The post contains a solution for a case where you need to attach a Library symbol and you have to pass that class name as a string to the function.

The approach followed here is by using the getDefinitionByName utility which interprets the string and convert it into a Class. Then you can use a new syntax with that particular class. Following is a code for the same solution and you can download the source files from here. The “testMC” here is a movieClip in library with the className as testMC and BaseClass as flash.display.MovieClip

import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;


function addMovieFromLibrary(mcIName:String){
var tMC:Class = getDefinitionByName(mcIName) as Class;
var newMc:MovieClip = new tMC() as MovieClip;
addChild(newMc);
}

4c) Add the property TraceOutputFileName to mm.cfg

OSX -

TraceOutputFileName=MacHD:Users:username esktop:flashlog.txt

Windows -

TraceOutputFileName=C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\flashlog.txt

Create a shortcut to the batch file to set the Command Prompt colors and options

Right-click on the batch file and select “Create Shortcut”

Right-click on the shortcut and select “Properties”

To view the Command Prompt maximized change the pulldown under “Run:”
To change the colors of the Command Prompt select the “Colors” tab
Unfortunately the “Font” tab options are very limited
Under the “Options” tab, select “QuickEdit mode” to be able to easily select and copy and paste
Tip for copying and pasting in the Command Prompt:
Select the text you want to copy and then right-click it, this puts the selected text into the clipboard … now just hit ctrl-v or paste in any other program.

Close out of the properties and double-click on the shortcut to see the flashlog with your colors and options.

I have been exploring the ways to copy an Array object to a new Array with less of the effort. Reason being the following statements in ActionScript

var arrayA:Array = new Array(”Jack”,”Steve”,”Mark”,”Ted”);
var arrayB:Array = arrayA;

The above statements appears to create a copy of arrayA, however in the actual it creates a new reference to the arrayA object. The problem is that if you execute any operation on arrayB object now it will impact the arrayA eventually. For example:

arrayB.pop();
trace(arrayA);

The statement is supposed to trace “Jack,Steve,Mark,Ted” whereas it will trace “Jack,Steve,Mark”.

To overcome this problem we use the following methodology

var arrayA:Array = new Array(”Jack”,”Steve”,”Mark”,”Ted”);
var arrayB:Array = new Array();
for(var i:int = 0; i < arrayA.length; i++) {
arrayB[i] = arrayA[i];

}
arrayB.pop();
trace(arrayA);

Now it will trace the desired result i.e. “Jack,Steve,Mark,Ted” and if you trace arrayB then it will trace “jack,Steve,Mark”

This methodology is very good when you are dealing with single array objects but when it comes to Nested Arrays it is really a tedious job as you have to look for every inner object of an array if it is an Array type and then again create a new array and copy it’s element. To overcome this we can use now the ByteArray class of Flash.utils package

You can review the following code used to copy an array. There is a disadvantages of using the ByteArray and that is you will loose on some speed. The ByteArray.Read method is slower than copying an Array. You can see a benchmark here

——————————–
Copying a 100000 elements array
——————————–
Copy with loops starts at :: 802504163
Copy with loop ends at :: 802504210
Time elapsed :: 47 milliseconds
Copy with ByteArray Starts at :: 802504257
Copy with Byte Array :: 802504382
Time elapsed :: 125 milliseconds

There is certainly a significant amount of processing time which ByteArray take however it is eventually helping us out when it comes to copying nested objects.

Download the fla from here.

Here is the code for the same.

——————————————————–

——————————————————–

import flash.utils.ByteArray;

var tDate:Date = new Date();
var iStartTime:uint;
var iTime:uint;
var byteArray:ByteArray = new ByteArray();

trace(”——————————–”);
trace(”Copying a 100000 elements array “);
trace(”——————————–”);
//———- Create and Populate Array ———
var arrayA:Array = new Array();
for (var i:uint; i<=100000; i++) {
arrayA.push(Math.random()*i);
if (i == 100000) {
copyArray();
}
}

//———– Copy Array using Loops ——–

function copyArray():void {
tDate = new Date();
iStartTime = tDate.time;
trace(”Copy with loops starts at :: ” + iStartTime);
var arrayB:Array = new Array();
var arr_len:uint = arrayA.length -1;
for (var i:int = 0; i <= arr_len; i++) {
arrayB[i] = arrayA[i];
if (i == arr_len) {
tDate = new Date();
iTime = tDate.time;
trace(”Copy with loop ends at :: ” + iTime);
trace(”Time elapsed :: ” + (iTime – iStartTime) + ” milliseconds”);
copyWithByteArray();
}
}
}
//——- Function copy with Byte Array ———
function copyWithByteArray():void {
tDate = new Date();
iTime = tDate.time;
trace(”Copy with ByteArray Starts at :: ” + iTime);
byteArray.writeObject(arrayA);
byteArray.position = 0;
var arrayB:Array = byteArray.readObject() as Array;
tDate = new Date();
var iByteArrTime:uint = tDate.time;
trace(”Copy with Byte Array :: ” + iByteArrTime);
trace(”Time elapsed :: ” + (iByteArrTime – iTime) + ” milliseconds”);
}

We have encountered a situation where the the UI button label was changing frequently in Flash CS3. So basis on that we have to resize our button component as the label changes. There is no inbuilt AutoResize feature in button component so what we have done is, get the size of the label and then set the width of the button. Following is the code we have implemented in this case. Put a UI button on stage and name it “_btn”. You can download the source files from here.

import flash.events.Event;
//———-
var t_arr:Array = ["This is string 1","Hello","Hello to String 3","Hello to String 4","Hello to String 5","This is a long string NOW "];
//——— Set the button textfield properties ———-
_btn.textField.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT; // We need to set the autosize to LEFT?RIGHT or CENTER instead of NONE
_btn.textField.multiline = false; // Make sure the multiline is false in this case to get proper dimensions
_btn.label = t_arr[0];
_btn.textField.addEventListener(Event.RENDER,resizeBtn); // Add an event listener to textfield on render event
_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,clickHandler);
//——– Resize the button ———–
function resizeBtn(evt:Event):void{
// trace(evt.target.width+” “+evt.target.parent.width);
_btn.width = evt.target.width+5;
_btn.validateNow();

}
//———— Handle button click ———
function clickHandler(evt:MouseEvent):void{
_btn.label = t_arr[Math.floor(6*Math.random())];
}

This is a prototype to load external flash9 swf file into flex and using the library items from the swf. In given example we have two library symbols with linkage ids (”mc1″, “mc2″).

Just make sure when you create a movieclip from these definitions, you firstly add these to a UIComponent and then that component to stage or any container, otherwise there will be a conversion error you will be getting

You can download sources from here

Following is the code for the same.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx=”http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml” creationComplete=”init()” layout=”absolute”>

<mx:Script>

<![CDATA[

import mx.core.UIComponent;

//-------- Declare Variables --------

private var swfLoader:Loader;

private var fileURL:URLRequest;

//----- Initialize Function ------------

private function init():void{

//    Security.allowDomain("*");

swfLoader = new Loader();

_fileURL = new URLRequest("sample.swf");

configureListeners(swfLoader.contentLoaderInfo);

try{

swfLoader.load(_fileURL);

}

catch(e:IOErrorEvent){

trace(e.toString());

}

}

private function configureListeners(dispatcher:IEventDispatcher):void {

dispatcher.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onSWFLoaded);

dispatcher.addEventListener(HTTPStatusEvent.HTTP_STATUS, httpStatusHandler);

dispatcher.addEventListener(Event.INIT, initHandler);

dispatcher.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, ioErrorHandler);

dispatcher.addEventListener(Event.OPEN, openHandler);

dispatcher.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, progressHandler);

dispatcher.addEventListener(Event.UNLOAD, unLoadHandler);

}

private function completeHandler(event:Event):void {

trace("completeHandler: " + event);

}

private function httpStatusHandler(event:HTTPStatusEvent):void {

trace("httpStatusHandler: " + event);

}

private function initHandler(event:Event):void {

trace("initHandler: " + event);

}

private function ioErrorHandler(event:IOErrorEvent):void {

trace("ioErrorHandler: " + event);

}

private function openHandler(event:Event):void {

trace("openHandler: " + event);

}

private function progressHandler(event:ProgressEvent):void {

trace("progressHandler: bytesLoaded=" + event.bytesLoaded + " bytesTotal=" + event.bytesTotal);

}

private function unLoadHandler(event:Event):void {

trace("unLoadHandler: " + event);

}

//-----

private function onSWFLoaded(event:Event):void{

var mClip:Class = event.target.applicationDomain.getDefinition("mc1") as Class;

var mClip1:Class = event.target.applicationDomain.getDefinition("mc2") as Class;

var mClipInstance:MovieClip = new mClip() as MovieClip;

var mClipInstance1:MovieClip = new mClip1() as MovieClip;

//trace(mClipInstance.totalFrames);

var uiComp:UIComponent = new UIComponent();

uiComp.addChild(mClipInstance);

uiComp.addChild(mClipInstance1);

addChild(uiComp);

uiComp.x = 100;

uiComp.y = 100;

uiComp.getChildAt(0).x = 150;

}

]]>

</mx:Script>

</mx:Application>