Basic Interactivity

Actionscript is the name of the program language used in Flash. It is the engine that makes
the animation drive in a very specific way. When you apply actionscript you are specifically
directing your animation to do something, at a specific time and specific events. You are
taking your animation to a whole new level because you're completely in control.

This chapter is one the student has to student, note and refer back to on a regular basis. Actionscript
is a code that has a particular way you must execute it depending on your task. You will go back and
back to this chapter to use the codes you need to get the job done.

A few reminders about actionscript:
1. AS3 (actionscript) is case sensitive!
2. Make sure you name the object on the stage the actionscript is referring to. Students falsely believe it they named it
in the library, they're done. No, you must open the property inspector and name the object after you place it on the stage.
3. You cannot see the fruits of your work unless it is in a browsers. Just press control+enter and a Flash browser will launch.
4. Double slash // blinds the script.
5. Make sure the actionscript has its own layer AND the layer is on top of the others.

An overview of how the software applies the actionscript is below.

Image above shows the buttons ( or any object on the stage) must have its own layer. The
actionscript has its own layer too. The actionscript is written in the action panel.

There buttons, classes and sounds in the "Common Library". These are pre made buttons, etc.

The image above shows the common library for buttons.

Once you place the buttons onto the stage, remember to click the instance once, open the
property inspector and name the buttons. i.e. stop_btn or start_btn

The image above shows the action panel tab is to the right of the timeline tab.

The image above shows after you write actionscript in the action panel, it will show a small
"a" in the frame. This means actionscript is written in this frame.

To test your button actionscript, view in in a browser. Or press control+enter.

End of Notes.

2012-2014 Copyright Patricia Holmes