AS3 running an event for a set duration after button (or anything) event - actionscript-3

Question

For the purposes of the question, Imagine I have an object onstage. When I click on another button, I want the colour to change for 1 second, then revert back again when finished.
Here's what my demo code looks like:
Button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Colour_Change);
function Colour_Change(evt: MouseEvent): void {
var my_color: ColorTransform = new ColorTransform();
my_color.color = 0xFF0000;
Coloured_Object.transform.colorTransform = my_color;
}
What I am wanting is some sort of timer function to be incorporated in the above function. I haven't got any idea how to do it, hence why there's no implementation.

Answer 1

You should use the flash.utils.Timer class.Adobe ActionScript 3.0 Reference for the Timer class
The following should be enough to get you headed in the right direction:
import flash.utils.Timer;
var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000, 1); // 1 second
var running:Boolean = false;
Button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Colour_Change);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, runOnce);
function Colour_Change(evt: MouseEvent): void {
var my_color: ColorTransform = new ColorTransform();
my_color.color = 0xFF0000;
Coloured_Object.transform.colorTransform = my_color;
if(!running) {
myTimer.start();
running = true;
}
}
function runOnce(event:TimerEvent):void {
// code to revert the button's color back goes here
myTimer.reset();
running = false;
}
Let me know if you need more help or if this example has errors via this answer's comments section.

Answer 2

To further explain the Timer class as used above:
when creating a new timer
myTimer=new Timer(1000,1)
the first number in the brackets is the number of milliseconds you want the timer to run for (e.g. 1000 = 1 second)
The second number is how many times you want the timer to repeat (or 0 for infinite repetition).
Every time the timer reaches the time you entered (1000), this is will trigger any event listeners for the event Timer_Event.TIMER, so for example if u wanted to make it change color on and off, you could have multiple repetitions on the timer and change the function.
Other useful things timers can do:
You can add an event listener for
Timer_Event.TIMER_COMPLETE
(goes off when all repetitions are complete)
myTimer.currentCount
will return the number of repetitions the timer has done so far.

Answer 3

To do that you can use, as other answers said, a Timer object or the setTimeout() function, like this :
// the current color of our target object
var default_color:ColorTransform;
// the delay in milliseconds
var delay:int = 1000;
btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Colour_Change);
function Colour_Change(evt: MouseEvent): void {
// save the current color of our target object
default_color = target.transform.colorTransform;
var new_color:ColorTransform = new ColorTransform();
new_color.color = 0xFF0000;
target.transform.colorTransform = new_color;
var timer:Timer = new Timer(delay, 1);
timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, function(e:TimerEvent):void {
// after the delay, we use the default color of our target
target.transform.colorTransform = default_color;
})
timer.start();
// using setTimeout(), you have to disable this if using the Timer
var timeout:int = setTimeout(
function(){
clearTimeout(timeout);
// after the delay, we use the default color of our target
target.transform.colorTransform = default_color;
},
delay
);
}
Hope that can help.