Flash CS4 Gotchas
I've been banging my head against Flash for the last few days and started trying to document a few things.
Can't import fl.controls
For some reason Adobe didn't include them by default so you'll need to add the path to the project.
- Open the File > Publish Settings... menu item
- Click the Flash tab
- Click the Settings... button
- Click the Source Path tab
- Click the + button and paste in:
$(AppConfig)/Component Source/ActionScript 3.0/User Interface
Can't use a Tween on a scrollRect
The Tween class can only change a simple property and the scrollRect need to be changed and the reassigned before it will update. The solution is to add new property to the class and Tween that instead:
public function get scrollX():Number {
if (this.scrollRect) {
return this.scrollRect.x;
}
return 0;
}
public function set scrollX(value:Number) {
var r:Rectangle = this.scrollRect;
if (r) {
r.x = value;
this.scrollRect = r;
}
}Then you can use a Tween:
tween = new Tween(this, "scrollX", Strong.easeOut, scrollX, scrollX + 100, 1, true);Also, you'll want to keep a reference to the Tween object so that it doesn't get garbage collected half way through the animation.
Can't use named HTML entities
Flash's TextField only supports a small subset of named HTML entities (< > & " '). If you're displaying HTML from users or a CMS you'll find that things like &deg; slips by so you'll need to convert the named entities to their numeric versions.
jjjjj.... j Fay Kaaaaa
This is one of my favorite flash videos. You might need to watch it ten times before you really appreciate it.