Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner’s Guide

Rich Shupe, Zevan Rosser0-596-52787-X, 978-0-596-52787-7

In this book, authors Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser share the knowledge they’ve gained from their years as multimedia developers/designers and teachers. Learning ActionScript 3.0 gives you a solid foundation in the language of Flash and demonstrates how you can use it for practical, everyday projects.The authors do more than just give you a collection of sample scripts. Written for those of you new to ActionScript 3.0, the book describes how ActionScript and Flash work, giving you a clear look into essential topics such as logic, event handling, displaying content, migrating legacy projects to ActionScript 3.0, classes, and much more. You will learn important techniques through hands-on exercises, and then build on those skills as chapters progress.ActionScript 3.0 represents a significant change for many Flash users, and a steeper learning curve for the uninitiated. This book will help guide you through a variety of scripting scenarios. Rather than relying heavily on prior knowledge of object-oriented programming (OOP), topics are explained in focused examples that originate in the timeline, with optional companion classes for those already comfortable with their use. As chapters progress, the book introduces more and more OOP techniques, allowing you to choose which scripting approach you prefer.Learning ActionScript 3.0 reveals:New ways to harness the power and performance of AS3Common mistakes that people make with the languageEssential coverage of text, sound, video, XML, drawing with code, and moreMigration issues from AS1 and AS2 to AS3Simultaneous development of procedural and object-oriented techniquesTips that go beyond simple script collections, including how to approach a project and which resources can help you along the wayThe companion web site contains material for all the exercises in the book, as well as short quizzes to make sure you’re up to speed with key concepts. ActionScript 3.0 is a different animal from previous versions, and Learning ActionScript 3.0 teaches everything that web designers, GUI-based Flash developers, and those new to ActionScript need to start using the language.

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Table of contents :
Learning ActionScript 3.0……Page 1
Contents……Page 6
Preface……Page 12
Getting Started……Page 20
ActionScript Overview……Page 22
What Is ActionScript 3.0?……Page 23
The Flash Platform……Page 26
Procedural Versus Object-Oriented Programming……Page 27
The Document Class……Page 28
Legacy Code Compatibility……Page 30
Core Language Fundamentals……Page 32
Miscellaneous Basics……Page 34
Variables and Data Types……Page 35
Conditionals……Page 36
Loops……Page 39
Arrays……Page 42
Functions……Page 43
Custom Objects……Page 45
Absolute versus Relative Addresses……Page 46
Graphics and Interaction……Page 48
Properties, Methods, and Events……Page 50
Properties……Page 51
Events……Page 53
Methods……Page 58
Event Propagation……Page 60
Frame and Timer Events……Page 62
Removing Event Listeners……Page 65
The Display List……Page 68
The Sum of Its Parts……Page 69
Managing Object Names, Positions, and Data Types……Page 82
Changing the Display List Hierarchy……Page 84
A Dynamic Navigation Bar……Page 87
Adding and Removing Children……Page 77
Playhead Movement……Page 90
Frame Rate……Page 100
A Simple Site or Application Structure……Page 101
Frame Labels……Page 93
OOP……Page 106
Classes……Page 108
Inheritance……Page 112
Composition……Page 118
Encapsulation……Page 122
Polymorphism……Page 125
Navigation Bar Revisited……Page 130
Motion……Page 134
Basic Movement……Page 135
Geometry and Trigonometry……Page 138
Physics……Page 144
Programmatic Tweening……Page 149
Timeline Animation Recreations……Page 150
Particle Systems……Page 156
Drawing with Vectors……Page 160
The Graphics Class……Page 161
The Geometry Package……Page 168
The Motion Package……Page 177
9-Slice Scaling……Page 178
Applied Examples……Page 180
Drawing with Pixels……Page 186
Bitmap Caching……Page 187
The BitmapData Class……Page 189
Blend Modes……Page 196
Bitmap Filters……Page 199
Color Effects……Page 207
Image Encoding and Saving……Page 211
Text……Page 214
Text……Page 216
Setting Text Field Characteristics……Page 217
Selecting Text……Page 219
Formatting Text……Page 221
Formatting with HTML and CSS……Page 225
Triggering ActionScript from HTML Links……Page 228
Parsing Text Fields……Page 229
Loading HTML and CSS……Page 233
Sound and Video……Page 238
Sound……Page 240
ActionScript Sound Architecture……Page 241
Internal and External Sounds……Page 242
Playing, Stopping, and Pausing Sounds……Page 245
Buffering Streaming Sounds……Page 247
Changing Sound Volume and Pan……Page 248
Reading ID3 Metadata from MP3 Sounds……Page 250
Visualizing Sound Data……Page 253
Working with Microphone Sound……Page 255
Waveform Visualization……Page 258
Video……Page 270
Encoding……Page 271
Components……Page 273
Full-screen Video……Page 277
Captions……Page 279
Coding Your Own Video Playback……Page 291
Input/Output……Page 296
Loading Assets……Page 298
Loading Sound and Video……Page 299
Loading Text……Page 300
Loading Display Objects……Page 304
Communicating Across ActionScript Virtual Machines……Page 308
Taking a Brief Look at Security……Page 310
XML and E4X……Page 316
Understanding XML Structure……Page 317
Creating an XML Object……Page 321
Reading XML……Page 322
Writing XML……Page 329
Deleting XML Elements……Page 332
Loading External XML Documents……Page 333
Communicating with XML Servers……Page 334
An XML-Based Navigation System……Page 338
Programming Design and Resources……Page 350
Programming Design Methodologies……Page 352
Object-oriented Design Patterns……Page 358
Resources……Page 364
Index……Page 370