Check out "Do you speak JavaScript?" - my latest video course on advanced JavaScript.
Language APIs, Popular Concepts, Design Patterns, Advanced Techniques In the Browser

# ActionScript

Flash CS5 is not working posted in ActionScript on 2013-12-19 flash cs5 problem: That's one of those blog post which I'm using as documentation. When I find a bug and I fix it I feel that I have to write the whole process somewhere, because if I meet the same problem in the future I'll really want to save some time. Today I open my Flash CS5 and apparently I can't paint on the stage.
read more

Security sandbox violation error even with crossdomain.xml posted in ActionScript on 2013-06-26 http file security sandbox violation: Again, a very nice surprise by Adobe. I have a flex application which makes cross-domain requests to another server holding REST API. There is a crossdomain.xml file, but the request still doesn't work.
read more

Flash, nodejs sockets and cross-domain policy file posted in ActionScript on 2013-06-13 socket port xml policy file server anotherhost error flash player make: Ok, that was a long journey. I took an already build project and I had to make some changes. It's a complex system involving flex applications, nodejs and a mobile site. Before to start making changes I had to setup the project and make it work on my local machine. I spend few days doing this. At the end I successfully compile the flex application and made the necessary corrections. I uploaded the new swf file and of course it didn't work.
read more

A strange IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR event dispatched posted in ActionScript on 2013-06-11 urlrequest var urlloader addeventlistener json encode obj string http site urlstring string http var urlstring string problem: Really simple GET request from a flex based application. However it fails if GET parameters are passed.
read more

The Flash Builder debugger failed to connect to the running application. posted in ActionScript on 2013-06-07 browser debug application flash player run device project time bin debug folder flash builder debugger: I really don't like FlashBuilder. Mainly because I'm losing a lot of time just to setup the project. Usually when I receive the files I need around 10 hours just to compile successfully. The reasons for those problems are different Flex SDK, different directories' tree, wrong paths, missing libraries or fonts. Today I encounter a brand new type of problem.
read more

Compiling iOS application under Windows with Flex SDK posted in ActionScript on 2013-03-06 file developer application step openssl certificate device app p12 ios: As you may know, Apple doesn't allow creation of iOS applications just like that. Especially under Windows. It's somehow a complex process, which requires several steps in a specific order. However it is still possible and you can do that without Mac.
read more

Few things that you may not know about ActionScript posted in ActionScript on 2012-06-30: Christophe Herreman shows few interesting stuff about ActionScript.
read more

Adobe\'s strategic transformation and the Flash Platform posted in ActionScript on 2011-11-20 adobe adobe community read full article social connections touch interfaces fundamental transformation change innovation time devices: Adobe is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. We are transforming from software in boxes to solutions in the cloud, and to a world of touch interfaces on devices, and social connections everywhere. This is a time of both innovation and change for Adobe and for the Adobe community ...Read the full article here.
read more

Colorize your output in FlashDevelop posted in ActionScript on 2011-10-08 trace flashdevelop: Did you ever wonder how to change the color of your traces in FlashDevelop. It's possible and it is really helpful feature.
read more

Joel Hook\'s Introduction to Robotlegs posted in ActionScript on 2011-08-27 robotlegs part: Great articles by Joel Hook about RobotLegs.Introduction to Robotlegs – Part 1: Context and mediators Introduction to Robotlegs – Part 2: Models Introduction to Robotlegs – Part 3: Services
read more

AS3: Tracing in Flash/Flex posted in ActionScript on 2011-08-16 import flash public str function debug movieclip void trace swf class: Inspired by the article of Dru Kepple I decided to share my experience in Debugging processes in flash/flex enviroment.
read more

AS3: DataGrid with custom ItemRenderers posted in ActionScript on 2011-08-11 date data rating datafield var row import mx column private function void datagridcolumn: One of the big advantages of Flex framework is that you can use a lot of ready components. The DataGrid is really helpful. Especially when you want to list big amount of data and provide ability to edit the information directly in the grid. These days I finished a test task which uses DataGrid and decided to share my experience.
read more

A RobotLegs Book posted in ActionScript on 2011-07-22 book robotlegs joel hooks finished information read: @Stray and @Joel Hooks finished their book for RobotLegs. Definitely it is something that you should read. More information here.
read more

AS3: Creating Facebook Application posted in ActionScript on 2011-07-08 facebook function response http application log friends id api: Facebook became one of the most popular social platforms these days. I just finished a flash based game that uses their API and decided to share my experience.
read more

AS3: Dealing with multi-language data in your application posted in ActionScript on 2011-06-16 language storage key class text key string static storage addvalue http www site trace storage getvalue: I'm a big fen of the MVC pattern. I like the idea to store my data in one place and be able to get it fast. In most of my projects I used a class called Storage for similar purpose. It supports a multi-language data saving, so I decided to share it with you.
read more

5 useful ActionScript 3 tips posted in ActionScript on 2011-05-24 movie color function date movie getchildat month number return tips: Sometimes, when you work on some project, you find something that is small, but very interesting and useful. Usually I'm adding such kind of things in classes that I like to call helpers. The following tips are part of my helpers.
read more

AS3: dynamic text field to curve (TextField on an arcing path) posted in ActionScript on 2011-05-04 text var curvedtext textformat number radius tf direction endangle startangle: [2]Most of the articles here are tightly connected to my daily work. As you probably know from one of my latest posts (runtime font loading/embedding) I worked a lot with texts these days. There was a request for producing curved text from a dynamic field. Of course it wasn't so easy to create such a feature. I wrote a simple class that did the job and I decided to share it.
read more

AS3: runtime font loading (embedding) posted in ActionScript on 2011-04-25 font field loader import flash swf public static const format font_export_name string font_file_name class: Flash is wonderful technology and has many advantages. Before a couple of years it was really popuplar to use it for displaying fonts that are not installed on the user's machine. Flash is still powerfull tool for such kind of tasks. These days I worked on a project which had to use a lot of fonts. It wasn't possible to embed all of them so I decided to implement runtime embedding.
read more

AS3: converting XML to JSON object posted in ActionScript on 2011-04-02 label url image xml id img cdata node var version xml2json class http site int childnode object: I'm absolutely sure that you are using external data in your flash/flex applications. It is a good practice to transfer information in XML format. Most of the projects that I'm working on also use XML and in most of them I have a class that converts the data to JSON object. The problem with this workflow is that the parser's logic is always different because the XML is different. These days I wrote a class that solved this problem and directly converted every given XML file to a JSON object.
read more

FlashDevelop scripting: open file by name (part 2) posted in ActionScript on 2011-03-29 file results script open: After a couple of days of using my script for file opening I decided to rewrite it and add more functionalities.
read more

FlashDevelop scripting: open file by text selection posted in ActionScript on 2011-03-20 file script projectpath system path text private static string plugincore: FlashDevelop is one of the most preferred editors for the flash development. I've been also using it last few years. I found it helpful for writing JavaScript, HTML, CSS and PHP code as well. I just took a big project with over 1000 php files and it is a little bit difficult to open the right file, even by using the Project panel. That's why I decided to invest time in solving this task and found that I can write my own C# script and run it.
read more

Convert Adobe Flash FLA files into HTML and reach more devices posted in ActionScript on 2011-03-13 html supported wallaby reach: "Wallaby" is the codename for an experimental technology that converts the artwork and animation contained in Adobe® Flash® Professional (FLA) files into HTML. This allows you to reuse and extend the reach of your content to devices that do not support the Flash runtimes.
read more

Creating simple WYSIWYG editor with AS3 (Flex) posted in ActionScript on 2011-02-11 text str function font html string editor mx var code: There are dozen of JavaScript WYSIWYG editors available, but most of them are too complicated and a little bit buggy. From time to time I'm using my own tool to provide such kind of functionality. It accepts and exports valid html. I decided to share it with you and explain how I built it.
read more

Creating mp3 player with RobotLegs (basics tutorial) posted in ActionScript on 2011-02-09 import public function event data preloaderevent robotlegs events class: Have you ever wondered how to optimize your ActionScript applications? Have you searched for a nice framework that will save you a lot of time and will organize your structure? If yes then RobotLegs is for you. In this article I'll show you how to use it to create a simple mp3 player which loads a configuration xml file, parse it and play mp3 files.
read more

AS3: Using custom metadata in flex (part 2) posted in ActionScript on 2011-01-27 metadata public var data class string public var method metadataparser mycustomclass tag: Because of the huge interest in AS3: Using Custom Metadata in Flex (part 1) I decided to dig a little bit deeper in this topic. You already know how to get information about your custom metadata, so in this article I'll show you how to use it.
read more

AS3: Using custom Metadata in Flex (part 1) posted in ActionScript on 2010-12-28 metadata public flex mycustomclass information metadata tags tag as3 flash utils describetype public function mycustomclass: I'm sure that you've already used metadata tags in your flex applications. There are several reserved keywords like [Bindable], [Embed], [Event] and so on (the full list is available here). The function of the metadata tags is to provide additional information to the flex compiler. For example information about embeding assets, dispatching events. This article doesn't explain how to use the default flex tags (you can learn that from here). It shows you how to create your own metadata tags and how to use them.
read more

How to generate SWC file from ActionScript package posted in ActionScript on 2010-12-18 swc file classes output generated swc file compc exe usage: SWC file format is really useful when you want to transfer or to compact your ActionScript libraries. It is also used for exporting assets, which can be used later. Let's imagine that you want to create a .swc file for only small part of your application, i.e. pure .as files. I searched a lot for the fastest and easier solution and finally I think that the usage of compc.exe is the best option.
read more

Change the quality of all the bitmaps of your flash document posted in ActionScript on 2010-12-15 problem bitmaps arsthanea check flash provided ve met extension jsfl solutions edit library: I know that you've met this problem. You have a lot of bitmaps in your library and you have to edit all of them one by one. There are several solutions of this problem. One of them is to use JSFL. There is another one - an extension for Flash provided by ArsThanea. Check it out here.
read more

Scaling rounded corners in Flash posted in ActionScript on 2010-12-11 clip grid clip slicing height width void function rectangle resizing: I'm absolutely sure that you've already met this problem. You know, these nice rounded buttons that are provided by the designer. They are really cool, but sometimes the label of the button is so long that you have to resize/scale the image. ActionScript3 provides simple way to solve this issue.
read more

Deep linking in flash with AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-11-14 flash page function hash address deeplinkingclass dl html swf home: Many people will say that Flash is not SEO friendly. Actually that's not 100% true. Flash is just a tool that shows your data. Exactly the same as the HTML. In this article I'll show you how to use ActionScript3 and JavaScript together to make your flash sites SEO friendly and provide a different URL for each of your pages.
read more

Pattern fill with AS3 (repeat-x) posted in ActionScript on 2010-11-04 graphics clip bd: Currently I'm working on an AIR application and in the header of it there is a nice gradient which has to be repeated by the x axis to fill the whole screen area. One way to do it is to use a really wide image, something like 2000px. The other way is to use a simple trick and repeat a small part with the gradient.
read more

Adobe AIR: how to make things upon closing the application posted in ActionScript on 2010-11-03 application closing things: Sometimes we need to catch the closing of our AIR application to make some things like storing the window's position and size. We can do that in our code.
read more

checkPolicyFile flag was not set posted in ActionScript on 2010-10-26 loader var context loadercontext crossdomain xml file checkpolicyfile flag set: Sometimes the uploading of crossdomain.xml file is not enough to get the things working.
read more

How to protect your SWF file posted in ActionScript on 2010-10-15 function swf protect void check file import flash public ondatafiledtoload onfailed files string: Is there any way to protect your flash work? To be honest the answer is NO. As you probably know everything that is uploaded on a web server and is accessible from a web browser is downloaded to the users' computers and could be found in the temporary directories. Once someone gets your swf file he could use one of the dozen decompilers to reproduce the .fla and .as files. Anyway, there are still some ways to make stealing difficult.
read more

Adding outline of text or MovieClip in Flash with AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-10-06 outline filterarray color movieclip: As you probably know there is no such kind of option. We should deal with a little AS3 code.
read more

How to create realistic Earth globe in Flash (AS3, Papervision3D) posted in ActionScript on 2010-09-16 stage globe var import org papervision3d rotationx rotationy moviematerial sphere stage stageheight stage stagewidth: Papervision3D is a perfect tool for the purpose. As you will see such a task needs only few lines of code. To make the example a little bit more interesting we will add additional code to control the rotation of the globe by the mouse.
read more

Pixel perfect in Papervision3d posted in ActionScript on 2010-09-12 camera papervision3d: Did you ever wonder how to create a pixel perfect animation in Papervision3d? I designed my portfolio site in Photoshop, but when I tried to integrate the 3D effects I spent a lot of time in changing the zoom and focus length to match the exact dimensions. And even then they were not perfect.
read more

Distort MovieClip in Flash with AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-09-05 getrandomnum clip setting mtd tweentype out_expo end getrandomnum distort private function number movieclip distortimagewrapper: As you probably know there is no simple way to distort a MovieClip in Flash. The solution that I've found uses AS3. Special thanks to Thomas Pfeiffer and Ruben Swieringa. They share their experience with this problem.
read more

Duplicate loaded images in AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-08-30 duplicate target var rect movieclip function bitmap loader import flash display target parent: During the creation of the latest changes in my portfolio site, I needed to duplicate a loaded image that has to be placed as a material in papervison3d's cube. We don't have duplicateMovieClip in AS3, so we have to use another technique.
read more

How to use Google Maps API in flash posted in ActionScript on 2010-08-19 import map flash google maps icon private function adding setting mapevent api: Google offers a lot of free tools for us. One of them is really useful and easy to work with - GoogleMaps API. In this article I will show you how to import a map in Flash and place an icon in a specific place.
read more

Create your own tween manager class in AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-08-07 arr ease startpos calcendpos steps var calcendpos steps break object steps break case properties start public function: There are some features in Flash that we can't work without. Tween classes are among the most used ones. They give you ability to animate objects without using the timeline, to change the animation fast and easy. The idea of these classes is very simple. That's why I think that it is a good idea to have your own tween manager that you can modify to fit into your needs.
read more

Javascript to Flash communication and vise versa posted in ActionScript on 2010-08-05 area html text flash javascript: The communication between Flash and JavaScript is really important part of the web sites today. That's why I decided to share how to do it.
read more

Delegation in AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-08-02 function param2 func param1 delegation: I just can't code without delegation. I'm using it every day and wanted to share this method with you.
read more

Papervision3d: Finding 2D coordinates of a 3D object posted in ActionScript on 2010-07-25 private var 3d number import org papervision3d addsphereandtooltip item mousey mousex basicview displayobject3d event: Papervision3d is probably the most popular 3D flash engine. There are dozen of applications/sites that use it. These days I also decided to create a 3D effect in my portfolio site. Everything works fine, but I needed a tooltip for each of the 3D objects on my scene. To be able to animate everything I needed 2D coordinates of all my 3D elements.
read more

Trace JSON object in AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-07-17 str description gettypeof o spaces var object information users: I'm absolutely sure that all of you are working with JSON objects. It's pretty helpful to be able to print them and find out what exactly they contain. I wrote a simple function that makes this possible.
read more

Load MySQL data in Flash with AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-07-10 text data city import flash ondatafiledtoload php file onloaddata string url: There are some things that I'm doing in almost every project. Loading of data in Flash is actually one of them. In this article I'll show you how to load information from MySQL database. We will use PHP as a junction between the Flash and the database. You need an Apache server like XAMPP or EasyPHP installed or just a hosting account that supports php.
read more

Remove tags from a string in AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-06-30 text tags var string text replace removehtml text text replace gi text text str regexp gi text: A couple of months ago I integrated a nice WYSIWYG editor written in Flex in my CMS. It worked fine, till yesterday I needed to add more features like text formatting and font color changing. As you know the Flex RichTextEditor component adds some additional tags that I definitely don't want to send to the database. So I wrote a simple function to remove these tags.
read more

Customize ComboBox in Flash (AS3) posted in ActionScript on 2010-06-17 combo tf data import flash dp additem label customcellrenderer function combo textfield setstyle oncombochange cellrenderer movieclip: In my work as a flash developer very often I receive from the client just one photoshop file with the design of the application/site that has to be coded. In the last project the designer made the ComboBox in the style of the site. So I couldn't use the default look of the Flash's drop down component.
read more

Code Flex applications with FlashDevelop posted in ActionScript on 2010-06-07 flashdevelop flex project project9 press f5 project select flex property8 choose project location property8 choose sdk location property8 flex sdk location change flex sdk: read more

Tween Manager Class in AS3 posted in ActionScript on 2010-03-16 customproperty object tween tweenmanager xtween property function change tweenmanager tween loop end: TweenManager is ActionScript3 class that helps you to animate your objects in flash. You don't need to create timeline type animations, because you can control every property of the object. Also it helps you to create a sequence by different animations/events. In the examples below I'll show you how to use the manager to solve different problems during your daily flash work.
read more

Remove the yellow border in flash/flex posted in ActionScript on 2010-02-26 stage stagefocusrect false easy stage stagefocusrect post rockabit solution: The solution was so easy: stage.stageFocusRect = false;Thanks to Rockabit for the post here.
read more

Embed fonts in all the text fields of your flash document posted in ActionScript on 2010-02-26 jsfl script flash embed main flash_cs3_extending pdf http livedocs adobe simply ctrl r commangs run command flash commangs run jsfl embedcharactersintextfield jsfl: Very helpful solution that will save you maybe several hours. I used JSFL language and very short script to parse all the items in the library. Then for every item just embed the characters that I wanted. Get the script from here http://www.outset.ws/files/jsfl/embedCharactersInTextField.jsfl. In flash: Commangs -> Run command (or simply Ctrl+R) and point the script file.You can download the jsfl documentation from here http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main/flash_cs3_extending.pdf.
read more

Flex: tabbing bug posted in ActionScript on 2009-09-29 swf jeff depascale attach swf jeff deactivate attach swf focusmanager deactivate attach tabenabled focusmanager deactivate tabchildren tabenabled focusmanager tabindex tabchildren tabenabled set tabindex tabchildren flex set tabindex embed flex set tab ordering swf swf embed flex: read more

Flex DataGrid vertical scrolling bug posted in ActionScript on 2009-09-09 datagrid data_change listener datagrid flexevent data_change listener invalidateproperties flexevent data_change itemrenderer invalidateproperties flexevent itemrenderer itemrenderer invalidateproperties custom itemrenderer itemrenderer datagrid custom itemrenderer: read more

Flash CS3 crashes when closing the testing window ! posted in ActionScript on 2008-11-14 textfield crashes testing window flash scrolling text field creating scrolling text mask directly m working bkwld problem applied: I'm working with a class for creating scrolling text field. So I'm using a MovieClip as mask and TextField. When I test the movie and close the testing window Flash just crashes. It's because I have applied the mask directly to the TextField :) The problem is described here. Thank you BKWLD !
read more