ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

Print $39.99

Print+Ebook $43.99

Ebook $31.99

(Mobi, PDF, ePub)

Safari Books Online

What is this?

Print £30.99

What is this?

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers

By: Joey Lott, Darron Schall, Keith Peters
Publisher:: O'Reilly Media / Adobe Dev Library
Released:: October 2006
Pages:: 592

Description

Well before Ajax and Windows Presentation Foundation, Macromedia Flash provided the first method for building "rich" web pages. Now, Adobe is making Flash a full-fledged development environment, and learning ActionScript 3.0 is key. That's a challenge for even the most experienced Flash developer. This Cookbook offers more than 300 solutions to solve a wide range of coding dilemmas, so you can learn to work with the new version right away.

Full Description

Well before Ajax and Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation hit the scene, Macromedia offered the first method for building web pages with the responsiveness and functionality of desktop programs with its Flash-based "Rich Internet Applications". Now, new owner Adobe is taking Flash and its powerful capabilities beyond the Web and making it a full-fledged development environment.

Rather than focus on theory, the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook concentrates on the practical application of ActionScript, with more than 300 solutions you can use to solve a wide range of common coding dilemmas. You'll find recipes that show you how to:

Detect the user's Flash Player version or their operating system
Build custom classes
Format dates and currency types
Work with strings
Build user interface components
Work with audio and video
Make remote procedure calls using Flash Remoting and web services
Load, send, and search XML data
And much, much more ...

Each code recipe presents the Problem, Solution, and Discussion of how you can use it in other ways or personalize it for your own needs, and why it works. You can quickly locate the recipe that most closely matches your situation and get the solution without reading the whole book to understand the underlying code. Solutions progress from short recipes for small problems to more complex scripts for thornier riddles, and the discussions offer a deeper analysis for resolving similar issues in the future, along with possible design choices and ramifications. You'll even learn how to link modular ActionScript pieces together to create rock-solid solutions for Flex 2 and Flash applications.

When you're not sure how ActionScript 3.0 works or how to approach a specific programming dilemma, you can simply pick up the book, flip to the relevant recipe(s), and quickly find the solution you're looking for.

Adobe Developer Library is a co-publishing partnership between O'Reilly Media and Adobe Systems, Inc. and is designed to produce the number one information resources for developers who use Adobe technologies. Created in 2006, the Adobe Developer Library is the official source for comprehensive learning solutions to help developers create expressive and interactive web applications that can reach virtually anyone on any platform. With top-notch books and innovative online resources covering the latest in rich Internet application development, the Adobe Developer Library offers expert training and in-depth resources, straight from the source.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 ActionScript Basics
1. Introduction
2. Creating an ActionScript Project
3. Customizing the Properties of an Application
4. Where to Place ActionScript Code
5. How to Trace a Message
6. Handling Events
7. Responding to Mouse and Key Events
8. Using Mathematical Operators
9. Checking Equality or Comparing Values
10. Performing Actions Conditionally
11. Performing Complex Conditional Testing
12. Repeating an Operation Many Times
13. Repeating a Task over Time
14. Creating Reusable Code
15. Generalizing a Method to Enhance Reusability
16. Exiting a Method
17. Obtaining the Result of a Method
18. Handling Errors
Chapter 2 Custom Classes
1. Introduction
2. Creating a Custom Class
3. Determining Where to Save a Class
4. Creating Properties That Behave As Methods
5. Creating Static Methods and Properties
6. Creating Subclasses
7. Implementing Subclass Versions of Superclass Methods
8. Creating Constants
9. Dispatching Events
Chapter 3 Runtime Environment
1. Introduction
2. Detecting the Player Version
3. Detecting the Operating System
4. Checking the Player Type
5. Checking the System Language
6. Detecting Display Settings
7. Scaling the Movie
8. Changing the Alignment
9. Hiding the Flash Player’s Menu Items
10. Detecting the Device’s Audio Capabilities
11. Detecting the Device’s Video Capabilities
12. Prompting the User to Change Player Settings
13. Dealing with System Security
Chapter 4 Numbers and Math
1. Introduction
2. Representing Numbers in Different Bases
3. Converting Between Different Number Systems
4. Rounding Numbers
5. Inserting Leading or Trailing Zeros or Spaces
6. Formatting Numbers for Display Without a Mask
7. Formatting Currency Amounts
8. Generating a Random Number
9. Simulating a Coin Toss
10. Simulating Dice
11. Simulating Playing Cards
12. Generating a Unique Number
13. Converting Angle Measurements
14. Calculating the Distance Between Two Points
15. Determining Points Along a Circle
16. Converting Between Units of Measurement
Chapter 5 Arrays
1. Introduction
2. Adding Elements to the Start or End of an Array
3. Looping Through an Array
4. Searching for Matching Elements in an Array
5. Removing Elements
6. Inserting Elements in the Middle of an Array
7. Converting a String to an Array
8. Converting an Array to a String
9. Creating a Separate Copy of an Array
10. Storing Complex or Multidimensional Data
11. Sorting or Reversing an Array
12. Implementing a Custom Sort
13. Randomizing the Elements of an Array
14. Getting the Minimum or Maximum Element
15. Comparing Arrays
16. Creating an Associative Array
17. Reading Elements of an Associative Array
Chapter 6 Display List
1. Introduction
2. Adding an Item to the Display List
3. Removing an Item from the Display List
4. Moving Objects Forward and Backward
5. Creating Custom Visual Classes
6. Creating Simple Buttons
7. Loading External Images at Runtime
8. Loading and Interacting with External Movies
9. Creating Mouse Interactions
10. Dragging and Dropping Objects with the Mouse
Chapter 7 Drawing and Masking
1. Introduction
2. Setting a Line Style
3. Setting Gradient Line Styles
4. Drawing a Line
5. Drawing a Curve
6. Drawing an Arc
7. Drawing a Rectangle
8. Drawing a Circle
9. Drawing an Ellipse
10. Drawing a Triangle
11. Drawing Regular Polygons
12. Drawing a Star
13. Filling a Shape with a Solid or Translucent Color
14. Filling a Shape with a Gradient
15. Filling a Shape with a Bitmap
16. Scripting Masks
Chapter 8 Bitmaps
1. Introduction
2. Creating a BitmapData Object
3. Adding a Bitmap to the Display List
4. Drawing a Display Object to a Bitmap
5. Loading an External Image into a Bitmap
6. Manipulating Pixels
7. Creating Rectangular Fills
8. Creating a Flood Fill
9. Copying Pixels
10. Copying Channels
11. Creating Noise
12. Creating Perlin Noise
13. Using Threshold
14. Applying a Filter to a Bitmap
15. Dissolving Between Two Bitmaps
16. Scrolling a Bitmap
Chapter 9 Text
1. Introduction
2. Creating an Outline Around a Text Field
3. Creating a Background for a Text Field
4. Making a User Input Field
5. Making a Password Input Field
6. Filtering Text Input
7. Setting a Field’s Maximum Length
8. Displaying Text
9. Displaying HTML-Formatted Text
10. Condensing Whitespace
11. Sizing Text Fields to Fit Contents
12. Scrolling Text Programmatically
13. Responding to Scroll Events
14. Formatting Text
15. Formatting User-Input Text
16. Formatting a Portion of Existing Text
17. Setting a Text Field’s Font
18. Embedding Fonts
19. Creating Text that Can Be Rotated
20. Displaying Unicode Text
21. Assigning Focus to a Text Field
22. Selecting Text with ActionScript
23. Setting the Insertion Point in a Text Field
24. Responding When Text Is Selected or Deselected
25. Responding to User Text Entry
26. Adding a Hyperlink to Text
27. Calling ActionScript from Hyperlinks
28. Working with Advanced Text Layout
29. Applying Advanced Anti-Aliasing
30. Replacing Text
31. Retrieving a List of System Fonts
Chapter 10 Filters and Transforms
1. Introduction
2. Applying Color Changes
3. Applying Color Tints
4. Resetting Color
5. Shearing
6. Applying Basic Filters
7. Applying Advanced Filter Effects (Emboss, etc.)
8. Embossing
9. Detecting Edges
10. Sharpening
11. Making a Digital Negative
12. Applying Grayscale
13. Changing Saturation
14. Changing Brightness
15. Changing Contrast
Chapter 11 Programmatic Animation
1. Introduction
2. Moving an Object
3. Moving an Object in a Specific Direction
4. Easing
5. Acceleration
6. Springs
7. Using Trigonometry
8. Applying Animation Techniques to Other Properties
Chapter 12 Strings
1. Introduction
2. Joining Strings
3. Using Quotes and Apostrophes in Strings
4. Inserting Special Whitespace Characters
5. Searching for a Substring
6. Extracting a Substring
7. Parsing a String into Words
8. Removing and Replacing Characters and Words
9. Retrieving One Character at a Time
10. Converting Case
11. Trimming Whitespace
12. Reversing a String by Word or by Character
13. Converting Between Strings and Unicode or ASCII
Chapter 13 Regular Expressions
1. Introduction
2. Understanding Regular Expression Patterns
3. Testing Regular Expressions
4. Looking for Pattern Matches
5. Removing and Replacing Characters and Words Using Patterns
6. Creating a Nongreedy Pattern
7. Validating User Input with Common Patterns
Chapter 14 Dates and Times
1. Introduction
2. Finding the Current Date and Time
3. Retrieving the Date Values
4. Retrieving the Day or Month Name
5. Formatting the Date and Time
6. Formatting Seconds or Milliseconds as Minutes and Seconds
7. Converting Between DMYHMSM and Epoch Milliseconds
8. Using Timers
9. Calculating Elapsed Time or Intervals Between Dates
10. Parsing a Date from a String
Chapter 15 Programming Sound
1. Introduction
2. Creating a Sound Object and Loading a Sound
3. Starting and Stopping a Sound
4. Setting the Buffer for a Sound
5. Offsetting the Start of a Sound
6. Playing a Sound Multiple Times (Looping)
7. Getting the Size of a Sound File
8. Reading the ID3 Tag of a Sound File
9. Find Out When a Sound Finishes Playing
10. Tracking the Progress of a Playing Sound
11. Pausing and Restarting a Sound
12. Reading the Level of a Sound
13. Stopping All Sounds
14. Reading the Sound Spectrum
15. Changing the Volume or Pan of a Sound
16. Creating a Sound Application
Chapter 16 Video
1. Introduction
2. Loading and Playing Back Video
3. Controlling Video Sound
4. Reading Playback Time
5. Reading Video Duration
6. Controlling Playback Time
7. Scaling Video
8. Managing and Monitoring Buffering and Loading
9. Listening for Cue Points
10. Applying Filters to Video
11. Pausing and Resuming Video
12. Stopping Video
13. Scrubbing Video
14. Clearing the Video Display
15. Determining User Bandwidth
Chapter 17 Storing Persistent Data
1. Introduction
2. Creating and Opening a Local Shared Object
3. Writing Data to a Shared Object
4. Saving a Local Shared Object
5. Reading Data from a Shared Object
6. Removing Data from a Shared Object
7. Serializing Custom Classes
8. Sharing Data Between Flash Applications
9. Controlling the Size of Local Shared Objects
Chapter 18 Communicating with Other Movies
1. Introduction
2. Creating Local Connections
3. Sending Data
4. Validating Receipt of Communication over Local Connections
5. Accepting Local Communications from Other Domains
Chapter 19 Sending and Loading Data
1. Introduction
2. Loading Variables from a Text File
3. Loading Variables from a Server-Side Script
4. Loading a Block of Text (Including HTML and XML)
5. Checking Load Progress
6. Accessing Data Being Downloaded
7. Sending Data to a Server-Side Script
8. Sending Variables and Handling a Returned Result
Chapter 20 XML
1. Introduction
2. Understanding XML Structure (Reading and Writing XML)
3. Creating an XML Object
4. Adding Elements to an XML Object
5. Adding Text Nodes to an XML Object
6. Adding Attributes to an XML Element
7. Reading Elements in an XML Tree
8. Finding Elements by Name
9. Reading Text Nodes and Their Values
10. Reading an Element’s Attributes
11. Removing Elements, Text Nodes, and Attributes
12. Loading XML
13. Loading XML from Different Domains
14. Sending XML
15. Searching XML
16. Using HTML and Special Characters in XML
Chapter 21 Web Services and Flash Remoting
1. Introduction
2. Calling Web Services Methods
3. Handling Web Services Responses
4. Handling Web Services Errors
5. Calling Flash Remoting Methods
6. Handling Flash Remoting Responses
Chapter 22 Building Integrated Applications
1. Introduction
2. Calling JavaScript Functions
3. Calling ActionScript Functions
4. Passing Parameters from HTML
Chapter 23 File Management
1. Introduction
2. Downloading Files
3. Detecting When a User Selects a File to Upload
4. Monitoring Download Progress
5. Browsing for Files
6. Filtering Files That Display in the Browser Window
7. Detecting When the User Has Selected a File to Upload
8. Uploading Files
9. Monitoring File Upload Progress
Chapter 24 Socket Programming
1. Introduction
2. Connecting to a Socket Server
3. Sending Data
4. Receiving Data
5. Handshaking with a Socket Server
6. Disconnecting from a Socket Server
7. Handling Socket Errors

Appendix 1 Unicode Escape Sequences for Latin 1 Characters

Product Details

Title:

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

By:

Joey Lott, Darron Schall, Keith Peters

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media / Adobe Dev Library

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print Release:

October 2006

Ebook Release:

December 2008

Pages:

592

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-52695-5

| ISBN 10:

0-596-52695-4

Ebook ISBN:

978-0-596-15837-8

| ISBN 10:

0-596-15837-8

Customer Reviews

About the Authors

Joey Lott

Joey Lott is the author of several O'Reilly books on Macromedia technology, including Flash 8 Cookbook, Programming Flash Communication Server, and the ActionScript Cookbook. He is also the author of Flash 8 ActionScript Bible (Wiley) and Advanced ActionScript with Design Patterns (Adobe Press, October 2006). Joey has been teaching Flash and ActionScript since 1999. His professional experience in the Internet industry includes co-founding RightSpring, Inc., as well as consulting for YourMobile/Premium Wireless Services (J2EE B2C application) and Ads.com (leading the development of a J2EE B2B application).

View Joey Lott's full profile page.
Darron Schall

Darron Schall is an independent consultant specializing in the Flash Platform, with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Lehigh University. He has been using ActionScript since the early days and is a prominent voice in the Flash and Flex communities. He is actively involved in the Open Source Flash movement with projects ranging from software development tools to a Commodore 64 emulator. Darron has spoken at various conferences about ActionScript, and has contributed to books and magazines. You can find his Flash Platform related weblog at http://www.darronschall.com.

View Darron Schall's full profile page.
Keith Peters

Keith Peters is a Flash developer in the Boston area. He has been working with Flash since 1999 and is currently a Senior Flash Developer at Brightcove (http://www.brightcove.com). Keith has been a contributing author to nine other books on Flash and ActionScript. His personal website, http://www.bit-101.com, features an active blog, over 700 open source Flash experiments, and lots of other random Flash-related stuff.

View Keith Peters's full profile page.

Service and support by Satisfaction

O'Reilly Books & Videos

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers

Chapter 1 ActionScript Basics

Introduction

Creating an ActionScript Project

Customizing the Properties of an Application

Where to Place ActionScript Code

How to Trace a Message

Handling Events

Responding to Mouse and Key Events

Using Mathematical Operators

Checking Equality or Comparing Values

Performing Actions Conditionally

Performing Complex Conditional Testing

Repeating an Operation Many Times

Repeating a Task over Time

Creating Reusable Code

Generalizing a Method to Enhance Reusability

Exiting a Method

Obtaining the Result of a Method

Handling Errors

Chapter 2 Custom Classes

Introduction

Creating a Custom Class

Determining Where to Save a Class

Creating Properties That Behave As Methods

Creating Static Methods and Properties

Creating Subclasses

Implementing Subclass Versions of Superclass Methods

Creating Constants

Dispatching Events

Chapter 3 Runtime Environment

Introduction

Detecting the Player Version

Detecting the Operating System

Checking the Player Type

Checking the System Language

Detecting Display Settings

Scaling the Movie

Changing the Alignment

Hiding the Flash Player’s Menu Items

Detecting the Device’s Audio Capabilities

Detecting the Device’s Video Capabilities

Prompting the User to Change Player Settings

Dealing with System Security

Chapter 4 Numbers and Math

Introduction

Representing Numbers in Different Bases

Converting Between Different Number Systems

Rounding Numbers

Inserting Leading or Trailing Zeros or Spaces

Formatting Numbers for Display Without a Mask

Formatting Currency Amounts

Generating a Random Number

Simulating a Coin Toss

Simulating Dice

Simulating Playing Cards

Generating a Unique Number

Converting Angle Measurements

Calculating the Distance Between Two Points

Determining Points Along a Circle

Converting Between Units of Measurement

Chapter 5 Arrays

Introduction

Adding Elements to the Start or End of an Array

Looping Through an Array

Searching for Matching Elements in an Array

Removing Elements

Inserting Elements in the Middle of an Array

Converting a String to an Array

Converting an Array to a String

Creating a Separate Copy of an Array

Storing Complex or Multidimensional Data

Sorting or Reversing an Array

Implementing a Custom Sort

Randomizing the Elements of an Array

Getting the Minimum or Maximum Element

Comparing Arrays

Creating an Associative Array