Resetting timer in AS3 - actionscript-3

Question

I'm frustrated. I have a button that when it is clicked on, three timers start. It is no problem the first time the button is clicked on because it runs through the three things it is suppose to do. The problem happens when I click on another button to move away from that area of the stage and then click back on the same button again. If I click back too quickly and hadn't finished letting the timer run out, then I see the tail-end of my sequence... it is not resetting.
You'd think this would be easy... that I should be able to just put in a timer.reset() but it doesn't appear to be working. I can't put the reset call into the code because it keeps saying that the timer I am referencing doesn't exist (TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.)
I tried different ways to make sure the timer was called before it tried to reset it but I keep getting the #1009 error and the various ways I have tried using the reset appear to be not working. I don't know both why timer.reset() won't work and how to get around this error. Thanks,
else if (
event.target.name == "num6a"
)
{
trace("num6a clicked on");
TweenLite.to(shape, 1, {x:-608.55, y:-423.05});
close2.visible = true;
close2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, checkforclose);
shape.grey6.visible=true;
counterSix++;
if(counterSix > 1){
trace("inside counterSix");
myDelay_sec6a.reset()
myDelay_sec6b.reset()
myDelay_sec6c.reset()
//if(myDelay_sec6a != null){
//trace("myDelay_sec6a is not null!");
//myDelay_sec6a.stop();
//myDelay_sec6a.reset();
//}
}
//section6 timing
var myDelay_sec6a:Timer = new Timer(1000,1);
myDelay_sec6a.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, goTosec6a);
//myDelay_sec6a.reset();
myDelay_sec6a.start();
function goTosec6a(event:TimerEvent):void
{
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_a, 2, {alpha:1});
trace("seconds 1: cutting edge title appears");
}
var myDelay_sec6b:Timer = new Timer(3000,1);
myDelay_sec6b.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, goTosec6b);
//myDelay_sec6b.reset();
myDelay_sec6b.start();
function goTosec6b(event:TimerEvent):void
{
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_b, 2, {alpha:1});
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_c, 2, {alpha:1});
trace("seconds 3: first paragraph appears");
}

Answer 1

Taking a peak at your code the way it is currently setup you are going to have quite some trouble down the road making any adjustments to it. I'm not sure if you are doing this in the timeline or in a separate .as file, but you could have a fundamental scoping issue. That is your timer variables are being created in a function which means they are local to that function, so next time you click this button the variable myDelay_whatever is going to be null referenced ( which means running any of its methods is out of the question ). Either way if this is or is not the case, I rewrote some of this that makes it a bit more flexible.
Some of the things I changed include:
Moved your timer functions to remove local scoping ( currently they were setup inside a function perhaps? Either way it's better to have them separate if they are getting used a lot ).
Setup a way to track your timers and remove them when the function is called again.
Added evaluation of current timers that are running before you attempt to add a new one.
Also just as a side note, I haven't tested a single bit of this code but hopefully this puts you on the right track.
close2.visible = true;
close2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, checkforclose);
shape.grey6.visible=true;
counterSix++;
if(counterSix > 1){
trace("inside counterSix");
var i:int;
for ( ; i < _timerList.length; i++ ) {
//reset all the timers
_timerList[i].timer.reset();
}
//clear the list
_timerList.length = 0;
}
addTimer( "timer_sec6a", 1000 );
addTimer( "timer_sec6b", 3000 );
//addTimer( "timer_sec6c", 1000 );
Then these are the functions I added:
private function goTosec6a(event:TimerEvent):void {
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_a, 2, {alpha:1});
trace("seconds 1: cutting edge title appears");
}
private function goTosec6b(event:TimerEvent):void {
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_b, 2, {alpha:1});
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_c, 2, {alpha:1});
trace("seconds 3: first paragraph appears");
}
private function goTosec6b(event:TimerEvent):void {
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_b, 2, {alpha:1});
TweenLite.to(shape.section6_c, 2, {alpha:1});
trace("seconds 3: first paragraph appears");
}
//create this somewhere to kepe track of your timers, dont forget to instantiate it _timerList = new Vector.<Object>();`
private var _timerList:Vector.<Object>;
//set the name parameter to timer_sec6a, timer_sec6b etc and it will setup the timer event function for you
private function addTimer( name:String, delay:Number, repeat:int=1 ):void {
//check to see if timer already exists before creating another
if ( !evalCurrentTimers( name ) ) {
//create new timer
var timer:Timer = new Timer( delay, repeat );
timer.addEventListener( TimerEvent.TIMER, this["goTo" + name.split("_")[1]] );
_timerList.push( {timer: timer, name: name} );
}
}
private function evalCurrentTimers( timerName:String ):Boolean {
var i:int;
//check to see that we don't already have a timer with the same name
for ( ; i < _timerList.length; i++ ) {
if ( _timerList[i].name == timerName ) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}