"Color" component parameter

I never really understood why when you define a component parameter, you can define its type. Wouldn't the variable type that the parameter is related to, always define the type of the parameter? Aren't parameter and variable types synonymous?

Well, it turns out that they are not necessarily.

I've never paid much attention to the fact that you can specify the 'type' of a parameter in the Inspectable tag, as it was obvious to me that this would be the same as the variable type.

But I've discovered at least one case where this is not so.

Attempting to define an Inspectable variable as type 'fl.motion.Color' seems to work okay - it invokes the Color Picker in the Component Inspector when you click on the component on the stage. However when in the Component Inspector when you change the color from the default, and run the file, you'll get:

1067: Implicit coercion of a value of type int to an unrelated type fl.motion:Color." error.

Obviously Flash expects the parameter of type 'color' to be related to a variable of type 'int'. Seems a little strange but there is a way to get around this apparent conflict between parameter and variable types of 'color':

Specify the parameter to be of type 'Color' and the variable to be of type 'int'.

package
{
import flash.display.MovieClip;
public class test extends MovieClip
{
private var _color:int;
[Inspectable (type = "Color")]
public function get color():int {
return _color;
}
public function set color(value:int):void
{
_color = value;
}
}
}

Flex - skinning the DateField icon

This blog has moved.

When adjusting the Date icon skin in a DateField component, its not sufficient to just use the css that Flex auto-generates when importing the Skin Artwork. In addition to 'skin', you must also specify that upSkin, overSkin, downSkin, disabledSkin are all set to null. otherwise they will supersede 'skin'. you do this for example, like so:


DateField {
skin: Embed(skinClass="DateField_skin");
upSkin: ClassReference(null);
overSkin: ClassReference(null);
downSkin: ClassReference(null);
disabledSkin: ClassReference(null);
}

adding classes dynamically Part II

A little addition to a previous post on adding symbols dynamically from the library. I was having difficulty adding classes(that weren't in the library) dynamically - they weren't being recognised.

var classRef:Class = getDefinitionByName("Square") as Class;
var shape:IShape= new classRef() as IShape;
//Flash displays: ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable Square is not defined.

With help from Aaron Beall(on adobe forums) who was having the same problem, i've realised that obviously flash doesn't know to compile the class if it only exists in a string. So we need to ensure that flash compiles every possible class that we may refer to dynamically. We can do this simply by declaring a variable of that class type.

var squareRef:Square;

CS4 component icon library bug.

I've been wondering why items in my library disappear occasionally - including the library buttons and column headers!

I've narrowed the problem down to a CS4 bug. Steps to reproduce bug:
1.Create a MovieClip
2. Select 'Component Definition'
3. Add a parameter so that the component icon will become visible.
4. Select 'Seek Bar Control Icon' or 'Buffering Control Icon' as custom component icon.
5. Select 'OK'
6. Watch the craziness ensue!

jerky raster animations

It has always bothered me that animations of raster images are always jerky when they get to the point of animating less than a pixel per frame. Flash assumes that rasters should only live on the exact pixel.

This can be resolved with bitmaps that are created with ActionScript with the Bitmap.pixelSnapping value but for pure animation is a little more complicated.

I've just discovered that if you adjust the scale, rotation or skew of the image, Flash will turn pixelSnapping off. So giving a slight degree(more than 0.1%) of one of these factors is the simplest way to demand no pixelSnapping, without requiring one line of ActionScript.

Stage dimension limitation - 214x137

I was trying to work out why the Flash Player Settings window was not appearing when i attached a webcam to a Video object, when i discovered that my stage was too small. Although i can't find documentation for this feature anywhere, I have found through experimentation that for the Settings Window to appear, the stage must be a minimum of 214x137.

stage.mouseLeave and wmode=transparent

noted a strange incompatibility today - the stage.mouseLeave event doesn't get triggered when you hold a mouse button down, and drag off stage on a flash object which has wmode set to transparent. in fact doing so takes the focus off the flash object so that regular stage events no longer get triggered until it receives focus again(say by the user clicking on the object).

sounds obscure, but if someone's dragging a slider and somehow drags off the object, releases the mouse button and then returns to the object, the slider continues to move around with the mouse even though the mouseButton isn't down.