Best way to read a property from a MovieClip? - actionscript-3

Question

I got a .fla file, where inside I have some movieclip instances placed in the scene. I need to iterate through them and gather some data, like position, name, and custom properties.
These custom properties, I don't know how to pass them, I know one way that works so far is to use the accessibility properties panel (Flash Pro CC), and then in the code I can just read them. However there should be a better way I assume.

Answer 1

If I have understood correctly your question and what you have said in your comments about the answer of #Aaron, you have an swf file, which you load dynamically, and you want to get/set some of its MovieClips properties, if it's the case, take this example :
MyMC.as :
public class MyMC extends MovieClip
{
private var timer:Timer;
private var rotation_speed:int = 1;
public function MyMC() {
}
public function set_Rotation_Speed(_rotation_speed:int): void {
this.rotation_speed = _rotation_speed;
}
public function get_Rotation_Speed(): int {
return this.rotation_speed;
}
public function start_Rotation(): void {
this.timer = new Timer(500, 10);
this.timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, on_Timer);
this.timer.start();
}
private function on_Timer(e:TimerEvent): void {
this.rotation += this.rotation_speed;
}
}
Then, in my swf.swf I have an instance of that MovieClip.
I loaded the swf.swf using this code :
var loader:Loader = new Loader()
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, on_SWFLoad);
loader.load(new URLRequest('swf.swf'));
And to set/get some of my MovieClip properties, I did :
function on_SWFLoad(e:Event): void
{
var swf:DisplayObjectContainer = DisplayObjectContainer(loader.content);
var num_children:int = swf.numChildren;
for(var i:int = 0; i < num_children; i++)
{
var child:MovieClip = MovieClip(swf.getChildAt(i));
// get the name
trace('name : ' + child.name);
// set the position
child.x = child.y = 100;
// get the class name, in my case it's MyMC
var class_name:String = getQualifiedClassName(child);
// get all the details of the child
trace(describeType(child));
child.set_Rotation_Speed(45);
child.start_Rotation();
trace(child.get_Rotation_Speed()); // gives : 45
}
addChild(loader);
}
You can use the describeType() function To get all the properties of your instance.
Hope that can help.

Answer 2

First of all, you can set properties on timeline instances from code. There's nothing special about this. For example:
Place an instance of a library symbol on a keyframe
Give it an instance name in the Properties panel, for example "myInstance"
On the same keyframe put some code that refers to it, such as myInstance.color = "red"
You can also create and assign custom properties by making the symbol a component:
Right-click on the symbol in the library and choose "Component Definition"
Add custom properties in the Parameters table. It's now a component symbol.
On the timeline, place an instance of the symbol and use the Properties panel to set its parameters.
You can do a lot more with components if you want, such as live preview and compiled components. More info can be found here here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/learning_guide/components/part03.html