Accessing instance variables from container

Question

I am new to Flash. I am a programmer, not a designer so this
is my first foray into Actionscript.
I am creating a slide show player in Flash. It retrieves an
XML file containing other .swf files that should be played, the
order in which they should be played, the length of time each one
should show, and the text that should be displayed.
For example:
<presentation>
<globals>
<setting name="use_transitions" value="false"/>
<setting name="use_delays" value="false"/>
</globals>
<slide src="slide5.swf" text="Slide 1" delay="10"/>
<slide src="slide3.swf" text="Slide 2" delay="10"/>
</presentation>
I have everything working except for the loaded .swf file
picking up on the text to display.
I can set the Var: property on the dynamic text field to
_root.dynamic_text and it will load what is in the variable
dynamic_text just fine.
However, the slide3.swf and slide5.swf file have default text
in them that should who if there is no text specified.
It seems that variables inside a loaded movie are not in
scope.
I load the movie using:
loadMovie(slides[nIndex][0], "slideMovie");
However if my instance name on my dynamic text field is
"theText" this code does not work:
this.slideMovie.theText.text = dynamic_text;
How do I dereference the dynamic text field?
Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

quote:
Originally posted by:
abeall
I didn't really follow your set up.
> this.slideMovie.theText.text = dynamic_text;
Where is that code placed? Where is theText? Where is
dynamic_text defined, or what is it? _txt usually signifies a
TextField instance, but if that was the case then the statement
would not do anything. Are you trying to access objects in the
external slide SWF before it has been loaded and initialized?
I'm sorry that I wasn't clear enough.
Maybe this will help.
============== Begin Code ==============
slide3.swf
========
_root
layer |------> Instance of Graphic Symbol
-----------------------> Dynamic Text Object named
'theText'
layer |------> Instance of Graphic Symbol
-----------------------> JPEG Graphic Background
layer |------> Actionscript Layer
slide_show engine.swf
==================
_root
layer |------> Movie Clip Object named 'slideMovie'
layer |------> Actionscript Layer
Actionscript code snippet:
/* This becomes a two dimentional array of slides.
* slides[index][0] is the .swf file to load.
* slides[index][1] is the transistion to load. (Not
currently used.)
* slides[index][2] is the delay to wait (in seconds) until
the next slide shows.
* slides[index][3] is the customized text to show the loaded
slide. If blank show the default text.
var slides = new Array();
var dynamic_text;
var nIndex = 0;
var main:Object = new Object();
main.switch_slides = function()
if (nInterval != -1)
clearInterval(nInterval);
if (nIndex >= slides.length)
return;
_root.dynamic_text = slides[nIndex][3];
loadMovie(slides[nIndex][0], "slideMovie");
this.slideMovie.theText.text = _root.dynamic_text;
nInterval = setInterval(main, "switch_slides",
(slides[nIndex++][2] * 1000));
// Code to load and parse the configuration file deleted for
brevity.
============== End Code ==============
The slides are made by our designer. Most of which animate
the background image and then fade in the text.
The text object usually does not exist in the first key
frame. So my workaround is probably the only way this can be done.
The workaround needs to go in every slide's actionscript
layer on the first key frame.
The only real problem I have with it is that I need to put
the default text in the actionscript. Putting a Var reference in
the dynamic text will remove the text there if the variable is
empty.
However trying to dynamically create the var reference does
not seem to work. For example:
In the slide3.swf file if I have the following code on the
actionscript layer, the var reference in the dynamic text does not
get pulled in properly:
if (_root.dynamic_text)
this.dynamic_text = _root.dynamic_text;
I need to put the var reference at the top with the default
text. For example:
var dynamic_text = "default text";
if (_root.dynamic_text)
this.dynamic_text = _root.dynamic_text;