Basic class structure

Question

I've managed to create several applications in AS 3 without
ever going face to face with packages and classes. I know that
seems hard to believe, but anyway-- now I want to use something in
the corelib and can't figure where I'm supposed to put these files
I've downloaded. I know this is sub basic but would appreciate
help.

Answer 1

funonmars,
> Hi David, Thanks for your help.
Sure thing!
> I tried to implement your class structure, then gave it
a rest, then tried
> again today to no avail. Here's a
>
http://henryjones.us/articles/using-the-as3-jpeg-encoder
to the
> JPGencoder demo that got me interested,
Gotcha. Yes, that link helps. I ran through the tutorial
(it's
surprisingly quick!) and met with success. There are various
ways it
*could* be done -- classpath preferences are flexible -- but
here's what I
did.
In the tutorial, just beneath the "First Things First"
heading, Henry
writes:
"Once you have the library, just drop it into your classes
folder and you
are ready to go. Now we can import the JPGEncoder."
The phrase that's open to interpretation is "your classes
folder." For
my development workflow, just personal preference, I keep
third party AS2
and AS3 classes in these folders:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My
Projects\ActionScript
2.0 Classes
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My
Projects\ActionScript
3.0 Classes
These corelib classes are written in AS3, so I put them into
my
ActionScript 3.0 Classes folder. Specifically, I visited the
Google Code
repository linked from Henry's site:
http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/.
I downloaded corelib-.90.zip and extracted its contents to my
desktop (this
created a folder called corelib-.90 on my desktop). Inside
that folder, I
found a src subfolder. I assumed that meant "source," so I
opened it -- and
sure enough, there was the expected com folder. Inside that
com folder was
an adobe folder, and so on. The JPGEncoder class was
ultimately in this
folder structure: com\adobe\images\JPGEncoder.
I already had a number of third party AS3 classes in my
ActionScript 3.0
Classes folder. Of those, some are located inside a root
folder named net,
some in edu, and some in com. My com folder already had a
number of
subfolders inside it, but not yet adobe; so I dragged the
adobe folder
(along with all of its subfolders) from the corelib-.90
folder on my desktop
into my ActionScript 3.0 Classes\com folder.
From the standpoint of ActionScript 3.0 Classes, then, I had
a
com\adobe\images folder structure that led to the class file
in question.
Here's the relevant classpath setting in my Flash
preferences:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My
Projects\ActionScript
3.0 Classes
Based on that classpath setting, here's my import statement:
import com.adobe.images.JPGEncoder;
I can see now, in my previous email, that I accidentally
misled you with
a suggestion for the wrong import path (apologies on that! I
misread your
folder structure). In short, the import path needs to match
the folder
structure of the class files themselves -- from the starting
point of their
parent-most (aka root) folder.
I hope that clears it up!
> Your book arrived today, so maybe that will help me make
> sense of it.
Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers is a FLA-centric book, so
it may not
help you especially with external class files -- but I
certainly hope you
get good use out of it! :) Tom and I tried to cover a broad
range of
topics.
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."