Proportional Scaling external Image to stage

Question

Sounds confusing I know but basically I want to place some images on the stage and I want every image, whether big or small, portrait or landscape, to be scaled to about a quarter of the stage size.
I have tried coding this myself and even tried many suggestions found on the web, but they all seem to do the same thing. The code either sizes every image to be equal in width and varying height, or scale every image to be equal in height with varying width.
Say you have some images all the same size, but some in landscape orientation and some in portrait orientation. Most of the code I found for "proportional scaling" would scale the landscape images okay, but make the portrait images the same height as the others, so they looked alot smaller. Or the reverse was true.
example:
image.width = stage.stageWidth;
image.height = stage.stageHeight;
( image.scaleX < image.scaleY ) ? image.scaleY = image.scaleX : image.scaleX = image.scaleY;
This makes all the images fit on the stage all right, but they all have the same width. reversing the equality amkes all teh heights the same.
If two images did not have the same width before they are scaled down, they should not have the smae width afterwards in my opinion.
Sometimes I get some code that seems to work, then I change the stage size to check it and all the images did not scale to 1/4 of the stage new size when the FLA was run.
I bet this is simple, but I have been working on it too long, y mind is in a knot!

Answer 1

I loaded an array with a Loader and then used a random a variable to pick from the array using a variable that has the length of the array in it: here is the code, but the cut and paste does not wok that well.
import com.greensock.TweenLite;
var XMLURLLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
XMLURLLoader.load(new URLRequest("link to picasa photo rss feed"));
XMLURLLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, processXML);
var media:Namespace=new Namespace("http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"); imagesArray:Array = new Array();
var imagesDateUploaded:Array = new Array();//The title properties of the XML File
//var imagesWidth:Array = new Array();
//var imagesHeight:Array = new Array();
var imagesLength:uint;
var imagesLoadedCount:int=0;//A counter, counts the images loaded
var formatFont:Myriad = new Myriad();//This is the embedded font 
var textformat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();//A TextFormat Object
textformat.color=0xFFFFFF;
textformat.font=formatFont.fontName;
textformat.size=80;//Use the same size you used when embedding the font from the Library 
var
function processXML(event:Event):void {
var XMLdata:XML=new XML(XMLURLLoader.data);
imagesLength=XMLdata.channel.item.length();
for (var i:uint=0; i < imagesLength; i++) {
  var loader:Loader = new Loader();
  loader.load(new URLRequest(String(XMLdata.channel.item[i].enclosure.@url)));
  imagesArray.push(loader);
  var imageDate:String=XMLdata.channel.item[i].pubDate.substr(6,10);
  imagesDateUploaded.push(imageDate);
  loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, imagesLoaded);//A listener to the function that will be executed when an image is loaded
function imagesLoaded(event:Event):void {
imagesLoadedCount++;//Adds one to the imagesLoaded variable
if (imagesLength==imagesLoadedCount) {//When all images are loaded
  prepareImages();//This function is explained in the next step  
  var maxSize:Number=stage.stageWidth/2;
function prepareImages():void {
//These actions will be applied to all the images loaded so we use a "for" and the "images" array to do that
var i:uint = Math.floor(Math.random()*imagesLength);
trace(i);
  var container:Sprite = new Sprite();//A container that will store the image, frame, TextField, TextField background and shadow
  var frame:Sprite = new Sprite();//The Frame Sprite
  var infoArea:Sprite = new Sprite();//The TextField background
  var infoField:TextField = new TextField();//The TextField
  //build the frames
  frame.graphics.beginFill(0xFFFFFF);
  frame.graphics.drawRect(-20, -20, imagesArray[i].width + 40, imagesArray[i].height + 40);
  frame.graphics.endFill();
  //creates a black rectangle in the bottom part of the image, where the TextField will be.
  infoArea.graphics.beginFill(0x111111, 0.5);//.5 is alpha
  infoArea.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, imagesArray[i].width, 100);//100 = height 
  infoArea.graphics.endFill();
  infoArea.y=imagesArray[i].height-100;
  //The following code sets the TextField properties and adds its contents
  infoField.defaultTextFormat=textformat;
  infoField.embedFonts=true;//You have to add this to use the embedded font  
  infoField.antiAliasType=AntiAliasType.ADVANCED;//This property will display the text more clearly
  infoField.width=imagesArray[i].width-5;
  infoField.height=100;
  infoField.text=imagesDateUploaded[i];//The content, obtained from the XML and stored in the Array
  //The images will have a random position based on the center of the Stage area. We use Math for that.
  //add a shadow filter
  //Distance, angle, color, alpha, blur, strength, quality
  var shadowFilter:BitmapFilter=new DropShadowFilter(3,90,0x252525,1,2,2,1,15);
  var filterArray:Array=[shadowFilter];
  container.filters=filterArray;//Apply the filter
  //adding children to container
  infoArea.addChild(infoField);//Adds the TextField to the TextField Background  
  container.addChild(frame);//Adds the Frame to the Container
var bd:BitmapData= new BitmapData(imagesArray[i].width, imagesArray[i].height);
var bmp:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bd);
bd.draw(imagesArray[i]);
container.addChild(bmp);
// using the loader from the array directly was causing problems like only showing once.
//  container.addChild(imagesArray[i]);//Adds the Image on top of the Frame in the Container  
  infoArea.visible=true;//We set the image information to invisible by default  
  container.addChild(infoArea);//Adds the information area in top of everything
  //resize the images to no more than 1/2 the image width or height compared to stage
  if (container.width>container.height) {// horizontal asset
   container.width=maxSize;
   container.scaleY=container.scaleX;
  } else {// vertical asset
   container.height=maxSize;
   container.scaleX=container.scaleY;
  container.x = Math.floor(Math.random()*(1+stage.stageWidth - container.width-20))+20;
  container.y = Math.floor(Math.random()*(1+stage.stageHeight - container.height-20))+20;
  //the  plus and minus 20 keeps the image in the stage boundary. something wrong with the container width calculations
  this.addChild(container);//Lastly, we add the Container to the Stage
  container.alpha = 0;
TweenLite.to(container,1,{alpha:1});
  trace("Just added child");
var timer:Timer = new Timer(5000,1);
timer.addEventListener (TimerEvent.TIMER, initTimer);
timer.start();
function initTimer(event:TimerEvent):void{
trace("Timer started");
prepareImages();
timer.reset()