKeyAS Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.has4WayKeyAS property. Indicates whether Flash Lite executes ActionScript expressions attached to key event handlers associated with the Right, Left, Up, and Down Arrow keys.

92 ActionScript language elements

Modifiers Property Description

_capCompoundSound Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasCompoundSound property. Indicates whether Flash Lite can process compound sound data.

_capEmail Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasEmail property. Indicates whether the Flash Lite client can send email messages by using the GetURL() ActionScript command.

_capLoadData Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasDataLoading property. Indicates whether the host application can dynamically load additional data through calls to the loadMovie(), loadMovieNum(), loadVariables(), and loadVariablesNum() functions.

_capMFi Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasMFi property. Indicates whether the device can play sound data in the Melody Format for i-mode (MFi) audio format.

_capMIDI Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasMIDI property. Indicates whether the device can play sound data in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) audio format.

_capMMS Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasMMS property. Indicates whether Flash Lite can send Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages by using the GetURL() ActionScript command. If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if not, this variable is undefined.

Global Properties 93

Modifiers Property Description

_capSMAF Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasSMAF property. Indicates whether the device can play multimedia files in the Synthetic music Mobile Application Format (SMAF). If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if not, this variable is undefined.

_capSMS Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasSMS property. Indicates whether Flash Lite can send Short Message Service (SMS) messages by using the

GetURL() ActionScript command.

_capStreamSound Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This

action was deprecated in favor of the System.capabilities.hasStreamingAudio property. Indicates whether the device can play streaming (synchronized) sound.

_focusrect Property (global); specifies whether a yellow

rectangle appears around the button or movie clip that has keyboard focus.

_forceframerate Tells the Flash Lite player to render at the

specified frame rate.

_global A reference to the global object that holds the core

ActionScript classes, such as String, Object, Math, and Array.

_highquality Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This property

was deprecated in favor of _quality. Specifies the level of anti-aliasing applied to the current SWF file.

_level A reference to the root Timeline of _levelN.

maxscroll Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This property

was deprecated in favor of TextField.maxscroll. Indicates the line number of the top line of visible text in a text field when the bottom line in the field is also visible.

94 ActionScript language elements

Modifiers Property Description

_parent Specifies or returns a reference to the movie clip or

object that contains the current movie clip or object.

_quality Sets or retrieves the rendering quality used for a

movie clip.

_root Specifies or returns a reference to the root movie

clip Timeline.

scroll Deprecated since Flash Player 5. This property

was deprecated in favor of TextField.scroll. Controls the display of information in a text field associated with a variable.

_soundbuftime Establishes the number of seconds of streaming

sound to buffer.

this References an object or movie clip instance.

$version property

$version

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.version property.

String variable; contains the version number of Flash Lite. It contains a major number, minor number, build number, and an internal build number, which is generally

0 in all released

versions. The major number reported for all Flash Lite 1.x products is 5. Flash Lite 1.0 has a minor number of 1; Flash Lite 1.1 has a minor number of 2.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

In the Flash Lite 1.1 player, the following code sets the value of myVersion to "5, 2, 12, 0":

myVersion = $version;

See also

version (capabilities.version property)

Global Properties 95

_cap4WayKeyAS property

_cap4WayKeyAS

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.has4WayKeyAS property.

Numeric variable; indicates whether Flash Lite executes ActionScript expressions attached to key event handlers associated with the Right, Left, Up, and Down Arrow keys. This variable is defined and has a value of 1 only when the host application uses four-way key navigation mode to move between Flash controls (buttons and input text fields). Otherwise, this variable is undefined.

When one of the four-way keys is pressed, if the value of the

_cap4WayKeyAS variable is 1,

Flash Lite first looks for a handler for that key. If it finds none, Flash control navigation occurs. However, if an event handler is found, no navigation action occurs for that key. For example, if a key press handler for the Down Arrow key is found, the user cannot navigate.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

The following example sets canUse4Way to 1 in Flash Lite 1.1, but leaves it undefined in Flash Lite 1.0 (however, not all Flash Lite 1.1 phones support four-way keys, so this code is still dependent on the phone):

canUse4Way = _cap4WayKeyAS; if (canUse4Way == 1) { msg = "Use your directional joypad to navigate this application"; } else { msg = "Please use the 2 key to scroll up, the 6 key to scroll right,

the 8 key to scroll down, and the 4 key to scroll left."; }

See also

capabilities (System.capabilities)

_capCompoundSound property

_capCompoundSound

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.hasCompoundSound property.

96 ActionScript language elements

Numeric variable; indicates whether Flash Lite can process compound sound data. If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if not, this variable is undefined. For example, a single Flash file can contain the same sound represented in both MIDI and MFi formats. The player will then play back data in the appropriate format based on the format supported by the device. This variable defines whether the Flash Lite player supports this ability on the current handset.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

In the following example, useCompoundSound is set to 1 in Flash Lite 1.1, but is undefined in Flash Lite 1.0:

useCompoundSound = _capCompoundSound;

if (useCompoundSound == 1) { gotoAndPlay("withSound"); } else { gotoAndPlay("withoutSound");

See also

capabilities (System.capabilities)

_capEmail property

_capEmail

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.hasEmail property.

Numeric variable; indicates whether the Flash Lite client can send e-mailmessages by using the

GetURL() ActionScript command. If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if

not, this variable is undefined.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

If the host application can send e-mail messages by using the GetURL() ActionScript command, the following example sets

canEmail = _capEmail;

if (canEmail == 1) { getURL("mailto:someone@somewhere.com?subject=foo&body=bar"); }

canEmail() to 1:

Global Properties 97

See also

capabilities (System.capabilities)

_capLoadData property

_capLoadData

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.hasDataLoading property.

Numeric variable; indicates whether the host application can dynamically load additional data through calls to the

loadVariablesNum() functions. If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if not, this

variable is undefined.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

If the host application can perform dynamic loading of movies and variables, the following example sets

canLoad = _capLoadData;

CanLoad to 1:

loadMovie(), loadMovieNum(), loadVariables(), and

if (canLoad == 1) { loadVariables("http://www.somewhere.com/myVars.php", GET); } else { trace ("client does not support loading dynamic data"); }

See also

capabilities (System.capabilities)

_capMFi property

_capMFi

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.hasMFi property.

Numeric variable; indicates whether the device can play sound data in the Melody Format for i-mode (MFi) audio format. If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if not, this variable is undefined.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

98 ActionScript language elements

Example

If the device can play MFi sound data, the following example sets canMFi to 1:

canMFi = _capMFi;

if (canMFi == 1) { // send movieclip buttons to frame with buttons that trigger events

sounds tellTarget("buttons") { gotoAndPlay(2); } }

_capMIDI property

_capMIDI

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.hasMIDI property.

Numeric variable; indicates whether the device can play sound data in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) audio format. If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if not, this variable is undefined.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

If the device can play MIDI sound data, the following example sets _capMIDI to 1:

canMIDI = _capMIDI;

if (canMIDI == 1) { // send movieclip buttons to frame with buttons that trigger events

sounds tellTarget("buttons") { gotoAndPlay(2); } }

See also

capabilities (System.capabilities)

_capMMS property

_capMMS

Global Properties 99

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.hasMMS property.

Numeric variable; indicates whether Flash Lite can send Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages by using the

GetURL() ActionScript command. If so, this variable is defined

and has a value of 1; if not, this variable is undefined.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

Example

The following example sets canMMS to 1 in Flash Lite 1.1, but leaves it undefined in Flash Lite

1.0 (however, not all Flash Lite 1.1 phones can send MMS messages, so this code is still dependent on the phone):

on(release) { canMMS = _capMMS; if (canMMS == 1) { // send an MMS myMessage = "mms:4156095555?body=sample mms message"; } else { // send an SMS myMessage = "sms:4156095555?body=sample sms message"; } getURL(myMessage); }

See also

capabilities (System.capabilities)

_capSMAF property

_capSMAF

Deprecated since Flash Lite Player 2.0. This action was deprecated in favor of the

System.capabilities.hasSMAF property.

Numeric variable; indicates whether the device can play multimedia files in the Synthetic music Mobile Application Format (SMAF). If so, this variable is defined and has a value of 1; if not, this variable is undefined.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.1

100 ActionScript language elements

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