Using Flash
Objects From Scripting
Flash Objects From Scripting is a new feature in Director
MX that allows the Director developer to store references to various
Flash objects within Lingo itself and then access the properties
and methods of that object directly within Director or Shockwave.
This allows the Lingo developer the ability to tie in to or enhance
the functionality of their Director authored pieces using available
Flash elements. One thing that many developers may want to utilize
are Flash's component movies. In these demos Dan demonstrates how
you can create and store references to Flash objects in Lingo and
then access methods and properties of those objects.
There are two ways in which a
user can create and/or obtain references to ActionScript objects,
either via Flash sprite methods or via new Lingo global methods.
In all cases the syntax is the same, it's just a matter of where
you want your objects created and whether you actually have a Flash
sprite on stage. The global methods can be called with no Flash
member or sprite present, but they will require the presence of
the Flash Asset Xtra. The demo files show both methods of access
on the Array, Date, String and XML objects.
Demo files created by Dan Sadowski.
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Step 1: Create
and store references to an ActionScript object
Step 2: Access methods and/or properties of the object
Demo in Action
Downloadable Files
Step 1: Create and store references to an ActionScript object
The first step is to create and store a reference to an ActionScript object
using Lingo. This can be achieved in two different ways, the first is
by using the Flash sprite newObject
method, while the second is using the Lingo global newObject
method. In order to create objects the demo files use the following code:
--
using the sprite method
myarray = sprite(1).newObject("Array")
--
using the global method
myarray = newObject("Array", 2, 66.5, 12, 4, 5280)
The syntax for the commands is the
same and therefore the above two object creations produce slightly different
results. The sprite method results in an empty array object while the
global method results in a 5 element array containing the values provided.
In the case of using the global method it is important to note that you
will still require the Flash Asset Xtra as the new Lingo is supported
through that Xtra.
Step 2: Access methods and/or properties of the object
Now that we've created and store references to the objects we can now
access the various properties and methods of those objects using standard
dot-syntax notation. The example files use the following syntax:
-- access an array element
display "Element="&myarray[1]
-- set an array element
myArray[1] = 1024
-- convert the array to a string
display "ArrayFromFlash="&myArray.tostring()
I didn't feel compelled to show examples
from both movies as the Lingo examples really wouldn't change. In both
cases we've stored a reference to an array object in the variable myArray
and therefore all properties and methods are available off that variable
using myArray.property
and myArray.method() sytnax.
Demo in Action
-na-
Downloadable Files
Here are links for the source files used to produce this demo,
there are four total files. The commented.xml file is used by both the
sprite and global method demos and needs to be copied into the same folder
as the movies themselves. The FObjects.fla file is a simple Flash movie
with a keyframed animation but no ActionScript. Finally there are the
two Director movies, GlobalObject.dir and SpriteObject.dir, these each
demonstrate object access using the global and the sprite methods respectively.
commented.xml
FObjects.fla
GlobalObject.dir
SpriteObject.dir
page last updated 11-Dec-2002 | tom
higgins - thiggins@macromedia.com
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