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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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With each release of Flash you gain more and more tools to control and manage your ActionScript. The most powerful tool is the Actions Panel. You can access the Actions Panel by selecting Windows --> Actions, or by pressing F9. The Actions Panel will open in either one of two views.

With Flash MX the Actions Panel was called "Normal." Normal mode was there to help inexperienced developers quickly write ActionScript. There was also an "Experts" view. The Normal view, however, was lacking in that it did help, but not enough. The end result was that you had to always swap over to the Expert mode. With Flash MX 2004 you have only an Expert way of viewing code. You will find that being able to type in the ActionScript code really is the best way to write your code.

You can add ActionScript code to many different places on the stage. The first place you may want to look at is the Timeline.

Create a new movie and select frame 1 of layer 1 on the timeline.
Open the Actions Panel by selecting F9.
In the Actions Panel type the following:
```
trace ("hello, world");
```
Select CTRL+ENTER to test the movie. You will see that when you test the movie the Output Panel will print "hello, world." This is your first ActionScript.

One of the other places where you will be adding a lot of ActionScript is onto Movie Clips. Each and every movie clip you add to the Stage can have a name associated with that clip via the Properties Panel. Through named associations you can now link scripts to your interaction with the Movie Clip. You will see that Components can be linked in much the same way as Movie Clips. This is because a Component is a basically a Movie Clip.

Using the Syntax Checker

My favorite tool is the Syntax Checker. The Syntax Checker is the blue check arrow. After you have written some ActionScript, you can select the syntax checker. It will review your code and see if everything is correct. If the ActionScript is correct then you have a nice window pop up and tell you that your code has no errors. If you do have errors then the Output Panel will open and try to identify the errors you have.

In the following ActionScript there is a deliberate error:

createTextField("txt", 1, 0, 0, 240, 780;
myformat = new TextFormat(;
myformat.color = 0x336633;
myformat.bold = true;
myformat.font = "Verdana";
txt.text = "this is a sample code";
txt.setTextFormat(myformat);

The following comment is posted to the Output Panel to help you debug the code:

Scene=Scene 1, Layer=Layer 1, Frame=1: Line 1: ')' or ',' expected
     createTextField("txt", 1, 0, 0, 240, 780;
Scene=Scene 1, Layer=Layer 1, Frame=1: Line 2: Operator '=' must be followed by an operand
     myformat = new TextFormat(;
Scene=Scene 1, Layer=Layer 1, Frame=1: Line 3: ')' or ',' expected
     myformat.color = 0x336633;

These hints allow you to locate the cause of the problem. Here is the correct ActionScript:

createTextField("txt", 1, 0, 0, 240, 780);
myformat = new TextFormat();
myformat.color = 0x336633;
myformat.bold = true;
myformat.font = "Verdana";
txt.text = "this is a sample code";
txt.setTextFormat(myformat);

I would recommend that you use the Check Syntax button frequently.

Using Code Hints

As mentioned before, unlike previous versions of Flash, the ActionScript editor in Flash MX 2004 does not give you a Normal and Expert way of working with your script. The Normal mode was there to help you out with easy to use tools. The Normal mode has now been replaced with the Behaviors Panel (more on that in a bit).

To help you work more effectively in Expert mode, you can utilize ActionScript Code Hints. A Code Hint will appear as you write ActionScript. In your Actions Panel start typing "my_mc". When you type a period after the variable name a list of all of the methods and properties will appear as a drop down menu. You can then scroll through and select the correct property.

The clue to forcing the Code Hint to appear is the suffix you give your variable. For instance, a movie clip should have the suffix "_mc" to show all of the properties and methods that you can add to movie clip. A suffix of "_txt" will show all of the code hints for a text object. Table 1 is a complete reference to all of the Code Hint suffix’s you can use:

Table 1

Object Type	Variable Suffix
Array	_array
Button	_btn
Camera	_cam
Color	_color
ContextMenu	_cm
ContextMenuItem	_cmi
Date	_date
Error	_err
LoadVars	_lv
LocalConnection	_lc
Microphone	_mic
MovieClip	_mc
MovieClipLoader	_mcl
PrintJob	_pj
NetConnection	_nc
NetStream	_ns
SharedObject	_so
Sound	_sound
String	_str
TextField	_txt
TextFormat	_fmt
Video	_video
XML	_xml
XMLNode	_xmlnode
XMLSocket	_xmlsocket

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