Flex: How to call function of embedded swf? - apache-flex

I have a Flex 3.4 app that embeds a swf with mx:SwfLoader...
That swf has a public function named "playIt". I've tried dispatching events to gettingHere.content, casting gettingHere.content as a MovieClip and other stuff...
var swfApp:MovieClip = MovieClip(gettingHere.content);
if (swfApp.hasOwnProperty("playIt")) {
var helloWorld:Function = (swfApp["playIt"] as Function);
helloWorld();
}
to no avail. Help!

See the example here for interacting with a loaded Flex application.
Essentially:
var swfLoader:SWFLoader; // assuming loading complete
var loadedSM:SystemManager = SystemManager(swfLoader.content);
var loadedApp:Object = loadedSM.application;
app.playIt();

Are you able to load the swf into Flex at runtime rather than embed it? I've had good results loading swfs into Flex after launch, whereas embedding tends to be problematic for accessing a swf API.
Either use Loaders with eventListeners in a script or mx:SWFLoader in MXML with a listener on complete should work for you.

Related

How to add flex controls to my AS3 project?

I'm absolute newbie in Flash development but anyway I need to do something.
I have a pure AS3 project that plays video from youtube (chromeless player). I need to add some controls to manage this player. I don't know how to do that? If I just add mxml file into the project nothing happens. How to bind this file to as3?
Thanks
Flex components need to have UIComponent parent to function properly. If your player is based on Sprite, controls will not be initialized.
There is a trick to use Flex controls in the Sprite, but only after initialization in Flex Application. If you don't have Application, no luck.
You could use an AS3-only alternative. One library I've used is minimalcomps which offers some simple but effective controls for use in any AS3 project.
You can't use MXML, but nobody stops you to create your own controls if they are simple.
A short and simple example of how to add a button with an image:
loader = new Loader();
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
loader.load(new URLRequest('http://i1.nyt.com/images/misc/nytlogo379x64.gif'));
function onComplete(event:Event):void
{
var button:Sprite = new Sprite();
button.addChild(event.currentTarget.content);
addChild(button);
button.buttonMode = true;
button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onButtonClick);
}
function onButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
trace ('click');
}
This would be the most basic version of a button with a loaded bitmap image.
Normally you would like to check for errors as well... what to do if the image is not found, or when you're not allowed to access it.
If you're going to need more then one button you could make a class which accepts an url, so you could just pass the url to the class and the button would be created.
A completely other way to approach this is with an SWC file, you could create the buttons in the Flash IDE and export them as an swc, which you can embed and use in your pure AS3 project.

how to use UIComponent/Flash in Flex

I am new to Flash/Flex.
I would like to use a Component I created in Flash extending fl.core.UIComponent. How do I use this in Flex? Do I just export it as a swc or do I have to use the Flash Flex 3 kit which will convert it to a UIMovieClip. That does not sound right.
I would appreciate a few simple steps describing the process.
Thanks
Sanoran
You can publish your file as a .swf and use the SWFLoader to load it, just remember the paths are relative to your run/debug directories.
My understanding is swc files are generally library files, rather than visual components, because you want the libraries included at compile time (swc) rather than at runtime (swf).
var loader = new SWFLoader();
// set autoload to false just so we KNOW when it loads. Also prevents
// us from accidently loading it twice by calling load() later
loader.autoLoad = false;
loader.addEventListener(Event.INIT, function (nt:Event) {
// Remove event listener so can be garbage collected
event.currentTarget.removeEventListener(event.type, arguments.callee);
// note we can the loader, rather than
// loader.content
someIVisualElementContainer.addElement(loader);
});
// relative to bin-debug or bin-release
loader.source = "movie.swf";
loader.load();
Just import the .as file into your flex app. Use rawChildren.addChild instead of plain addChild to add it to the display list because flex overrides the default addChild method to accept only mx.core.UIComponent and its derived classes.
Update: You can't use FLA in flex, so if your component is not just an AS class extending fl.core.UIComponent, you should either export it to SWC or load the corresponding SWF at runtime to the flex app.

Flex HTTPService in Flash

Is there a standard equivalent to the Flex HTTPService class in Flash CS4?
You can take advantage of classes from Flex in Flash CS4, by adding a reference to the flex libraries as explain in this blog.
The example uses the Web Service component, but you can use the HttpService similarly.
yes but you have to do it manually , you have to choice , urlloader combined with urlrequest for example :
var urlloader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
urlloader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE , completeFunction );
urlloader.load(new URLRequest("http://......"));
function completeFunction(e:Event):void
{
// do what you want with the result
e.currentTarget.data
}
or just include the flex.swc in you lib folder with flash CS and use the HTTspervice

Programmatically load images in Flex

I need to load several images as Bitmap or BitmapData objects. The images are hosted outside the Flex project, and they're referenced by an external configuration file, so I can't embed them. Because the images won't be displayed directly to the user (they're being added to a PDF that is generated for download), creating a grouping of Image objects, attaching them to the application, and waiting for their LoadComplete handler to fire seems inefficient.
What is the best way to load these images into an application?
Have you considered using Loader class?
var ldr:Loader = new Loader();
ldr.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoad);
ldr.load(new URLRequest("image.png"));
function onLoad(e:Event):void
{
var image:Bitmap = Bitmap(LoaderInfo(e.target).content);
var bmpData:BitmapData = image.bitmapData;
//use bmpdata the way you want
trace(bmpdata.width);
trace(bmpdata.height);
}

Flex: Passing MXML file as XML Parameter

Is it Possible to pass MXML it self as parameter(XML param) from external application and load in Flash Player dynamically to create page. For e.g
passing xml = <mx:canvas><mx:label text="hello" /></mx:canvas> to Flex and flex should create canvas with label control in it. Is there any example related to it.
Thanx
MXML code needs to be compiled down to ActionScript before Flash Player can do anything with it. MXML is not interpreted by Flash Player at runtime.
What you are wanting to do is not possible. Like brd6644 said, mxml is compiled down to bytecode in the swf which is interpreted by the flash player. The mxml (and even actionscript) is not understood by the flash player.
That being said, there is a JSP library that you can use for dynamic MXML. See here:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/server_perf_05.html
That link is old, and right now I can't seem to find an updated link, but I know the project still exists. I believe it actually ships as part of ColdFusion still. It allows you to create dynamic mxml which gets JIT compiled at the request. It of course has a substantial performance hit because of it, but if you need dynamic MXML it is an option.
I will update this comment with a better link when I find it.
Just store the properties of the
component to a XML and put a className
attribute so that if you load the XML
you can have a function to set the
attributes of the XML to the
properties of your created component
which will be determined in your
className attribute
My initial guess is no, it would still be of type "XML", and there is no "eval" in Actionscript 3. I did a quick search and am going to have to say no, this is not possible.
I have however, done something similar in an app I created.
What I did was store in a database the object type, and some properties (x,y,width,height, etc). This data is returned from a remote object call and these objects are then created at runtime, which can get a similar effect you are trying to achieve.
For example:
var resultAC:ArrayCollection = event.result as ArrayCollection;
var tmpCanvas:Canvas;
for(var i:int = 0; i < resultAC.length; i++)
{
if(resultAC.getItemAt(i).type == "Canvas")
{
tmpCanvas = new Canvas();
tmpCanvas.x = resultAC.getItemAt(i).x;
tmpCanvas.y = resultAC.getItemAt(i).y;
...
parent.addChild(tmpCanvas);
}
}

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