Creating a user generated list in flash - actionscript-3

I'm trying to create a flash application that will keep track of user generated values. The app should basically allow the user to input the name of the item and it's cost. The total costs should then be added up to show a total value to the user. I can probably figure out how to add the values together, but I'm not really sure how to allow the user to create a list and then allow the user to save it. Can anyone point me towards a tutorial or point me in the right direction?
I am using variables to add user inputed numbers to come up with a total. The first problem is that actionscript 3.0 does not allow variables for texts. I just converted it to 2.0 to fix this. The second problem, is when I test the app and put in my values and click submit, I get NaN in the total values field. Is there a reason why it wouldn't add the values?
Here is the code I used for the submit button:
on (release) {
total = Number(rent) + Number(food) + Number(travel) + Number(entertainment) + Number(bills);
}
Am I missing anything?
Can I give the input text instance names and then give them variables? How are some ways to go about this?
Thanks for the help!

Have an object array, say for example
var stack:Array = new Array();
Then push the item name and it's cost to that array when user inputs, like
stack.push({item:AAA, cost:xx});
So that you can generate the list whenever you want with that array.

You have to see how this works in code. A list in actionscript could be stored inside an array, vector, dictionary or even an Object.
Var myList:Array = [];
myList.push({name: "item 1", cost: 5 });
myList.push({name: "item 2", cost: 7.5 });
If you want to grab the 'product' of "item 1" from the list, you have to create a function for that, lets call it getProductByName
function getProductByName(name:String):Object
{
for each(var product:Object in myList)
{
if (product.name === name) return product;
}
return null; // no match found
}
You can call that function like this:
var product = getProductByName("item 1");
trace(product.cost); // 5
And you can alter the product, so lets make it more expensive
product.cost += 1;
trace(product.cost); // 6
Have fun! If you are using classes, you would create one for the product, with public name and cost, and in that case you'de better use a vector, to ensure working with the right type.

This is what fixed the issue for me in action script 3.0:
myButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, addThem);
function addThem(e:MouseEvent)
{
totalField.text = String ( Number(field1.text) + Number(field2.text) + ....);
}
I also had to name the instances appropriately.

Related

getting a random element from an array of movieclips(or labels in a timeline) in Flash CC . Actionscript 3

I am making a pretty neat quiz-game in flashCC right now and I definitely need your help.
My skills are more on the design then the programming side. So to many of you this might seem a baby question (and asked many times before) but from all the answers I saw so far, I couldn't get any results for my project.
So here is the thing :
I need the EXACT script for creating an array (with movieclips inside? or instance names of mcs? How does this even work?)
and a method, to pick a random element of this array without repeats until the "game is over".
Paul
The easiest way to pick a random element from an array without repeating is to first sort the array with a "random" function, then pop or shift items out of it until the array is empty.
Let's say you have an array of items which can be filled with either instances or instance names, you've chosen instance names: :
var FirstArray:Array = ["blau", "orange", "green"];
Now, you'll need a random sort function:
// you do not need to modify this function in any way.
// the Array.sort method accepts a function that takes in 2 objects and returns an int
// this function has been written to comply with that
function randomSort(a:Object, b:Object):int
{
return Math.random() > .5 ? -1 : 1;
}
The way a sort function normally works is it compares two objects and returns -1 if the first item precedes the second item, 1 if the opposite is true, and 0 if they are the same.
So what we're doing in the function above is returning -1 or 1 randomly. This should get the array all jumbled up when you call:
FirstArray.sort(randomSort);
Now that the array is randomly sorted, you can begin pulling items from it like so:
if(FirstArray.length) // make sure there's at least one item in there
{
// since you are using instance names, you'll need to use that to grab a reference to the actual instance:
var currentQuizItem:MovieClip = this[FirstArray.pop()];
// if you had filled your array with the actual instances instead, you would just be assigning FirstArray.pop() to currentQuizItem
// every time you call pop on an array, you're removing the last item
// this will ensure that you won't repeat any items
// do what you need to do with your MovieClip here
}
else
{
// if there aren't any items left, the game is over
}
When strung together, the above code should be enough to get you up and running.
You could try something like:
var array:Array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
var shuffledArray:Array = [];
while (array.length > 0)
{
shuffledArray.push(array.splice(Math.round(Math.random() * (array.length - 1)), 1)[0]);
}
trace('shuffledArray: ', shuffledArray, '\nrandom item: ', shuffledArray[0]);

How do i populate an Array in one class based on a textfield in another class?(Actionscript 3.0)

i have a class (TheList.as). in which i have an array "Data" and it has a couple of values. Then i have a loop through which i am creating a scrollable list which uses the values from "Data" array. [I am trying make a unit converter]
Then i have another class "Units.as". In that class i have created three instances of "TheList". A main list ("myList"), and to sublists "ListFrom" and "ListTo". They are using values from "Data" array. Now i have text field whose value changes to whatever item is clicked. When i click "Angle" in the main list, i want the sublists to get populated with ("Degree", "Radian" etc)..
Here is what i tried
if(myList._TextLabel.text == "Angle")
{
ListFrom.Data = ["Degree", "Radian"];
}
But nothing happens, i do not get any error either. When i do this in an "ENTER_FRAME" event and trace (ListFrom.Data), i can see that the values change, but they do not get assigned to the list items in the list. I would really appreciate the help. Thanks!
Here are complete Classes for understanding the situation better(the code is pretty messy, as i am a newbie to OOP)
TheList.as: http://pastebin.com/FLy5QV9i
Units.as : http://pastebin.com/z2CcHZzC
where you call ListFrom.Data = ["Degree","Radian"], make sure when the data changed, the renders in the ListFrom have been set new data. for example, you may use MyRender in ListFrom for show, you should debug in the set data method in MyRender.
you should call the code below after you call ListFrom.Data = ["Degree","Radian"];
for (var i:int = 0; i < Data.legnth;i++) {
var render:MyRender = ListFrom[i] as MyRender;
if (render) {
render.data = Data[i];
} else {
var render:MyRender = new MyRender();
render.data = Data[i];
ListFrom.addChild(render);
}
}
You can use event listeners, singleton classes or reference one class to another, depending on the style you want. All are equally valid and fast / efficient.

How to merge the contents of two variables

I have many string variables that start with "Question" and then end with a number. ("Question1")
Each variable has a question in it ("How many times does it say E?")
There is an editable textbox on the stage that the user types in which question number he want to be displayed in a different textbox. ("1")
When the user clicks a button, I want that the text of Question1 should be displayed in the textbox.
My code looks like this:
var Question1:String = "How many times does it say E?" ;
var Question2:String = "How many times does it say B?" ;
var Question3:String = "How many times does it say A?" ;
myButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, displayQuestion);
function displayQuestion(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var QuestionNumber:Number = Number(userInputQuestionNumber.text);
textBoxDisplayQuestion.text= Question(QuestionNumber);
}
How can I get the textBoxDisplayQuestion to display the actual text of the Question??
(the code i have now obviously is not working!!)
But this example doesnt seem to work: I created a class called Question and here is the code:
import Question;
var QuNoLoad:Number;
var Qu1:Question = new Question(1,"how","yes","no","maybe","so","AnsB","AnsA");
trace(Qu1.QuNo, Qu1.Qu, Qu1.AnsA,Qu1.AnsB, Qu1.AnsC, Qu1.AnsD, Qu1.CorAns, Qu1.FaCorAns);
//the following is the code for the button
loadQu.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, loadQuClick);
function loadQuClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
//this sets the variable "QuNoLoad" with the contents of the "textBoxQuLoad"
//imagine the user inputed "1"
QuNoLoad=Number(textBoxQuLoad.text);
//this SHOULD!! display the contents of "Qu1.Qu"
textQu.text= this["Qu"+QuNoLoad.toString()+".Qu"]
//and when i traced this statment the value was "undefined"
}
Why???
You can reference a variable by name using square brackets [] operator, such as:
this["Question" + QuestionNumber.toString()]
You may use this operator to dynamically set and retrieve values for a property of an object.
Keeping the question number as an integer, your function would be:
var Question1:String = "How many times does it say E?" ;
var Question2:String = "How many times does it say B?" ;
var Question3:String = "How many times does it say A?" ;
function displayQuestion(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var QuestionNumber:uint = uint(userInputQuestionNumber.text);
textBoxDisplayQuestion.text = this["Question" + QuestionNumber.toString()];
}
This is a pretty fundamental concept in programming that will make a lot of things harder to do until you understand it well, and it's pretty hard to explain without starting with some groundwork:
What's happening here is easiest to talk about with plain old Object rather than classes, so lets start with a very simple example:
var question1:Object = new Object();
question1.number = 1;
Note that with Object you didn't have to say that number existed ahead of time, it gets created when you set it. Now, when you say either question1.number you get 1, obviously. What is happening, however is that first question1 gets the value you stored in the variable question1 (which is { number: 1 }), then the .number gets the value stored in the property number stored in that value: 1.
To save some typing, you can use a shorthand called "object literals":
var question1 = {
number: 1
};
Now lets try a more complex object:
var question1 = {
number: 1,
text: "How many times does it say A?",
answers: {
a: 1,
b: 2,
c: 3,
d: 4,
correct: "b"
}
};
Now question1 is an object that has 3 properties, one of which, answers, is an object with 5 properties: a, b, c, d, and correct. This could also be written as:
var question1 = new Object();
question1.number = 1;
question1.text = "How many times does it say A?";
question1.answers = new Object();
question1.answers.a = 1;
question1.answers.b = 2;
question1.answers.c = 3;
question1.answers.d = 4;
question1.answers.correct = "b";
It should be pretty clear why the literal syntax exists now!
This time, if you say question1.answers.correct you get "b": first question1 gets you the { number: 1,...} value, then the .answers gets the { a: 1, b: 2,...} value, then finally the .correct gets the "b" value.
You should also know that this is a special variable that has a particular meaning in ActionScript (and JavaScript, on which it is based): it broadly refers to the object in when the code you are writing is inside: for "global" code (not inside a function), var adds properties to this object: var number = 2; and this.number = 2 are this same here. (This is not true when you're in function, this behaves differently there, sometimes in very strange ways, so be careful!)
Now you might start seeing what's happening: when you use [], for example, question1["number"], rather than question1.number, you are passing the property name you want to get as a String value, which means you can change what property you get while you are running, rather than when you compile ("runtime" vs. "compiletime"), but it also lets you get properties with names you can't refer to with the . syntax!
var strange = {
"a strange name? That's OK!": 1
};
trace(strange["a strange name? That's OK!"]);
So when you write this["Qu" + QuNoLoad.toString() + ".QuNo"], you create a name like "Qu2.QuNo", for example, you are trying to get a property with that exact name, . included, which doesn't exist! What you were trying to do the equivalent of: Qu2.QuNo could be written as this["Qu" + QuNoLoad].QuNo.
I shouldn't leave this without saying, though, that for something like this, I would use arrays, which exist so that you can use a single name to store a list of values:
var questions:Array = [ // set questions to an array with multiple questions
new Question(...),
new Question(...),
...
];
for each (var question:Question in questions) { // Look at each question in the array
if (question.QuNo == textBoxQuLoad.text) { // If this is the right question
loadQuestion(question);
break; // Found it, stop looking at each question by "breaking out" of the for each
}
}
There's lots more you can do with arrays, so read up on them when you get time.

Save items(MovieClips) and dynamically create them

I made an invetory in AS3 which allows me to put items on slots in a closet, or in slots in the inventory. It completely works, but there is one problem.
In the game you are supposed to be able to buy new items and add them to the closet. I want this to be saved so that it is available the next time you play.
To do this, I want to save an Array to a SharedObject, then create the items dynamically from the array.
Right now I'm using the old fashioned hard coding for each object;
Itemwrench = new WrenchItem();
Itemwrench.x = par.toolCloset.kast_1.slotTC1.x + 400;
Itemwrench.y = par.toolCloset.kast_1.slotTC1.y + 245;
Itemwrench.gotoAndStop(2);
Itemwrench.name = "slotTC1";
Itemwrench.TC = 1;
NotinventoryParentTC.addChild(Itemwrench);
However, to add them dynamically I'd have to use getChildByName before it is added to the stage, which is not possible.
If possible could you show me how to do this correctly?
The information you need:
-The items are all stored in a closet with slots(Instances in the closet movieclip).
-The items need to get the name slotTC + the integer in a for loop.
-The name of the items change according to the slot number they are assigned when you take them out of the closet or put them back into the closet.
for(var i:int = 0; i < itemsInTC.length - itemsInTC.indexOf(e.currentTarget.name) - 1; i++)
{
nextSlotTC = "slotTC" + (itemsInTC.indexOf(e.currentTarget.name) +2 +i);
trace("Next Slot: " + nextSlotTC);
TempStrTC = "slotTC" + (itemsInTC.indexOf(e.currentTarget.name) +1 +i).toString();
trace("temp string: " + TempStrTC);
NotinventoryParentTC.getChildByName(nextSlotTC).x =
par.toolCloset.kast_1.getChildByName(TempStrTC).x + 400;
NotinventoryParentTC.getChildByName(nextSlotTC).y =
par.toolCloset.kast_1.getChildByName(TempStrTC).y + 245;
if(Boolean(NotinventoryParentTC.getChildByName(nextSlotTC)))
{
NotinventoryParentTC.getChildByName(nextSlotTC).name = TempStrTC;
}
}
This way I assign a new name and place them in the slot with the new name they received.
So now my question:
How do make it so that you can save the items to a shared object so that they are in the closet the next time you play the game.
Sorry for the long question.
Thanks in advance,
Milan.
You cannot directly store a DisplayObject in a SharedObject, as it contains memory links which will not be valid if you load such an object. A comon way to work around this is to store a significant data portion of that object. For example, you devise a following structure:
class SlotStructure {
public var slotID:int;
public var itemID:int;
public var itemName:String;
public var itemParameters:Array; // stuff simple types here
}
Then, for each of your items in inventory, you generate a SlotStructure object describing a particular inventory object. For your wrench it could look like this:
var ss:SlotStructure=new SlotStructure();
ss.slotID=1;
ss.itemID=getID(item); // assuming a function that returns a type of an item
ss.itemName=item.name;
ss.itemParameters=new Array();
for (var param:String in item) ss.itemParameters.push({name:param,value:item[param]});
Then you store an array of these into your SharedObject. To retrieve an inventory from a SharedObject you do:
public static const
registerClassAlias("SlotStructure",SlotStructure); // to be able to typecast from SO
for (var i:int=0;i<slots.length;i++) {
var ss:SlotStructure=slots[i];
var item:Item=new getClassFromID(ss.itemID)(); // a function that returns class
// say 1 - wrench, 2 - short sword, 3 - long sword, etc, one type=one ID
for each (var o:Object in ss.itemParameters)
item[o.name]=o.value;
placeIntoSlot(item,ss.slotID); // this does manipulation with x&y and display
}
A function getClassByID() might look like this:
private static const CLASSES:Array=
[StoneItem,WrenchItem,ShortswordItem,LongswordItem,...];
// manually stuff all your items in this!
public function getClassByID(id:int):Class {
return CLASSES[id];
}
The entire solution can be tailored to particular task, for example, in my game I have gems, that differ by location, type, size and score, so I store just these values and then I create new gems, set location, type, size and score with one function that sets all the other relevant parameters of that gem to align with stored info, and call it after making a gem with new Gem(). Your items might too be only worthy of a class name and ID in the class table, so store these with slot numbers and create objects that will have all their properties already set.

google visualization api, identify tableid in response function

Hmmm, maybe someone can help me out here or point me in the right direction , as i have been banging my head against the wall for a number of days now and dont seem to be gettin anywhere useful.
(and admittedly i'm pretty new with regards to json,objects, google visulization etc)
essentially, i am running 3 different queries on the same page against 3 different fusion tables, which in return are supposed to return an array of 3 different xets of markers.
all is fine, when i run the queries individually and make an array of the markers .
however, running the 3 queries on the same page, i can't seem to find a way to identify the query in the response function.
any hints much appreciated. and i'll be happy to provide more info if needed (tried to get rid of some unneccessary stuff)
this is what i have. thanks
a) calling the function "setFusionData()" with all relevant vars. something like setFusionData("'LatLng','name'", 2729461);
(this is calles 3 times with different variables)
function setFusionData(selColumns,tableId) {
/****
an actual query example is this:
http://www.google.com/fusiontables/gvizdata?tqx=reqId:1234&tq="select+'LatLng','name'+from+2729461"
****/
var query = new google.visualization.Query(
'http://www.google.com/fusiontables/gvizdata?tqx=reqId:1234&tq='+ encodeURIComponent("SELECT "+selColumns+" FROM "+tableId+"")
);
query.send(getFusionData); //do something with the response
}
function getFusionData(response) {
/**
here, is the problem as i need to get the table id or reqId or anything that is uniquely passed on from "setFusionData" above
also something like
alert(JSON.stringify(response)) does not return any reqId or table id either
***/
/*return rows/columns and add values to an array of markers***/
var numRows = response.getDataTable().getNumberOfRows();
var numCols = response.getDataTable().getNumberOfColumns();
for (i = 0; i < numRows; i++) {
/* add markers to array etc this works fine***/
}
}
i also tried something like this:
function setFusionData(selColumns,tableId) {
......
query.send(getFusionData({reqId:tableId}));
}
function getFusionData(response) {
alert(response['reqId']);//returns tableId. but how do i get the tableData ?
}
with wich i can get the reqId, but not the table*Data*. So I am only able to get either id or data :(
----edit----------------
after messing around a bit more (see below) it appears that the key/value pairs that get returned when typing the query into the browser directly are different than what gets returned by the call from the script...i.e the following
http ://www.google.com/fusiontables/gvizdata?tqx=reqId:1234&tq="select+'LatLng','name'+from+2729461"
typed directly into the browser bar will return
version:'0.5',reqId:'1234',status:'ok',table etc
however, calling the same from within the script returns something like
{
"rj":"0.5","ef":"ok","pb":[],"qb":[],"h":"{"cols":
[{"id":"col2","label":"LatLng","type":"string"},{"id":"col1","label":"name","type":"string"}],
"rows":
[{"c":[{"v":"47.20572,12.70414"},
{"v":"Hohe Tauern"}]},{"c":[{"v":"47.5530395,12.925611"},{"v":"Berchtesgaden"}]},{"c":[{"v":"47.5585405,14.61887"},{"v":"Gesu00e4use"}]}],
"p":{"totalrows":3}
}"
}
, so no 'reqId' but only some cryptic keys (without one that looks like the reqId either)...... anyone any idea why that would/could be ?
Sometimes you can figure it out by just looking at the JSON response, your sample request returns:
google.visualization.Query.setResponse({
version:'0.5',
reqId:'1234',
status:'ok',
table: {
...
}
})
You already got response.reqId to identify which request is this the response for, now you can use response.table to create a new DataTable instance:
var dt = new google.visualization.DataTable(response.table);
Or, since you have multiple tables, put then in an array indexed with the reqId
tables[response.reqId] = new google.visualization.DataTable(response.table);
You'd do var tables = new Array() before calling setFusionData() for the first time.