ActionScript Cookbook

Front Cover
O'Reilly, 2003 - Computers - 869 pages
When you need to get the job done fast, you'll reach for this practical, nuts-n-bolts toolkit. Rather than focusing on ActionScript in the abstract, this Cookbook puts theory into practice with ready-made answers to common ActionScript problems. Flash MX developers can solve issues quickly, while learning practical techniques for resolving similar dilemmas in the future. ActionScript has blossomed into a large and important language whose sheer volume of capabilities can be daunting. The "ActionScript Cookbook breaks it all down into tasks that are relevant, practical, and insightful. Appealing to the budding coder as well as the experienced ActionScript jockeys, this book offers new perspectives and approaches to ActionScript development that will empower all developers. This O'Reilly Cookbook complements "ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition by providing quick solutions to common ActionScript problems. This book trades on our respected "Cookbook" approach, which provides a worked-out script for every problem addressed. You can use these "recipes" to solve an immediate problem, and then explore the issue further in The Definitive Guide when time permits. The "ActionScript Cookbook contains over 300 recipes on a myriad of topics. Here's a sampling of what you'll find: Drawing shapes at runtime Controlling movie clips programmatically Accepting user input and manipulating text strings Accessing audio and video via Flash Communications Server Working with Flash Remoting to connect to back end databases Using record sets with data grids And, much, much more in over 20 recipe-laden chapters... This Cookbook's logical progressionfrom short recipes for small problems to longer, more complex scripts for thornier riddles allows developers to link modular ActionScript pieces together to create rock-solid solutions for Flash applications. If you prefer to see larger applications instead of atomic recipes, this Cookbook has a kicker -- seven full chapters of sample applications including: Building a Flash Paint Application Creating a Video/Chat Message Server Application Creating an MP3 Jukebox Creating a personalizable MyPage Application The "ActionScript Cookbook is for people who say, "I understand everything in theory, but I don't know where to start in practice." This book is all about practice.

Contents

Color
3
Runtime Environment
37
Drawing and Masking
68
Numbers and Math
96
Arrays
137
Movie Clips
160
Text
207
Strings
242
Communicating with Other Movies
509
Sending and Loading Variables
521
Flash Remoting
566
Recordsets
603
Building a Flash Paint Application
619
Creating a Simple Animation in Stages
653
Video ChatMessage Center
672
Image ViewerSlideshow
692

Dates and Times
275
Forms
298
Objects and Custom Components
362
Programming Sound
396
FlashCom Server
437
Loading Assets
465
Storing Persistent Information
492
Creating an MP3 Jukebox
734
A Personalized My Page Application
762
A Scheduler Program
804
Unicode Escape Sequences for Latin 1 Characters
835
Index
841
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Joey Lott is the author of Complete Flash Remoting MX as well as the co-author of the ActionScript Bible. Joey has been teaching Flash and ActionScript since 1999 when he first began training throughout Southern California. Joey has professional experience in the Internet industry beginning in 1996 including co-founding RightSpring, Inc. and consulting for YourMobile/Premium Wireless Services (J2EE B2C application) and Ads.com (leading the development of a J2EE B2B application).

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