Referencing a Sprite subclass's properties

[bellend]

Hi there allow me to begin explaining my confusing.

Class A extends Sprite {}

Say we want to create a list of A objects on screen. 1 below the other.

var array:Array = new Array();

for (var i:int = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
var a:A = new A();
addChild(a);

if (array.length > 0)
{
a.y = array[i-1].y + array[i-1].height;
}
}

Im not sitting infront of Flex or Flash just now, but you get the basic idea.

In my project, these are news Items loaded with XML, if i trace inside the A class, i can do

trace(this.height) //160;

however, when i do this on the same object outside the class

trace(a.height) //0;

Incredibly frustrating!!

The A class is on the stage, i physically can see it there and it looks about 200px high so why is its height property returning as 0?

Thanks

[cancerinform]

If the height is created after your trace action, it will be 0. Everything is dependent on the timing.

[bellend]

Thanks u

I see what you mean!

When i create an A i give it a delay in the constructor for a casdading effect. So the A is building itself 1 second after i have asked for the height.

Can i ask, see with delays? Is the best way just to use timers? Coz if you have a pretty motion intensive actionscript project, the code starts to look really messy

var t:Timer = new Timer(1000);
t.addEventListener(TimerEvent.Timer, onTimer)
t.stop();

function onTimer(t:TimerEvent): void
{
t.target.stop();
t.target.removeEventListener(TimerEvent.Timer, onTimer);
}

I am so used to typing this and have often wondered if there is a better way to create delays other than 7 lines of code!

Thanks

R

[cancerinform]

Click on the Flashscript classes in my footer. In the biz folder you find a folder events. There is a class CustomDispatcher, which I modified from the original Adobe class. Then check any of the component scripts, for example in the datechooser folder DateChooserModul.as how to use this class.

[robotz]

If it takes time for your A() sprite to be created, and you can't proceed with the next part of your code until they are all ready, then make the A() sprites dispatch events upon completion, and have your main code sit waiting for the last one before it continues.

Using a timer like you do now only works because you pretty much know the sprite will exist after that amount of time. You'll probably be right 99% of the time, but the upshot is that there's a potential race condition waiting to happen.