_root.xyzxyz What this _root means?

[VishwasG]

What is the meaning of _root. What does it represent.

[davyPaycheck]

_root is the name of the movie's main timeline as opposed to a movie clip's timeline.

It tells the Flash player what timeline to target.

The _root level is the outer most level of movie clips.

In cases where you are using loadMovie, _root can also mean the outer most level of *the loaded movie* but not necessarily the parent movie.
In those cases, you might also want to use _level0 to refer to the parent or base movie.

Hope that helps.

D

[mickbrit55]

Hello

_root is a reference to the main timeline of your movie in ActionScript. You can use it from any other clip to get access to the main timeline :

//from within a remote mc
on(release) {
_root.gotoAndStop("graphics");
}

Mick.

[VishwasG]

......
......
_root is the name of the movie's main timeline as opposed to a movie clip's timeline.
It tells the Flash player what timeline to target.
The _root level is the outer most level of movie clips.
In cases where you are using loadMovie, _root can also mean the outer most level of *the loaded movie* but not necessarily the parent movie.
In those cases, you might also want to use _level0 to refer to the parent or base movie.
.....

Yah, I understood it somewhat. But what is it used for, ie. when will i need it. Moreover, will i have to manually see the level of my movie or can i get it automatically from the program.

[davyPaycheck]

You will need to indicate _root any time you wish to target the root timeline from within another timeline. Also you will need to indicate _root followed by the path to any object on the root timeline if you wish to target objects from within other objects.
For example, here is a button inside a movie clip telling the root level to play:

myMC_mc.myButton_btn.onPress = function (){
_root.play();
}

[mickbrit55]

Hello

If you have a movie clip that holds a button, and you want it to send the playhead to a frame label called "contact" on the MAIN timeline, then your code on the button would be :

on(release) {
_root.gotoAndStop("contact");
}

If you didn't use _root the code would be looking for the frame label on the CLIP's timeline, and it wouldn't work.

If you load an external swf file into your movie using loadMovie(), then things get a little more tricky. Using _root within the loaded swf refers to the main timeline of the swf, not the one that called it. If you want to refer to the calling movie then you would have to use _level0 :

on(release) {
_level0.gotoAndStop("contact");
}

Mick