Actionscript 3 Designer Toolkit

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Entries Tagged as 'class'

Removing class instances

May 20th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Tutorials

A reader recently inquired if it was necessary to remove previously created class instances which were no longer being used.  The simple answer is yes because it frees up memory – but there may be other reasons as well.

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Displaying slides: the SlideShow class

May 12th, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

The SlideShow class is a simple means for displaying jpeg images one at a time.  The class has built in next and previous buttons and shows the slide number displayed and total number of slides.

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Using patterned backgrounds and masks: the Perf class

May 4th, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

The Perf class draws a regular grid of either squares or circles that can then be applied as either a background or as a mask.  The parameters of the class constructor determine whether the pattern is composed of squares or circles, the spacing and size of the pattern and its color and transparency.

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Drawing a checkerboard background: the Checkerboard class

April 27th, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

This post introduces the Checkerboard drawing class.  It is a simple and easy to use class that relies on Flash’s BitmapData class to draw the patterns.

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Applying the DropDownMenus class

April 13th, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

In this post, the DropDownMenus class is used to form a group of horizontally arranged dropdown menus.  Several changes have been made to the class to enable multiple instances to work more efficently together (changes detailed below).

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Changing values: the HorizontalSlider class

March 25th, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

In the last post the usage of the updateAfterEvent method was discussed and applied to a slider function.  In this post, the code has been repackaged into the HorizontalSlider class.  When used in the conjunction with the DataSentEvent class, the slider may be used to change volume, transparency or any other parameter dependent on a linearly variable [...]

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Displaying time: the Clock class

March 16th, 2010 · 1 Comment · AS3 Custom Classes

The Clock class displays a digital clock with optional 24 hour display mode and optional display of seconds.  Text properties are controlled by an array which define the text’s placement within the background and the display’s font, size and color.

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Tweening a text message: the MsgPanel_RIGHT class

March 9th, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

I recently saw a video of Microsoft’s upcoming Mobile 7 phone interface and, surpirisingly, was impressed with its bold 2D graphics – no 3D bevelled edges, no gradations, no faux glass reflective surfaces.  The MsgPanel_RIGHT class is my interpretation of a 2D graphic approach to the interface.

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Prototyping the Bookshelves function

March 5th, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

I originally wrote this function in 2007 in Actionscript 2 (remember createEmptyMovieClip) and recently rewrote it in as3.  The concept is to present a series of “shelves” that move together vertically as a group but move independently of each other when moving horizontally.  Instead of a grid of rows and buttons imagine shelves of books with each [...]

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Improving the ImageManager class

March 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · AS3 Custom Classes

The ImageManager class, introduced in the last post, has been modified to expand its usability.  In the first iteration, the id of the image displayed was contained internally and could not be used by an outside function or class; in the modified version the current image id is announced to external event listeners via a custom [...]

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