Problem targeting a loaded MC (easy answer?)

Question

Hi, thanks in advance. I'm lame and can't figure out how to
target an external swf that I've loaded via AS. I have one main
swf, and in that swf I'm creating an empty movie clip (called
'countryClip') and loading an external swf ('usa.swf'). So far, so
good, the swf loads and it looks great. But when I try to click on
the loaded swf, I get nothing. My usa.swf ('countryClip.usa'?) is
just unclickable, and that's my problem. Any ideas why? What am I
overlooking?
[begin code]
_root.createEmptyMovieClip("countryClip", 1);
countryClip.loadMovie("usa.swf");
// everything above works great. but then...
_root.countryClip.onPress = function() {
// has no effect at all.
// so I put this into frame 1 of usa.swf
onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
trace(this._target);
// and that showed me this output:
"/countryClip/usa" (no quotes)
// which led me to believe that the following
// should work...
_root.countryClip.usa.onPress = function() {
trace("pressed");
// but it does not work. Why?
[/end code]

Answer 1

Hi,
the loaded swf is accessible via the instance name of the MC
that loaded it, so _root.countryClip.onPress should work. Now when
you look at the Flash Help for loadMovie(), you'll find this:
quote:
Using event handlers with MovieClip.loadMovie() can be
unpredictable. If you attach an event handler to a button by using
on(), or if you create a dynamic handler by using an event handler
method such as MovieClip.onPress(), and then you call loadMovie(),
the event handler does not remain after the new content is loaded.
So this should be the reason it's not working. One solution
would be checking the loading progress, and assign the event when
the clip is fully loaded. You can use something like the attached
code, or use the MovieClipLoader class to load the swf and use it's
events (e.g. onLoadInit) to assign the onPress event.
greets,
blemmo