AS3 Button stops working after random amount of click - actionscript-3

I have a movieclip being used as a button. After a random amount of clicks the button stops working. In other words, the mouse will become a hand when hovering over the button but no clicks are registering to fire the function. I've even clicked it 40 times and it will work but then suddenly, bang!, it stops working. Heres the function that adds the btn, listener, animates it into the screen and also adds text.
function makeButton():void{
addChild(myBtn);
myBtn.mouseChildren=false;
myBtn.buttonMode=true;
myBtn.x=(stage.stageWidth/2)-(myBtn.width/2);
myBtn.y=-300;
myBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, btnClicked, false, 0, true);
myBtn.btn_text.text="The string goes here";
TweenLite.to(myBtn, 0.5,{x:(stage.stageWidth/2)-(myBtn.width/2),y:(stage.stageHeight/2)-(myBtn.height/2)});
}
And then here's the function that animates the button outside the screen:
function btnClicked(e:MouseEvent):void{
myBtn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, btnClicked);
TweenLite.to(myBtn, 0.5,{x:(stage.stageWidth/2)-(myBtn.width/2),y:-300});
}
Strange thing is, I added a trace("listener added") into the 'makeButton()' AT THE VERY END, AFTER THE ADD EVENT. And it traces everytime, even on the times the button stops working. SO i can only assume there are no errors with listener being added. But then why is it not working?
I'm stumped. I thought it could be an event propagation problem. In other words the listener was being added to the target (myBtn) but somehow it was capturing or bubbling wrong but..... then why does it work at all? And for so many clicks?
The truth is out there. Or maybe in here, your insights will be much appreciated.

Where does myBtn get created? I can see right at the beginning of makeButton() that you are adding it the display list but can't see where it actually gets created? Is it already on the stage?

Adding a trace statement in the makeButton function will only tell you that a button is created, it won't say much about the functionality of your button. If you want to check if your button reacts to a click , you need to add your trace statement in the click listener.
According to your description , it sounds like you keep adding the same button to the stage rather than actually clicking the same button.
How often do you call the makeButton function before it stops working? This function looks like it should only be called once. As for the btnClicked function , why do you remove the listener, if you wish to click the button again?
Practically it looks like you should only have your Tweening functionality in your functions, I mean , once the button is created , you need one function to tween the button, then instead of adding the button again, simply call a function to tween the button back in place.
All the rest shouldn't be repeated.

I've fixed the code and the problem hasn't occurred again. The problem must have been that I was running the addChild every time the function called and that was doing something odd to the MC in the display list. I haven't pursued the error by clicking the buttons many times in a row for a minute or two, as I did to make the error happen originally. I think i'll let sleeping dogs lie.
With that said, my code is a lot cleaner with the addChild and other crap running in the initialization function and just sitting above the stage - and then being tweened into position in the 'makeButton' and 'btnClicked' functions (which are now fittingly named 'tweenBtnIn' and 'tweenBtnOut').
Thanks again

Related

Flash CS6 Button Not Working Despite No Compiler/Output Errors

I'm using Flash CS6, AS3 to create buttons for my project. Below is my code:
Intro_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, Intro_func);
function Intro_func(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("Intro");
}
No errors appear when I run it on the output and compiler panel, and the same happens when I run it through the debugger. Also, I have used the exact same code for five other buttons, and they have no problems working. Please can someone tell me what is wrong with my code???
I would need to know more info of your code and the type of buttons you're using, however I would try this steps:
1.- add a Button component from the component inspector, set its instance name, and add that same function to the Click event:
newButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Intro_func);
function Intro_func(event:MouseEvent):void {
trace("function executed");
gotoAndStop("Intro");
}
2.- run your app and test if the action is executed with this new button. If this test pass, then your problem is your button.
check this on your button:
check the base class of the button (be sure its a MovieClip or a Button class)
check if your button is enabled/disabled.
check if your button or its children has mouseEnabled and mouseChildren set as
true.
check there is no other object on top of the button either in your artboard or added by code at runtime.
I finally would suggest you to set useHandCursor = true; this will replace your mouse pointer arrow to a hand when you move over your button (this is just to test that your button is actually interacting with mouse).
hope this helps.
sorry for the delay, But I've found your solution, It's easier than you thought: your frame is delayed.
your Intro_btn script is on frame 10, however in frame one you're telling it to go to frame 9 (the "Erhu" frame label) so the actions to setup the event listener are never being called.
Also keep in mind the following:
objects exists only in their frames life time, if you have an object from frame 5 to 10, it will only exist in there, so moving to a previous or later frame (e.g. frames 4 and 11) will internally delete the object in memory along with their asociated actions, in english:
you placed the button in frame 10 and added its MOUSE_DOWN listener however, if you go back to frame 0, since the button doesn't exists in this frame it will be deleted from memory along with its listeners, so if you go from frame 0 to any other frame different than 10, your button will never have its listeners associated.
So my suggestion:
1.- add your function into frame 0:
function Intro_func(event:MouseEvent):void {
trace("function executed");
gotoAndStop("Intro");
}
2.- create a new layer. In this layer add a keyframe at the same position where your Intro_btn is(frame 10), and fill the rest of the timeline of this layer with empty frames (no keyframes), finally in the same layer add in frame 10 your listener Intro_btn.addEventListener. this way, the action is available for every subsecuent frame from frame 10.
hope this solves your problem.

ActionScript 3: eventlisteners give 1009 error when not in frame1

Thanks for the responses
*Note when the buttons and code are on Frame 1 it works perfectly *
All the script is in Frame 2, as are the two buttons. The only things not in frame to are the sprites I'm calling out of the library.
Ideally On frame 1 are navigation buttons - each button with a gotoAndPlay() call attached. When you click each one of these navigation buttons it takes you to a different page.
Each page has a a bunch of buttons. Each button, when clicked, plays a an audio, and adds/deletes children to the stage
My problem is any frame other than 1, (in this case 2) as soon as it lands on the frame even with appropriate buttons present it says it doesn't see them and balks at the even listeners.
I hope this makes sense.
----- Original post --------
I'm trying to understand how these things work. I have an empty frame in frame one. In that frame I have the code:
gotAndStop(2);
On frame 2 I have two buttons. I've added event listeners to them. This works fine. The problem is as soon as it hits frame two I get this error :
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null
object reference. at TesT_2_fla::MainTimeline/frame2()
The confusing thing is, when I have everything in Frame 1 it works like a charm.
On frame 2 the buttons are there already, if I put them in frame 1 it works, but in frame 2 no dice.
Can anyone explain what is happening and how I might be able to remedy this?
Not sure why you are writing the script in Frame 1. If nothing were in Frame 1, the user would automatically go to Frame 2, if you placed a stop(); on Frame 2. If you want to stop(); on Frame 1, you could add a button gotoAndStop(2) with an event listener. When placing script on a frame that may be also referenced in a later frame, use a separate script layer and extend that layer from the (key)frame on which the script first appears to the (key)frame on which it is also referenced. HTH
Ya know - after much searching I found a solution it does seem awfully cumberome. I added the following code (which I copied from someone elses post) Just in case any other noobs have a similiar problem
enter code here
//listen for the Flash player's ENTER_FRAME event...
this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame, false);
//and call this checker function continually until all of the buttons are accounted for
function onEnterFrame(e:Event):void
{
if(and_btn != null && big_btn != null )
{
and_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, fAnd);
big_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, fBig);
//clean up the enter frame listener so that this function no longer gets called
this.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame, false);
}
}
It seems the code was running so fat the buttons didn't have a chance to populate the stage

gotoAndPlay(label) stop all other actions on the page

I am actually at UNI doing bachelor of multimedia and we are creating a Flash movie for an assignment.
In all my fixing up, I have wrecked some code and I can't see why it won't work, because it is exactly the same as in the file that does work.
I have several buttons on one page that when clicked just go to other pages, they are working fine with functions. I have some buttons that go to a name label at a certain frame, it works for the first button, then it seems that once that button is clicked, it some all other functions on the page and no other buttons can be clicked.
Here is the code:
phonebtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, goPhone);
function goPhone(evt:Event):void{
gotoAndStop("phone");
}
emailbtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, goEmail);
function goEmail(evt:Event):void{
gotoAndStop("email");
}
addressbtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, goAddress);
function goAddress(evt:Event):void{
gotoAndStop("address");
}
If I put in gotoAndPlay(), it plays too long and goes to the next page.
i noticed one mistake in your function statement . that
function goEmail(evt:MouseEvent):void{
gotoAndStop("email");
}
you need to write MouseEvent whenever you are writing event for Mouse. and this is not an issue. try this. And gotoAndStop will stop on that frame. If there is any frames under that particular target frames or movieclip it will play that only not on currentTarget frames. So without seeing your frames code it is little difficult to identify your problem because you have asked on frames code. I hopes it wuld help*

Fast rollOver on a button causes another label to rollOut (MovieClip button)

I'm new to AS3/Flash and stackoverflow and have tried to browse through different threads with this issue.
My issue is that when I rollover too quickly on one of my buttons, the button will rollover to the "Click" state. I have a tester that debugs the line "hit! " and whenever that glitch happens, the tester does not show the line "hit" so I know that it isn't actually registering a user-input click.
Interestingly enough, the issue also only happens when I move from the bottom or top of the button to the other side vertically. Faster FPS does seem to minimize the effect but it's still there. I have tried to get rid of my hit area layer, thinking that it was the culprit to the problem somehow but even then it did not do anything.
I'll post the .fla in case anybody can figure this out, would truly appreciate it as it's been driving me nuts.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18672917/Main_Btn_7halp6.fla
Here's the code I used in case someone wants to figure it out solely from possible coding errors. (Also, better_mc.Hit._visible = false; doesn't work it seems)
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
stop();
better_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, betterOver);
better_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT, betterOut);
better_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, betterClick);
function betterOver(evt:MouseEvent):void{
better_mc.gotoAndPlay("Over");
}
function betterOut(evt:MouseEvent):void{
better_mc.gotoAndPlay(27- (better_mc.currentFrame-10));
}
function betterClick(event:MouseEvent):void {
better_mc.gotoAndPlay("Click");
}
better_mc.hitArea = better_mc.Hit;
better_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, Hitbox);
function Hitbox (event:MouseEvent){
trace("hit! "+this.name);
better_mc.Hit._visible = false;
};
Ok, got it. this is what is happening
Your calculation on rollout is creating a problem
function betterOut(evt:MouseEvent):void{
**better_mc.gotoAndPlay(27- (better_mc.currentFrame-10));**
}
This expression sometimes returns frame number 28 which is ahead of your 'stop()' which is at frame 27 and so it goes on playing the whole click animation.
27- (better_mc.currentFrame-10)
Try the simple solution of adding 'stop()' before your click animation starts i.e. frame 31 in this case.
See if this sorts your issue.
Can not open your fla as i have CS5 so not much help on that
Not sure why you need both click and mousedown events, code seems fine apart from the gotoAndPlay(labelname) parts since no idea how the animations are added here
Just for the last part of your query
(Also, better_mc.Hit._visible = false; doesn't work it seems)
For AS3, property 'visible' is used and not '_visible' so it will be,
better_mc.Hit.**visible** = false;

As3: Button only working in certain locations?

I really don't know how to explain this problem. I'm really stumped as to what is causing it.
Here is the code:
var abutton:AButton = new AButton; //Where AButton is a button defined in my library
addChildAt(abutton, numChildren);
abutton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, attack);
It doesn't want to work when certain movie clips are underneath it, but I don't want to make it more complicated by switching to another screen. Is it possible to make the button work with movieclips underneath?
What do you mean by "certain movieclips"? What do you mean by not working? The CLICK event isn't firing? Normally if a click isn't working on a button, it means that something else it trapping the mouse click above your button. This can be another Sprite, MovieClip or TextField.
Add a click listener to the stage, and have it print out target and currentTarget. Then, when you button doesn't work, the stage listener will still fire and you'll be able to see the object that's blocking your button.