http://thedesignspace.net/ My daily explorations, troubleshooting, solutions and discoveries. en-us ellen@thedesignspace.net Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:39:34 -0500 http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000940.html Flash Firebug is a great tool for debugging Actionscript 3 SWF files, similar to the way regular Firebug helps debug Javascript and CSS when using Firefox. But the current version of Flash Firebug, 3.0.3, has a bug that causes it to display this error: No SWF files with AS3 detected on this page. You could try reloading the page.... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000886.html Captivate 5 removed the need to answer this question: it only publishes in ActionScript 3 format, and correspondingly limits the compatibility of the published SWF file in certain situations as described below. But if you are using Captivate v. 4 or earlier, you may still be wondering which to choose.... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000716.html A while back, I worked on a flash game that teaches medical professionals how to find objects in a cardiac cart. A cart with 6 drawers isshown at left. When a drawer is clicked, it slides in from the top of the screen so that all the objects inside can be seen. The object of the game is to drag... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000592.html Another item I need to keep looking up: how to get the attributes of an XML item. Here, per the ever-helpful Senocular, is the definitive note on the subject. E4X (XML used in ActionScript 3) has new operators to access values in XML. One operator is the @ operator which accesses attributes. It can be used in place of the... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000591.html It's very easy to wipe out your default Actionscript classpath from the Publish Settings "Flash" tab, so I've had to look it up several times. Here it is for your convenience: $(AppConfig)/ActionScript 3.0/Classes It's a good idea to get into the habit of saving publishing Profiles for various projects. The export/import Profiles button is shown below:... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000590.html If you get an error like this in an actionscript 3 Flash file: TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert flash.display::SimpleButton@61422481 to [symbolname]. at flash.display::Sprite/constructChildren() at flash.display::Sprite() at flash.display::MovieClip() at classname()[/path_to/as/classname.as:34] Check the symbol named in [symbolname] to make sure it is specified as a Movie Clip rather than a button. Other possible reasons for the error are given... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000584.html This game is a framework to create a simulation of a crash cart in a hospital. A crash cart is a red metal tool cart with 6 drawers, filled with the items used by the Cardiac Arrest team to save people's lives when they have a cardiac arrest. Speed is of the essence in an arrest, so the people on... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000578.html http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000498.html There are some errors that come up time and time again when working with Jeroen Wijering's Flash Video Player. Here's how to troubleshoot them. I'll keep adding to the list as time permits. Click the images to see a larger view. Typical problems: Player does not appear at all. Player appears but nothing happens when Play button is clicked. Player... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000544.html I had a particularly sticky flash problem where a MovieClip worked perfectly when run on its own, but when loaded into a container clip using a loader, would give: Error #1056: Cannot create property someProperty on loaded clip myLoadedClip At first I thought it was some kind of timing problem or failure to declare the items in the clip, but... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000543.html In Actionscript 3, you may find yourself wondering why when you use "useHandCursor" on a MovieClip, the cursor remains an arrow on mouse_down. In AS3, useHandCursor is a property of the SimpleButton class. if an object has "buttonMode" set to true, by default "useHandCursor" will also be true. If is is not set to buttonMode, setting "useHandCursor" to true will... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000542.html I am working on a Flash project where a MovieClip that is contained within another clip needs to get a property from the main timeline of the container clip. trace(this.parent.someProperty) But this generated an error: 1119: Access of possibly undefined property someProperty through a reference with static type flash.display:DisplayObjectContainer. I finally found the reason for this in this excellent article... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000362.html The trace() function in flash is used much like alert() in Javascript. You can use it to print the contents of a variable or the result of an expression. For example var theNumber = 2 trace("theNumber= "+ theNumber) output: theNumber=2 Even more useful is the ability to print out ALL PROPERTIES of a clip, when you aren't sure what is...