hitTestObject collision detection not working in as3! - actionscript-3

Question

I am trying to create a platformer game and i am trying to make "player1" stop when it hits a "platform". here is my code so far,
gotoAndStop("gameStart");
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.events.*;
import flash.ui.Keyboard;
import flash.ui.*;
import flash.utils.Timer;
import flash.events.TimerEvent;
player1.gotoAndStop("nothing");
//private var speed:Number = 0;
//private var maxspeed:Number = 4;
var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(10,0);
stage.focus = this;
player1.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,enterFrameHandler);
/*
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER,someFunction);
myTimer.start();
function someFunction(event:TimerEvent) {
player1.y += 2;
}
*/
function setup() {
stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, reactToArrowKeys);
}
setup();
function reactToArrowKeys(keyEvent:KeyboardEvent) {
if (keyEvent.keyCode == 37) {
if (player1.x > 0) {
player1.x -= 5;
}
} else if (keyEvent.keyCode == 39) {
if (player1.x < 700) {
player1.x += 5;
}
}
}
function enterFrameHandler(e:Event):void {
if (player1.hitTestObject(platform)) {
trace("hitting");
} else {
player1.y += 4;
}
}
however the hitTestObject function (enterFrameHandler) does not work properly and will always take the "else" route.
please help!

Answer 1

The code as posted works fine for me. I'd look for some other kind of silly mistake - for example, if you copied and pasted movie clips, you might have more than one clip on the stage named "platform", in which case your reference may not resolve to the one you intend. Or something else along those lines.
To track it down, try calling:
trace( player1.getBounds(stage) );
trace( platform.getBounds(stage) );
which will tell you where Flash thinks the bounding boxes of those clips are. My guess is that code will return something other than what you'd expect, and resolving that discrepancy will show where the bug is.