AS3: Getting information from an externally loaded SWF - actionscript-3

So I have an SWF that I've made and I need to appened some instructions to the beginning of the project. I figured the easiest way to do this was to make the animation in a separate SWF then import it to the start of the first one. My problem is that I can't find a reliable way to tell when the first SWF is finished playing. I've googled the heck out of this but I can't seem to find anything that works. For some bizarre reason, no matter what I do the program seems to think that the external SWF only has 2 frames, if I put an ENTER_FRAME listener and trace externalSWF.currentFrame I get "1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2..." My code looks something like this.
var ldr = new Loader();
ldr.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loaded);
ldr.load(new URLRequest("Instructions.swf"));
function loaded(e:Event){
trace("Loaded");
var extSwf = ldr.content as MovieClip;
addChild(extSwf);
trace(extSwf.totalFrames);//Returns 2
}
Has anyone else had similar problems with external SWFs?
Also, for the record, the external SWF plays properly when I add it as a child. The problem is removing it from the stage when it's done playing. It's interactive so I can't just do a frame count.
Edit: So I tried doing a getQualifiedClassName() call on extSwf and I got "Instructions_fla::MainTimeline_Preloader_" which could explain the frame discrepency. How can I have access to the actual timeline?

To SWFs can communicate with each other via SharedObject.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/net/SharedObject.html

So I found the solution to the problem. Like I said in the edit, I was getting "Instructions_fla::MainTimeline_Preloader_" as the QualifiedClassName so I googled that and found someone saying that Flash CS5 exports your SWFs with a preloader by default so that was what was being attached to extSwf and not the MovieClip itself. The way to fix it is to go into File>Actionscript Settings>Library Path, and change Default linkage to "Merged Into Code". This appears to only happen in CS5. I found the solution here: http://blog.flash-core.com/?p=142

Related

Flash CS4 AS3 Event not working

I can't attach a simple event handler to a lousy movie clip. Not a single tutorial worked for me and I followed them carefully. Over an hour wasted for nothing... again! Here's what I did:
Layer1: created a symbol(movie clip). Added a rectangle. Draged it onto the layer. Added a name 'obj' in the Properties window. Exported it for ActionScript.
Layer2: Open Action Panel and wrote the following:
obj.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, move);
function move(event:MouseEvent):void {
obj.x = 200;
obj.y = 200;
}
I don't know what I might be overlooking. I tried with the import flash.events.Event; at the top. Although it wasn't present in the tutorials I've watched(on youtube).
P.S. Needless to say, I'm just starting with ActionScript 3.0 but I am reading about the basics on adobe.com
I think I got it. Adding a name for the movie clip symbol is one thing. But when we drag it onto the stage, then we have to click it. And THEN, in the properties tab of the object on the scene, we give it a (class) name. So that ActionScript can see and use it. Right-clicking on the movie clip in the Library tab and selecting Properties is NOT the properties we're looking for.
Edit: Thanks, akmozo. I just found that out. Took me long enough!
Edit2: Just wanted to point out something - when I save a project in Flash CS4 which has an event handler. The handler didn't work. The code itself, that is. I tried the same project in CS3 and it worked fine. So part of the problem was the program itself(Flash CS4).

Never Have Access to Embedded SWF Content Through Loader

I am working on embedding a SWF that is just a converted PDF created with InDesign. The SWF is 15 pages, 1 page per frame. It does include TLF text and there is no way around that unless the document is completely recreated in Flash. The problem is that when I load the SWF into my application, I never have access to the root MovieClip.
this.loader = new Loader();
this.loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener( Event.INIT, this.loaderInitHandler );
this.loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener( Event.COMPLETE, this.loaderInitHandler );
this.loader.load( new URLRequest( "assets/doc.swf" ) );
When I look at the loader after both the INIT and COMPLETE events as well as later on by stopping the app in debug mode, I do not see a MovieClip. Instead, the loader.content is of type doc_fla.MainTimeline__Preloader__ which contains two children, an empty Shape and another Loader. That loader, when checking INIT and COMPLETE events results in the exact same situation and it appears to be a never ending line of Loaders whose contents are "Preloaders".
Could anyone shed some light as to what is causing this or how I might fix it? I've poured a good 2 hours into solving this and I am no closer to a solution than when I started.
ActionScript Mobile project
Compiling using AIR 3.6
Testing in emulator as well as on iPad and on Nexus 7
I recompiled the SWF and embedded the TLF libraries (under ActionScript settings, just set the TLF swc which was already there to be embedded) in it and this seems to have fixed the issue. I swear I had tried that before to no success, but it worked this time.

As3 Preloader (Blank until 100%)

I have an FLA file with two frames. On the first frame I have nothing but a textfield and some code to do the preloading. After it is done preloading it does gotoAndStop(2)
On frame 1 I have:
stop();
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.SHOW_ALL;
//Import the required assets
import flash.display.*;
//Stop the playhead while loading occurs
this.stop();
//Create a listener to call the loading function as the movie loads;
this.loaderInfo.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, PL_LOADING);
this.loaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, PL_FINISH);
function PL_LOADING(event:ProgressEvent):void
{
var pcent:Number = event.bytesLoaded / event.bytesTotal * 100;
//Display the % loaded in textfield
txt.text = int(pcent) + "%";
//If the movie is fully loaded, kick to the next frame on the main timeline
}
function PL_FINISH(event:Event):void
{
removeChild(txt);
gotoAndStop(2);
}
On frame 2 I have nothing except:
var game:Game = new Game();
addChild(game);
In my publisher settings I have export to frame 2.
My problem is that the preloader won't display until 100%. Does anyone know why?
P.S. For testing I put a large image file on the stage in frame 2 and the result is the same.
This normally happens if you haven't deselected "Export in frame 1" in each of the library symbols that you are exporting for ActionScript.
You'll need to make sure that you create reference to these objects (so that ActionScript can access them) by placing them onto the stage in frame 2 (out of sight).
What's happening is that all of the symbols are being loaded before the preloader itself has loaded.
If this isn't the issue, then please provide some code so I can better assess your issue.
Have you tried putting something static on frame one? Just because there is a preloader, that doesn't mean that your swf will be displaying at all...
I know that I had one swf once which simply took a minute to actually get the Flex preloader to even show up because of network latency. It could be that your swf isn't displaying until 90% of it has already loaded.
I´m dealing with similar problems, and there is something i found out: my antivirus contains a kind of "browser protection" feature, which sort of checks all files in advance before it allows the browser to actually display them. If this antivirus feature has not been installed on the system, the preloader works beautifully. I´ve checked some other web-sites with flash content, and they also behave "wrong" under these circumstances. Now, some people seem to have found a way to stop the antivirus from messing around, but i don´t know how they do it... not yet...

flash as3: can children not run their own actionscript?

I thought I was being slick by having movieclips that I export for actionscript and then addChild later. I've made this one movieclip that loads html text through as, and it works fine when I drag it to the stage; but if I do
var trackListingBox:trackListingScreen = new trackListingScreen();
addChild(trackListingBox);
it either doesn't run the actionscript, or it's somehow broken. Can children not run their own action script?
Maybe try adding some code to your MovieClip which will fire when the movie clip is added to the stage. Something like this:
this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,onAddedToStage);
function onAddedToStage(e:Event):void {
functionWhichLoadsHTML();
}
They can "run their own actionscript" fine. There's probably a bug in your code in the child clip, but I can't give any advice on it without actually seeing the code.
the problem was that the actionscript was loading before the items it was referring to, thereby giving me errors that items were not found.

AS3 preloader sorrows, unable to load symbols from library

I created an AS3 preloader, and placed the code for that on frame one.
I then made a symbol, and placed it in the library. It was set to NOT export on frame 1, and the fla's settings had all classes exported on frame two. There were no references to the object until frame two.
Then, flash crashed whenever I compiled without the "Export in frame one" box checked.
To fix this, a friend suggested I start my game logic on frame 3, so it will have properly loaded frame 2. That seemed to work fine, the class was instantiating properly.
Then, it turned out that it was not loading the movieclip, only instantiating the class. Again, this could be fixed by exporting in frame 1, but I really cannot afford to do that.
The same friend suggested I place an instance of the symbol on the stage on frame 3, and perform game logic on frame 4. They said this would initialize the movieclip properly.
However, this was not the case. How can I load the entire symbol, graphics and all, without exporting to frame 1? This single symbol will contain probably 10-20 MB of graphics, so it needs to be preloaded.
Thanks for the help!
EDIT: To make a long story short, all I need is some way to load a movieclip so it can be used and visible and everything.
EDIT: Is there any way to force-load a movieclip via AS3?
Hard to figure out from descriptions.
If you make a new .fla file, paste your large(10-20MB) clip on frame 2,
set your export frame as 2, then try to preload from frame 1 and access the large clip's content in frame 2, do you get the same error ?
say you have this in frame 1:
stop();
this.loaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
function onComplete(event:Event):void{
gotoAndStop(2);
}
and in frame 2:
trace(myLargeClip);//where myLargeClip would be your 10-20MB clip
It should be ok, otherwise, in case tracing your large clip returns null, you might want to try to invalidate the stage:
on frame 2:
stage.addEventListener(Event.RENDER,onRender);
stage.invalidate();
function onRender(event:Event):void{
trace(myLargeClip);
}
Basically what I'm suggesting is:
Isolate the problem. See if your large clip is causing problems in a similar, but simplified scenario and why, then once you got a fix use it in your main fla.
Try the stage invalidation, although, since I don't fully understand your setup, it's just a wild guess.
HTH,
George