User manual MACROMEDIA FLASH 8 - LEARNING FLASH LITE 1.X ACTIONSCRIPT

Learning Flash Lite 1.X ActionScript Trademarks 1 Step RoboPDF, ActiveEdit, ActiveTest, Authorware, Blue Sky Software, Blue Sky, Breeze, Breezo, Captivate, Central, ColdFusion, Contribute, Database Explorer, Director, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, FlashCast, FlashHelp, Flash Lite, FlashPaper, Flash Video Endocer, Flex, Flex Builder, Fontographer, FreeHand, Generator, HomeSite, JRun, MacRecorder, Macromedia, MXML, RoboEngine, RoboHelp, RoboInfo, RoboPDF, Roundtrip, Roundtrip HTML, Shockwave, SoundEdit, Studio MX, UltraDev, and WebHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words, or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, service marks, or trade names of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally. Third-Party Information This guide contains links to third-party websites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites. Speech compression and decompression technology licensed from Nellymoser, Inc. (www.nellymoser.com). SorensonTM SparkTM video compression and decompression technology licensed from Sorenson Media, Inc. Opera ® browser Copyright © 1995-2002 Opera Software ASA and its suppliers. All rights reserved. Macromedia Flash 8 video is powered by On2 TrueMotion video technology. © 1992-2005 On2 Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.on2.com. Visual SourceSafe is a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Copyright © 2005 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without written approval from Macromedia, Inc. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the owner or authorized user of a valid copy of the software with which this manual was provided may print out one copy of this manual from an electronic version of this manual for the sole purpose of such owner or authorized user learning to use such software, provided that no part of this manual may be printed out, reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted for any other purposes, including, without limitation, commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this documentation or providing paid-for support services. Acknowledgments Project Management: Mary Leigh Burke Writing: Tim Statler Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato Editing: Linda Adler, Geta Carlson, Evelyn Eldridge, Mary Kraemer, Lisa Stanziano Production Management: Patrice O'Neill, Kristin Conradi, Yuko Yagi Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman. John Francis, Geeta Karmarkar, Masayo Noda, Paul Rangel, Arena Reed, Mario Reynoso Special thanks to Lisa Friendly, Bonnie Loo, Erick Vera, the beta testers, and the entire Flash Lite engineering and QA teams. First Edition: September 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 601 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94103 Contents Chapter 1: About Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Differences between Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1 ActionScript . . . 6 Flash 4 ActionScript not supported by Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript. . . . 6 Features not available in Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 2: Flash 4 ActionScript Primer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Getting and setting movie clip properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Controlling other timelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Using variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Emulating arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Working with text and strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Using the call() function to create functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Using the eval() function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 3: Common Scripting Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Determining device and platform capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Opening a web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Initiating a phone call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Initiating a text or multimedia message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Initiating an e-mail message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Loading external SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Loading external data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3 4 Contents CHAPTER 1 About Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript You use ActionScript to add programming logic and interactivity to your Macromedia Flash Lite applications. The version of ActionScript in Flash Lite 1.0 and 1.1--referred to collectively as Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript--is a hybrid of Flash 4 ActionScript, plus additional commands and properties specific the Flash Lite player, such as the ability to initiate phone calls or text messages, or get time and date information from the device. This chapter contains the following topics: Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Differences between Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1 ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Flash 4 ActionScript not supported by Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Features not available in Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1 Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript overview Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript consists of the following parts: This includes operators (for example, comparison and assignment operators), movie clip properties (for example, _height, _x, and _y), Timeline control functions (for example, gotoAndPlay() or stop()), and network functions, such as the loadVariables() and loadMovie() functions (Flash Lite 1.1 only). For a list of unsupported Flash 4 ActionScript, see "Flash 4 ActionScript not supported by Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript" on page 6. Phone integration commands and properties Flash Player 4 ActionScript Flash Lite provides commands that let you, for example, query the date and time information from the device, initiate a phone call or short message service (SMS) text message, or start external applications installed on the device. Platform capability variables (Flash Lite 1.1 only) These properties provide information about the capabilities of the device or Flash Lite runtime environment. For example, the _capLoadData variable indicates if your application can load data over the network. 5 fscommand2() function Like the fscommand() function, you use fscommand2() to communicate with the host environment or system--in this case, the mobile phone or device. The fscommand2() function provides enhancements to fscommand(), including the ability to pass an arbitrary number of arguments and to retrieve immediate return values (rather than having to wait until the next frame, as with fscommand()). Differences between Flash Lite 1.0 and Flash Lite 1.1 ActionScript The following Flash Lite 1.1 ActionScript features are not available in Flash Lite 1.0: Network access or network status information. For example, in Flash Lite 1.0 you cannot use the loadVariables() or loadMovie() functions to load external data or SWF files, or the various fscommand2() commands for determining a device's connection signal strength or the status of a network request. Getting time and date information from the device. Platform capability variables, which provide information about the capabilities of the Flash Lite platform and of the device. The fscommand2() function and its associated commands, such as SetSoftKeys and FullScreen. The scroll and maxscroll text field properties. Flash 4 ActionScript not supported by Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript The following Flash 4 ActionScript features are unsupported, or only partially supported, in Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript: The startDrag() and stopDrag() functions. Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript supports a subset of the button events supported in Flash Player 4. For more information about handling button events, see Chapter 1, "Creating Interactivity and Navigation" in Developing Flash Lite Applications. Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript supports a subset of key events supported in Flash Player 4. For more information about supported key events in Flash Lite, see Chapter 1, "Creating Interactivity and Navigation" in Developing Flash Lite Applications. The _dropTarget property. 6 About Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript The _soundBufTime property. The _url property. The String() conversion function. Features not available in Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript Because Flash Lite player is based on an older version of Flash Player, it does not support all the programming features available in more recent releases of Flash Player or other programming languages that you might be familiar with. This section discusses programming features not available in Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript and available alternatives and work-arounds. User-defined functions Flash Lite 1.x does not support the ability to define and call custom functions. However, you can use the call() function to execute code that resides on an arbitrary frame in the timeline. For more information, see "Using the call() function to create functions" on page 13. Native arrays, objects, or other complex data types Flash Lite 1.x does not support native array data structures or other complete data types. However, you can emulate arrays using pseudo-arrays, a technique that involves using the eval() function to dynamically evaluate concatenated strings. For more information, see "Emulating arrays" on page 11. Runtime loading of external image or sound files Unlike the desktop version of Flash Player, Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript cannot load external JPEG files or MP3 files. In Flash Lite 1.1 you can use the loadMovie() function to load external SWF files. For more information, see "Loading external SWF files" on page 22. Features not available in Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript 7 8 About Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript CHAPTER 2 Flash 4 ActionScript Primer Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript is based on the version of ActionScript that was first available in Flash Player 4. Consequently, several programming features available in later versions of Flash Player (for desktop systems) are not available to Flash Lite 1.x applications. If you're unfamiliar with Flash 4 ActionScript syntax and features or if you've forgotten some of the details from previous Flash development work, this chapter provides a primer on using Flash 4 ActionScript in your Flash Lite applications. This chapter contains the following topics: Getting and setting movie clip properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Controlling other timelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Using variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Emulating arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Working with text and strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Using the call() function to create functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Using the eval() function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 2 Getting and setting movie clip properties To get or set a movie clip property (if settable), you can use dot syntax or the setProperty() or getProperty() functions. You can also use the tellTarget() function. To use dot syntax, specify the movie clip instance name, followed by a dot (.) and then the property name. For example, the following code gets the x screen coordinate (represented by the _x movie clip property) of the movie clip named cartoonArea, and assigns the result to a variable named x_pos. x_pos = cartoonArea._x; The following example is equivalent to the previous example, but uses the getProperty() function to retrieve the movie clip's x position: x_pos = getProperty(cartoonArea, _x); 9 The setProperty() function lets you set a property of a movie clip instance, as shown in the following example: setProperty(cartoonArea, _x, 100); The following example is equivalent to the previous example but uses dot syntax: cartoonArea._x = 100; You can also get or set movie clip properties from within a tellTarget() statement. The following code is equivalent to the setProperty() example shown previously: tellTarget("/cartoonArea") { _x = 100; } For more information about the tellTarget() function, see "Controlling other timelines" on page 10. Controlling other timelines To specify a path to a timeline, use slash syntax (/) combined with dots (..) to build the path reference. You can also use _levelN, _root, or _parent from Flash 5 notation to refer to, respectively, a specific movie level, the application's root timeline, or the parent timeline. For example, suppose you had a movie clip instance named box on your SWF file's main timeline. The box instance, in turn, contains another movie clip instance named cards. The following examples target the movie clip cards from the main timeline: tellTarget("/box/cards") tellTarget("_level0/box/cards") The following example targets the main timeline from the movie clip cards: tellTarget("../../cards") tellTarget("_root") The following example targets the parent movie clip cards: tellTarget("../cards") tellTarget("_parent/cards") 10 Flash 4 ActionScript Primer Using variables To specify a variable on a timeline, use slash syntax (/) combined with dots (..) and colons (:). You can also use the dot notation. The following code refers to the car variable on the main timeline: /:car _root.car The following example shows the car variable in a movie clip instance that resides on the main timeline: /mc1/mc2/:car _root.mc1.mc2.car The following example shows the car variable in a movie clip instance that resides on the current timeline: mc2/:car mc2.car Emulating arrays Arrays are useful for creating and manipulating ordered lists of information such as variables and values. However, Flash Lite 1.1 does not support native array data structures. A common technique in Flash Lite (and Flash 4) programming is to emulate arrays with string processing. An emulated array is also called a pseudo-array. The key to pseudo-array processing is the eval() ActionScript function, which lets you access variables, properties, or movie clips by name. For more information, see "Using the eval() function" on page 17. A pseudo-array typically consists of two or more variables that share the same base name, followed by a numeric suffix. The suffix is the index for each array element. For example, suppose you create the following ActionScript variables: color_1 color_2 color_3 color_4 = = = = "orange"; "green"; "blue"; "red"; You can then use the following code to loop over the elements in the pseudo-array: for (i = 1; i <=4; i++) { trace (eval ("color_" add i)); } Emulating arrays 11 In addition to letting you reference existing variables, you can also use the eval() function on the left side of a variable assignment to create variables at runtime. For example, suppose you want to maintain a list of high scores as a user plays a game. Each time the user completes a turn, you add their score to the list: eval("highScore" add scoreIndex) = currentScore; scoreIndex++; Each time this code executes, it adds a new item to the list of high scores and then increments the scoreIndex variable, which determines each item's index in the list. For instance, you might end up with the following variables: highScore1 = 2000 highScore2 = 1500 highScore3 = 3000 Working with text and strings Flash Lite provides some basic ActionScript commands and properties for working with text. You can get and set the values of text fields, concatenate strings, URL-encode or URL-decode text strings, and create scrolling text fields. This section contains the following topics: "Concatenating strings" on page 12 "Scrolling text" on page 12 Concatenating strings To concatenate strings in Flash Lite, you use the add operator, as the following example shows: city = "Boston"; team = "Red Sox"; fullName = city add " " add team; // Result: // fullName = "Boston Red Sox" Scrolling text You can use the scroll property of dynamic and input text fields to get or set the field's current scroll position. You can also use the maxscroll position to determine a text field's current scroll position relative to the maximum scroll position. For an example of how to create a scrolling text field, see "Creating scrolling text (Flash Professional Only)" in Developing Flash Lite Applications. 12 Flash 4 ActionScript Primer Using the call() function to create functions You can't define or call custom functions in Flash Lite as you can in Flash Player 5 and later. However, you can use the call() ActionScript function to execute code that resides on an arbitrary frame in the timeline. This technique lets you encapsulate commonly used code in a single location, making it easier to maintain. The call() function takes a frame number or frame label as a parameter. For example, the following ActionScript calls the code located on the frame labeled moveUp: call("moveUp"); The call() function operates synchronously; any ActionScript that follows a call() function call won't execute until all of the ActionScript on the specified frame finishes executing. To call ActionScript on another frame: 1. In a new Flash document, insert a keyframe on Frame 10. 2. With the new keyframe selected, open the Actions panel (Window > Actions), and type the following code: trace("Hello from frame 10"); 3. Select the keyframe on Frame 1, and in the Actions panel, type the following code: stop(); call(10); This code stops the playhead on Frame 1, and then calls the code on Frame 10. 4. Test the application in the emulator and open the Output panel (Window > Output). You should see "Hello from frame 10" displayed in the Output panel. Using the call() function to create functions 13 You can also call code that resides on another timeline, such as a movie clip's timeline. To execute the code, specify the movie clip instance name followed by a colon, and then the frame number or label. For example, the following ActionScript calls the code that resides on the frame labeled moveUp in the movie clip instance named callClip: call("callClip:moveUp"); This technique is often used to create call clips or function clips--movie clips whose sole purpose is to encapsulate regularly used code. A call clip contains a keyframe for each function you want to create. You typically label each keyframe according to its purpose. Macromedia also recommends that you create a new layer for each new keyframe, and that you give each layer the same name as the frame label you assign to the keyframe. The following figure shows the Timeline of an example call clip. The first keyframe of a call clip always contains a stop() action, which ensures that the playhead doesn't continually loop over the frames in its Timeline. Subsequent keyframes contain code for each "function." Each function keyframe is labeled to identify what it does. To make editing and viewing the call clip easier, each function keyframe is typically inserted on a separate layer. First keyframe contains stop() action Frame labels Each keyframe contains code. The following procedure explains how to create and use a call clip. To create and use a call clip: 1. 2. 3. In Flash Professional 8, create a new document from the Flash Lite 1.1 Symbian Series 60 document template. Select Insert > New Symbol. In the Create New Symbol dialog box, type Call Clip in the Name text box, and then click OK. The movie clip opens in editing mode. 14 Flash 4 ActionScript Primer 4. Click the Add New Layer button the Timeline window twice to insert two new layers. Name the top layer Actions, the second layer function1, and the third layer function2. Insert a keyframe on Frame 2 of the function1 layer, and another keyframe on Frame 3 of the function2 layer, as the following figure shows: 5. 6. 7. 8. Select the keyframe on the Actions layer and open the Actions panel. Add a stop() action to the Actions panel. Select the keyframe on Frame 2 of the function1 layer and do the following: a. In the Property inspector, type function1 in the Frame Label text box. b. In the Actions panel (Window > Actions), type the following code: trace("function1 was called."); 9. Select the keyframe on Frame 3 of the function2 layer and do the following: a. In the Property inspector, type function2 in the Frame Label text box. b. In the Actions panel (Window > Actions), type the following code: trace("function2 was called."); 10. Press Control+E (Windows) or Command+E (Macintosh) to return to the main Timeline. Using the call() function to create functions 15 11. Set your document's view to include the work area around the Stage by selecting View > Work Area. Because the call clip doesn't need to be visible to the user, you can place it in the work area. the Library panel (Window > Library) and drag the Call Clip symbol to the work area around the Stage. The call clip doesn't contain any visual elements so it appears on the Stage as a small circle, representing the movie clip's registration point. Call clip instance 12. Open Work area around the Stage TIP To make your call clip more easily identifiable on the Stage, add some text or other visual element to the first keyframe in the call clip's Timeline. 13. In the Property inspector, type callClip in the Instance Name text box. the Timeline, select Frame 1 on the layer named ActionScript. In the Actions panel, enter the following code: call("callClip:function1"); call("callClip:function2"); 14. In 15. 16. Test your application in the emulator (Control > Test Movie). You should see the following text in the Output panel: function1 was called. function2 was called. 16 Flash 4 ActionScript Primer Using the eval() function The eval() function lets you dynamically reference variables and movie clip instances at runtime. The eval() function takes a string expression as a parameter and returns either the value of the variable represented by that expression or a reference to a movie clip. For example, the following code evaluates the value of the name ActionScript variable and assigns the result to nameValue: name = "Jack"; nameValue = eval("name"); // result: nameValue = "Jack" The eval() function is often used with for() loops and the add (string concatenation) operator to create string-based arrays, because Flash Lite doesn't support native array data structures. For more information, see "Emulating arrays" on page 11. You can also use eval() to reference movie clip instances by name. For example, suppose you had three movie clips named clip1, clip2, and clip3. The following for() loop increments the x position of each clip by 10 pixels: for(index = 1; index <= 3; index++) { eval("clip" add index)._x += 10 } Using the eval() function 17 18 Flash 4 ActionScript Primer CHAPTER 3 Common Scripting Tasks This chapter discusses common Flash Lite scripting tasks for working with the user's device. These include, for example, getting device capability information, initiating phone calls and text messages, and determining network status. This chapter contains the following topics: Determining device and platform capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Opening a web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Initiating a phone call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Initiating a text or multimedia message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Initiating an e-mail message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Loading external SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Loading external data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3 Determining device and platform capabilities Flash Lite 1.1 includes a number of ActionScript variables that provide information about features and capabilities available to Flash Lite applications running on a particular device. For example, the _capLoadData variable indicates if the device supports loading external data, and the _capSMS variable indicates if the device supports sending SMS (short message service) messages. For a full list of capability variables, see "Capabilities" in the Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript Language Reference. 19 Typically, you use capability variables to determine if a device supports a specific feature before attempting to use that feature. For example, suppose that you wanted to develop an application that downloads data from a web server using the loadVariables() function. Before attempting to load the data, you can first check the value of the _capLoadData variable to determine if the device supports that feature, as follows: if(_capLoadData == 1) { loadVariables("http://www.macromedia.com/data.txt"); } else { status_message = "Sorry, unable to load external data." } Flash Lite defines capability variables on the root timeline of the main SWF file. So to access these variables from another timeline--for example, from within a movie clip's timeline--you need to qualify the path to the variable. For instance, the following example uses a slash (/) to provide the fully qualified path to the _capSMS variable. canSendSMS = /:_capSMS Opening a web page You use the getURL() command to open a web page in the device's web browser. This is the same way you open a web page from a desktop Flash application. For example, the following opens the Macromedia web page: getURL("http:www.macromedia.com"); Flash Lite processes only one getURL() action per frame or per event handler. Certain handsets restrict the getURL() action to keypress events only, in which case the getURL() call is processed only if it is triggered within a keypress event handler. Even under such circumstances, only one getURL() action is processed per keypress event handler. The following code, attached to a button instance on the Stage, opens a web page when the user presses the Select button on the device: on (keyPress ""){ getURL("http://www.macromedia.com"); } Initiating a phone call To initiate a phone call from a Flash Lite application, you use the getURL() function. Typically, you use this function to open a web page, but in this case you specify tel: as the protocol (in place of http), and then provide the phone number you wish the phone to dial. When you call this function, Flash Lite displays a confirmation dialog box asking the user for permission to make the call to the specified number. 20 Common Scripting Tasks