Flash 9: Text fields and buttons don’t show up in browser
Problem:
You publish your SWF from the Flash CS3 IDE and everything looks fine. You, or someone else checks out the SWF in a browser and although everything kind of works, certain elements like text fields and component buttons aren’t rendering properly!
Solution:
Sometimes certain revisions of the Flash 9 player behave differently than expected, but there is a way you can look into it. Read on…
Save images from Flash to your server using ASP.NET webservices
Problem:
You want to save an image from Flash to a server using Actionscript 3.0 and ASP.NET.
Solution:
Read this article!
Actionscript 3.0: Scale Object from Center Point
Note: This is almost exactly the same solution I posted earlier for rotating an object around its center point (Actionscript 3.0: Rotate Around Center Point). I thought I’d post this slightly altered solution for people who need it.
Problem:
You need to scale a movieclip/sprite from its center point, but its registration point is at (0,0) and you can’t and/or don’t feel like putting this object in the center of a container movieclip and rotating that
Solution:
TCBWMO (Take care of business with the matrix object).
Flash/Actionscript: Innaccurate math results
Problem:
You’re working some math equations with Actionscript and tracing the results when you notice some results are off by a very small value.
output:2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5000000001 2.6 2.7000000001 2.8 2.9 3
Solution:
This is called a floating point error and is apparently a normal computing error that affects all aspects of computing, not just flash. You can fix this by running the values through the correctFloatingPointError function I’ve posted below.
Actionscript 3.0: Rotate Around Center Point
Problem:
You need to rotate a movieclip/sprite around it’s center point, but its registration point is at (0,0) and you can’t and/or don’t feel like putting this object in the center of a container movieclip and rotating that.
Solution:
Use the transform matrix and show it who’s boss.
If you want to get this done simply and quickly, you can use this rotateAroundCenter function:
private function rotateAroundCenter (ob:*, angleDegrees:Number, ptRotationPoint:Point) { var m:Matrix=ob.transform.matrix; m.tx -= ptRotationPoint.x; m.ty -= ptRotationPoint.y; m.rotate (angleDegrees*(Math.PI/180)); m.tx += ptRotationPoint.x; m.ty += ptRotationPoint.y; ob.transform.matrix=m; }
Actionscript 3: Event.target returns children of movieclip
Problem:
You’ve added a listener to a movieclip, but the target returned is another movieclip or sprite within that movieclip.
Solution:
myMovieclip.mouseChildren = false;
Resizing bitmap images with Actionscript 3.0
Hey, I just did a quick experiment with bitmaps in AS3. Nothing fancy, I just loaded in an external JPEG, resized it into 3 different sizes and then drew them to stage. I’m sure someone can use this. For now, everything is hard-coded and the code is right in the .FLA. Maybe I’ll try and make a nice class out of this, although I’m sure there’s already one out there. Anyway, check out the code or download the FLA.
var mediaLoader:Loader = new Loader(); var bmFullsize:Bitmap; var bmHalfsize:Bitmap; var bmThumbsize:Bitmap; mediaLoader.load(new URLRequest("ostrich.jpg")); mediaLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, resizeImages); function resizeImages(e:Event):void { bmFullsize = new Bitmap(e.target.content.bitmapData.clone()); bmHalfsize = new Bitmap(e.target.content.bitmapData.clone()); bmThumbsize = new Bitmap(e.target.content.bitmapData.clone()); bmFullsize.width = 300; bmFullsize.height = 300; bmFullsize.smoothing = true; bmHalfsize.width = 150; bmHalfsize.height = 150; bmHalfsize.x = bmFullsize.width; bmHalfsize.smoothing = true; bmThumbsize.width = 75; bmThumbsize.height = 75; bmThumbsize.x = (bmFullsize.width + bmHalfsize.width); bmThumbsize.smoothing = true; showImages(); } function showImages():void { addChild(bmFullsize); addChild(bmHalfsize); addChild(bmThumbsize); }
APE Class Model
Click above for a giant layout of all the APE classes and the way they inherit each other. Definitely helpful.
Excellent APE Beginner’s Resources!
If you have any interest in Flash + Math/Physics, I recommend you try out APE (the Actionscript Physics Engine) library by Alec Cove. It’s a set of AS3 classes that will easily let you create a world of particles that are affected by physics. If you’ve ever thought about making an action-type game, this might be the place for you to start.
Just today I stumbled upon some great examples by a guy named Andrew Garrahan that were posted to Google Group called APE General.
Follow this link to see the examples: APE Cornerstones: Basic Examples
(Thanks Andrew, these should really help me get started)
There’s also some other great examples in this group and I imagine it will grow as well. I hope this helps someone out there!
Flash CS3 UIScrollBar Trouble
I had some trouble with the CS3 UIScrollbar properly latching onto a dynamic textbox earlier this week. I found a solution and I thought I’d share.
Read more