Actionscript and RS-232

I'm working on a project that incorporates a touchscreen
interface and traditional monitor in a Kiosk. The touchscreen is
the product and can interpret and send out RS-232 commands. The
idea is for a user to select an option from the small touchscreen
and then view a flash presentation on a larger monitor above. The
monitor will be, obviously, attached to a desktop computer running
the Flash project.
My question is, has anyone ever worked on something like
this? Does anyone know of a script or software that can interpret
the RS-232 command to a keystroke that can then be sent to Flash to
execute?
Thanks in advance for anyone's input.

Director does need an Xtra, but there are a few for serial
communications.
You might google on Director serial xtra to find more than
the one. The
Serial Xtra should do what you need and is only $75... That's
avail at
MediaMacros:
http://www.mediamacros.com
You should also check the mile high table o'products at:
http://www.updatestage.com/MileHighTableOProducts/products.html
Dave -
Head Developer
http://www.blurredistinction.com
Adobe Community Expert
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/

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Explicity mapping between ActionScript and Java objects for the BlazeDS Messaging Service

The BlazeDS documentation shows how to explicitly map between ActionScript and Java objects. For example, this works fine for RPC services, e.g.
import flash.utils.IExternalizable;
import flash.utils.IDataInput;
import flash.utils.IDataOutput;
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="javaclass.User")]
public class User implements IExternalizable {
        public var id : String;
        public var secret : String;
        public function User() {
        public function readExternal(input : IDataInput) : void {
                id = input.readObject() as String;
        public function writeExternal(output : IDataOutput) : void {
                output.writeObject(id);
and
import java.io.Externalizable;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectInput;
import java.io.ObjectOutput;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Set;
public class User implements Externalizable {
    protected String id;
    protected String secret;
    public String getId() {
        return id;
    public void setId(String id) {
        this.id = id;
    public String getSecret() {
        return secret;
    public void setSecret(String secret) {
        this.secret = secret;
    public void readExternal(ObjectInput in) throws IOException,
                ClassNotFoundException {
        id = (String) in.readObject();
    public void writeExternal(ObjectOutput out) throws IOException {
        out.writeObject(id);
If I called an RPC service that returns a User, the secret is not sent over the wire. Is it also possible to do this for the messaging service? That is, if I create a custom messaging adapter and use the function below, can I also prevent secret from being sent?
MessageBroker messageBroker = MessageBroker.getMessageBroker(null);
AsyncMessage message = new AsyncMessage();
message.setDestination("MyMessagingService");
message.setClientId(UUIDUtils.createUUID());
message.setMessageId(UUIDUtils.createUUID());
User user = new User();
user.setId("id");
user.setSecret("secret");
message.setBody(user);
messageBroker.routeMessageToService(message, null);

Hi Martin. The way that AMF serialization/deserialization works for BlazeDS is the same regardless of which service is being used, so yes that code will work for messaging as well. On the server, the serialization/deserialization of messages happens at the endpoint. For an incoming message for example, the endpoint deserializes the message and then hands it off to the MessageBroker which decides which service/destination to deliver the message to.
That was a good question. Thanks for asking it. Lots of people are used to doing custom serialization/deserialization with the RPC services (RemoteObject/RemotingService) but I'm not sure everyone realizes they can do this for messaging as well.
-Alex

ActionScript and MXML highlightubg

I'm a low vision guy, I can't use flex builder because I need
to change default editor colors (actionscript and mxml editors).
In others IDEs normally i change background and foreground
colors to "white over black".
Help, please

found a solution for you
in your eclipse instlation
go to \plugins\com.adobe.flexbuilder.editors.common_xxxxx\
directory
P.S xxxx means some numbers it might be different on your
machin .
unzip common.jar file
then go into
common\com\adobe\flexbuilder\editors\common\color directory
edit Colors.xml to your prefferences (it has hex values for
colors , its pretty self descriptive) and after you finish editing
put that back into the jar or re-jar that whole directory .

XMII and RS-232 communication

As most of us are aware xMII does not support RS-232 communication. Recently some customers have come up with requirements of interfacing weigh scales to SAP.
Most of these weigh scales have only the RS-232 interfacing option. (I am not sure if these could be OPC compliant as well.. Some higher and expensive ones come with a software version which I guess can be configured to write a file or some come even with a Database Option.)
With xMII 12 would it be possible, lets say, to write a custom action 'RS-232 Listner' which could allow this to happen?
What are SAP's thoughts on this?

Yes, this is a common request. I think in part because sometimes customers get the impression that xMII can do this from the "sales force" and can do it "easily".
We had some luck with this in the past.
Sometimes what we have seen in the past, is that the rs-232 devices have a transmit or send button that sends a signal back to a pc that the device is attached to. If you use an application like WinWedge that takes the signal from the device and decodes it to text, it can be used to get the information. WinWedge typically comes with handheld USB or Serial barcode scanners. It's main purpose is to take the signal from the device and "pop" it into the active window's cursor location. So if you scan a barcode with Word open and active, the barcode scanner sends the signal to WinWedge on the PC, WinWedge translates the signal to text and throws in at the cursor location.
If your cursor is in an HTML form input box, and you can capture the data as descibed above, now you can use the data via Javascript and pass it to an applet on the page.

Actionscript and HBox padding

How do you set the padding values of an HBox in Actionscript?
Can somebody explain why components have certain properties
when using MXML and different properties when using Actionscript?
This is does not make sense to me.
For example when using an HBox in MXML it has paddingTop,
paddingRight, paddingBottom, paddingRight properties. But if you
create a HBox in Actionscript those propertes are no where to be
found.
Am I missing something here?

These properties are style properties.
You have to use setStyle method :
hbox.setStyle( "paddingTop", 10 ) ;

Basic question about Actionscript and symbols

I like the object oriented features of actionscript (2.0).
One thing confuses me tho, namely the combination of symbol classes
and constructors. Since symbols can't be instanciated by new
SomeMovie(...), but rather has to be created with attachMovie(), it
seems to me that there is no use of constructors for symbols.
Instead you have to send an init object in the attachMovie() call.
This seems to me to be lacking in logic. It would be much more
logical if you could do:
var m = new MyMovie(constructor arguments...);
destinationClip.attachMovie(m);
Am I correct that this way of doing it is not possible in
current actionscript?
And second, don't you agree this would be a more consistent
use of the actionscript language?

First, I just wanna thank u for replying. I still have some
follow up questions that I think are of interest:
About the first issue of constructors u say they
automatically gets called. But isn't it true that only a
constructor that takes no arguments can be automatically called?
Because, how could a constructor call with arguments MyMovie(x, y,
size, etc), be automatically called? My point is, that it would be
more neat to send the parameters thru the constructor, than thru an
init object. Also, I wonder why u think constructors are error
prone. Maybe they are error prone exactly because
Flash/actionscript invites to an inconsistent way of initializing
MovieClips and other object instances?
Second, u say that attaching a class to a MovieClip should be
avoided unless all or most of the functionality of the MovieClip
Class is needed. I usually attach a class a MovieClip that needs
some code to describe its behaviour. In practice, I think the only
essential method that I need from MovieClip is the onEnterFrame().
Are you suggesting that it would be better to skip onEnterFrame in
individual objects, and rather loop over some array to make all
objects get their command to do their thing? I thought the good
thing about onEnterFrame was that I could avoid having to traverse
arrays of objects, and instead let Flash itself call all objects
that need to be updated each frame.
Third, I would like to repeat the benefit of not having to
create variable names as attachMovie requires. For instance, assume
alot of clips are being attached to the same containing clip. Now u
have to make sure that all attached clips get different variable
names, or strange things will happen. But if attachMovie just took
a reference to a clip as parameter u would avoid that problem.
If u know some document that discusses these issues, i would
be happy if anyone had a link to it. My suggestion to the Flash
developers is to make MovieClip objects consistent with ordinary
objects.

Question about get web service result in actionscript and convert data format

Hi, All
I have question about how to get dataset from web services
and put it in tree structure. I have 2 questions about this:
1, How can I get data correctly in actionscript?
I have no problem to get data by
<mx:ArrayCollection id="acFolder"
source="{mx.utils.ArrayUtil.toArray(MyGServices.getFolder.lastResult)}"
/>
And display in datagrid.
But when I try to use
public function
handleFolderContents(event:mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent):void{
arData=mx.utils.ArrayUtil.toArray(event.result);
acData=new ArrayCollection(arData);
input.text=acData.getItemAt(0).id;
Seems I can’t get data, it always say:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of
a null object reference.
2, how to convert data format
I get data from web service and want to convert it to tree
structure, as mention below:
I get:
<Array>
<id>111</id>
<Name>Production1</Name>
</Array>
<Array>
<id>222</id>
<Name>Production2</Name>
</Array>
Convert to:
<mx:XMLList id="treeData">
<node>
<node label="Production1" data="111">
<node label="Production2" data="222"/>
</node>
</node>
</mx:XMLList>
Please help me.
Thanks.

First, don't specify the package path in the argument
declaration. Instead import the event object:
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
The docs state this emphatically.
Second, try "lastResult", in place of "result":
arData=mx.utils.ArrayUtil.toArray(event.lastResult); // I am
not positive about this. I maybe recall reading that result was ok
for the event object, but maybe not.
Finally, why do you want to convert the xml? You certainly
could, but it would be a manual process, recursively reading the
existing xml nodes and building the new structure, but again, why?
Just use a labelFunction if necessary to display the nodes as
you wish.
Tracy

Actionscript and Action panel?

From what I understand, ActionScript (.as files) and Action Panel (F9 embedded in Flash) are completely different. If so, which one is better used for game programming and which one is more powerful? Can ActionScript do everything that the Actions Panel can do?
Thank you!

they're different but not completely different.
actionscript code can be placed in the action panel or it can be in stand-alone .as files. there's no difference in the code used in an .as file vs code in the action panel.
and i'm not sure powerful is the right word, but code in stand-alone .as files can do everything code in the action panel can do but not vice-versa: you can create classes in .as files and you can't do that in the action panel.

Using ActionScript and FABridge to call JavaScript

Hi,
I understand how to use FABridge to register JavaScript
functions as event listeners on Flex
components. In my case, however, I want to programatically
call a function that I've passed
from JavaScript to my Flex app using ActionScript. Simply
calling the function from AS, e.g.,
my_js_function(), doesn't work and I suspect there's some
vital FABridge proxy magic I should
be using. All the FABridge examples I've seen cover the same
ground: basic bridge set-up,
changing Flex properties, registering JavaScript callbacks,
etc. Can anyone point me to an
example (or bridge documentation) showing how to program an
ActionScript call to a JavaScript
function through the bridge?
Thanks, Garry

Hi,
Have you tried using ExternalInterface? Does that fail as
well (it should be supported on Safar 1.0.3)

Getters and Setters in ActionScript and ECMAScript

Hi ,
This line is taken from a book , here the Author mentions that
In ActionScript , getters and setters is not necessary , they are a part of of the core ECMAScript language.
Can anybody please let me know what is meant by ECMAScript language ??
Thanks in advance .

ECMAScript is an ECMA standard.
Getters and setters are not mandatory (that's what they mean).
However, they can be useful in many cases.
- You can check the value in a setter before assigning (e.g checking if it's null)
- You cannot override properties of a superclass but you can getters/setters just as you can methods
- You can take some action when the value of the property is changed. There are many examples in UIComponent classes of the Flex framework.
- You can put a breakpoint in a setter in order to debug data binding (see if it triggers)
- In order to optimize data binding, you can write [Bindable event="YourCustomEventNameHere")] before the getter/setter and dispatch this event when the value is set so as to enhance performance of data binding (if you just write [Bindable], your properties will be processed by the framework even if their value does not change).
Also, note how the synthax is different than Java.
// ActionScript
private var _myProperty:uint;
public function get myProperty():uint
return _myProperty;
public function set myProperty(value:uint):void
_myProperty = value;
// Java
private Integer myProperty;
public Integer getMyProperty():
return myProperty;
public void setMyProperty(value:Integer):
myProperty = value;
Avoid creating getters/setters a la Java in ActionScript (i.e not using the get/set keywords). This is something I have seen in some implementations or auto-generated code from UML.

ActionScript and decompilation

Is there any ActionScript script that can avoid your swf
being decompiled?
What are my further possibilities for protecting my file?
Rgds

flashlearning11,
> Is there any ActionScript script that can avoid your
> swf being decompiled?
Well, the trick there is, if someone can decompile your SWF,
then they
can get past whatever ActionScript makes an attempt to
protect the
*operative* ActionScript. ;)
> What are my further possibilities for protecting my
file?
> Rgds
You could obfuscate your code, so that it's a bit harder to
figure out
if it does get decompiled, but that doesn't put the brakes on
anything. You
could code things in purposefully goose-chase ways, but that
only makes it
harder to maintain. Why give yourself the headache?
Yes, there are SWF decompilers on the market, but there are
also Java
decompilers, and .NET decompilers that convert EXEs and DLLs
back into C#,
C++, and so on.
That makes SWFs about as easy to decompile as binaries
produced by other
platforms. If someone wants your stuff, your stuff can be
had. That's why
End User License Agreements are written. ;)
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."

Flash CS3 ActionScript and "Test Movie" on Mac

I recently switched over to a PowerMac and Flash CS3 from
Flash 8 on a PC.
I've been on a PC forever but wanted to migrate over to the
Mac as XP and Vista and the headaches we all know about.
So, within Flash you can "Test Movie" and a little test
window pops up displaying your swf.
It has always been the case on the PC, and my friends with
Flash 8 on the Mac tell me it's the same for them, that you can be
writing in the Actions panel and then hit "Control/Apple - Enter"
and the ActionScript actions you just typed will be reflected in
the "Test Movie" pop up. In other words it the "Test Movie" window
acts as a constantly updated reflection of the latest edit to your
Flash piece, regardless of whether you've "Saved" the .fla document
itself.
This is part of the normal work flow to me. Write some
actions, edit them, when they are right, I save. But in the
meantime, as I'm writing I can keep hitting "Control/Apple - Enter"
to watch the changes of my edits and I'll see them.
Well, on my new Mac with Flash CS3, the "Test Movie" window
never updates to the latest edit. Whether with hot-keys or with the
cursor/menu selection, the window will not reflect the latest edit,
UNLESS, I close it first. If I close it, and then hit the
hot-keys/menu for "Test Movie" then it will load my latest edit
(regardless of whether the .fla is saved). So it seems that closing
the pop up "Test Movie" window prior to is the only way to ensure
getting the current edit/actions to preview.
If you write a lot of actions script, then I'm sure you can
agree that adding that "close the window" step into your work flow
is really really a headache. And, if I can't find a way around
that, sadly, I'll have to migrate back to the PC, ugh, and Flash
CS3 on it, which still acts as it always has, with "control-enter"
faithfully launching the current edit.
Any ideas? Have you experienced this.

You have to switch the focus back to the application and then
to the test window. Evidently between Flash MX04 (the one I have to
test) and CS3, they made it so that just clicking in the AS editor
window doesn't return the focus to the application. In that case
the Testing Environment intercepts the apple-enter and just
re-tests the already compiled version.
If you click the application window, then click the
actionscript window, it will recompile the swf. However I
personally don't find apple-w to close the window so
onerous.

Trying to call a function from a variable in Flex 4.0 ActionScript and need some suggestions

I am attempting to build a site map in Flex. I have my links (or will have) in a database, along with a "link." On click from a datagrid, I have an event handler where I can get the link. However, everything I have tried to use won't call the function. Ideally, I would like to call a function from from my topLevel application, and I can do that using the mx.core.FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication call. Can anyone point a fairly new Flex coder in the right direction? Thank you.

Here is the function on the group component (simplified): -- I got this from one of my google searches. The other was using the SWFLoader, but since this is in the same application, I didn't think it was as relevant. Plus, the SWFLoader used some references that I couldn't resolve.
private function site_click(event:ListEvent):void {
var sURL:String=list.dataProvider[event.rowIndex].link;
var sCommand:String="mx.core.FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication." + sURL;
this.[sCommand]();
This yields the error message ReferenceError: Error #1059: Property mx.core.FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.myths_click() not found on sitemap and there is no default value.
Whereas this works fine:
mx.core.FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.myths_click();
sitemap is my component name.

Help on ActionScript and Flash

hi all
how to do like the picture above? when i click on the picture it will show the detail of the movie.
When i click on either the left picture or the right picture i will switch to the middle and the middle picture will move to the left picture whereas the right pic will been other movie.
How do i do that?
is there any example or reference for that?
Thanks in advance

use google to search for photo galleries. you'll need to learn some basic techniques.

Charting using ActionScript and chart height,width and axis labels

hello, i am creating charts using action script but can't
seem to do 2 things right now. 1. put labels on the axisis. 2. i
can't set the height/width to 100%. does anyone know how?...below
is the function i use to create the charts
public var myChart:BarChart;
public var series1:BarSeries;
public var legend1:Legend;
private function addGraph():void {
// Create the chart object and set some
// basic properties.
myChart = new BarChart();
myChart.showDataTips = true;
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vAxis.categoryField = yAxis;
vAxis.dataProvider = feedRequest.lastResult.root.data;
myChart.verticalAxis = vAxis;
myChart.width=100;
myChart.height=100;
var la = new LinearAxis;
// Add the series.
var mySeries:Array=new Array();
series1 = new BarSeries();
series1.xField=xAxis;
series1.yField=yAxis;
series1.displayName = xAxis;
mySeries.push(series1);
myChart.series = mySeries;
// Create a legend.
legend1 = new Legend();
legend1.dataProvider = myChart;
// Attach chart and legend to the display list.
chartWindow.addChild(myChart);
chartWindow.visible=true;
}

use the percentWidth and percentHeight properties.

Actionscript and RS-232

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