Lesson 2. Using Event Handlers

We push buttons, we push people, we even push people's buttons, all with a single purpose: to elicit a response. The Macromedia Flash way of saying this is that for every event there is an action.

In a Flash environment, the responses that come from pushing, holding, moving, entering, and leaving are triggered by event handlers. Event handlers represent the first step in getting your movie to do anything interactivewhich is why a thorough understanding of them is vital.

We'll create several projects in this lesson, including this self-running presentation that uses frame events to provide the user with a hands-free experience.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

In this lesson, you will:

• Learn how event handlers are used in scripts

• Determine the best event handler for the job

• Use mouse/button/keyboard events to control interactivity

• Create a self-running presentation using frame events

• Use clip events to create an interactive project

• Orchestrate multiple events to accomplish a task

• Define and use event handler methods

• Learn about Listeners and how to use them

APPROXIMATE TIME

This lesson takes approximately two hours to complete.

LESSON FILES

Starting Files:

Lesson02/Assets/MouseEvents1.fla

Lesson02/Assets/FrameEvents1.fla

Lesson02/Assets/ClipEvents1.fla

Lesson02/Assets/OrchestratingEvents1.fla

Lesson02/Assets/CarParts1.fla

Lesson02/Assets/Listeners1.fla

Completed Projects:

MouseEvents2.fla

FrameEvents2.fla

ClipEvents2.fla

OrchestratingEvents2.fla

CarParts2.fla

Listeners2.fla