Adobe Flash CS4 Intermediate - ActionScript — A 3-day course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Course Overview

Adobe Flash ActionScript provides experienced Adobe Flash designers with the knowledge and hands-on practice they need to create dynamically generated event-driven animation and interactive games with Adobe Flash. The course teaches fundamental programming techniques. It begins by introducing core concepts including instance names, variables, functions, properties, and methods; then proceeds through conditions, loops, event handling, and animating with Adobe Flash ActionScript.

Course Objectives

By the end of the training course you will have knowledge of

• Variables and Properties
• Functions and Methods
• Text Format Class
• Attaching Movie Clip Objects at Runtime
• Event Handling
• Arrays, Objects, and built-in classes
• Loops and Conditions
• ActionScript Classes
• ActionScript Animation

Suitable For

This course is for Adobe Flash designers who have some experience with Adobe Flash design and would like to learn basic and intermediate Adobe Flash ActionScript.

Prerequisites

To take this course, you should have:

• Completed the Adobe Flash Rich Content Creation course, or have equivalent experience
• The desire to learn how to program Adobe Flash content using Adobe Flash ActionScript

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Course Contents

Introducing the Course

• Understanding the course format
• Reviewing the course objectives and prerequisites
• Looking at the course outline

Controlling Visual Objects with Adobe Flash ActionScript

• Using the Actions and Help panels
• Declaring variables and their data types
• Using the trace() function
• Using code hinting
• Assigning instance names and using them to assign runtime property values
• Using the with operator
• Introducing core properties of visual built-in classes: Movie Clip, Button, and Text Field
• Controlling Button and Movie Clip position and visual state
• Controlling Text Field content
• Introducing core properties of non-visual built-in classes: Math
• Using mathematical operators
• Understanding data type conversion

Using and Writing Functions

• Working with Adobe Flash Player global functions
• Converting values returned from functions and assigning them for display
• Writing user defined functions
• Returning, or not returning, data from a function
• Understanding variable scope
• Adding code within a Movie Clip symbol's own timeline
• Introducing the this operator
• Understanding object methods
• Introducing core methods of visual built-in classes: Movie Clip and Text Field
• Controlling the Movie Clip play head within its timeline
• Loading external Movie Clip content
• Understanding cross-domain security issues
• Exporting and attaching Movie Clip symbol instances at runtime
• Writing and using user defined functions to create visual content
• Understanding depth
• Dynamically referring to instance names and property names at runtime

Using Text, Dates, Math, and Paths

• Controlling Text Field formatting through code
• Creating and formatting Text Fields at runtime
• Using Date objects
• Working with String concatenation
• Generating random numbers and integers using the Math class
• Understanding relative path names
• Controlling nested Movie Clip objects

Understanding and Handling Events

• Understanding event driven programming
• Working with event handler syntax
• Moving from symbol-based to timeline-based event handling
• Introducing core events of visual built-in classes: Button, Movie Clip, and Text Field
• Controlling the play head within an event handler
• Understanding the this keyword inside an event handler
• Creating rollover effects
• Responding to Text Field focus events
• Calling a single function from multiple event handlers
• Referring to a parent object from within an event handler

Managing Colour, Sound, and Data with Built-In Classes

• Understanding complex (aggregate) variables
• Working with Arrays
• Working with generic Objects
• Transforming Movie Clip objects using Transform and Color Transform objects
• Generating random color transformations
• Using Sound objects
• Creating audio feedback with event-driven sounds linked from the Library

Making Decisions and Repeating Yourself

• Understanding looped code
• Using loops and arrays to attach, name, and control Movie Clip objects
• Using loops to create, name, and control Text Fields to display data object values
• Understanding conditional code execution
• Surveying the comparison and logical operators
• Using if/else comparison to toggle Movie Clip visual states

Animating with Adobe Flash ActionScript

• Dragging and dropping a Movie Clip object
• Testing for collision between Movie Clip objects
• Initializing attached Movie Clip objects
• Using the on Enter Frame event handler
• Controlling visual change rate
• Testing and responding to position at runtime