Communicating with embedded swfs

Question

So if I have several external swfs embedded in one big one, in what way can I communicate between them?
Specifically,
-the main swf needs to know when buttons have been pressed in an embedded one, and it needs to tell all the other embedded ones about it.
-the embedded swfs need to intelligently resize and shuffle around each other, while keeping their coordinate origins in the top corner.
How do I go about this?

Answer 1

As long as by "embedded" you mean you load the swf files into thee main file dynamically, then there is hope for whatever you have planned.  If by embedded you mean you import them into the library and plant them in the main file's timeline, that won't work.
The event listener(s) and event handler function(s) are coded into the main swf.  The loaded swf's are coded to displatch the events that the main file has listeners for.  So the loaded swf's simply shout out when they will, not caring who hears it... which allows them to compile without dependence on the main file.
So in the loaded movie, whatever triggers the need to call the main file into action would dispatch an event as follows...
dispatchEvent(new Event("eventName")); // name the event as you like
To add the listener in your main swf, listen for the load complete event on the Loader.contentLoaderInfo that is used to load the file.  In the complete event handler, add the listener for the event on the loaded swf.
function loaderCompleteHandler(e:Event) {
   MovieClip(e.currentTarget.content).addEventListener("eventName", eventHandler);
function eventHandler(event:Event):void {
    trace("loaded swf event triggered");