What's the reason for interface to exist in Actionscript-3 and other languages - actionscript-3

Question

what is the meaning of this interfaces? even if we implement an interface on a class, we have to declare it's functionality again and again each time we implement it on a different class, so what is the reason of interfaces exist on as3 or any other languages which has interface.
Thank you

Answer 1

I basically agree with the answers posted so far, just had a bit to add.
First to answer the easy part, yes other languages have interfaces. Java comes to mind immediately but I'm pretty sure all OOP languages (C++, C#, etc.) include some mechanism for creating interfaces.
As stated by Jake, you can write interfaces as "contracts" for what will be fulfilled in order to separate work. To take a hypothetical say I'm working on A and you're working on C, and bob is working on B. If we define B' as an interface for B, we can quickly and relatively easily define B' (relative to defining B, the implementation), and all go on our way. I can assume that from A I can code to B', you can assume from C you can code to B', and when bob gets done with B we can just plug it in.
This comes to Jugg1es point. The ability to swap out a whole functional piece is made easier by "dependency injection" (if you don't know this phrase, please google it). This is the exact thing described, you create an interface that defines generally what something will do, say a database connector. For all database connectors, you want it to be able to connect to database, and run queries, so you might define an interface that says the classes must have a "connect()" method and a "doQuery(stringQuery)." Now lets say Bob writes the implementation for MySQL databases, now your client says well we just paid 200,000 for new servers and they'll run Microsoft SQL so to take advantage of that with your software all you'd need to do is swap out the database connector.
In real life, I have a friend who runs a meat packing/distribution company in Chicago. The company that makes their software/hardware setup for scanning packages and weighing things as they come in and out (inventory) is telling them they have to upgrade to a newer OS/Server and newer hardware to keep with the software. The software is not written in a modular way that allows them to maintain backwards compatibility. I've been in this boat before plenty of times, telling someone xyz needs to be upgraded to get abc functionality that will make doing my job 90% easier. Anyhow guess point being in the real world people don't always make use of these things and it can bite you in the ass.

Answer 2

Interfaces are vital to OOP, particularly when developing large applications. One example is if you needed a data layer that returns data on, say, Users. What if you eventually change how the data is obtained, say you started with XML web services data, but then switched to a flat file or something. If you created an interface for your data layer, you could create another class that implements it and make all the changes to the data layer without ever having to change the code in your application layer. I don't know if you're using Flex or Flash, but when using Flex, interfaces are very useful.

Answer 3

Interfaces are a way of defining functionality of a class. it might not make a whole lot of sense when you are working alone (especially starting out), but when you start working in a team it helps people understand how your code works and how to use the classes you wrote (while keeping your code encapsulated). That's the best way to think of them at an intermediate level in my opinion.

Answer 4

While the existing answers are pretty good, I think they miss the chief advantage of using Interfaces in ActionScript, which is that you can avoid compiling the implementation of that Interface into the Main Document Class.
For example, if you have an ISpaceShip Interface, you now have a choice to do several things to populate a variable typed to that Interface. You could load an external swf whose main Document Class implements ISpaceShip. Once the Loader's contentLoaderInfo's COMPLETE event fires, you cast the contentto ISpaceShip, and the implementation of that (whatever it is) is never compiled into your loading swf. This allows you to put real content in front of your users while the load process happens.
By the same token, you could have a timeline instance declared in the parent AS Class of type ISpaceShip with "Export for Actionscript in Frame N *un*checked. This will compile on the frame where it is first used, so you no longer need to account for this in your preloading time. Do this with enough things and suddenly you don't even need a preloader.
Another advantage of coding to Interfaces is if you're doing unit tests on your code, which you should unless your code is completely trivial. This enables you to make sure that the code is succeeding or failing on its own merits, not based on the merits of the collaborator, or where the collaborator isn't appropriate for a test. For example, if you have a controller that is designed to control a specific type of View, you're not going to want to instantiate the full view for the test, but only the functionality that makes a difference for the test.
If you don't have support in your work situation for writing tests, coding to interfaces helps make sure that your code will be testable once you get to the point where you can write tests.

Answer 5

The above answers are all very good, the only thing I'd add - and it might not be immediately clear in a language like AS3, where there are several untyped collection classes (Array, Object and Dictionary) and Object/dynamic classes - is that it's a means of grouping otherwise disparate objects by type.
A quick example:
Image you had a space shooter, where the player has missiles which lock-on to various targets. Suppose, for this purpose, you wanted any type of object which could be locked onto to have internal functions for registering this (aka an interface):
function lockOn():void;//Tells the object something's locked onto it
function getLockData():Object;//Returns information, position, heat, whatever etc
These targets could be anything, a series of totally unrelated classes - enemy, friend, powerup, health.
One solution would be to have them all to inherit from a base class which contained these methods - but Enemies and Health Pickups wouldn't logically share a common ancestor (and if you find yourself making bizarre inheritance chains to accomodate your needs then you should rethink your design!), and your missile will also need a reference to the object its locked onto:
var myTarget:Enemy;//This isn't going to work for the Powerup class!
or
var myTarget:Powerup;//This isn't going to work for the Enemy class!
...but if all lockable classes implement the ILockable interface, you can set this as the type reference:
var myTarget:ILockable;//This can be set as Enemy, Powerup, any class which implements ILockable!
..and have the functions above as the interface itself.
They're also handy when using the Vector class (the name may mislead you, it's just a typed array) - they run much faster than arrays, but only allow a single type of element - and again, an interface can be specified as type:
var lockTargets:Vector.<Enemy> = new Vector.<Enemy>();//New array of lockable objects
lockTargets[0] = new HealthPickup();//Compiler won't like this!
but this...
var lockTargets:Vector.<ILockable> = new Vector.<ILockable>();
lockTargets[0] = new HealthPickup();
lockTargets[1] = new Enemy();
Will, provided Enemy and HealthPickup implement ILockable, work just fine!