Category Archives: Flex

SWFObject.addVariable() in AS3

Posted on by

SWFObject.addVariable() in AS3

SWFObject is the standard for embedding Flash files into HTML. If you haven’t used it run on over to Geoff Stearns site and download yourself a heapin’ helpin’ of some SWFObject. If you are feeling especially adventuresome and want to test out the latest features in the new SwfObject 2.0 then head over to the SwfFix development blog. SWFObject eliminates the need to click on the Flash piece on a website before being able to interact with it, it has plug-in detection, it can be used with popular blogging software on sites such as this, and there are plugins for Dreamweaver and as a publish setting right in Flash. You should be using this for every website you build.  As of the 15th of February (I wonder what they were doing on Valentines Day) you can even download an SWFObject Adobe Air app for generating the proper code to embed your SwfObject into your website.  It employs the new SWFObject 2.0.  Or for quick and easy access just use the web version to generate your swfObject code

Now that you are totally sold and will never build anything Flash without it, you may want to inject variables (FlashVars) into your swf.  The methods are different for AS2 and AS3.  It is quite easy, yet different in each of these versions of ActionScript.  You simply throw the following code into the HTML and then …

<div id=”flashcontent”>
Swf Audio is not loaded Please check your path. this should be an audio control built in flash.</div>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var so = new SWFObject(“SoundControlTest2.swf”, “audioControl”, “240”, “24”, “8”, “#EFECDD”);
so.addVariable(“audioURL”, “AllThatIWant.mp3”);
so.addVariable(“audioURL2”, “Comfort.mp3”);
so.addVariable(“audioURL3”, “Jolene.mp3”);
so.addVariable(“audioURL4”, “Amazing.mp3”);
so.write(“flashcontent”);
</script>

…then in your Document class (or on the MainTimeline if you are not using a Document Class) you will need to reference the parameters property of the loaderInfo property like this:

myTextBox.text = this.loaderInfo.parameters.audioURL;

In AS2 you only can access the variable directly on the mainTimeline using something like this:

myTextBox.text = audioURL;

Hope this helps you (and your users) have a better Flash experience on the web.

As always Happy Flashing.

Curtis J. Morley

ActionScript Error #2032

Posted on by

ActionScript Error #2032: Stream Error. URL: /Sound/Amazing.mp3

Description:
This is an ActionScript Runtime Error that you will get if you purposefully trap errors (which I highly recommend you do) while trying to load a file into Flash/Flex. One very simple reason you will get this error is if you have targeted an mp3 or any file incorrectly. This can include php scripts and other external datasources.

Fix:
Make sure that you are targeting the file correctly. In the ‘Bad Code’ example below I am missing just one letter. Without trapping the errors like I do you will also get AS3 Error #2044: Unhandled IOError Event

Bad Code:

private var snd:Sound = new Sound();
snd.load(new URLRequest(“Amzing.mp3”));
snd.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, onSoundIOError, false, 0, true);

function onSoundIOError (e:IOErrorEvent)
{
trace(“An Error Occured and it looked like this.”, e.text);
}
snd.play();

Good Code:

private var snd:Sound = new Sound();
snd.load(new URLRequest(“Amazing.mp3”));
snd.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, onSoundIOError, false, 0, true);

function onSoundIOError (e:IOErrorEvent)
{
trace(“An Error Occured and it looked like this.”, e.text);
}
snd.play();

Error #2044: Unhandled IOErrorEvent:. text=Error #2032: Stream Error.
at SoundControl_fla::MainTimeline/frame1()

Related ActionScript Errors – AS3 Error 2044 Unhandled IOError Event

This ActionScript Error is a quick one. I hope this helps you solve it.

As always Happy Flashing

Flex / Flash ActionScript Error #1094

Posted on by

ActionScript Error #1094: Syntax error: A string literal must be terminated before the line break.

Description:
Error 1094 is a simple and fairly well described ActionScript Error.  This error will appear when you have left off the closing single quote marks in a particular line.  This is very closely related to AS3 Error 1095 which will help you out when you improperly use double quotes.  You will most likely get AS3 syntax error 1083 and syntax error 1084 after this this one.  These can most likely be ignored and will go away once the 1094 error is taken care of

Fix:
End the string properly by putting double quotes in the proper place

Bad Code:

trace(‘This is missing a single quote + someVar);

Good Code:

trace(‘This is not missing a single quote’+ someVar);

Related ActionScript Errors – AS3 Error 1095, AS3 Error 1084

This ActionScript Error is a quick one. I hope this helps you solve it.

As always Happy Flashing

Flex / Flash ActionScript Error #1095

Posted on by

ActionScript Error #1095: Syntax error: A string literal must be terminated before the line break.

Description:
Error 1095 is a simple and fairly well described ActionScript Error. This error will appear when you have left off the closing double quote marks in a particular line. This is very closely related to AS3 Error #1094 which will help you out when you improperly use single quotes. You will most likely get AS3 syntax error 1083 and syntax error 1084 after this this one. These can most likely be ignored and will go away once the 1095 Error is taken care of

Fix:
End the string properly by putting double quotes in the proper place

Bad Code:

trace(“This is missing a double quote + someVar);

Good Code:

trace(“This is not missing a double quote”+ someVar);

Related ActionScript Errors – AS3 Error #1094, AS3 Error 1084

This ActionScript Error is a quick one. I hope this helps you solve it.

As always Happy Flashing

New Scenarios of AS3 Error #1084

Posted on by

I’ve added 3 new scenarios to AS3 error 1084.

You can find it here.

http://curtismorley.com/2007/07/14/flash-cs3-flex-2-error-1084/#comment-2482

The additions are:

1084: Syntax error: expecting leftparen before colon.
1084: Syntax error: expecting rightparen before colon.
1084: Syntax error: expecting rightparen before semicolon.

Flex / Flash CS3 Warning# 3551

Posted on by

ActionScript Warning: 3551: Appending text to a TextField using += is many times slower than using the TextField.appendText() method.

ActionScript Error Description:
I love this ActionScript Warning. This is not technically an ActionScript Error instead it is a warning that helps you code better. It is very clear and easily deciphered. This states that you should not use the old way to add text to a text field but rather use the new TextField.appendText() method. This improves performance dramatically and will prevent the user from getting the 15 sec. timeout. (Error #1502: A script has executed for longer than the default timeout period of 15 seconds.)

Fix:
Use TextField.appendText() instead of +=.

Bad Code:

var something:String = “Happy “;
var somethingElse:String = “Birthday”;
myTF_txt.text = something;
myTF_txt.text += somethingElse;

Good Code:

var something:String = “Happy “;
var somethingElse:String = “Birthday”;
myTF_txt.text = something;
myTF_txt.appendText(somethingElse);

ActionScript Warning #3551 is simple and easy (the way that all ActionScript errors/ warnings should be)

As always – Happy Flashing

Flex 2 / Flash CS3 ActionScript Error #1150

Posted on by

ActionScript Error #1150: The protected attribute may be used only on class property definitions.

Description:
This ActionScript Error justs means that you have used the access control modifier ‘protected’ in the wrong spot. There are four access control modifiers – public, private, internal, and protected. Each of these specify how the method or variable is accessed. Each access control modifier has it’s own error but they all mean the same thing. Access control modifiers need to be used in the right place. The ‘internal’ and ‘public’ can only be used inside a ‘package’ and ‘private’ and ‘protected’ can only be used on classes.

Fix:
Make sure to only use the ‘protected’ access control modifier to define a method or variable within the class itself and not within a method(function).

Bad Code:

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			protected var borderSize:uint = 0;
			trace(size);
		}
	}
}

Good Code:

package{
	public class MySize {
		private var size:uint = 40;
		protected function Connection():void{
			trace(size);
		}
	}
}

Related ActionScript Errors – AS3 Error 1013, AS3 Error 1114, AS3 Error 1115

This ActionScript Error is a quick one. I hope this helps you solve it.

As always Happy Flashing

Flex 2 / Flash CS3 ActionScript Error #1115

Posted on by

ActionScript Error #1115: The internal attribute can only be used inside a package.

Description:
This ActionScript Error justs means that you have used the access control modifier ‘internal’ in the wrong spot. There are four access control modifiers – public, private, internal, and protected. Each of these specify how the method or variable is accessed. Each access control modifier has it’s own error but they all mean the same thing. Access control modifiers need to be used in the right place. The ‘internal’ and ‘public’ can only be used inside a ‘package’ and ‘private’ and ‘protected’ can only be used on classes.

Fix:
Make sure to only use the ‘internal’ access control modifier to define a class, method or variable within a package and not inside the class itself nor within a method(function).

Bad Code:

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			internal var bgColor:uint = 0xFFCC00;
			trace(bgColor);
		}
	}
}

Good Code:

package{
	internal class MySize {
		public var bgColor:uint = 0xFFCC00;
		public function Connection():void{
			trace(bgColor);
		}
	}
}

Related ActionScript Errors – AS3 Error 1013, AS3 Error 1114, AS3 Error 1150
This ActionScript Error is a quick one. I hope this helps you solve it.

As always Happy Flashing

Flex 2 / Flash CS3 ActionScript Error #1114

Posted on by

ActionScript Error #1114: The public attribute can only be used inside a package.

Description:
This ActionScript Error justs means that you have used the access control modifier ‘public’ in the wrong spot. There are four access control modifiers – public, private, internal, and protected. Each of these specify how the method or variable is accessed. Each access control modifier has it’s own error but they all mean the same thing. Access control modifiers need to be used in the right place. The ‘internal’ and ‘public’ can only be used inside a ‘package’ and ‘private’ and ‘protected’ can only be used on classes.

Fix:
Make sure to only use the ‘public’ access control modifier to define a method or variable within a package and not inside the class itself nor within a method(function).

Bad Code:

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			public var bgColor:uint = 0xFFCC00;
			trace(bgColor);
		}
	}
}

Good Code:

package{
	public class MySize {
		public var bgColor:uint = 0xFFCC00;
		public function Connection():void{
			trace(bgColor);
		}
	}
}

or

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			var bgColor:uint = 0xFFCC00;
			trace(bgColor);
		}
	}
}

Related ActionScript Errors – AS3 Error 1013, AS3 Error 1115 , AS3 Error 1150

This ActionScript Error is a quick one. I hope this helps you solve it.

As always Happy Flashing

Flex 2 / Flash CS3 ActionScript Error #1013

Posted on by

ActionScript Error #1013: The private attribute may be used only on class property definitions.

Description:
This ActionScript Error justs means that you have used the access control modifier ‘private’ in the wrong spot. There are four access control modifiers – public, private, internal, and protected. Each of these specify how the method or variable is accessed. Each access control modifier has it’s own error but they all mean the same thing. Access control modifiers need to be used in the right place. The ‘internal’ and ‘public’ can only be used inside a ‘package’ and ‘private’ and ‘protected’ can only be used on classes. AS3 error 1013 can also be caused if you misplace a method identifier like ‘:void’

Fix:
Make sure to only use the ‘private’ access control modifier to define a method or variable within the class itself and not within a method(function).

Bad Code 1:

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			private var size:uint = 40;
			trace(size);
		}
	}
}

Good Code 1:

package{
	public class MySize {
		private var size:uint = 40;
		public function Connection():void{
			trace(size);
		}
	}
}

or

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			var size:uint = 40;
			trace(size);
		}
	}
}

Bad Code 2:

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			someFunction():void;
		}

 	private function someFunction():void{
			var size:uint = 40;
			trace(size);
		}
	}
}

Good Code 2:

package{
	public class MySize {
		public function Connection():void{
			someFunction();
		}

 	private function someFunction():void{
			var size:uint = 40;
			trace(size);
		}
	}
}

Related ActionScript Errors – AS3 Error 1114, AS3 Error 1115 , AS3 Error 1150

This ActionScript Error is a quick one. I hope this helps you solve it.

As always Happy Flashing