Flash ActionScript 3 overview

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Disclaimer: Until today I have never seen any ActionScript code. I will use this page to write down a few things. Wait until this message goes away before you can trust anything ! - Daniel K. Schneider 15:56, 5 September 2007 (MEST). Some links (there are mostly just links in here) may be useful though.

This is part of the Flash series of articles. But it is not a tutorial !!

Introduction

“ActionScript 3.0 is a dialect of ECMAScript which formalizes the features of ActionScript 2.0, adds the capabilities of ECMAScript for XML (E4X), and unifies the language into a coherent whole.” (Grossman, 2006).

Basically, there are two ways of using ActionScript 3:

  • Use the Flash CS3 environment more less as "in the ActionScript 2" way, i.e. you add bits of code to certain frames
  • Write your code in a file and compile it (you also may use Flash CS3 that way). No drawings, just code ! AS3 is also part of Flex, Adobe's software development kit to create rich internet applications.

So you either can do AS3 with Adobe Flash CS3 Professional or just code in AS3. For the latter there is a free kit or else just use any editor plus the mxmlc compiler.

Stand-alone code development with AS 3

You do not need to buy Flash CS3 (that's actually a cool thing) to program in AS3 and to create *.swf files. You can either use:

  • Flex Builder - an Eclipse plugin
  • Just the Flex SDK
The Flex SDK 2.0.1 (or better) from Adobe
  • Download this free SDK from Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/downloads/

For Windows and Mac there is a Flex Builder plugin for Eclipse. Otherwise there is a platform independent compiler, the Adobe Flex2 Software Development Kit (SDK).

Installing the Adobe Flex2 Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows
  • Unzip it somewhere
  • Edit the Environment variables through the configuration panel to include the bin directory in the path: I.e. something like Parameters->Config Panel->System->Advanced (I don't have an English System at hand).
Installing the Adobe Flex2 Software Development Kit (SDK) for Ubuntu
  • Unzip it somewhere (I put it under /usr/local/flex)
  • Under Linux change permissions of the shell scripts in the bin directory, in particular mxmlc
  • Then add this directory to your path. E.g. under my Ubuntu I added in file /etc/bash.bashrc:
export PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/flex/bin
Using the compiler
  • Just type something like:
mxmlc HelloWorld.as

.... This will make an *.swf file

Development support other than Eclipse

I find these IDEs too hard to use (I only occasionally program and just use the Emacs editor and don't want learn full Flex yet). So I need some Emacs code for help with editing (not done yet)

Simple AS3 code patterns

Event handling

General pattern

Definition of an event handler function: 

function eventResponse (eventObject:EventType):void
 {
   // Actions performed in response to the event go here.
 }

Using it: 

eventSource.addEventListener(EventType.EVENT_NAME, eventResponse);
Example
launch_button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,launchRocket);

function launchRocket(event:MouseEvent):void {
    gotoAndPlay(2);
}

You can see an example in the Flash button tutorial

Documentation Links

See also Abobe Flex

Reference manuals

Other documentation

  • ActionScript 3 from Adobelabs. Maybe superseded by the above doc, maybe not ...

AS2 vs. AS3 comparisons

Overviews

Tutorials

General AS 3 Tutorials

Component programming

(to sort out)

  • $.console A console for debuggin, pops up over your application (looks good, not tested so far).

AS 3 Example-based tutorials

AS 3 Examples

Reusable components and libraries

  • Tweener Tweener (caurina.transitions.Tweener) is a Class used to create tweenings and other transitions via ActionScript code for projects built on the Flash platform.
  • TweenLite. TweenLite (AS3) - A Lightweight (2K) Yet Powerful Tweening Engine.
  • TweenFilterLite. TweenFilterLite extends the extremely lightweight (2k), powerful TweenLite "core" class, adding the ability to tween filters (like blurs, glows, drop shadows, bevels, etc.) as well as image effects like contrast, colorization, brightness, saturation, hue, and threshold (combined size: 5k).
  • WebORB for PHP (should be move to Flex). erver-side technology enabling connectivity between Flex and Flash Remoting clients and PHP applications.

Other

Development environments

Blogs and stuff

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