Dynamic text Underline Links

Question

I have created a RSS feed viewer, parsing the RSS feed with
actionscript 3.0 and viewed on the stage in dynamic text boxes. The
text in these dynamic boxes is scripted to link to web addresses
contained in the RSS feeds in the same node as the text being
displayed. So far so good. Now I need the text in these boxes to
act as if they were HTML links and show an underline and color
change when rolled over and clicked on. Help. Attached is my code.

Answer 1

The trick with the help files is to realize that everything
is organized by classes. So if you want to do something with
text...
Open the help files and select the ActionScript 3.0 drop
down. Then from that list Expand the Actionscript 3.0 language
reference and the All Classes section. Next scroll down to the "T"
section and start looking.
The ones that seem interesting to me for what you were
looking for are TextField and TextFormat. Even if you don't know
exactly what you need those seem like they would have something to
do with text and how it looks.
Then start looking through the entries for each of those
sections. Everything that can be done with text is in there. So
after looking at TextField I didn't see anything about making an
underline or even how to change the color. But I did see a method
called setTextFormat()
So next I check out the documentation on the TextFormat class
and sure enough there is an underline property.
Great, so by this point I've figured out how to make some
TextFormats and then use the setTextFormat() method to apply them.
So next you've got to figure out how to apply the different formats
when I want them.
Things that happen at certain times are events, so anything
that you want to happen now, not then -- or I suppose then, not
now! -- will require an event. So again it is something about
events. So I'll go back to the textfield class and see what kind of
events there are. At first glance you might think that TextFields
only have 4 events -- change, link, scroll, textInput -- and that
none of them seem to be what you would want. Now this is the tricky
part...
At the top of the events section in the documentation there
is a little arrow for "Show inherited events." So going down that
list you will find that TextFields get a lot of events from
inheritance. Sure enough reading down the list I see mouseOver and
(this is important) finishing the list I also see a rollOver. They
both seem promising. Always read the entire list. There are many
times when there are two similar things and if you stop at the
first you might miss out.
Anyways, I hope that this helps you see how the process can
work. The Flash help files are actually pretty awesome and helpful,
but you have to know how to work them. You will very seldom find
the answer by searching or find a fully formed answer to your
specific needs.
Break it down into the classes you think you might need. Then
look for the properties, methods, and events you might need. Most
of them have fairly straight forward names the should suggest what
they might be for. And then follow the hyper links to related
classes than their methods, properties, and events.
PS: I just noticed your second problem. So do the same thing.
So notice that if you look through the TextField class there isn't
anything that lets you chop a string or cut it up or anything. But
notice the text property of the TextField class. That is what shows
in a textfield. And notice that it takes a String.
If you didn't know it a String is some text. You would never
find the String class if you didn't know that techy word, but by
noticing how often it is mentioned in the TextField class you could
get there.
So next look at the String class. What methods and properties
do you need for what you want to do?
The length property might tell you when a String is too long.
And the methods substr() and substring() seem promising to
cut up part of a String.
Finally adding an ellipsis at the end might be hard to figure
out if you don't know the trick. Fortunately you only need to read
the methods to the "c" or concat(). Fancy talk for putting strings
together. Always read the entry to the end. There you will see a
link for "See Also Concatenating Strings." That will show you that
you can easily use a plus sign to add strings together -- just like
addition.