TextField.prototype.addShadow(); help plz!

[dev_flasher]

Hi Fellow Flashers,
I wrote this prototype that adds a dropshadow to any TextField object. It works great as long as the TextField object is on the _root. If I try to use the prototype on any TextField object contained within a MovieClip, the dropshadow text gets created, but all text nowhere to be seen(maybe it's off the stage, maybe its a depth() thing, maybe its a target thing, I dunno..) Can anyone find my mistake(s):

TextField.prototype.addShadow = function (shadowColor){
	// create some objects to hold info about our original Txt field
origTxtProps = new Object();
origTxtFormat = this.getTextFormat();
newTxtFormat = new TextFormat(); 

for(var i in this){ // archive the original Txt properties
	origTxtProps[i] = this[i];
}
for(var i in this.getTextFormat()){ // add original TextFormat values to a new TextFormat
	newTxtFormat[i] = this.getTextFormat()[i];
	//trace("format property: "+i+" = "+origTxtFormat[i]);
}
this._parent.createEmptyMovieClip(this._name + "Holder", this.getDepth()+1); // put the text into a MC for easy manipulation
path = this._parent[this._name + "Holder"]; // truncate MC path

// create new text fields to be populated with data from the original text
path.createTextField("bottomTxt",17000, 0, 0, this._x, this._y, origProps.textWidth, origProps.textHeight);
path.createTextField("topTxt",170001, 0, 0, this._x, this._y, origProps.textWidth, origProps.textHeight);
for(var i in origTxtProps){ // populate and set props for the newly created text
	path.topTxt[i] = origTxtProps[i];
	path.bottomTxt[i] = origTxtProps[i];
}

// transfer original format to newly created text
path.topTxt.setTextFormat(newTxtFormat); 
path.bottomTxt.setTextFormat(newTxtFormat);

path.bottomTxt.textColor = shadowColor; // make the drop shadow color

// nudge the top text to reveal the drop shadow underneath
path.topTxt._y = path.bottomTxt._y - 1;
path.topTxt._x = path.bottomTxt._y - 1; 

// set the MC that holds the text to the exact postion
path._x = this._x; 
path._y = this._y;

// render the original TxtField untouchable, How can i remove it from memory??
this.selectable = false;
this.text = "";
};

// usage that works
test.addShadow(0xffff00);

// usage that doesn't work
myMC.test.addShadow(0xffff00);

Thanks for the future,
~Dev

[mvinal16]

Hi. I don't understand how this works. Where does this code go? I'm trying to apply a dropshadow to multiple MC of text in my movie. Is this how I accomplish this? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

[mkantor]

Your created holder clip was likely tromping on top of myMC. You need to get a clear depth.

Also, you have too many parameters in createTextField, and potentially could have zero width or height, making the new text not visible.

Minor problem with x and y confusion.

If a textfield is created using MovieClip.createTextField(), you can remove it with this.removeTextField(). If created at authoring time, I don't know a way to remove it.

code:

---

this._parent.createEmptyMovieClip(this._name + "Holder", this._parent.getNextHighestDepth()); 





..



path.createTextField("bottomTxt",1, 0, 0, origTxtProps.textWidth, origTxtProps.textHeight);

path.createTextField("topTxt", 2, 0, 0, origTxtProps.textWidth, origTxtProps.textHeight);



...



path.topTxt._x = path.bottomTxt._x - 1; 

---