Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with Actionscript

Actionscript physics of curveball

c:\awesome — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:23:32 -0800

Flash-physics-filter: I'm working on a simple flash game similar to curveball, but I can't figure out 1) how the script determines the amount of spin/curve to put on the ball, and 2) how the AI gets progressively better as the levels increase.

How to convert shapes drawn with ActionScript to movie clips?

nímwunnan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:02:51 -0800

How do I convert a shape drawn with ActionScript to a movie clip that can have mouse actions in Flash (ActionScript 2)? Maybe I'm missing something really basic here, but a couple hours of research in all the likely places haven't produced anything. Bascially I'm using some functions for creating isometric drawings and I would like to be able to address the shapes they create as objects with onRollOver and onRelease and so on. Any help would be appreciated.

How can I display colorful directed graphs on the web?

christonabike — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:52:17 -0800

How do I take a graph that looks like this and display it in a web friendly format? Oh, and there's 300,000 of them. The graph linked is a screenshot of a postscript file generated by the "dot" portion of Graphviz. Essentially, I have a bunch of flat text files describing directed graphs (i.e. which nodes are linked to which and what color the links/nodes should be). I need to display these directed graphs on the internet. The nodes on the graph need to be clickable, as well.

Ideally, the processing to turn the text file into the graph would also be done on the client side, but this isn't necessary. The graphs don't need to be capable of being manipulated, but that would be cool as well. The best idea I've got so far is to use Flash/ActionScript and do something similar to this, but I've never actually used flash so I have no idea if it will scale well or can even actually do what I want it to.

Actionscript community site?

malphigian — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:45:10 -0800

Mailing list, forum, or other community for advanced actionscript coders? Most of what I do professionally is flash actionscript coding. Pretty advanced, AS3 stuff. Occasionally I have questions that aren't answered by the usual docs and books, and I'd love to have a place to ask other people like me.

Back in the day there was the flash coders mailing list, but that appears to be dead. Does anyone know of a community site of any sort that is dedicated to discussing actionscript coding with a good signal to noise ratio?

So far Flashkit's forums are the best I've found, but I just have this suspicion I'm missing some obvious place where all the cool kids are hanging out. Thanks in advance for any advice.

How can I seamlessly loop video in flash cs3? And how can I put titles in flvplayback menu?

austinlee — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:13:20 -0800

How can I make a seamless FLV Video loop using flash cs3? Also! How can I put a title in the playback bar? I'd like to be able to loop back video playback seamlessly on my website. I was able to get the video to loop but there seems to be a slight delay during the loop. Is there any way to fix this?

Here is a link to the example.

LOOP

Right now I am using the FLVplayback component with this actionscript.

import fl.video.VideoEvent;

player.addEventListener(VideoEvent.COMPLETE, playAgain);
function playAgain(evt:VideoEvent):void {

player.seek(0);
player.play();
}

I was also wondering if anyone knew how I could put a title in the menu bar. There will probably be a few videos so I am hoping for a way that is easily changed.

Thanks!

Actionscript help, please!

Mayor Curley — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:19:23 -0800

I'm trying to make a flash file scale to the width of a div. Friends, Romans, Actionscript People, how do I make this happen? Simple diagram here. Basically, I want to know what actionscript I need to add to the file, and changes I might need to make to the swfobject info to make this happen.

The swf has a set height (which I want) and currently has a set width, (but I want to change that). Right now it stays the same size as the stage it was built on. I want it to expand to fit the div it's in. My actionscript is for poop, obviously. Thanks for your help.

i gotta get digivideowebificated!

univac — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:39:08 -0800

I'm trying to get the local webcam to stream to the stage on Flash CS3 actionscript3. When I run it, I get a blank screen and no errors. Any help at all would be appreciated. Here is my code so far: import flash.system.SecurityPanel; Security.showSettings(SecurityPanel.CAMERA); var cam:Camera = Camera.getCamera(name); var vid:Video = new Video(); vid.attachCamera(cam); stage.addChild(vid); Thanks! Posted for a friend. I don't really know what any of this means.

Help me forward to new page at end of Flash video

aaronetc — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:42:28 -0800

How do I get Flash to play a FLV and then go to particular URL when it's done? I'm working on a project where people view a Flash video (just an FLV file with no skin or anything else) and then get forwarded to another page when it's done. I need them to see the whole video, so I can't just put a text link for the next page. I don't know Flash especially well, and the code that I've found online keeps giving me demands for an onClipEvent handler. Ideas?

What's the easiest way to print out a large web site?

grumblebee — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:31:04 -0800

Help me destroy the rain forest: I'm want to print out a huge manual that only exists as a web site. What (free? cheap?) app exists that will allow me to suck the entire site into a PDF or some other sort of printable document? I'm Mac based but can scare up a PC if necessary. I'm an Actionscript programmer that works with a team of people who are fifteen or more years younger than me. They're all cool with reading manuals online. I can't do that. I'm too old school. I need a physical book that I can carry with me and that I can keep next to my computer, flip through and mark up.

Adobe has PDF versions of almost all their manuals -- EXCEPT for their AS 3.0 manual, which is the one I need. And no 3rd-parties have come to the rescue. It looks like O'Reilly is coming out with a pocket guide to the language, but I need something more comprehensive.

I own pretty much ever AS 3 book in print (plus all the cheatsheets), and they're useful, but none of them is an overall reference to the language. If that's what you want, everyone refers you to the online document. Normally, I would just bite the bullet and give in, but AS is my bread-and-butter. I need a manual I can curl up in bed with.

I'd like to print the whole mother out, take it to Kinkos and have them bind it for me. How?

if (a || (b and (c or d)) and (not e or (f and g and h))) then ???

grumblebee — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:24:44 -0800

Comp Sci: What's the best Design Pattern or structure for dealing with a complex relationship between many booleans? I'm working on an app that has a zillion configuration options. I need to deal with situations in which the user choses Option A and (Option B or Option C) but not (Option D and (Option E or F)). That sort of thing.

Using tons of if/then/else's is clearly wrong. It's totally confusing. The State Pattern seems like the right direction, but unless I misunderstand it, it's too simple. It assumes that an app is in State A, State B or State C. What about apps that are in States A and C? In other words, there are 50 options and any combination of them can be on/off.

What's the best way to manage this?

I'm an Actionscript Programmer, but I'm pretty comfortable translating concepts from C-family languages.

Does anyone know of a book that covers Flash CS3 from the ground up?

jeffmueller — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:16:04 -0800

Does anyone know of a book that covers Flash CS3 from the ground up? I need it all, from beginner stuff to Flex. I'm hoping to find a book that has a general introduction to Flash, a language reference for Actionscript, and a thorough review of Flex. This is asking for a lot. Perhaps what I need is a series of books? I've already visited the O'Reilly site. Their books are responsible for my career as a web developer. But I found their offerings to be either too advanced (they assume you have knowledge of Flash and jump straight into the latest stuff in CS3) or out of date.

Also, if this stuff is covered in detail on a particular website, I would be happy to ditch the dead trees in favor of something digital. So far, all I've found are sites for the seasoned Flash developer, and they're somewhat intimidating (the sites, not the developers).

Thanks, MeFi!

What's the best way to create a large, complex, flexible UML diagram?

grumblebee — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:54:45 -0800

I need to spec out a huge, complex application in UML. I'm looking for good tools/techniques to do this in a fluid situation, where there are a ton of classes and new ones will be added all the time. My team is going to write a gargantuan program. We need to spec it, and I'm expecting we'll spend two or three weeks on the spec, before writing a line of code. It's vital that the finished spec be clear, rational, utilitarian and scalable. I've gotten to that point before, on other projects, but never on one this large. And my way of getting there is to make many drafts of the spec.

During draft stages, I continually refine the spec by adding new classes, removing redundant ones, etc. So the entire UML chart needs to be revised maybe 50 times before it's done.

The only UML tools I've used are graphical-UI ones, where you have to draw little boxes and drag connectors between them. But the thought of doing that on this project makes me queasy. It would mean continually dragging tons of boxes around to make space for new ones.

Here's what I'd like:

-- a way to create the graph via XML or something similar. The XML could be fed into an application that would spit out a diagram.

-- the XML/outline/whatever is easy to modify, in terms of adding new classes, relationships, etc.

-- when done, we could PRINT the whole diagram as a giant chart which we could hang on the wall. I guess it would have to be on many sheets of paper that we'd tape together. But we'd really like to be able to view the entire model at once.

Does such an app exist? If not, I'm very open to analog approaches. Is there a good method of doing something like this with tons of index cards (one for each class) tacked to the wall or something?

I'm sure other teams have faced this problem. How have the solved it?

We're Mac and Linux based, but if the best solution is PC-only, we could go that way via parallels.

If it matters (and I'm not sure why it would), this will be a web app coded in Actionscript 3.0.

Actionscript development on OS X that doesn't suck?

Tlogmer — Mon, 14 May 2007 22:37:34 -0800

I'm developing in Actionscript 3, and I hate (hate, hate, hate) Flex Builder 2. What are some other good options for as3 development on OS X? Right now I've got an ad-hoc system going where I use the "include" statement in a frame inside the flash project (CS3) and just write the code in Textmate. (I ♥ textmate.) But it's a little cumbersome; I'd prefer not to use Flash CS3 at all.

I've tried downloading some guy's actionscript 3 bundle for textmate, but I can't get the compiling to work. (Downloaded the SDK, all that.) I've heard you can develop as3 in XCode, but I don't know exactly how.

how to best use MVC architecture in flex 2

drjimmy11 — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:54:54 -0800

trying to set up MVC (model view controller) architecture for a Flex 2 project myself and a colleague are starting a flex 2 project. we are both new to Flex, and not all that experienced in OOP.

Our question is about components: we have the overall application (the main mxml file) and then other components which are their own mxml files. One is the Controller and one is the DataModel.

From a code point of view, it seems we can only go down: ie, if we put both components in the top level app, we can give them id's and talk "down" to them, but the components cant go "up" and reference a function or variable in the main app.

So the question is, a) is there a way to go "up" and b) is it a good programming practice.

I am currently arguing that the Controller should be called in the Application, and the Data Model called inside the Controller, because the Controller needs access to the data. This way the Application can call Controller functions which access the data and return formatted data to the app. Does this make sense and, if not, how else do we architect it? We initially tried putting both components at the top (application) label, but couldn't get them to talk to each other.

hope that makes sense. thanks!

ActionScript book for an experienced programmer?

whir — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:19:18 -0800

Can someone recommend a good ActionScript book for an experienced programmer? I'm designing an ActionScript API that my work will provide to various Flash authors (generally our creative departments or external agencies) to help them integrate their movies into our web sites, and I'd like to get a book on ActionScript that's aimed at experienced programmers.

I did see this earlier AskMe recommendation for a book for non-coders, but I'd like something a little more technical than that. I've done lots of programming in a variety of languages, and I do already know the basics of ActionScript and Flash.

I guess what I'd like is something that'll give me an idea of some "best practices" type things - how to organize my code, weird traps to look out for in ActionScript, vagaries of the various player versions, etc.

What I don't want is something that will spend a lot of time talking about how a for loop works, foundational OOP, etc, or something that mostly focuses on the authoring side of Flash (animation, sound, graphic design, etc).

Oh, for what it's worth, this will be an ActionScript 2.0 API, since we need to support down to Flash 6. And if anyone has some particularly good websites that deal with these kinds of things, I'd welcome those, too (I've had a lot of trouble sorting the wheat from the chaff when it comes to sites about Flash).

Can Flash play back synced audio clips?

baylink — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:46:41 -0800

Can Flash/ActionScript play multiple audio clips simultaneously, while maintaining sync, over a timespan of, say, 4-7 minutes? Preferably while presenting only one set of playback controls (stop, play, pause, and maybe positioning) to the user? In a previous AskMe, what it turned out I was looking for was a way to use Flash to package up multiple audio clips (and maybe some MIDI) into a single SWF file which people could play online or download.

Weston pointed out MediaRain, which the LDS Church uses for their online hymnal, but the fact that they target music publishers, combined with the fact that they don't quote pricing, suggests that my fledgling chorus can't afford them.

My artistic director would rather we do something of our own, anyway...

From searching after posting the original question, I know we have some people around here who sound like they have some Flash creation experience (paging Grumblebee :-); anyone ever done this?

Secondarily, *can* I bundle all the media files inside the SWF? The portability aspect is just as important as the sync issues, for my target audience.

Passing Variables to Flash with URLs

kirkaracha — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:58:04 -0800

How can I change variables in a Flash movie based a URL parameter? I have some text in my Flash movie, and I want to change it based on a parameter in the URL. For example, if the URL ends with something like ?text=beer, I want the Flash movie to say "beer."

What are the best Actionscript courses in Boston?

Mayor Curley — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:01:02 -0800

Work is paying for a Flash Actionscript class. What are the best ones available in or around Boston, Massachusetts USA? I am Straight Outta Newton and work in Allston, so I would like something in those areas, but I am willing to go anywhere in Metro Boston/city if the course is very good.

Flash 8 / Actionscript 2.0 – How do I draw dynamically in a custom class.

miniape — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 14:51:57 -0800

Flash 8 / Actionscript 2.0 – How do I draw dynamically in a custom class. First, I’m pretty new to Actionscript and I’m getting confused going between tutorials written for different versions.

I’d like to create a class that when instantiated draws a shape on the screen and tracks various properties. In an ordinary .fla file I can do something like:



this.createEmptyMovieClip('mybox',200);

mybox.lineStyle(0,0x00ff00);

mybox.lineTo(50,20);

mybox.lineTo(70,40);

So I’ve got the basics to drawing. So why can’t I do this:



class Thing extends MovieClip{

	function Thing(){

		this.createEmptyMovieClip("mything",200);

		mything.lineTo(50,20);

		mything.lineTo(70,40);

	}

}

And instantiate it from my .fla movie. My understanding is that since Thing extends MovieClip it is a MovieClip, so I should be able to create an empty movie clip inside and then draw in that.

But it isn’t working. Can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong. I assume my problem is at a deeper level than just syntax, et cetera.

Note, I don’t want to create a symbol in the library and attach it. I want to do the whole thing programmatically.

Flash + components + XML

Grod — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:55:27 -0800

Flash 8 code question: I'm trying to figure out how to create an XML driven menu using the accordion component. I want the child names to come from the xml. Each child/segment of the accordion should contain an empty clip. The clip should be populated with buttons, however many are listed in the xml file, and the buttons should load a file (in this case a jpg) into a target movie clip.
I'm not sure I explained that well.
Picture an accordion component on the left side of your screen. Section one is IDENTITY, section two is RECRUITMENT, section three is ANNUAL REPORTS. Each section contains a movie clip. in the IDENTITY section the clip contains three buttons ID1 ID2 ID3. Clicking ID2 loads a jpg into a box on the right side of the screen. The only complicated part of this is that all the information , the labels, the number of segments, the number of buttons in each segment, the location and description of the jpgs, everything is contained in a single XML file so that someone else could come along, open the file, add a PROMOTION section, add five buttons to the section and put five jpgs in a folder and the application will reflect the change.

actionscript help for a non programmer who wants to do it the right way

Grod — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:11:55 -0800

OK. So I have five movie clips on the stage named b1 - b5. When the user clicks on one the other four need to gotoAndPlay. I could write a function for one object then cut and paste and just change the names, but that seems inelegant. What I think I need to do is generate an array containing the five objects, then, when the user clicks on one of them, that one is removed from the array and triggers a function that loops through the remaining clips in the array and does the goto. Does that make sense? And if so, how would I do it? And if not, what is a better way? In other words, user clicks on movie named b1 and b2-b5 do something. user clicks on movie named b3 and b1,b2,b4, and b5 do something. Thanks! OH. One other thing. After the stage is cleared of all but one clip (that's the animation that the goto goes to) the remaining clip must play an animation.

My level of experience ranks slightly below that of chipmunk's, so any example code w/ comments would be greatly appriciated.

Changing the position of a Flash object with external data.

kirkaracha — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:18:00 -0800

How can I change the position of an object in a Flash file with data from an external (XML) file? I need to change the position of an object in my Flash movie based on changes in external data. I have an XML file with the data, and I know how to get the XML into Flash. How do I tell Flash to change the object's position?

Actionscript Problem on how to flip a movie clip

spooksie — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 02:50:35 -0800

Flash Actionscript Problem. _rotation rotates a movie clip how do flip a movie clip (as in mirror image). I have tried _flip, _mirror and looked all over but cannot find the correct syntax. Cheers if you can help

mute bg audio in FLV

grafholic — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:32:40 -0800

anyway to mute background audio in flash video? this is a question for a friend - he has recorded a video but the original video has some background noise that he wants to mute. how do i go about it?

I'm spaced out!

grumblebee — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:10:45 -0800

Programming/geometry: in a Flash program (you don't need to know Flash to answer this), I'm trying to place rectangular images at random positions on the screen. There are already images on the screen. I need to make sure that the new, randomly-placed images don't obscure the images already there. So I've got a rectangular screen and I know its width and height. I also know the x,y coordinates of each image already on that screen. And I know each image's width and height. I also know the dimensions of all the images not yet placed.

New images (and already placed items) are NOT all the same size (different widths & heights). Which makes things difficult.

So lets say I need to place a 100px by 200px image on the stage. I need to somehow generate a list of all the 100x200px (or greater) free areas. Then I just need to randomly pick one of those areas and place the new image in it. That last part's east. It's finding the free space that's confusing me.

Given the info I have (x/y coords, w/h of screen, w/h of images), how do I proceed?
So, before placing a new image