AS3 Architecture : How to tween a single instance of an object on multiple calls? - actionscript-3

Question

I am new to actionscript and am having a trouble displaying a single instance of an object, using FlashDevelop.
I have a main.as in which I am displaying an image as background. Then I display a rectangle containing some text that tweens as the mouse hovers a target (appearing/disappearing on the stage). The rectangle is in a class TextBox.as .
I know my code is quite messy because it creates a new instance of the rectangle everytime I reach the target (calling the tween). But if I try to switch it around it gives me errors. Also I cannot seem to remove my rectangle (with removeChild()) once it is created, it cannot find the child.
Could anyone indicate me what is the architecture I should use so that only one instance of the rectangle is created?
Here's a bit of my code:
//IMPORT LIBRARIES
import Classes.TextBox;
import flash.display.Bitmap;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import com.greensock.TweenLite;
// Setup SWF Render Settings
[SWF(width = "620", height = "650")]
public class Main extends Sprite
{
//DEFINING VARIABLES
[Embed(source="../lib/myimage.jpg")]
private var picture:Class;
private var myTween:TweenLite;
//CONSTRUCTOR
public function Main():void
{
addChild(new TextBox);
addChild(new picture);
addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, appear);
}
//ROLLDOWN FUNCTION
public function appear(e:MouseEvent):void
{
trace("Appear");
var text:TextBox = new TextBox();
addChild(text);
addChild(new picture);
if (picture) {
removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, appear);
//addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, appearComplete);
myTween = new TweenLite(text, 1, { y:340 , onComplete:appearComplete, onReverseComplete:disappearComplete} );
}
}
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

i dont know what tweening you want to achieve but you should reuse your textbox instance, e.g.:
import Classes.TextBox;
import com.greensock.TweenLite;
import flash.display.Bitmap;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
[SWF(width = "620", height = "650")]
public class Main extends Sprite {
[Embed(source="../lib/myimage.jpg")]
private var pictureClass:Class;
private var picture:Bitmap;
private var textbox:TextBox;
public function Main():void {
if (stage)
init();
else
addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);
}
private function init(e:Event = null):void {
removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);
picture = new pictureClass();
textbox = new TextBox();
addChild(picture);
addChild(textbox);
addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, tween);
}
public function tween(e:MouseEvent):void {
removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, tween);
TweenLite.to(textbox, 1, { y:340, onComplete:reverse } );
}
private function reverse():void {
TweenLite.to(textbox, 1, { y:0, onComplete:tweenComplete } );
}
private function tweenComplete():void {
addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, tween);
}
}