Call function in Document Class from and included .as

[ben_tg]

I have a document class with functions that I want to access from .as files that are "included" from the timeline of movieclips.

for example, the Document Class "docClass.as":

package{
    public class docClass extends MovieClip
    {
           public function docClass():void
        {
                    public function showText(myText):void
                          {trace(myText);
                          }
                 }
        }
} 

and then a separate .as file called from a movieclip within the .fla using

include "TestAS.as"; 

and TestAS.as contains:

var txtvar:docClass = new docClass;
txtvar.ShowText("THIS TEXT WILL NOT TRACE!! PLEASE HELP!!"); 

What is the correct way to call functions in the Document Class from and included .as file? Thanks,

[5TonsOfFlax]

You are probably getting an error about no such function ShowText. This is because your method is "showText" with a lowercase 's'.

If you change that, it should "work", but it's still a terrible design. Instead of creating a new instance of your document class to call showText on, you should use the one you've already got.

The root is associated with the document class, which means it is an instance of it. You need to get the root, and cast that reference to the document class, then you can call your method.

docClass(root).showText("whatever");

I also do not recommend using the include directive. It's not bad per se, but it does fragment your classes into multiple files that make it more difficult to track down code.

Also also, the common convention is that classes all begin with a capital letter, and everything else begins with a lowercase letter.

[ben_tg]

I was kind of hoping to get talked out of using "include".
I just wanted some way to spread all my code over multiple .as files so as not to clutter my Document class. What's the preferred method for this?
Also, how do I talk between multiple .as files, in various subdirectories?
Thanks,

[5TonsOfFlax]

Instead of having one massive document class that handles everything, create many classes which each have distinct and relatively restricted functionality. Create instances of these new classes and use their methods.

Don't think about communicating between .as files. You don't have .as files at runtime. You need your class instances to communicate with each other. The only thing that's necessary to do that is for one instance to have a reference to the other instance it wants to communicate with.