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Chapter 16. Storing Persistent Information

Introduction

Recipe 16.1. Storing and Retrieving Locally Persistent Information

Recipe 16.2. Adding Data to a Client-Side Shared Object

Recipe 16.3. Reading Values from a Client-Side Shared Object

Recipe 16.4. Saving a Local Shared Object

Recipe 16.5. Sharing Information Between Movies Within the Same Domain

Recipe 16.6. Storing Persistent Data on the Server

Recipe 16.7. Saving Remote Shared Object Data

Recipe 16.8. Checking for Updates to Remote Shared Objects

Recipe 16.9. Reading Values from a Server-Side Shared Object

Recipe 16.10. Adding Data to a Server-Side Shared Object

Preface

What's Not in This Book

Flash Naming Conventions

The Code

Typographical Conventions

We'd Like to Hear from You

Acknowledgments

Part I: Local Recipes

Chapter 1. ActionScript Basics

Introduction

Recipe 1.1 Using Mathematical Operators

Recipe 1.2 Checking Equality or Comparing Values

Recipe 1.3 Performing Actions Conditionally

Recipe 1.4 Performing Complex Conditional Testing

Recipe 1.5 Repeating an Operation Many Times

Recipe 1.6 Performing an Action Once per Frame Update

Recipe 1.7 Repeating a Task at Timed Intervals

Recipe 1.8 Creating Reusable Code

Recipe 1.9 Generalizing a Function to Enhance Reusability

Recipe 1.10 Exiting a Function

Recipe 1.11 Obtaining the Result of a Function

Recipe 1.12 Avoiding Conflicting Variables

Recipe 1.13 Reusing and Organizing Code in Multiple Movies

Chapter 2. Runtime Environment

Introduction

Recipe 2.1 Detecting the Player Version

Recipe 2.2 Detecting the Operating System

Recipe 2.3 Checking the System Language

Recipe 2.4 Detecting Display Settings

Recipe 2.5 Scaling the Movie

Recipe 2.6 Changing the Alignment

Recipe 2.7 Detecting the Device's Audio Capabilities

Recipe 2.8 Prompting the User to Change Player Settings

Recipe 2.9 Hiding the Flash Player's Menu Items

Recipe 2.10 Enhancing Standalone Projectors

Recipe 2.11 Setting the Dimensions of a Projector

Recipe 2.12 Specifying Where on Screen a Projector Opens

Chapter 3. Color

Introduction

Recipe 3.1 Setting the Color of a Movie Clip

Recipe 3.2 Specifying RGB Values

Recipe 3.3 Decoding an RGB Value

Recipe 3.4 Setting the RGB Relative to Its Current Value

Recipe 3.5 Tinting a Movie Clip's Color

Recipe 3.6 Setting a Movie Clip's Transparency

Recipe 3.7 Transforming a Movie Clip's Current Color

Recipe 3.8 Restoring a Movie Clip's Original Color

Recipe 3.9 Controlling a Movie Clip's Color with Sliders

Chapter 4. Drawing and Masking

Introduction

Recipe 4.1 Drawing a Line

Recipe 4.2 Drawing a Curve

Recipe 4.3 Drawing a Rectangle

Recipe 4.4 Drawing a Rounded Rectangle

Recipe 4.5 Drawing a Circle

Recipe 4.6 Drawing an Ellipse

Recipe 4.7 Drawing a Triangle

Recipe 4.8 Drawing Regular Polygons

Recipe 4.9 Filling a Shape with a Solid or Translucent Color

Recipe 4.10 Filling a Shape with a Gradient

Recipe 4.11 Filling a Shape with a Complex Gradient

Recipe 4.12 Scripting Masks

Chapter 5. Numbers and Math

Introduction

Recipe 5.1 Representing Numbers in Different Bases

Recipe 5.2 Converting Between Different Number Systems

Recipe 5.3 Rounding Numbers

Recipe 5.4 Inserting Leading or Trailing Zeros

Recipe 5.5 Formatting Numbers for Display

Recipe 5.6 Formatting Currency Amounts

Recipe 5.7 Generating a Random Number

Recipe 5.8 Simulating a Coin Flip

Recipe 5.9 Simulating Dice

Recipe 5.10 Simulating Playing Cards

Recipe 5.11 Generating a Unique Number

Recipe 5.12 Converting Angle Measurements

Recipe 5.13 Calculating the Distance Between Two Points

Recipe 5.14 Determining Points Along a Circle

Recipe 5.15 Converting Between Units of Measurement

Recipe 5.16 Calculating Asset Appreciation (Future Value)

Recipe 5.17 Calculating Retirement Savings

Recipe 5.18 Calculating the Loan (Mortgage) You Can Afford

Recipe 5.19 Calculating Loan Amortization or Annuities

Chapter 6. Arrays

Introduction

Recipe 6.1 Adding Elements to the Start or End of an Array

Recipe 6.2 Looping Through an Array

Recipe 6.3 Searching for Matching Elements in an Array

Recipe 6.4 Removing Elements

Recipe 6.5 Inserting Elements in the Middle of an Array

Recipe 6.6 Converting a String to an Array

Recipe 6.7 Converting an Array to a String

Recipe 6.8 Creating a Separate Copy of an Array

Recipe 6.9 Storing Complex or Multidimensional Data

Recipe 6.10 Sorting or Reversing an Array

Recipe 6.11 Implementing a Custom Sort

Recipe 6.12 Creating an Associative Array

Recipe 6.13 Reading Elements of an Associative Array

Chapter 7. Movie Clips

Introduction

Recipe 7.1 Referring to Movie Clips via ActionScript

Recipe 7.2 Targeting Movie Clips with Dynamic Names

Recipe 7.3 Affecting Playback

Recipe 7.4 Reversing Playback

Recipe 7.5 Using Movie Clips as Buttons

Recipe 7.6 Defining Hit Areas for Movie Clips

Recipe 7.7 Checking for Mouseover

Recipe 7.8 Performing Repeated Actions on Movie Clips

Recipe 7.9 Fading a Movie Clip

Recipe 7.10 Discovering Nested Movie Clips

Recipe 7.11 Getting Unique Depths

Recipe 7.12 Getting a Movie Clip's Boundaries

Recipe 7.13 Creating a Draggable Movie Clip

Recipe 7.14 Creating a Custom Mouse Pointer

Recipe 7.15 Checking for Overlapping Movie Clips (Performing Hit Tests)

Recipe 7.16 Changing Stacking Order

Recipe 7.17 Converting Between Coordinate Spaces

Recipe 7.18 Duplicating Movie Clips

Recipe 7.19 Adding Movie Clips from the Library with ActionScript

Chapter 8. Text

Introduction

Recipe 8.1 Referring to a Text Field via ActionScript

Recipe 8.2 Creating a Text Field

Recipe 8.3 Creating an Outline Around a Text Field

Recipe 8.4 Creating a Background for a Text Field

Recipe 8.5 Making a User Input Field

Recipe 8.6 Making a Password Input Field

Recipe 8.7 Filtering Text Input

Recipe 8.8 Restricting the Maximum Field Length

Recipe 8.9 Displaying Dynamic Text at Runtime

Recipe 8.10 Displaying HTML-Formatted Text

Recipe 8.11 Condensing Whitespace

Recipe 8.12 Sizing Text Fields to Fit Contents

Recipe 8.13 Scrolling Text with the ScrollBar Component

Recipe 8.14 Scrolling Text Programmatically

Recipe 8.15 Responding to Scroll Events

Recipe 8.16 Formatting Existing Text

Recipe 8.17 Formatting User-Input Text

Recipe 8.18 Formatting a Portion of a Text Field

Recipe 8.19 Setting a Text Field's Font

Recipe 8.20 Embedding Fonts

Recipe 8.21 Creating Text That Can Be Rotated

Recipe 8.22 Displaying Unicode Text

Recipe 8.23 Assigning Focus to a Text Field

Recipe 8.24 Selecting Text with ActionScript

Recipe 8.25 Setting the Insertion Point in a Text Field

Recipe 8.26 Responding When Text Is Selected or Deselected

Recipe 8.27 Responding to User Text Entry

Recipe 8.28 Adding a Hyperlink to Text

Chapter 9. Strings

Introduction

Recipe 9.1 Joining Strings

Recipe 9.2 Using Quotes and Apostrophes in Strings

Recipe 9.3 Inserting Special Whitespace Characters

Recipe 9.4 Searching for a Substring

Recipe 9.5 Extracting a Substring

Recipe 9.6 Matching Patterns with Regular Expressions

Recipe 9.7 Looking for a Pattern Match

Recipe 9.8 Parsing a String into Words

Recipe 9.9 Removing and Replacing Characters

Recipe 9.10 Processing One Character at a Time

Recipe 9.11 Converting Case

Recipe 9.12 Trimming Whitespace

Recipe 9.13 Reversing a String by Word or by Letter

Recipe 9.14 Converting Between Strings and Unicode or ASCII

Chapter 10. Dates and Times

Introduction

Recipe 10.1 Finding the Current Date and Time

Recipe 10.2 Retrieving the Day or Month Name

Recipe 10.3 Formatting the Date and Time

Recipe 10.4 Formatting Milliseconds as Minutes and Seconds

Recipe 10.5 Converting Between DMYHMSM and Epoch Milliseconds

Recipe 10.6 Calculating Elapsed Time or Intervals Between Dates

Recipe 10.7 Parsing a Date from a String

Recipe 10.8 Creating Timers and Clocks

Chapter 11. Forms

Introduction

Recipe 11.1 Adding UI Components at Runtime

Recipe 11.2 Positioning Form Elements

Recipe 11.3 Adding Menus to a Form

Recipe 11.4 Making Dependent Menus

Recipe 11.5 Resizing Menus to Fit Their Contents

Recipe 11.6 Detecting the Selected Menu Items

Recipe 11.7 Adding Radio Buttons to a Group

Recipe 11.8 Aligning Radio Buttons Automatically

Recipe 11.9 Getting the Selected Radio Button Value

Recipe 11.10 Adding Checkboxes to a Form

Recipe 11.11 Getting Checkbox Values

Recipe 11.12 Assembling an Advanced Form

Recipe 11.13 Submitting a Form

Recipe 11.14 Validating Form Input

Recipe 11.15 Alerting Users to Validation Errors

Recipe 11.16 Making a Multipage Form

Recipe 11.17 Submitting a Multipage Form

Recipe 11.18 Validating a Multipage Form

Recipe 11.19 Transmitting Data Securely

Recipe 11.20 Prepopulating a Form

Recipe 11.21 Customizing the Tab Order

Recipe 11.22 Using Tables to Arrange Form Elements

Recipe 11.23 Creating Auto-Complete Text Fields

Recipe 11.24 Customizing a Component's Appearance

Recipe 11.25 Customizing All Components' Appearances

Chapter 12. Objects and Custom Components

Introduction

Recipe 12.1 Using Methods and Properties of Built-in Objects

Recipe 12.2 Creating an Instance of a Class

Recipe 12.3 Adding Properties to an Object Instance

Recipe 12.4 Adding Custom Methods to an Object Instance

Recipe 12.5 Creating a Custom Class

Recipe 12.6 Creating Smart Getter/Setter Properties

Recipe 12.7 Defining Read-Only Properties

Recipe 12.8 Creating Subclasses

Recipe 12.9 Implementing Subclass Versions of Superclass Methods

Recipe 12.10 Listening for Events

Recipe 12.11 Adding Listeners to Custom Classes

Recipe 12.12 Creating a Component That Subclasses MovieClip

Recipe 12.13 Program: Color Selector Component

Chapter 13. Programming Sound

Introduction

Recipe 13.1 Creating an Object to Control Sound

Recipe 13.2 Attaching Sounds at Runtime

Recipe 13.3 Playing and Stopping a Sound

Recipe 13.4 Getting Playback Time

Recipe 13.5 Looping a Sound

Recipe 13.6 Setting In and Out Points

Recipe 13.7 Pausing and Resuming a Sound

Recipe 13.8 Performing Actions When a Sound Ends

Recipe 13.9 Queuing Sounds

Recipe 13.10 Adding Sounds to Buttons and UI Components

Recipe 13.11 Setting the Volume of a Sound

Recipe 13.12 Controlling the Panning of a Sound

Recipe 13.13 Creating Advanced Stereo Panning Effects

Recipe 13.14 Fading In a Sound

Recipe 13.15 Fading Out a Sound

Recipe 13.16 Program: A Sound Controller Component

Part II: Remote Recipes

Chapter 14. FlashCom Server

Introduction

Recipe 14.1 Creating a New FlashCom Application

Recipe 14.2 Connecting to the FlashCom Server

Recipe 14.3 Adding a Video Object at Runtime

Recipe 14.4 Capturing and Displaying Video from a Web Cam

Recipe 14.5 Capturing and Playing Audio from a Microphone

Recipe 14.6 Controlling FlashCom Audio

Recipe 14.7 Subscribing to Audio/Video Content

Recipe 14.8 Creating Playlists

Recipe 14.9 Recording and Publishing Video and Audio

Recipe 14.10 Publishing Live Content

Recipe 14.11 Pausing and Resuming a Net Stream

Recipe 14.12 Fast-Forwarding and Rewinding a Net Stream

Recipe 14.13 Seeking Relative to the Total Stream Length

Recipe 14.14 Implementing Server-Side ActionScript

Recipe 14.15 Tracking Clients Connected to the Application

Recipe 14.16 Invoking Server-Side Functions from the Client Movie

Recipe 14.17 Invoking Client-Side Functions from the Server

Chapter 15. Loading Assets

Introduction

Recipe 15.1 Loading an External SWF

Recipe 15.2 Loading an External SWF from a Trusting Domain

Recipe 15.3 Loading an External JPEG Image

Recipe 15.4 Loading an External Image (All Formats)

Recipe 15.5 Loading an External MP3 Sound

Recipe 15.6 Loading Remote Content by Proxy

Recipe 15.7 Determining if an Asset Is Loaded

Recipe 15.8 Getting the Percentage of an Asset That Has Loaded

Recipe 15.9 Monitoring Load Progress Using a Progress Bar Component

Recipe 15.10 Monitoring Load Progress Without a Progress Bar Component

Recipe 15.11 Performing Actions When the Asset Is Loaded

Recipe 15.12 Hiding the Graphics and Text for a Progress Bar

Chapter 16. Storing Persistent Information

Introduction

Recipe 16.1 Storing and Retrieving Locally Persistent Information

Recipe 16.2 Adding Data to a Client-Side Shared Object

Recipe 16.3 Reading Values from a Client-Side Shared Object

Recipe 16.4 Saving a Local Shared Object

Recipe 16.5 Sharing Information Between Movies Within the Same Domain

Recipe 16.6 Storing Persistent Data on the Server

Recipe 16.7 Saving Remote Shared Object Data

Recipe 16.8 Checking for Updates to Remote Shared Objects

Recipe 16.9 Reading Values from a Server-Side Shared Object

Recipe 16.10 Adding Data to a Server-Side Shared Object

Chapter 17. Communicating with Other Movies

Introduction

Recipe 17.1 Communicating with Other Movieson the Same Computer

Recipe 17.2 Sending Data Using Local Connections

Recipe 17.3 Validating Receipt of Communication Over a Local Connection

Recipe 17.4 Accepting Communications from Other Domains

Recipe 17.5 Communicating Between Movies on Different Computers

Recipe 17.6 Broadcasting Data to Remote Shared Object Clients

Chapter 18. Sending and Loading Variables

Introduction

Recipe 18.1 Loading Variables from a Text File

Recipe 18.2 Loading Variables from a Server-Side Script

Recipe 18.3 Checking Load Progress

Recipe 18.4 Sending Data to a Server-Side Script

Recipe 18.5 Sending Variables and Handling a Returned Result

Chapter 19. XML

Introduction

Recipe 19.1 Understanding XML Structure (Reading and Writing XML)

Recipe 19.2 Creating an XML Object

Recipe 19.3 Adding Elements to an XML Object

Recipe 19.4 Adding Text Nodes to an XML Object

Recipe 19.5 Creating an XML Object from an Array

Recipe 19.6 Adding Attributes to an XML Element

Recipe 19.7 Reading Elements in an XML Tree

Recipe 19.8 Finding Elements by Name

Recipe 19.9 Reading Text Nodes and Their Values

Recipe 19.10 Reading an Element's Attributes

Recipe 19.11 Loading XML

Recipe 19.12 Removing Extra Whitespace from XML Objects

Recipe 19.13 Sending XML

Recipe 19.14 Sending XML Data and Receiving a Response

Recipe 19.15 Searching XML

Recipe 19.16 Using XML Data to Initialize a Movie

Chapter 20. Flash Remoting

Introduction

Recipe 20.1 Establishing a Connection via Flash Remoting

Recipe 20.2 Configuring Flash Remoting for ColdFusion

Recipe 20.3 Configuring Flash Remoting for .NET

Recipe 20.4 Configuring Flash Remoting for J2EE

Recipe 20.5 Configuring Flash Remoting for PHP or Perl

Recipe 20.6 Invoking a Remote Function on a Service

Recipe 20.7 Handling Flash Remoting Results

Recipe 20.8 Distinguishing Among Results from Multiple Calls to a Single Service

Recipe 20.9 Calling ASP.NET Functions from Flash

Recipe 20.10 Calling ColdFusion Functions from Flash

Recipe 20.11 Passing Named Parameters to ColdFusion Component Methods

Recipe 20.12 Passing Complex Parameters to ColdFusion Component Methods

Recipe 20.13 Calling Java or JSP Functions from Flash

Recipe 20.14 Transmitting Custom Datatypes to a Flash Remoting Back End

Recipe 20.15 Receiving Typed Objects with ColdFusion

Recipe 20.16 Receiving Typed Objects with ASP.NET

Recipe 20.17 Receiving Typed Objects with Java

Recipe 20.18 Returning Typed Objects from ColdFusion

Recipe 20.19 Returning Typed Objects from ASP.NET

Recipe 20.20 Returning Typed Objects from Java

Recipe 20.21 Writing Server-Side Functions in ActionScript

Recipe 20.22 Querying a Database with Server-Side ActionScript

Recipe 20.23 Making HTTP Requests with Server-Side ActionScript

Recipe 20.24 Consuming Web Services with Flash Remoting for .NET or ColdFusion

Chapter 21. Recordsets

Introduction

Recipe 21.1 Creating Recordsets

Recipe 21.2 Reading Recordsets

Recipe 21.3 Filtering Recordsets

Recipe 21.4 Sorting Recordsets by a Single Column

Recipe 21.5 Populating Menu Components

Recipe 21.6 Using Recordsets with DataGrids

Part III: Applications

Chapter 22. Building a Flash Paint Application

22.1 Planning the Application

22.2 Building the Components

22.3 Assembling the Flash Paint Application

22.4 Using Flash Paint

Chapter 23. Creating a Simple Animation in Stages

Chapter 24. Video Chat/Message Center

24.1 Developing the Application Overview

24.2 Creating the Server-Side Application

24.3 Creating the Calling Client

24.4 Creating the Administrator Client

24.5 Putting It All Together

Chapter 25. Image Viewer/Slideshow

25.1 Planning the Application Design

25.2 Beginning the Application

25.3 Creating the Components

25.4 Putting Together the Application

25.5 Wrapping It Up

Chapter 26. Creating an MP3 Jukebox

26.1 Creating an Application Overview

26.2 Developing the MP3 Selectors

26.3 Developing the Jukebox Application

26.4 Wrapping It Up

Chapter 27. A Personalized My Page Application

27.1 Formulating the Application Overview

27.2 Creating the Framework

27.3 Creating Service Modules

27.4 Putting It All Together

27.5 Extending the Framework

27.6 Wrapping It Up

Chapter 28. A Scheduler Program

28.1 Designing the Application Structure

28.2 Making the Components

28.3 Putting the Application Together

28.4 Making the Scheduler Application Available Online

28.5 Using LoadVars and XML

28.6 Wrapping It Up

Appendix A. Unicode Escape Sequences for Latin 1 Characters

Colophon