Passing a variable from a movie clip to the main timeline

Hi,
I'm having trouble passing a variable from a movie clip in my
flash file to the main timeline.
I have a movieclip with the instance name IntroNav which
contains several buttons. Clicking a button sets the variable
"page" to a specific name, i.e. page = "home"
However, outside of the movie clip, on the main timeline I am
unable to call this variable, and "page" seems to have no value.
Can anyone tell me why this is and how to solve it?
Thanks

Umm, yes ... declare your variables correctly.
var page:String = new String(); //proper complete
var page:String; //strict typing
var page:String = "home"; //stirct typing with value
declaration
Do not declare the variable in your buttons, you would have
to do so in every button and be constantly resetting the value.
Declare it on the main timeline at the lowest level. You do not
need to use it as a _global, you just need to resolve your path
issues. You can 'set' the variable value from a button, without any
problem, but you have to call to the variable correctly.
You do not 'name' a variable as "_root.page" , the '_root'
refers to the lowest level of the SWF or the main timeline, as does
a call to ' _level0' (that's a zero). If the variable is declared
on the main timeline, and you're calling from the MC/button or
anywhere you can refer to the variable by calling to it by
the proper path of '_root.page'
To set the variable from any of your button/MC instances
call:
_root.page = "value"; OR _level0.page = "value";
But you must have the varibale declared on the main timeline,
and only once and the playhead should be stopped or it will reset
the value to the default upon looping.

Similar Messages

How do I recerence Movie Clips on the Main Timeline from inside a class?

Hey everyone, this might be a stupid question but I thought
I'd ask cause it's making me nuts. I'm all of 2 days into AS3
(coming from not using Flash at all in YEARS) so feel free to
consider me ignorant. I do have plenty of application development
experience in other areas though.
I can't seem to create a class that can reference an instance
of a movie clip on my main timeline. I'd post code of what I've
tried but I've gone through so many desperate edits & wild
guesses that it was just garbled junk before I deleted it all.
Basically here's how I figured Flash could work, though maybe
it doesn't work this way at all.
I'm assuming that with AS 3 being so big on being a true
object oriented environment, I wouldn't need to mix my code and
interface together. Preferably I'd be using the Flash authoring
tools just to design my interface. Create a button... place it
somewhere... give it an instance name. Roughly the equivilant of
Apple's InterfaceBuilder for those of you that might be familiar
with Cocoa development. I can see maybe having to put a few lines
of ActionScript onto frame 1 (though really I'm hoping Flash would
have a better method of kicking off the application at this point
that using code tied to frames) to load my classes & such, but
after that I'd like all of my code to be held in external class
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So maybe I've got:
Interface.fla - My interface
Button_1
Button_2
TextField_1
Main.as - My main controller class using to handle all of my
applications behavior
SomeClass.as - Some helper Class
SomeOtherClass.as - Some helper Class
Main.as would have instructions in its initialization method
to go ahead & attach events to buttons & initialize
anything else that needs to happen when the application starts.
From there on it would all be objects communicating back &
forth. Button_1 would get clicked with would fire
Main.someMethod(). Main.someMethod() would then do it's thing and
set the value of TextField_1. All very clean & code is very
separated from interface.
Unfortunately I can't for the life of me figure out how AS3
classes reference each other like that. There doesn't seem to be
any kind of a global 'root' or '_root' I can use to locate any
movie clips on the stage. I've searched the help & the web for
any kind of simple tutorial but to no avail. My job has tasked me
with building a flash app for a project but I'd really rather not
have a tone of ActionScript just shoved into frame 1. That just
seems... ugh! (::shudder::)
Can someone maybe point me in the right direction here? I'm
really willing to do my homework but I can't seem to locate the
info I need to get started. Also, is there an ActionScript IRC
channel or something maybe?
Thanks,
Cliff

I worked with the problem last night and the solution I
started coming to involved creating my own custom document class
based off which extends MovieClip. My thought is that way I have
access to the initialization routine of the timeline itself and
that all of the elements on the main timeline should be
"properties" of my custom class.
Is this correct? Is there a down side to doing this & if
so what is it & why?
Also, just for my reference, the last time I did anything
with ActionScript I think I was using '_root' to target the main
timeline. WHat are the global variable names in AS 3? Is it just
'root' & 'stage' or 'Root' & 'Stage' or what?

Controlling a Movie Clip on the Main Timeline from a loaded SWF?

Is it possible to control a MovieClip on the main timelne from another loaded clip?
I see posts that control loaded clips, but most are all from the loader in the main timeline. I have a moviclip on the main timeline that I want to make visible or invisible depending on what keyframe is playing in another loaded swf.
If I try to call the movieClip from the loaded SWF I get "error #1119. Access of possibly undefined property...." because it doesn't exist in the loaded SWF, just the main timeline.
The old AS2 way just used "_root". Since "_root" doesn't exist any more, how do you control items on the main TimeLine from a loaded SWF?

I am not clear what you mean because you are saying you are trying to target a movieclip that does not exist where you are trying to target it.
Try using a trace to see what you are targeting when you you target the MovieClip(parent.parent)....
trace(MovieClip(parent.parent));
The other approach I mentioned earlier is the more OOP-correct approach if you would rather try that way. Here's a rough outline of it...
AS3 - Dispatch Event
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/470135?tstart=120
Example:
Add something to trigger the event in the child (your loaded swf):
dispatchEvent(new Event("eventTriggered")); (
if dispatchEvent problem, see: http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1899603#post1899603)
In your loading/parent swf, listen for the complete event on the Loader.contentLoaderInfo. In the complete event handler, add a listener for the event on the loaded swf.
// event handler triggered when external swf is loaded
function loaderCompleteHandler(event:Event) {
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function eventHandler(event:Event):void {
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Passing a variable from an mxml component to the main mxml file

Hey guys,
I have a popup titlewindowt which is defined as a component in a separate mxml component file.
In the popup window i have an inputbox and a button
When i press the button in that popup window i want the text in the input box to be transfered across to a variable in my main mxml file
How can i do this?
Thanks
Chris

Since you are already tied in to the top level application then I would add a listener at the application level and in the component do a:
FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.dispatchEvent(....)
However, I can't help but encourage you to decouple this functionality and pass events around rather than what you are currently doing.
There are a few ways you can do this. One is to use an MVC framework to model your application after.
A simpler approach even would be to have the component simploy dispatch events to itself and have whatever is creating the component listen for the events and do higher level functionality.
Good Luck!

How to _root in as3 (buttons in movie clip referencing to main timeline)

Hi, I created buttons within a movie clip that i placed in the main timeline.I am a novice to as3. I just wanted the button to go to the frame label of the main timeline. i used to do this with _root in the old flash. how do i do this?
thumb02_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, buttonClicked);
function buttonClicked(event:MouseEvent):void
gotoAndPlay("slide2");

Thanks for the quick reply!
somehow i must be doing something wrong though. It's not working...
I added a stop to the "slide02" labeled section of the main timeline.
and I also added a stop to the beginning and end of the movieclip. Am I doing something wrong? attached is my file....thanks!!
stop();
thumb02_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, buttonClicked);
function buttonClicked(event:MouseEvent):void
MovieClip(this.root).gotoAndPlay("slide2");
stop();

Please help! first website! movie clip placed on main timeline wont play!

Hi! if any one could please help me it would be greatly
appreciated!
So im trying to make my first website in flash and ive ran
into a problem. I have the main movie, my main time line. I have a
few animations going on in this that were all created in that main
time line. those work fine. however, i created two new movie clips
(still inside the same .fla file) and animated them with thier own
time line. I then thought you could just drag and drop these movie
clips onto your main time line and they would play inside the
movie. but when i press ctrl + enter, the dont play!
here are some points of intrest.
my main movie (the main time line) is 130 frames.
the movie clips i made inside the same .fla file are between
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i placed both new movie clips on the 130th frame in the time
line with their own layers.
also there is a layer for actions on the 130th that has
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im thinking action script is involved? please help me im
getting pretty frustrated and im sure there is something simple to
achieve this.
here is a link where you can download the source files im
using. if you open the file the two movie clips i created are
called front two and front one and are layers with the same name.
this board wont let me fully post my link cause the last word
in it is s*h*i*t* so youll have to type it in your browser. its
http://public.me.com/matts*h*i*t*
(just remove the asterisks)
also i noticed that my file is huge. i used photoshop to
create everything and them imported it into flash. is there a way i
can reduce this size?
thank you sooo much! please help!
-Matt

Hey Matt,
I'll take a look at your file, but as a general rule, a
movieclip's timeline plays automatically when it is first
instantiated. Instatiated means its first frame where "it exists"
on the timeline that contains it. So the layer that holds your
movieclip animation, needs to extend the length of the timeline you
want that movieclip to "exist". Other than that rule, the frames
don't NEED to match the frames inside said movieclip.
So, if movieclips play automatically, and yours isn't, there
must be something either stopping the movieclips timeline, or your
movieclip isn't existing on the timeline because the layer that
holds it, doesn't have keyframes the length you need it to.
Yeah optimizing your sprites (2d graphical elements), and
using vector when you need to (if you don't know the difference
between raster and vector, google it) will significantly lower your
outputted .swf file size.
Edit: After looking at your file, your movieclips are not
playing (well, they're technically playing, just not showing up)
because your masker layer has multiple objects on it. A masker
layer (not to be confused with the maskee layer, the layer being
masked) needs to have only one object on it, or else you break the
mask. The grey border of your mask movieclip needs to be deleted
before your animation will play.

Convert a movie clip back to the main timeline? Help!

I hope you guys can help me with this because this is a work project. Here's the situation:
The entire .fla animation consists of nothing but two really long movie clips. Which are placed on frames 1 and 2 of the main timeline. Now for reasons that are too deep for me to go into explaination about my boss is telling me that I have to have everything main timeline -no movie clips. I've tried copypasting all of the frames but they all paste wayyy to large on the main timeline and they wind up in different places on the stage.
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you're on the right track. note the x,y of your movieclip in frame 1. create a new layer and paste all the frame 1 movieclip's frames into that new layer. click the edit multiple frames icon below your timeline. select all the frames, click an on-stage object. in the properties panel, change the x,y of the all the selected objects to the previously noted values

Load a MC on the main timeline from a MC. AS3

I have a movie clip (mc_menu) on that is on the main timeline.
This movie clip has buttons that I want to use to display other movie clips on the main (parent) timeline.

Start here:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ActionScript/3.0_ProgrammingAS3/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118a9 b90204-7e4e.html

How do I use a variable to set movie clip properties?

I'm building a simple contact page that allows users to
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locationListener.change = function (loc_obj:Object) {
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clip instance name (Atlanta._visible = true) and it works, but I
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clbeech:
I tried using your suggestion, but for some reason it doesn't
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I need to delete a variable containing a movie clip class and recreate it with a different movie clip class

Hello,
I am creating a program that is going to help students learn to read. In my project are pages of text with each word having a button that when pressed will display a movieclip presentation about that word (its pronounciation and spelling etc..). In the project I am working on now I have over 450 unique presentations of words to deal with. I don't want to have all of these hundreds of movie clips on the stage and tell them one at a time to stop and rewind and then have one play each time a word button is pressed. That seems to be very inefficient to me. So I want to do this with some code in Actionscript 3.
I know I can dynamically add movieclips to the stage using addChild(movieclipname) and remove them using removeChild(movieclipname) but there is a problem. I have hundreds of unique movieclips and I don't want to have to manage hundreds of variables containing the indivudual movieclip instancess. It is a real pain having to figure out what instance is still on the stage before i delete it.
In Adobe Director all I have to do is this:
on mousedown me
     sprite(me.spritenum).member = member("somenewmember:)
end
and that was it
But if I do this in actionscript 3:
removeChild(some_mc)
some_mc still exists in memory. And I have to know exactly what variable it is to remove or else the movie will fail with an error. If I try to be brutish about it and try to implicitly remove all 450 movieclip instance variables from the stage I will get at least 449 errors.
What I want to do is this:
removeChild(some_mc)
some_mc = void //or //delete some_mc
var some_mc:MovieClip = new someother_mc();
addChild(some_mc)
but this doesn't work
How am I going to remove one of 450 movie clips and add a new totally different movie clip without the code knowing exactly what the last movie clip was? I suppose if could remove a child from the stage based on a string name then I could hold that name in a variable for later disposal.Can I do this?
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Hey I think I may have a solution:
//begin code
var myMC:MovieClip = new ball();
var starMC:MovieClip = new star();
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youpresseeditMC.name = "youpresseedit"
addChild(myMC);
box.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, replaceball);
press_BTN.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, replaceballwithtext);
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///end code
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How to pass a variable from HTML to Flash

I have built my flash ad banner in Flash 9 and now want the
HTML code to pass the url over to the flash movie that it should
jump to when clicked.
The info in the help file seems out of date for the latest
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dreadful embeding issue. So my problem is, how do I pass a variable
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(running on a full screen button) as shown below?
myButton_btn.onRelease = function() {
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via the html code now used by Flash 9 which is like this:

<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
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<script language="javascript"> AC_FL_RunContent = 0;
</script>
<script language="javascript"> DetectFlashVer = 0;
</script>
<script src="AC_RunActiveContent.js"
language="javascript"></script>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

</script>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff">



<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

</script>
<noscript>
// Provide alternate content for browsers that do not support
scripting
// or for those that have scripting disabled.
Alternate HTML content should be placed here. This content
requires the Adobe Flash Player.
<a href="
http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflash/">Get
Flash</a>
</noscript>
</body>
</html>

You should use SWFObject to embed your Flash. Not only does
it make
embedding more straightforward, it makes passing query
parameters very easy.
Check out:
http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/
Dave -
www.offroadfire.com
Head Developer
http://www.blurredistinction.com
Adobe Community Expert
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/

How to pass a variable from HTML to Flash 9

I have built my flash ad banner in Flash 9 and now want the
HTML code to pass the url over to the flash movie that it should
jump to when clicked.
The info in the help file seems out of date for the latest
HTML template as it uses mainly JavaScript to get round IE's
dreadful embeding issue. So my problem is, how do I pass a variable
from the HTML to the actionScript specified int he Help file
(running on a full screen button) as shown below?
myButton_btn.onRelease = function() {
if (clickTAG.substr(0, 5) == "http:") {
getURL(clickTAG);
via the html code now used by Flash 9 which is like this:

<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Advert_long</title>
<script language="javascript"> AC_FL_RunContent = 0;
</script>
<script language="javascript"> DetectFlashVer = 0;
</script>
<script src="AC_RunActiveContent.js"
language="javascript"></script>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

</script>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff">



<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

</script>
<noscript>
// Provide alternate content for browsers that do not
support scripting
// or for those that have scripting disabled.
Alternate HTML content should be placed here. This content
requires the Adobe Flash Player.
<a href="
http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflash/">Get
Flash</a>
</noscript>
</body>
</html>

You should use SWFObject to embed your Flash. Not only does
it make
embedding more straightforward, it makes passing query
parameters very easy.
Check out:
http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/
Dave -
www.offroadfire.com
Head Developer
http://www.blurredistinction.com
Adobe Community Expert
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/

How load variables to a movie clip on a masked layer on my main time line

the problem I have is that I been trying to load text from a
text file news.txt into a movie clip on my main time line the
problem is when the layer where the video clip is locates is masked
the variables will not load, but it does work when the layer is
unmasked, but then the website does not work the way it is suposed
to look.
any Idea on how I can get arround this????

PArt of the problem will be due to declaring the uiLoader inside of a function. When you do that you limit its scope to within that function. You should declare it outside of any function if you need to access it in more than one function.
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import fl.motion.MotionEvent;
var uiLoader:UILoader;
var targetObj:Object;
The other problems I see regard the line you point to. It is not spelling the name the same, using a lowercase "l". Also, if you want to target what the UILoader contains, you should target its "content" property, as in...
targetObj = uiLoader.content.mask_01

LoadVars-using send to pass a variable from flash to php

For the life of me, I've tried everything:
I've researched LoadVars on Adobe forum, used David Powers'
books, googled 'flash to php', LoadVars, etc. and tried
sendAndLoad, send, and using $_POST, $_GET, $_REQUEST.
$HTTP_POSTVARS but I keep getting this same error. any advice
please?
I have a Unix server running Apache/PHP 4 - LoadVars worked
to load name-value pairs into an array -see thread)
My goal with this simple app is to prototype being able to
pass a variable from flash to a variable in php.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in
flash_to_SQL.php on line 5
Actionscript 2.0 code:
var c :LoadVars = new LoadVars();
c.testing = "123FOUR";
c.send ("
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php code: (I also tried $_POST, $_GET, $_REQUEST.
$HTTP_POSTVARS)
<?php
//mysql 4.1.2, php 4 , NO mysqli
ecbo $_REQUEST ['testing'];
/?>

var formData:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
formData.fname = "Name";
formData.send("
http://www.website.com/flash_php.php",
formData, "POST");
<?php
$name = $_POST['fname'];
echo $name;
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How to pass a variable from one class to another class?

Hi,
Is it possible to pass a variable from one class to another? For e.g., I need the value of int a for calculation purpose in method doB() but I get an error <identifier> expected. What does the error mean? I know, it's a very, very simple question but once I learn this, I promise to remember it forever. Thank you.
class A {
int a;
int doA() {
      a = a + 1;
      return a;
class B {
int b;
A r = new A();
r.a; // error: <identifier> expected. What does that mean ?
int doB() {
     int c = b/a; // error: operator / cannot be applied to a
}Thank you!

elaine_g wrote:
I am wondering why does (r.a) give an error outside the method? What's the reason it only works when used inside the (b/r.a) maths function? This is illegal syntax:
class B {
int b;
A r = new A();
r.a; //syntax error
}Why? Class definition restricts what you can define within a class to a few things:
class X {
    Y y = new Y(); //defining a field -- okay
    public X() { //defining a constructor -- okay
    void f() { //defining a method -- okay
}... and a few other things, but you can't just write "r.a" there. It also makes no sense -- that expression by itself just accesses a field and does nothing with it -- why bother?
This is also illegal syntax:
int doB() {
      A r = new A();
      r.a; // error: not a statement
}Again, all "r.a" does on its own is access a field and do nothing with it -- a "noop". Since it has no effect, writing this indicates confusion on the part of the coder, so it classified as a syntax error. There is no reason to write that.

Passing a variable from a movie clip to the main timeline

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