How to register hitTest only if Mouse Down is true? - actionscript-3

Question

I was wondering on how to register a Hittest between two Movie Clips only if the MOUSE_DOWN event is equal to true.
So I have a Movie Clip called playerHook that acts as the Mouse and whenever that movie clip comes in contact with another movie clip called octopusBoss and Clicks on it I want it to register a hittest and subtract a point from its health.
Here is what I have so far but not sure what to do next:
In my main constructor function:
playerHook.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, playerHookMove);
playerHook.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, onMDown);
playerHook.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, onMUp);
Then I have two booleas set up in the two functions onMDown and onMUp:
private function onMDown(e:MouseEvent):void
{
mouseIsDown = true;
}
private function onMUp(e:MouseEvent):void
{
mouseIsUp = false;
}
Then I have this function which is currently in my gameloop that I would want to happen only if the user clicks on the OctopusBoss:
private function checkPlayerHitOctopusBoss():void
{
if (playerHook.hitTestObject(octopusBoss))
{
trace("Hit Octopus");
octopusBossHealth --;
}else
if (octopusBossHealth <= 0)
{
octopusBoss.destroyOctopusBoss();
}
}
But I am having trouble passing the mouse booleans to the if statement. I know I am missing something crucial!

Answer 1

First you need some name to your octopusBoss like so:
octopusBoss.name = "octopusBoss";
Modify your onMDown function like so:
private function onMDown(e:MouseEvent):void
{
if(e.target.name == "octopusBoss") //Check if octopusBoss is under mouse
mouseIsDown = true;
}
And your checkPlayerHitOctopusBoss function like so:
private function checkPlayerHitOctopusBoss():void
{
if (playerHook.hitTestObject(octopusBoss) && mouseIsDown) // check mouse down
{
trace("Hit Octopus");
octopusBossHealth --;
}else
if (octopusBossHealth <= 0)
{
octopusBoss.destroyOctopusBoss();
}
}
UPDATE:
If it's ok to add MouseEvents directly to octopusBoss like so:
octopusBoss.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, onMDown);
octopusBoss.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, onMUp);
Then, you can also use e.currentTarget.name.