Access of Undefined Property "loader" - actionscript-3

Question

So I'm working on a project in flash, and recently decided that I wanted to switch my test file to become the main class inside my project. The file is called ColorClass.as, and the associated .fla file is ColorClass.fla. They are located in the same directory, and the Document class of ColorClass.fla is ColorClass. I am using a loader inside ColorClass.as to load an external SWF as follows:
public var loader:Loader = new Loader();
addChild(loader); //adding loader
loader.load(new URLRequest("../Resource/flash/WheelClasses.swf"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,wheelsLoaded);
I am trying to create a test file, color_Test.as (and an associated color_Test.fla) that loads ColorClass.swf and gets the class definition to be used in the test file.
However, when I try and compile ColorClass.as/.fla and create a .swf file, I am receiving multiple instances of
Access of undefined property loader.
and
Call to a possibly undefined method addChild.
These errors are occurring completely independent of color_Test. Am I going about something the wrong way here? I'm just trying to compile ColorClass.as/.fla, which I could do so before trying to change it to become another class.

Answer 1

In an AS3 class, all functional code needs to be contained in a function.
So, aside from the first line (which is a variable declaration), the rest are just floating in the class not wrapped in a function:
public var loader:Loader = new Loader(); //THIS LINE IS FINE
//THESE THREE LINES NEED TO LIVE IN A FUNCTION
addChild(loader);
loader.load(new URLRequest("../Resource/flash/WheelClasses.swf"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,wheelsLoaded);
If you want the code above to execute right away, place it in the constructor function (the function whose name matches the name of the class).
public function ColorClass {
addChild(loader); //adding loader
loader.load(new URLRequest("../Resource/flash/WheelClasses.swf"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,wheelsLoaded);
}