2-State Button - Need Help

[exuk]

I want to have one button that has two states. For example a play button, when pressed it plays a movie, but change to a pause button. Then you can click the pause button and it returns to the original state.

So far, i have created a moiveclip, inside i have my button. On frame 1 i have the play button and on frame 5 i have my pause button. I want to have a action on release, so that the button change from one frame to the next. Does this make sense?

Here is my code to call this action:

this.movieClip.play_btn.onRelease = function() {
	gotoAndStop(5)
};

I have posted a bunch of theads this week and no one replies, i hope i can get some help. Thanks.

[parkjin]

i imagine that your code of:

this.movieClip.play_btn.onRelease = function() {
gotoAndStop(5)
};

is nested inside some other object creating function - if so you may want to post the entire function.

if not try this:

movieClip.play_btn.onRelease = function() {
movieClip.gotoAndStop(5);
};

i have a feeling it is a targeting issue.. post your fla if want

[jbum]

This adds a toggle behavior to the button.
The variable isPaused flips back and forth between true and false when this line executes:

isPaused = ! isPaused;

Then you use that variable to change the behavior or look of the button.

code:

---

isPaused = false;



this.movieClip.play_btn.onRelease = 



function() 

{

  isPaused = ! isPaused;

  if (isPaused) gotoAndStop(1);

  else          gotoAndStop(5);

};

---

[parkjin]

hey jbum, very interesting, never seen this usage of toggling -> isPaused = ! isPaused; -> learn something new everyday

sorry exuk, i think i need to read people's posts more thoroughly.. long day for me.

[jbum]

This one'll blow your mind. You can do the same thing in one line.

code:

---

isPaused = false;



this.movieClip.play_btn.onRelease =



function()

{

  gotoAndStop(5 - (isPaused ^= 1)*4);

}

---

I don't recommend this method, however, since it makes the code hard to understand.

Here's what is going on - I'll build it up bit by bit.

isPaused ^= 1;

This toggles the 1 bit in isPaused by using the XOR operator. The result is the new value of isPaused, which will be 0 or 1. So we get 0,1,0,1,0,1 etc.


(isPaused ^= 1)*4

We multiply that by 4, which gives us 0,4,0,4,0,4, etc.

5 - (isPaused ^= 1)*4

5-0 = 5
5-4 = 1

so this toggles back and forth between frame 5 and frame 1.

Now, here's a 2-line version which I would use. It uses the conditional operator ? :

code:

---

isPaused = !isPaused;

gotoAndStop(isPaused? 1 : 5);

---

[gparis]

It blew mine. You're an artist, jbum!

gparis

[parkjin]

haven't had time to play around with your AS yet.. but out of curiosity what minimum version of flash does the movie need to be published as?

thanks.

[jbum]

Most of the scripts I post here are Flash 6 (Flash MX), and work with actionscript 1.0. Many of them also work in Flash 5, and this particular one probably does.

I don't do much coding in actionscript 2.0 yet.

[exuk]

Thanks for all the help from both of you. I tried the code without yeilding results. I am going to post the fla file. Can someone help me with this?

[parkjin]

this seemed to do the trick, added some trace actions so you can see what is going on:

isPaused = true;
this.movieClip.play_btn.onRelease = function() {
	isPaused = !isPaused;
	trace ("Value of isPaused: " + isPaused);
	_root.movieClip.gotoAndStop(isPaused? 1 : 5);
	trace ("MovieClips Current Frame: " + _root.movieClip._currentFrame);
}

this line of code allows it to work:

_root.movieClip.gotoAndStop(isPaused? 1 : 5);

but this didn't:

this.movieClip.gotoAndStop(isPaused? 1 : 5);

the result was an undefiined object. you would have to write a new constructor function in order for this.movieClip.gotoAndStop(isPaused? 1 : 5) line of code to be applicable.

[exuk]

OK Thanks!. Sometimes i mess up on the paths, but the _root was the fix.

For all reading this thread i am going to post the working fla.

[exuk]

I have another questions about calling actions to the button. In the two different states i want to have different actions called upon the button, but the button has the same instance name. How do i get around this?

[Dardoz]

maybe i'm not getting something really simple here but, i added an mc to the main timeline of that file and it doesnt pause it