Where do I find anm experienced Action Scripted fast?

Question

Hi,
I have a Flash presentation which needs completed. Basically,
all of the buttons need programmed and as a newbie who is running
out of time to learn, I need some help.
First, I'd like to know where you find people who can do this
(here?)
Secondly, how long it would take to programme approx 875
buttons (many of which are repetitions (e.g home button, help
button, exit button appearing on every screen). There are
approximately 109 screens which need to be linked.
Thirdly, what would be a realistic price to expect to pay for
someone to do this? It is a non-profitmaking project for a
voluntary organisation.
Thanks

Answer 1

nicknamesaretaken,
> I think I see what the problem is, but still struggling
to
> get it to work.
Okay.
> I now have:
>
> stop(); {
> on (release)
> this.gotoAndPlay("CS1"); // this is the correct code.
> }
Okay, the on() event handler may not belong here. The on()
and
onClipEvent() functions are an older (Flash 5 era) way to
handle events in
ActionScript. They're still available in Flash 8, and they
work just fine,
even in AS2, but these are applied *directly to* the object
in question; as
in, you click your button to select it, then type into the
Actions panel
while the button is selected. In such a case, no instance
name is needed
for the button (or whatever object). The above code would
have to be
attached to each button -- which really gets old with a large
number of
buttons -- and the stop(); action would have ben appear
inside the on()
function.
Your earlier approach -- where you referenced the button's
instance name
and assign a function to the Button.onRelease event -- is the
recommended
best practice, and has been available since Flash MX (aka
Flash 6). There's
nothing about your earlier code that shouldn't have worked --
it's just you
*might* have been experiencing the Scenes-related bug I
mentioned.
I would change your previous code as follows:
// in a frame script ...
stop();
skipintro_btn.onRelease = function() {
this._parent.gotoAndStop("frame label here");
That stops the timeline in which this ActionScript appears.
Then it
assigns a function literal to the Button.onRelease event of
the button
symbol whose instance name is skipintro_btn (if that object
is actually a
movie clip, then it assigns a function literal to the
MovieClip.onRelease
event of that instance -- funtionally the same thing). Then
it refers to
the parent of this object, which is the timeline in which the
object
appears, and tells that timeline to gotoAndStop() at the
named frame label
you provide -- even if that frame label is in another scene.
Make sense?
> Are there any good Action Script books you could
> recommend?
There are quite a few good ones on the market lately, but
the last I can
think of that I enjoyed -- from a general programming
standpoint -- is
Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8 (Friends of ED), by
Peter Elst and
Todd Yard.
> I'm also a bit worried about bug comment. Does it mean
> that I will have difficulty playing this project in
Flash Player
> 9 as it's not written in Action Script 3.0?
You shouldn't have any problems. As long as you use the
frame labels
approach and avoid Scene names, Flash Player 9 will run it
the same as older
Players. Flash Player 9 is the first to feature *two* virtual
machines for
ActionScript. One is the overhauled AS3-lovin' machine; the
other maintains
backward compatability for AS1 and AS2.
> If so, that's a big problem isn't it as people will need
to
> download older versions of Flash Player to view it - or
> I'll need to include older version on the disc.
Right, but you don't have to worry about that. :) The Scenes
issue is
an old one, and it is a big problem, but at least the
workaround is easy
(frame labels).
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."