referencing objects in different functions as3 - actionscript-3

Question

I have an object in my mouse event functions that I want to reference in my time function.
Example, I basically created tiles and have mouse events:
var cell:MovieClip = new Tile();
cell.gotoAndStop(floor1[i][u]);
cell.x = ((u-i)*tileh)+365;
cell.y = ((u+i)*tileh/2)+70;
addChild(cell);
cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, mouseover);
cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT, mouseout);
cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, mouseclick);
enemyMoveTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, timerListener);
In the mouse events, I have something called event.currentTarget. Since I have tiles lined up with each other, I wanted to differentiate each individual tile. Thus creating that event.currentTarget. I wanted to use this in my time event, but it isn't recognizing event.currentTarget as an object, rather it's own timer. Is there any way to have the time function recognize the event.currentTarget from the mouse events?

Answer 1

Event.currentTarget is the last object to dispatch that specific event (and Event.target is the original object to dispatch the event). It can be absolutely anything that extends EventDispatcher.
The only way to do what you want is like this:
var currentTile:Tile;
cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, mouseEventsHandler);
cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT, mouseEventsHandler);
cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, mouseEventsHandler);
enemyMoveTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, timerListener);
function mouseEventsHandler( e:MouseEvent ):void {
this.currentTile = e.currentTarget as Tile;
}
function timeListener( e:TimerEvent ):void {
this.currentTile.blah.blah();
}
Basically you save the tile that most recently was interacted with into currentTile and then that is what you access in your timeListener.
You should really look through the LiveDocs to get a basic understanding of how events work and possibly look into how scope works as well.

Answer 2

Some explanation:
Your Event-Listener receives an Event-Object. Always. What kind of Event-Object it is depends on the Event. In your MouseListener you receive a MouseEvent, in you TimerListener a TimerEvent and so on.
EVERY Event-Object has two specific attributes.
event.currentTarget
is the Object, which binds the event listener (in your case "cell")
event.target
is the object, which "caused" the Event. If e.g. in you "cell"-MovieClip is another MovieClip called "nucleus" and you click on the the it, event.currentTarget would be "cell", but even.target would be "nucleus".
Since the event-object is a passed as a function parameter, it is destroyed, once the function is finished. If you wand to use parts of it in another function, you need to do it like this
var myCell:MovieClip;
function mouseClick(event:MouseEvent):void{
myCell = event.currentTarget as MovieClip;
}
function timeListener(event:TimerEvent):void{
if(myCell){
///what ever you want to do with it
myCell = null;
}
}
I hope I explained it clearly.

Answer 3

Here's one way you could do this :
enemyMoveTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, timerListener(cell));
enemyMoveTimer.start();
public function timerListener(cell:MovieClip):Function
{
var doStuffToCell:Function = new Function(e:TimerEvent)
{
trace (cell.x + " : " + cell.y);
// do whatever you want with cell
}
return doStuffToCell;
}
I should note that I don't think it's a good idea to call your handler timerListener, as it's a handler.
Listeners do just that, they listen for an event. A handler, handles an event. The second parameter in the addEventListener method specifies a function to handle the event. Naming your handler timerListener is not a good idea in my opinion, as it's really not that.