I am trying to dynamically address different instances of the same movieclip by passing a string into the movieclip address, but apparently I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying something like below:
var vsTargetName:String;
vsTargetName = "instance50";
vsTargetName + vsThumb.thumbHighlight.visible = true;
Is something like this possible? What am I doing wrong/what do I need to do to make that work?
You could use getChildByName.
For example:
var vsTargetName:String = "instance50";
//container is a parent of vsTarget
var vsTarget:MovieClip = container.getChildByName(vsTargetName);
vsTarget.thumbHighlight.visible = true;
You can interchange object notation and array notation for DisplayObjects.
So:
var vsTargetName:String = "instance50";
this["instance50"] === this.instance50 === this[vsTargetName]
Hope that helps. You can use different combinations to select what you need:
var num:String = 50;
this["instance" + num]
The code above is very useful for loops when the MovieClip names are numbered.
In AS2 you had to call the eval() to convert a string into their relative stage object. Not sure how you would do it in AS3, I'm new to it.
var myID = "someObjectID";
var myObject = eval("someParent." + myID);
myObject._visible = false;
Related
I'm a bit new with AS3 (but not really with coding) so please forgive my ignorance. I'm creating a small function that will be called by a Main Function to update the position of 52 Pointers that have the x and y position of multiple point objects (empty movie clips). It will also then update two global arrays with those values (one array for the x and one for the y).
The problem is, as there are 52 of them, and they will probably grow in quantity, I'd like to be able to use a FOR function to do it, but I can't seem to be able to figure it out.
I get this error: Access of undefined property _point.
Here is a piece of the code that dream about:
function happyFunc():void
{
var avpointers:int = 52;
var vpointx:Array = new Array();
var vpointy:Array = new Array();
for (aa=0; aa<vpointers; aa++)
{
vpointx[aa] = _point[aa].x;
vpointy[aa] = _point[aa].y;
}
}
And this is the code that I'm stuck with...
function reallySadFunc():void
{
_point1 = localToGlobal(new Point(point1.x,point1.y));
//...
_point52 = localToGlobal(new Point(point52.x,point1.y));
vpointx[0] = _point1.x;
vpointx[1] = _point2.x;
//...
//oh god there are 104 lines of this why do I have to suffer
}
Thank you!
If I read your question correctly, I think this is what you need:
public static const CLIP_COUNT:int = 52;
// ...
private function happyFunc(parentClip:DisplayObjectContainer):void
{
var vpointx:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>(CLIP_COUNT, true);
var vpointy:Vector.<Number> = new Vector.<Number>(CLIP_COUNT, true);
var clipPoint:Point = new Point ();
var globalPoint:Point;
for (var i:int = 0; i < CLIP_COUNT; i++)
{
var childClip:DisplayObject = parentClip.getChildByName("point" +
(i + 1).toString());
clipPoint.x = childClip.x;
clipPoint.y = childClip.y;
globalPoint = parentClip.localToGlobal(clipPoint);
vpointx[i] = globalPoint.x;
vpointy[i] = globalPoint.y;
}
// do something with vpointx and vpointy - they're local variables
// and will go out of scope unless you declare them as class members
// or somehow return them from this function.
}
This function works by taking the parent display object (the one that contains the 52 movie clips - this could be the Stage) and iterates through them by getting each movie clip by name. The code assumes that your movie clips are called point1, point2, ..., point52.
To speed up the local-to-global coordinate conversion, two Point objects are created and then reused during the for loop to avoid creating many temporary Point instances.
Instead of using Array, use Vector.<Number> - this class has better performance than Array does.
I have 54 MC's on stage, generated dynamically. Now I want to get their x and y positions when rolling over but I am having problems getting the path correct e.g.
function copyFlightCellData():void {
var r; var s;
var cellData:Array = new Array ();
for (r = 0; r < 54; r++){
//var copyCellData = new MovieClip();
cellData[r] = Object(root).mc85.name; //["mc"+r+r];
trace("$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$" + cellData[r]);
}
}
I used the list objects in debug and they are listed in _level0 e.g.
Movie Clip: Frame=1 Target="_level0.mc85"
Not sure why I can't access their properties.
This is the code that created the MC's
// Create copies of flightCell for board grid
var my_mc = new flightCell();
my_mc.name = "mc" + i + j;
trace("^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****************" + my_mc.name);
addChild(my_mc);
Answer is pretty simple, use the DisplayObjectContainer object's, in this case root, getChildByName() method, for example:
var sprite1:Sprite = new Sprite();
sprite1.name = "sprite1";
addChild(sprite1);
trace((root as DisplayObjectContainer).getChildByName("sprite1").name); // output : sprite1
It's probably a better idea to store the movieclips you have on your stage in an array to begin with.
To access it by name you have to assign a name to them when you create them.
mc85.name = "mc85";
As an alternative that I recommend, you can use getChildAt(index) : http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/display/DisplayObjectContainer.html?filter_flash=cs5&filter_flashplayer=10.2&filter_air=2.6#getChildAt()
Also, I highly recomend you to create an empty movieclip or sprite and add all of this mcs to them instead of the root.
var test:*;
test = sMC // Some movieClip exported for ActionScript
var f = new test;
Sorry if the question's a bit lame, but I begin to wonder, what does this asterisk, and the snippet mean?
Answering your original question and your question asked in a comment:
An asterisk is a wildcard which means the variable will accept any type of info. Example:
var wildcard:*;
wildcard = "hello";
wildcard = 10;
wildcard = new MovieClip();
All of the above will work.
Variables should be typed as strictly as possible; by this I mean that when you want to assign a MovieClip to a variable, your variable should be typed as a MovieClip. Like so:
var mc:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
This works for anything. If you create your own class, then use that as your type for a variable that holds your class.
var thing:MyClass = new MyClass();
An error will be thrown if you try and assign an unrelated type to a variable, like so:
var thing:MovieClip = "hello";
But as long as your variable type is somewhere along the inheritance chain of what you're assigning to it, then it will work.
var thing:DisplayObject = new MovieClip();
This can be handy if you want to loop through an array containing an assortment of your own classes that extend MovieClip.
var ar:Array = [];
/**
* MyClass extends MovieClip
* MyOtherClass extends MovieClip
*/
ar.push(new MyClass());
ar.push(new MovieClip());
ar.push(new MyOtherClass());
var i:MovieClip;
for each(i in ar)
{
trace(i);
}
Overall the wildcard type is not a recommendation. At worst use Object as everything in flash extends this. One situation where a wildcard or Object can be useful is if you want to create a function that can accept any kind of data. Like so:
var myarray:Array = [];
function addToArray(data:Object):void
{
myarray[myarray.length] = data;
trace(data);
}
OR
function addToArray(data:*):void
{
myarray[myarray.length] = data;
trace(data);
}
Hope this all makes sense.
The asterisk means the variable type is undefined, or a wildcard.
Meaning you can define test as any sort of variable.
I have hit a road block on this and would highly appreciate if someone can help me on this, please. What I am trying to do is to use shared runtime library by loading a swf ('index.swf') which has numerous library objects which are named in sequence such as:
(orange1,orange2,orange3,orange4)
(red1,red2,red3,red4)
I am able to load the swf('index.swf') without any issues and even am able to load the right library asset, but I have to declare the full name as string such as getDefinition('orange1'). What I would like to do is to match first three letters of string and then run a for loop to load up all the classes that match the first three letters. I usually can do this by employing indexOf() method.
here is my code:
public function loadContent():void
{
ldr.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, progressHandler);
ldr.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onloadHandler);
ldr.load(req);
}
public function progressHandler(eProgress:ProgressEvent):void
{
var percent:Number = (eProgress.bytesLoaded / eProgress.bytesTotal);
trace(percent);
}
public function onloadHandler(e:Event):void
{
// THIS IS WHERE I AM TRYING TO MATCH THE STRING
var str:String = "red";
str = (str.indexOf(str));
var ref1:Class = e.currentTarget.applicationDomain.getDefinition(str) as Class
trace(ref1);
}
I would highly appreciate your help.
Thanks.
I think your problem lies in the following lines of code:
str = (str.indexOf(str));
var ref1:Class = e.currentTarget.applicationDomain.getDefinition(str) as Class
indexOf() returns the index of the first occurrence of the specified substring or -1 if the substring doesn't exist. So , you are passing a string representation of some int (either -1 or 0, 1, 2, etc) to getDefinition()... which probably isn't returning a class reference.
Assuming you have some clips named red1, red2, red3, red4 I would do something like the following:
for (var i:int=0; i < 4; i++) {
var classRef:Class = e.currentTarget.applicationDomain.getDefinition("red" + (i+1).toString()) as Class;
trace(classRef);
}
So, in short, my problem is this. I am using a variable which is a movieclip loaded from an external swf. I want to "spawn" multiple instances of the movieclip that all react to the same code, so for example if I say var1.x = 100, they all are at 100x. But my problem is when I run addChild(var1) multiple times(I'm not actually typing in addChild(var1) over and over, I just have it set to add them at random times), the new child just replaces the old one, instead of making multiple movieclips. Should I do something like
var var1:MovieClip
var var2:MovieClip = new var1 ?(which doesnt work for me btw, gives me errors)
Oh, heres the code, and also, I am pretty new to as3 fyi, still don't even know how arrays work, which was my second guess to the problem.
var zombieExt:MovieClip;
var ldr2:Loader = new Loader();
ldr2.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, swfLoaded2);
ldr2.load(new URLRequest("ZombieSource.swf"));
function swfLoaded2(event:Event):void
{
zombieExt = MovieClip(ldr2.contentLoaderInfo.content);
ldr2.contentLoaderInfo.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, swfLoaded2);
//zombieExt.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, moveZombie)
zombieExt.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,rotate2);
function rotate2 (event:Event)
{
var the2X:int = playerExt.x - zombieExt.x;
var the2Y:int = (playerExt.y - zombieExt.y) * 1;
var angle = Math.atan(the2Y/the2X)/(Math.PI/180);
if (the2X<0) {
angle += 180;
}
if (the2X>=0 && the2Y<0) {
angle += 360;
}
//angletext.text = angle;
zombieExt.rotation = (angle*1) + 90;
}
playerExt.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,spawn1);
function spawn1 (event:Event)
{
if(playerExt.y < 417)
{
var someNum:Number = Math.round(Math.random()*20);
if(someNum == 20)
{
addChild(zombieExt)
zombieExt.x = Math.round(Math.random()*100)
zombieExt.y = Math.round(Math.random()*100)
}
}
}
}
addChild() does not create new instances. It is used to add an already created instance to the display list. If you call addChild() multiple times on the same instance then you are just readding itself.
Also each instance is unique, you can not globally change the x position of an instance by changing another one of them. What you would do is as Henry suggests and add each new instance of a MovieClip into an array, then whenever you change something you can loop through the array and apply the changes to each instance.
You can not go var2:MovieClip = new var1 either since var1 is an instance and not a class.
Here's a different method of receiving loaded MovieClips, which i use when i need many copies of the item.
in the swf you are loading, give the target movieclip a linkage name in the library, for this example i will use "foo"
private var loadedSwfClass:Class
private var newZombie:MovieClip;
private var zombieArray:Array = new Array();
function swfLoaded2(event:Event):void
{
loadedSwfClass = event.target.applicationDomain.getDefinition("foo");
for(var n:int = 0; n<100; n++){
newZombie = new loadedSwfClass()
zombieArray.push(newZombie);
addChild(newZombie);
}
}
as per this tutorial
http://darylteo.com/blog/2007/11/16/abstracting-assets-from-actionscript-in-as30-asset-libraries/
although the comments say that
var dClip:MovieClip = this;
var new_mc = new dClip.constructor();
this.addChild(new_mc);
will also work.
It sounds like you might be accessing the same instance some how in your code. It would be helpful to see your code to figure this one out.
If I wanted to load in one swf files and add a MovieClip multiple times I would place it in the library of that SWF file. And then instantiate it and store it into an object pool or a hash or some list.
// after the library were finished loading
var list:Array = [];
for(var i:int=0; i<10; i++) {
var myCreation:MySpecialThing = new MySpecialThing();
addChild(myCreation);
list.push(myCreation);
}
where my library would contain a linkage to the class MySpecialThing.
Calling addChild(var1) multiple times on the same parent doesn't have any effect (unless you have added another child to the same parent in between, in which case it will change the child index and bring var1 to the top). If you call it on different parents, it will just change the parent of var1, doesn't duplicate. Call addChild(new MovieClassName()) at random times instead to add new copies of it. Use an array as suggested here to access them later.
Wow, thanks there henry, just using an array did exactly what I needed, and made things alot simpler.
when you load in using a loader you only get 1 instance, however you can do some funky reflection to determine what class type the given loader.content is, and then instantiate them using that. For Example:
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loader_completeHandler);
loader.load(new URLRequest("ZombieSource.swf"));
var classType:Class;
function loader_completeHandler(evt:Event):void
{
var loadInfo:LoaderInfo = (evt.target as LoaderInfo);
var loadedInstance:DisplayObject = loadInfo.content;
// getQualifiedClassName() is a top-level function, like trace()
var nameStr:String = getQualifiedClassName(loadedInstance);
if( loadInfo.applicationDomain.hasDefinition(nameStr) )
{
classType = loadInfo.applicationDomain.getDefinition(nameStr) as Class;
init();
}
else
{
//could not extract the class
}
}
function init():void
{
// to make a new instance of the ZombieMovie object, you create it
// directly from the classType variable
var i:int = 0;
while(i < 10)
{
var newZombie:DisplayObject = new classType();
// your code here
newZombie.x = stage.stageWidth * Math.random();
newZombie.x = stage.stageHeight * Math.random();
i++;
}
}
Any problems let me know, hope this helps.