controlling movieClips using other movieClips

Using Flash CS4 - AS 3.0

I am goin nuts, trying to figure out how to control a movie clip using a separate movie clip.

on scene 1 (2 frames long), i have 2 movie clips.
-bFind (24 frames long)
-textEffects (14 frames long)

i want to jump to frame 7 of the textEffect movieClip when i hover over bFind

i have my AS code in the first frame of the movieClip called "Bfind"

Code:

---

stop();

addEventListener(
  MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER,
  function(evt:MouseEvent):void {
  gotoAndPlay(1); //this works, it starts a hover effect
  root.textEffects(7); //this DOES NOT WORK
  } 
);

---

ERROR MSG:
1061: Call to a possibly undefined method textEffects through a reference with static type flash.display:DisplayObject.

I have combed this message board and have tried a bunch of solutions with no luck.

Thanks in advance

Looks like your migrating from AS 2.0. Make sure both clips are on the main timeline and have instance names (example mc01 & mc02)

Code:

---

mc01.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER , controlClip)

function controlClip(e:MouseEvent):void
{
  mc01.gotoAndPlay(1);
  mc02.gotoAndStop(9); // you can call a function on mc02 if you want
  textEffect(7); //or call a function that will alter mc02
}

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FlashDevSD

Looks like your migrating from AS 2.0. Make sure both clips are on the main timeline and have instance names (example mc01 & mc02)

Code:

---

mc01.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER , controlClip)

function controlClip(e:MouseEvent):void
{
  mc01.gotoAndPlay(1);
  mc02.gotoAndStop(9); // you can call a function on mc02 if you want
  textEffect(7); //or call a function that will alter mc02
}

---

---

would this code go in frame one of Scene 1 (main timeline)?

if so, should i be controlling all mc's and buttons from teh main timeline?

if that is where the movieclips are located then yes.

perfect. seems so simple. i like the way AS 3.0 has migrated to OOP, i just have to relearn the way i work within Flash. Any suggestions on some good tutorials? No matter the case, thanks for the help.

If you need to use the timeline for AS, it's good practice to keep the "meat" of it on the root timeline. As you dig into AS3, you'll find that using a Document Class and a Class pattern will be much cleaner and easier to modify because everything is encapsulated. It's the way AS3 is intended to be used.

However, I still use AS on the timeline for quick projects and I've found myself in similar situations. If you need to control a MC on the root or in the parent, you'll have to data type the root/parent as a MovieClip like:

MovieClip(this.root).textEffects.gotoAndPlay(7); or
MovieClip(this.parent).textEffects.gotoAndPlay(7);

Using "root" or "parent" will return a DisplayObject or DisplayObjectContainer respectively. So, in order to access things like children or methods such as "gotoAndPlay", you have to data type that object as a MovieClip. You could also use:

var mc:MovieClip = this.root as MovieClip;
mc.textEffects.gotoAndPlay(7);

The previous is just more of a shortcut to do the same thing. Of course, this isn't the recommended approach, but it will work in a crunch.

Check out gotoandlearn.com for some good free video tutorials, or a great paid service is lynda.com. It's a bit pricey for a membership, but its a good investment.

Hope that helps!