Adobe Flex 2 - Programming ActionScript 3.0

Contents......Page 3
Overview of ActionScript Programming......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Using this manual......Page 12
ActionScript 3.0 documentation......Page 13
Developer Center......Page 14
About ActionScript......Page 15
Core language features......Page 16
ECMAScript for XML (E4X)......Page 17
DOM3 event model......Page 18
Low-level data access......Page 19
Compatibility with previous versions......Page 20
The basic ActionScript development process......Page 23
Options for organizing your code......Page 24
Embedding code in Flex MXML files......Page 25
Designing your ActionScript application......Page 26
Creating the HelloWorld project and the Greeter class......Page 27
Creating a Flex application that uses your ActionScript code......Page 28
Enhancing the HelloWorld application......Page 30
Running subsequent examples......Page 34
Language overview......Page 35
Objects and classes......Page 37
Packages......Page 38
Importing packages......Page 40
Namespaces......Page 43
Defining namespaces......Page 44
Applying namespaces......Page 45
Using namespaces......Page 46
Variables......Page 50
Understanding variable scope......Page 52
Default values......Page 54
Data types......Page 55
Compile-time type checking......Page 56
Run-time type checking......Page 57
The is operator......Page 59
Dynamic classes......Page 60
Number data type......Page 62
Object data type......Page 64
Type conversions......Page 65
Explicit conversions......Page 66
Casting to int, uint, and Number......Page 67
Casting to Boolean......Page 69
Casting to String......Page 70
Dot syntax......Page 71
Literals......Page 72
Semicolons......Page 73
Comments......Page 74
Keywords and reserved words......Page 75
Constants......Page 76
Operators......Page 77
Operator precedence and associativity......Page 78
Primary operators......Page 80
Unary operators......Page 81
Additive operators......Page 82
Equality operators......Page 83
Assignment operators......Page 84
if..else......Page 85
if..else if......Page 86
switch......Page 87
for..in......Page 88
for each..in......Page 89
do..while......Page 90
Calling functions......Page 91
Function expressions......Page 92
Choosing between statements and expressions......Page 94
Returning values from functions......Page 96
Function parameters......Page 97
Passing arguments by value or by reference......Page 98
Default parameter values......Page 99
The arguments object......Page 100
The ... (rest) parameter......Page 102
Functions as objects......Page 103
The scope chain......Page 104
Function closures......Page 105
Contents......Page 107
Class definitions......Page 108
Class attributes......Page 109
Class body......Page 110
Access control namespace attributes......Page 111
static attribute......Page 113
Static variables......Page 114
Methods......Page 115
Constructor methods......Page 116
Static methods......Page 117
Instance methods......Page 118
Get and set accessor methods......Page 120
Bound methods......Page 121
Enumerations with classes......Page 122
Embedded asset classes......Page 125
Interfaces......Page 126
Defining an interface......Page 127
Implementing an interface in a class......Page 128
Inheritance......Page 129
Instance properties and inheritance......Page 131
Access control specifiers and inheritance......Page 132
Overriding variables not permitted......Page 133
The super statement......Page 134
Overriding getters and setters......Page 135
Static properties not inherited......Page 136
Static properties and the scope chain......Page 137
History of ActionScript OOP support......Page 138
ActionScript 1.0......Page 139
ActionScript 2.0......Page 141
The ActionScript 3.0 class object......Page 142
The prototype object......Page 143
The AS3 namespace......Page 145
Defining the GeometricShapes classes......Page 147
Defining the shape classes......Page 149
Polymorphism and the factory method......Page 153
Enhancing the example application......Page 155
Contents......Page 157
Understanding the display architecture......Page 158
Core display classes......Page 160
More efficient rendering and smaller file sizes......Page 162
Improved depth management......Page 163
Easier subclassing of display objects......Page 164
Properties and methods of the DisplayObject class......Page 165
Working with display object containers......Page 166
Traversing the display list......Page 170
Handling events for display objects......Page 172
Drawing vector graphics......Page 173
Working with text......Page 174
Loading content dynamically......Page 175
The LoaderInfo class......Page 176
The LoaderContext class......Page 178
Controlling ActionScript 3.0 movie clips......Page 179
Creating and manipulating bitmaps......Page 180
Working with SimpleButton objects......Page 181
Working with video......Page 182
Example: SpriteArranger......Page 183
The DrawingCanvas class......Page 184
Adding display objects to the canvas......Page 186
Clicking and dragging display objects......Page 188
Rearranging display object layering......Page 189
Core ActionScript 3.0 Data Types and Classes......Page 191
Creating Date objects......Page 193
Getting time unit values......Page 194
Doing date and time arithmetic......Page 195
Converting between time zones......Page 196
The Timer class......Page 197
Timing functions in the flash.utils package......Page 199
Defining the SimpleClock class......Page 200
Creating the clock face......Page 201
Displaying the current time......Page 202
Contents......Page 205
Declaring strings......Page 206
The length property......Page 207
Comparing strings......Page 208
Obtaining string representations of other objects......Page 209
Concatenating strings......Page 210
Finding a substring by character position......Page 211
Finding the character position of a matching substring......Page 212
Creating an array of substrings segmented by a delimiter......Page 213
Finding matching substrings......Page 214
Replacing matched substrings......Page 215
Example: ASCII Art......Page 217
Extracting tab-delimited values......Page 219
Using String methods to normalize image titles......Page 221
Generating the ASCII art text......Page 223
Contents......Page 225
Indexed arrays......Page 226
Inserting array elements......Page 227
Removing array elements......Page 228
Sorting an array......Page 230
Querying an array......Page 234
Extending the Array class......Page 235
Declaring the subclass......Page 236
TypedArray constructor......Page 237
TypedArray overridden methods......Page 238
Associative arrays with string keys......Page 240
Associative arrays with object keys......Page 242
Object keys and memory management......Page 243
Multidimensional arrays......Page 244
Two indexed arrays......Page 245
Associative array with an indexed array......Page 246
Cloning arrays......Page 247
PlayList class overview......Page 248
Adding a song to the list......Page 249
Properties for sorting......Page 250
Sorting by property and specifying sort options......Page 251
Combining array elements into a character-delimited string......Page 252
Contents......Page 253
Types of errors......Page 254
ActionScript 3.0 error handling improvements......Page 256
Working with the debugger version of Flash Player......Page 258
Using try..catch..finally statements......Page 259
The throw statement......Page 261
Displaying a simple error message......Page 262
Creating custom error classes......Page 263
Responding to error events and status......Page 265
Working with error events......Page 266
Working with status change events......Page 267
ECMAScript core Error classes......Page 269
ActionScript core Error classes......Page 272
flash.error package Error classes......Page 273
CustomErrors application overview......Page 275
Building a custom validator......Page 277
Defining the ApplicationError class......Page 278
Defining the FatalError class......Page 279
Defining the WarningError class......Page 280
Contents......Page 281
Introduction to regular expressions......Page 282
Creating an instance of a regular expression......Page 283
Characters, metacharacters, and metasequences......Page 284
About metacharacters......Page 285
About metasequences......Page 286
Escape sequences in character classes......Page 287
Ranges of characters in character classes......Page 288
Quantifiers......Page 289
Groups......Page 291
Using groups to capture substring matches......Page 292
Using noncapturing groups and lookahead groups......Page 293
Using named groups......Page 294
The g (global) flag......Page 295
The m (multiline) flag......Page 296
The x (extended) flag......Page 297
The source property......Page 298
The exec() method......Page 299
Example: A Wiki parser......Page 300
Defining the WikiParser class......Page 301
Converting bullet patterns......Page 302
Converting URLs to HTML  tags......Page 303
Converting U.S. dollar strings to euro strings......Page 304
Contents......Page 307
A quick introduction to XML......Page 308
E4X: A new approach to XML processing......Page 309
XML objects......Page 311
XML methods......Page 312
XMLList objects......Page 314
Initializing XML variables......Page 315
Assembling and transforming XML objects......Page 316
Traversing XML structures......Page 318
Accessing parent and child nodes......Page 319
Accessing attributes......Page 320
Filtering by attribute or element value......Page 321
Using the for..in and the for each..in statements......Page 322
Using XML namespaces......Page 323
Converting XML and XMLList objects to strings......Page 324
Converting attribute values, names, and text values from strings......Page 325
Example: Loading RSS data from the Internet......Page 326
Reading and parsing XML data......Page 328
Assembling XMLList data......Page 329
Extracting the title of the RSS feed and sending a custom event......Page 330
Flash Player APIs......Page 331
Flash Player API Overview......Page 333
flash.display package......Page 334
flash.external package......Page 335
flash.net package......Page 336
flash.system package......Page 337
flash.xml package......Page 338
Contents......Page 339
Introduction to ActionScript event handling......Page 340
Event handling in previous versions of ActionScript......Page 341
Default behaviors......Page 342
What’s new for event listeners in ActionScript 3.0......Page 343
The event flow......Page 344
Event object types......Page 346
Event flow information......Page 347
Event class utility methods......Page 349
Event class default behavior methods......Page 350
Creating a listener function......Page 351
Listener function defined outside of a class......Page 352
Listener function defined as a class method......Page 353
Event listener that should not be used......Page 354
Managing event listeners......Page 355
Adding event listeners......Page 356
Checking for existing event listeners......Page 357
Example: Alarm Clock......Page 358
Alarm Clock overview......Page 359
Triggering the alarm......Page 360
Notifying others of the alarm......Page 362
Providing a custom alarm event......Page 363
Contents......Page 365
Using the URLLoader and URLVariables classes......Page 366
Loading data from external documents......Page 368
Communicating with external scripts......Page 372
LocalConnection class......Page 373
Sending messages between two Flash Player instances......Page 375
Connecting to SWF documents in different domains......Page 377
Socket class......Page 379
XMLSocket class......Page 380
Creating and connecting to a Java XML socket server......Page 382
Storing local data......Page 384
Displaying contents of a shared object......Page 386
Creating a secure SharedObject......Page 387
Working with file upload and download......Page 388
FileReference class......Page 389
Uploading files to a server......Page 391
Downloading files from a server......Page 396
FileReferenceList class......Page 397
Example: Building a Telnet client......Page 398
Telnet socket application overview......Page 399
Telnet class overview......Page 400
Displaying messages from the socket server......Page 401
Example: Uploading and downloading files......Page 402
FileIO application overview......Page 403
Downloading files from a remote server......Page 404
Initializing the FileDownload component......Page 405
Beginning the file download......Page 406
Cancelling a file download......Page 407
Initializing the FileUpload component......Page 408
Beginning a file upload......Page 409
Using Point objects......Page 411
Translating coordinate spaces......Page 412
Other uses of the Point class......Page 413
Resizing and repositioning Rectangle objects......Page 414
Finding unions and intersections of Rectangle objects......Page 416
Other uses of Rectangle objects......Page 417
Defining Matrix objects......Page 418
Defining a Matrix object for use with a gradient......Page 420
Example: Applying a matrix transformation to a display object......Page 422
The transform() method......Page 424
The scale() method......Page 425
Calling the MatrixTransformer.transform() method from the application......Page 426
System class......Page 427
Saving text to the Clipboard......Page 428
Capabilities class......Page 429
ApplicationDomain class......Page 430
IME class......Page 433
Determining which IME conversion mode is currently enabled......Page 434
Setting the IME conversion mode......Page 435
Disabling the IME for certain text fields......Page 436
Listening for IME composition events......Page 437
CapabilitiesExplorer overview......Page 438
CapabilitiesGrabber class overview......Page 439
Communicating with JavaScript......Page 440
Contents......Page 443
Security basics......Page 444
Administrative user controls......Page 446
The Global Flash Player Trust directory......Page 447
The Settings UI and Settings Manager......Page 448
The User Flash Player Trust directory......Page 449
Policy file syntax......Page 450
Socket policy files......Page 452
Preloading policy files......Page 453
Author (developer) controls......Page 454
Remote sandboxes......Page 455
Local sandboxes......Page 456
The Security.sandboxType property......Page 457
Loading SWF files and images......Page 458
Loading SWF files and images using the  tag in a text field......Page 460
Cross-scripting......Page 461
Stage security......Page 463
Event security......Page 464
Accessing bitmap data......Page 465
Accessing sound data......Page 466
Accessing video data......Page 467
Connecting to sockets......Page 468
Uploading and downloading files......Page 470
Working with legacy content......Page 471
Setting LocalConnection permissions......Page 472
Controlling access to scripts in a host web page......Page 473
Shared objects......Page 474
Camera, microphone, Clipboard, mouse, and keyboard access......Page 476
Contents......Page 477
What’s new for the PrintJob class using ActionScript 3.0......Page 478
Flash Player tasks and system printing......Page 479
Working with exceptions and returns......Page 480
Working with page properties......Page 481
Timing print job statements......Page 482
Using rectangles for the print area......Page 483
Scaling......Page 484
Responding to page height and width......Page 485
Example: Multiple-page printing......Page 486
Example: Scaling, cropping, and responding......Page 488
Contents......Page 491
About the External API......Page 492
Using the ExternalInterface class......Page 493
Calling external code from ActionScript......Page 494
Calling ActionScript code from the container......Page 496
Example: Using the External API with a web page container......Page 497
Preparing for ActionScript-browser communication......Page 498
Exposing ActionScript methods to JavaScript......Page 501
Communication from ActionScript to the browser......Page 502
Calling ActionScript code from JavaScript......Page 503
Example: Using the External API with an ActiveX container......Page 505
Including the Shockwave Flash ActiveX control......Page 507
Understanding ActionScript to ActiveX container communication......Page 508
Inside the ExternalInterfaceProxy class......Page 511
The External API’s XML format......Page 513