I just started learning ActionScript, so maybe this is obvious. I'm loading in .txt files to generate content for my Flash application. However, I can't seem to find a way to package the .txt files with the .swf when I publish my application. I'd like to be able to run the .swf from anywhere without it depending on the files. Is there a solution for this?
Thanks!
this is an excellent post by Emanuele Feronato:
how-to-embed-a-text-file-in-flash
Basically you use the embed syntax to embed the file as a ByteArray. The key method here is to call the toString() method on the ByteArray to convert to a string.
Hope this helps
Try loading .as files, with variables defined inside them. They're, technically, still text files and still easy to edit, but they get automatically encapsulated in the .swf.
In your main stage, you just add include 'included.as';. In your included.as file, you just define whatever variables you want, for example:
var someData:Array = new Array();
someData.push('This is some string');
someData.push('This is some other string');
After you include the as, you can call whatever variable you defined. And when you export, the .as file is embedded into the .swf.
Even better then just embedding a .txt with your flash, if you're more versed with programming I would suggest you to create a static class to store the values of your application.
Just like:
class StaticData {
static public var siteTitle:String = "My site name";
static public var homeMessage:String = "Lorem Ipsum dolor sit amet...";
static public var welcomeMessage:String = "Hello World";
static public var siteWidth:Number = 1024;
static public var siteHeight:Number = 780;
}
This is a safe and realiable way to store static values using a simple class structure, to use a value from the class, you just need to call inside your flash:
my_textfield.text = StaticData.siteTitle;
my_shape.width = StaticData.siteWidth;
Related
How can I patch actionscript without constantly rebuilding sfw?
There is a fairly large actionscript project that I need to modify and resulting swf is used on a live site. The problem I have is that I need to make quick small updates to the swf and it's not acceptable to update the swf on live site ten time a day (I don't control that part, I need to ask another person to put the result on live site).
What options do I have to workaround that issue? I'm a complete noob when it comes to actionscript and all flash related stuff and I'm not even sure what is possible and what isn't. I'm thinking about the following approaches, which ones are possible/acceptable?
Imagine that live site is on www.livesite.com/game.html and this page loads www.livesite.com/flashgame.swf. In that flashgame.swf among many others there is a class com/livesite/Magic.as that gets instantiated and instance of that class has a member variable xxx123 of class com/livesite/MagicWork.as. I only need to modify this MagicWork class. Now, I simply modify it, build and ask to put updated flashgame.swf live. So, I want to avoid that manual step.
All my ideas can be split in two basic approaches: 1) keep flashgame.swf totally unmodified and then load flashgame.mod.swf that contains alternative implementation of that MagicWork class, then using javascript access internals of instance of that Magic class and update its xxx123 member to be an instance of MagicWork class from flashgame.mode.swf. I'd need to modify game.html to load my javascript so that my js file would load flashgame.mod.swf and patch code inside flashgame.swf. By patching I mean javascript-style overwriting of Magic.xxx123 to a new value. flashgame.mode.swf would ideally reside on my own host that I control. Is that kind of stuff possible, if not what's not possible?
2) I could make one-time change in flashgame.swf so that it would effectively load itself my own code at runtime and patch it's xxx123 member. Is that possible?
I had already written a note about loading runtime shared libraries previously. I'll put the most essential parts of the process here, and add a link to the full article at the end.
You need to tag your main application entry point in the following manner.
[Frame(factoryClass="Preloader")]
public class Main extends Sprite
{
}
Then create a class called Preloader.
public class Preloader
{
public function Preloader()
{
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, this.loader_completeHandler);
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, this.loader_ioErrorHandler);
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest("math.swf");
var context:LoaderContext = new LoaderContext(false, ApplicationDomain.currentDomain);
loader.load(request, context);
}
private function loader_completeHandler(event:Event):void
{
var mainClass:Class = getDefinitionByName("Main") as Class;
var mainInstance:Main = new mainClass();
this.addChild(mainInstance);
}
}
The full implementation of the Main class is like this.
[Frame(factoryClass="Preloader")]
public function Main()
{
var integer:IntegerArithmetic = new IntegerArithmetic(); // Type declared in math.swf
var operand1:int = 10;
var operand2:int = 10;
var result:int = integer.add(operand1, operand2);
}
Deploying Runtime Shared Libraries
The confusing bit about using a runtime shared library is realizing that the SWF has to be extracted from the SWC at the time of deploying the application. This was not immediately obvious and I ended up spending days placing a compiled SWC file in various locations and wondering why the application was unable to load it at runtime. An obscure article on the Adobe website made explicit this particular step and set things straight.
The full article along with the same example is available at http://www.notadesigner.com/runtime-shared-libraries-with-plain-actionscript/.
I have recently picked up flixel (I have programmed before, but I have not in a while) and I have come across a problem. I am attempting to create maps, and eventually there will be multiple maps available.
I currently have a .txt file that has information that eventually goes into an array. Then I go from array to map with loadmap. It is maybe a simple way to accomplish this task, and maybe their are better ways (I have not explored all the possibilities with flixel, and if there are any opinions, go ahead and let me know) but it works good for now.
As I have previously said, I am trying to do this with multiple maps. I could do this by using [Embed(source = "")] for each .txt file, but this may end up being annoying. So, here is my question: Is there a possible way Embed a file based upon a variable?
My Map class looks like this:
public function Map(MapSet:String, TileSet:String)
{
super(MapSet, TileSet);
//more stuff
}
Now I have tried:
[Embed(scource="data/MapSets/" + MapSet + ".txt", mimeType = "application/octet-stream")]private var loadedMap:Class
and then I use:
map = new Map("Map1x1", "ForestTiles");
add(map);
Is there a possibility of doing this in a different way? Or maybe I am doing something wrong? All opinions are welcome.
It's beneficial to know what code does when using it.
Embed is a meta tag. It tells the compiler to include a certain file into the .swf file.
That means this does not happen at runtime.
When this embed code is "executed", your variables don't even exist yet.
That's why your code cannot work.
Despite not working, your solution is still valid:
If you find it tedious to generate code, write a program that does this for you. Create/use a program that finds all valid files in the given directory and creates all the embed tags. Run this program before the compiler.
To embed a text file and use as a string, try this:
// create source var TextSource
[Embed(source="textFile.txt",mimeType="application/octet-stream")]
private var TextSource:Class;
var myByteArray:ByteArray = new TextSource();
var myString:String = myByteArray.readUTFBytes(myByteArray.length);
// then use for your function
map = new Map("Map1x1", myString);
I have a .fla that gets opened up, a few actionscript variables (a url, title etc.) are changed, and published. This happens a lot, and it's the same variables. I would just keep the .swf file with an XML file, but it being uploaded to a third-party platform, so all of the information needs to be contained in the .swf file. There is no way to add the variable information to the third-party site.
I want to know if there's a way to take the new variable information from an xml file or something at publish time (like a script?) without having to open up the Flash IDE. To be able to do a bunch of these at once would also be great.
Any help/links/leads would be appreciated. Google did not help me. Is this even possible?
Without opening the Flash IDE would require loading external resources or a build script using ANT or simply with the mxmlc compiler, something to the effect of:
mxmlc -o output.swf -source-path="src/" -library-path+=library.swc.
Flex compilers
About mxmlc
As you indicate embedding XML at compile time, you could either embed the XML using the [Embed] metadata tag or paste your XML in a class.
Embed XML
package
{
public class XmlData
{
[Embed(source = "data.xml", mimeType = "application/octet-stream")]
public static const Xml:Class;
}
}
To use the XML, instantiate the xml as:
var xml:XML = new XML( new XmlData.Xml );
XML variable
Otherwise, you can simply paste your xml in a class like so:
package
{
public class XmlData
{
public static const xml:XML =
<root>
<element />
<element attribute="value">data</element>
</root>;
}
}
Although you must compile your SWF, this approach is easy because you can simply paste your XML document to the class.
This would be referenced as normal with e4x and no asynchronous load required.
var data:String = XmlData.xml.element.#attribute;
First off I don't understand classes, how to "call" or "initiate" them. I'm class ignorant.
I have two .fla files. One of my .fla files consist of 15+ .as files; we'll call this one XML editor. The other .fla file consists of 10+ .as files; we'll call it the interface.
The xmleditor.swf loads the interface.swf.
Within the xmleditor.swf, a login screen appears and the enduser logs in as either a "user" or an "admin". The "user" or "admin" is stored in a public variable called "userType". The userType variable is created in one of the many xmleditor.fla .as files called Login.as.
Once logged in, xmleditor loads the interface.swf. interface.fla uses 10+ .as files. one is called nodeNames.as I need an if statement in nodeNames.as that is something like this:
if (Login.userType == "user"){
trace("do something");
}
I have the following FlashVars.as file but I have no idea what the steps are to make it work.
package extras.utils {
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.display.LoaderInfo;
/* In AS3, we need to have a display object on the stage to access FlashVars
* this class can be used once, and then referenced from anywhere as
* FlashVars.data.variableName
*/
public class FlashVars extends Sprite {
public static var data:Object;
public function FlashVars() { }
public function load():void { //Only needs to be called once
data = this.root.loaderInfo.parameters;
}
}
}
Should I use this FlashVars? and if so, how?
Or is there an easier way to access the variable?
well, from what i understand, you Login.as is a class. Then you have two ways of accessing the Login.userType variable : if you want to be able to call it with
Login.userType, you'll need it to be static in your class
public static var userType:String
it is then accessible using Login.userType from anywhere in your application, as long as you import Login.
But it is often considered bad practice to have too many static vars in your app, especially from different classes. so you may want to have an instance of your login class stored in a variable somewhere in your app, along with anything you need
var myLogin = new Login();
myLogin.userType = 'value';
But be aware that this way, every new Login() will carry it's own different userType, so you will want to pass along myLogin to any object needing it.
Object programming can be confusing, but is very powerful, i suggest you read about it (in books or on the web) since the whole thing can't be explained here.
Have fun!
I have an actionscript class with a static member variable defined.
public class A
{
public static var x:int;
}
When I try to access it from different parts in my code I don't get the same value in each spot.
A.x
I am accessing the variable in different modules that are loaded, so they are all in their own separate .swf file. Could this by why?
Seems like an application domain problem. The main swf and the modules seem to be accessing their own copies of the A class. You should probably change the way you load your modules.
Check this out:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/system/LoaderContext.html#applicationDomain
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/system/ApplicationDomain.html