2-State Button - Need Help

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:

Code:

---

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.

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

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);

};

---

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.

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);

---

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

gparis

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.

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.

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?

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

Code:

---

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:

Code:

---

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

---

but this didn't:

Code:

---

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.

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.

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?

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