currentTarget.name doesn't give instance name...

[5TonsOfFlax]

The part that I don't understand is this:
if you physically place a button or mc on the stage and type in an instance name, you can addEventListener to it by name.
But if you create it dynamically and assign it a name, you can't.
Why is that?

Because you have "Automatically declare stage instances" checked. "Behind the scenes" Flash declares variables with the same names as your instancenames. It is these variables that you can actually use to addEventListener, or other direct code manipulation.

When you dynamically add instances as you do above, you do not get variables named "but1", etc. No worries, though. A variable is just one way of referencing an instance. You can also get a reference to an instance by using the array method swak alluded to:

buttonArray[1].addEventListener(...)

Or even by getChildByName on the containing parent (in this case, "this").

getChildByName("but1").addEventListener(...)

[fx.barrett]

Yes, you're right with the if, when you have multiple objects then it can get messy. To achieve the same thing in a more advanced way, you'll need to define a variable inside each movie clip, and ID. And you can trace those objects by their ID ( that variable ). Regarding the event listener. Well, you can assign an event listener to an object by name with the help of getChildByName("theName").addEventListener...

[blanius]

I'm dealing with this same issue.

I tried using e.currentTarget.name and it has the name but since this is NOT the object itself how do I call methods in the object without resorting to a if conditional?

[fx.barrett]

What do you mean by "call methods in the object"... You said that your object has a name, you can add a listener to the object ( using it's name or whatever you'd like ) and call functions once that certain event triggers.

Could you explain a bit more what exactly is the problem ? Your problem is really not clear to me nor is what you are trying to achieve.

EDIT: hah, really bad typo... I'm tired, sorry... If you want to add a listener then you could assign it to it's name or to the object:

var whatever:YourMovieClip = new YourMovieClip();

addChild(whatever);

whatever.name = "yourMc";

// now, you could use 2 methods
whatever.addEventListener(....);

// or by assigning it to it's name
getChildByName("yourMc").addEventListener(...)

[blanius]

I'll try adding the listener with childByName and see how that goes.

[Big 'Un]

Hi. Yes. Thanks so much for your replies. I tried getChildByName and that worked.
I also did a similar experiment and registered events using getChildAt which worked well since their level numbers matched their index created by a loop.

Thanks

[WearDark]

instance19 and the rest are the instance names of your dynamically created buttons, you're not doing anything wrong. Since you are not naming your buttons, flash will name them by default "instance" + a random number ( not really sure if it's 100% random, but sorta ).

In order to get a more "normal", custom instance name, use the .name property to set a custom identifier for each instance:

for (i = 1; i<=5; i++) 
{
    this["but"+i] = new clearBut();
    addChild(this["but"+i]);
    this["but"+i].name = "but" + i; // name each instance differently
    this["but"+i].x = this["txt"+i].x;

    this["but"+i].addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onMouseDownhandler);
} // end of for

function onMouseDownhandler (event:MouseEvent):void 
{
    trace("instance name: " + event.currentTarget.name);

} // end of onMouseDownHandler 

After 5 iterations, that should give you something like: bu1, but2... but5

Good luck.

Im not creating instances dynamically, they are defined on the MovieClip instance. The instance itself is added to the stage at runtime and the MovieClip's base class is a custom AS3 class. I too am experiencing instance + num when I try event.target.name...

can anyone offer suggestions?

[fx.barrett]

Could you maybe post your code ? It would help a lot.

[WearDark]

Heres the important part:

function clickDispatch(ev:Event):void{			
			
	trace(ev.target.name);
	var white:ColorTransform = new ColorTransform();
	white.color = 0xCC00FF;
	playPause.transform.colorTransform = white;

			
	switch(ev.target.name){
		case "playPause":
			//dispatchEvent(new Event(ScrubberEvent.PLAY_PAUSE));
					break;
		case "playhead":
			//dispatchEvent(new Event(ScrubberEvent.SEEK));
			break
		case "volumeIcon":
			//dispatchEvent(new Event(ScrubberEvent.MUTE));
			break;
		case "volumeLevel":
			//dispatchEvent(new Event(ScrubberEvent.NEWVOLUME));
			break;
		case "volume":
			//dispatchEvent(new Event(ScrubberEvent.NEWVOLUME));
			break;
	}
}

That trace statement spits out instance+num but the code to change the coloue of the MovieClip works just fine so Flash is able to find it.

playPause is defined in the Library inside a container MovieClip whose base class is the one that contains the above code.

Does that help?

[fx.barrett]

If you are saying that the trace spits out "instance + num" correctly then you're not doing the switch right... in you switch you have nothing making "instance+num"... let's say the trace spits "button1" then once it looks at the switch, it will not find a matching case since no such case as "button1" exists...

Example of a working switch:

this.button1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickDispatch);
this.button2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickDispatch);

function clickDispatch(ev:Event):void{            
            
    switch(ev.target.name){
        case "button1":    
            trace(ev.target.name + " clicked");
            break;
        case "button2":    
            trace(ev.target.name + " clicked");
            break;
    }
} 

Good luck.