circlecube

Flashvars and as3

Evan Mullins — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:27:37 +0000

Flashvars and actionscript 3! Flashvar is a way that in your html embed codes (object tags) you can send variables and values into your swf file. These variables can then be grabbed internally and used your programming! Examples of these could be images that you want to use in your swf but don’t want to import or hardcode them into the flash file or paths to xml or flv files to use as well. Actionscript 3 has a different procedure than as2 did as to how you read these flashvars from the actionscript side. The embed codes and html side of things are still the same, but in case your new to actionscript altogether, I’ll give an example of the html as well.

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In actionscript 3 we use the loaderInfo object to access the flashvars. The parameters Object of the loaderInfo will contain all the flashvar variables and values.

1	this.loaderInfo.parameters

As an example of something that is visual I’ve created this little app to read some options from flashvars about colors. An app that will read a list of colors and update a box that is on the stage already to those colors with the specified delay. I always have fun with randomness so I threw in the option for random colors as well. This file looks for certain flashvars: color, loop, delay and random. These are the keys or names of the variables and they are followed by the values you want them to hold. Note that flashvars can be set in any order, so you don’t have to start with color and end with random.

In this example I’m looking for 4 flashvars specifically (in any order):

colors:String – a comma delimited list of hex colors or simply a string “random” for randomly generated colors (the hex for black #000000 needs to be 0×000000 in flash) (default is random)
loop:Boolean – whether or not to repeat these colors (default is true)
delay:Number – the delay between colors (in seconds). (default is 1 second)
random:Boolean – determines whether to cycle through colors in given order or randomize. selecting random overrides the loop to true. (default is false)

This is much more than is required for this example, but I was having fun playing with random colors and timing and options. I figured it diesn’t hurt to show the effect you can have with a couple different variables on one file. Here is an example using the object tags above:

And here are some more (please don’t have a seizure!)

Here’s the full source if you’re interested:

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/*
circlecube.com

App to demonstrate the process of getting flashvars from embed code to actionscript (as3)

Displays colors specified.

looking for 4 flashvars specifically (in any order):
colors:String - a comma delimited list of hex colors or simply a string "random" for randomly generated colors (the hex for black #000000 needs to be 0x000000) (default is random)
loop:Boolean - wether or not to repeat these colors (default is true)
delay:Number - the delay between colors (in seconds). (default is 1 second)
random:Boolean - determines wether to cycle through colors in given order or randomize. selecting random overrides the loop to true. (default is false)

*/

//initialize vars
var myflashvars:Object = new Object()
var myColors:Array = new Array("random");
var myLoop:Boolean = true;
var myDelay:Number = 1;
var randomOrder:Boolean = false;
var allRandom:Boolean = false;
//read flashvars in actionscript3
//if colors flashvars doesn't exist use these defaults
if (!this.loaderInfo.parameters.colors){
myflashvars = {colors: "random", delay: 1};
}
else{
myflashvars = this.loaderInfo.parameters;
}
//assign flashvars to variables within flash
for (var item:String in myflashvars) {
trace(item + ":\t" + myflashvars[item]);
if (item == "colors"){
myColors = myflashvars[item].split(',');
}
else if(item == "loop"){
myLoop = parseBoolean(myflashvars[item]);
}
else if(item == "delay"){
myDelay = myflashvars[item];
}
else if(item == "random"){
randomOrder = parseBoolean(myflashvars[item]);
}
}

//use my variables!
if (myColors[0] == "random"){
allRandom = true;

}
var counter:Timer = new Timer(myDelay * 1000);
counter.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, nextColor);
trace ("color number: 0", "color hex: "+myColors[0]);
setColor(myBox, myColors[0]);

counter.start();
stop();
function nextColor(e:Event):void{
//cycle through colors
if (!allRandom && !randomOrder){
if (counter.currentCount+2 > myColors.length){
if (myLoop == true || myLoop == "true"){
counter.reset();
counter.start();
}
else{
counter.stop();
}
}
trace ("color number: "+counter.currentCount, "color hex: "+myColors[counter.currentCount]);
setColor(myBox, myColors[counter.currentCount - 1]);
}
//randomly select a color from the myColors array
else if (!allRandom && randomOrder){
var randomColor = Math.floor(Math.random() * myColors.length);
trace ("random number: "+randomColor, "color hex: "+myColors[randomColor]);
setColor(myBox, myColors[randomColor]);
}
//randomly create colors
else{
trace ("number: "+counter.currentCount, "color hex: "+myColors[0]);
setColor(myBox, myColors[0]);
}
}
function setColor(item:DisplayObject, col):void{
if (col == "random"){
setRandomColor(item);
}
else{
setHexColor(item, col);
}

}
function setHexColor(item:DisplayObject, col:Number):void {
var myColor:ColorTransform = item.transform.colorTransform;
//check color bounds
if (col > 16777215) col = 16777215;
else if (col < 0) col = 0;
myColor.color = col;
item.transform.colorTransform = myColor;
}
function setRandomColor(item:DisplayObject):void{
setColor(item, (Math.floor(Math.random() * 16777215)));
}
function parseBoolean(str:String):Boolean
{
switch(str.toLowerCase())
{
// Check for true values
case "1":
case "true":
case "yes":
return true;

// Check for false values
case "0":
case "false":
case "no":
return false;

// If all else fails cast string
default:
return Boolean(str);
}
}

Tutorial to Create a Responsive Image Scroller in ActionScript 3.0

Evan Mullins — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:55:02 +0000

I’ve written a tutorial which is published over at flash.tutsplus. This tutorial demonstrates how to create a horizontally scrolling image viewer and covers xml parsing, loading and resizing external images, and creating intuitive and responsive scrolling!

So check out the Tutorial to Create a Responsive Image Scroller in ActionScript 3.0 over at flash.tutsplus.com!

You’ll find full source code available for download as well as the demo files and step by step milestones all throughout the tutorial.

circlecube’s New Clothes – Theme Redesign

Evan Mullins — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:48:35 +0000

Thanks for your patience as I’ve been tinkering with the theme, layout and css of circlecube.com.

old theme

The last theme I used was badly broken with the wordpress 2.8 update and then I noticed the developer actually discontinued support for the theme! So I had an opportunity to delve into wordpress theming. I’d been reading about child themes and wanted a nice stable basic parent theme to build from. Cue thematic framework. It was a great learning experience building a child theme for myself, many thanks to Ian Stewart for all the tips help and tuts to help me though it, not to mention for creating thematic .

new theme

I’ve kept the color scheme and general look of the site the same. So the reason I’m going on about it is I think I’m finished… and I’m asking you to let me know if you see anything that looks odd or fishy, or even just want to make a suggestion or comment on how much you like/hate the redesign. Comment on this post or contact me!

And as always, if there’s something you would like me to write about or have questions you can also contact me. I’ve even set up a poll in the sidebar showing post ideas I have which you can vote on and encourage me to write the one(s) you want most first! So let me know what you want, it encourages me to write more. And be sure to subscribe to the circlecube rss feed so you won’t miss anything that’s coming up!

Stomper999

Evan Mullins — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:44:49 +0000

Interactive Design project for StomperNet’s tease of the announced reveal on 09/09/09 at 09:09:09!

“Online Marketing Changes Forever!”

Wanted it to be unexpected, and I think we hit it! Check it out live at stomper999.com!

Details:
For this project I used flash, html, css and javascript. Tweener for the fading effects. Found a nice stock flash from flashDen for the countdown and used jquery and the easing and color plugins.

Forthcoming Actionscript Image Scroller Tutorial

Evan Mullins — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:30:49 +0000

Here is a preview of a file I’m writing a tutorial for. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it deals with many normal tasks and will show my process a bit. This tutorial will show how to create a horizontally scrolling image viewer. It will cover xml loading & parsing, loading & resizing external images to fit into a scrollable container, and creating intuitive and responsive scrolling!

Let me know what you think, and if there’s anything you want specifically mentioned/explained in it I’ll do my best! Or if you have any ideas of how this could be improved.

Update: The article/tutorial has now been published follow the link to theTutorial to Create a Responsive Image Scroller in ActionScript 3.0

StomperNet FormulaFIVE Launch Web Design

Evan Mullins — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:39:48 +0000

StomperNet relaunched the popular FormaulFIVE and I was responsible for the design of the landing pages. Here are screenshots from the launch, FormulaFIVE was teased with a couple video trailers and even packaged with some bonus videos called the Cash Booster series.

Go to stomperf5.com to view the page.

Stock Flash Site, Introducing ‘BuyStockFlash.com’

Evan Mullins — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:56:24 +0000

Buy Stock Flash

Sell & Buy Flash

Buy or Sell, Start Now -

Stock Flash – Royalty Free Stock Flash effects, Video, Audio

The New Kid on the block… it’s good to see some competition coming to the stock flash world. BuyStockFlash is revving it up. They are positioned to provide a place where flash-ers can upload components, templates, utilities, flv & mp3 players, logos & icons and any other flash elements to sell and earn at least 50% from the proceeds. I haven’t yet uploaded any files, but will once I have some time to do so. They also have a pretty rewarding affiliate program! They let the site speak for itself, displaying a gallery of available files on the homepage. The site just started last fall, is based in Prauge and since they have expanded to become buystocknetwork, including a site for flash, design templates, and sound files!

While the content is still somewhat bare, I’ve seen a few items that are top shelf! I see a lot of potential in this site! Good luck to them and to you, enjoy BuyStockFlash!

Web Hosting Search Review

Evan Mullins — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:07:10 +0000

I recently stumbled across a site that could easily help with your web hosting needs. They are called Web Hosting Search and as the name indicates, they don’t offer hosting, but offer a database of different hosting companies which make it easy to search and compare rates and services. I found my current host and could have actually gotten a deal for the same plan I currently have, which would have saved me a couple dollars a month! They even have a hosting coupon page which displays specials offers they can get you with a number of recommended hosting providers.

We’re merely a guide that tries to shed light on the web hosting business, to sort out the good deals. We rank web hosting services, write reviews and help customers find the right company and the right plan.

They have company profiles for each hosting company and the opportunity for customers to leave a review and rate the host. I think this is a great feature, as it gives an insider’s view of the company. This is a hard thing to find when you don’t have a recommendation from someone you know. When the time comes for me to look for hosting options, I’ll be sure to start with webhostingsearch.com.

Actionscript Drag & Drop Tutorial | Vertical and Horizontal Flash Sliders

Evan Mullins — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:52:56 +0000

A specific use of drag and drop which is a bit more complicated than your average drag & drop needs is a slider. You can use components, but I usually prefer using my own graphics and code, partly because the components tend to bloat the filesize of the swf and partly because that’s just how I am, I like to make it myself. Many projects I’ve worked on require sliders as a form of user input, such as a volume control in my video player, or the inputs for my Voter’s Aide app that let users assign value to issues in the 2008 presidential election. I figured I’d just pull out the code I used with the sliders there, since it was already done. The issue with sliders is we need to restrict the dragging to a certain area, which in itself is a line of code, but I also prefer to allow users to click the actual bar as well for quick selection.

Example

Vertical Slider Steps

The vertical slider here goes from 0 – 100. We need to drag the handle but have it restricted to the slider, so users won’t be confused when they click and drag the handle off the slider and break it. We want to click the background bar of the slider and have the handle snap to that place, and we need to be able to see what value the slider holds (0 – 100). I made this code to be pretty reusable, as long as the slider is set up in similar fashion.

Make graphics for slider bg and handle
Put the graphics into a slider mc
Place them each at 0,0 and center their registration points (for easier control and code later)
Assign button mode to handle and bar (for better usability)
Add Mouse Down Event Listener for handle and bar and assign press function
In bar press function set position of handle according to mouse position, and then call the handle press function
In handle press function remove the Mouse Down listeners and add stage mouse event listeners for both mouse Up and Move (Stage listeners emulate onReleaseOutside (from as2) and also provide more accurate results)
Define dragging area as a rectangle(x, y, width, height), if you’ve do the set up earlier it should be close to Rectangle(0,0,0,slider.bar.height);
Begin dragging handle and apply the drag area limiting rectangle
Mouse Move function find value (should simply be the handle’s y position) and updateAfterEvent for smooth animation
Mouse Release function remove stage listeners, re-add the listeners to the slider and stop dragging

Actionscript (as3)

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// Vertical Slider
sliderVertical.handle.buttonMode = true;
sliderVertical.bar.buttonMode = true;
sliderVertical.handle.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, verticalHandlePress);
sliderVertical.bar.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, verticalBarPress);

function verticalBarPress(e:MouseEvent):void{
sliderVertical.handle.y = sliderVertical.mouseY;
verticalHandlePress(e);
}
function verticalHandlePress(e:MouseEvent):void {
sliderVertical.handle.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, verticalHandlePress);
sliderVertical.bar.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, verticalBarPress);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, verticalHandleRelease);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, verticalHandleDrag);
//limit dragging area
var verticalDragArea:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0, 0, 0, -sliderVertical.bar.height+1);
sliderVertical.handle.startDrag(false, verticalDragArea);
}
function verticalHandleRelease(e:MouseEvent):void{
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, verticalHandleRelease);
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, verticalHandleDrag);
sliderVertical.bar.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, verticalBarPress);
sliderVertical.handle.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, verticalHandlePress);

sliderVertical.handle.stopDrag();
updateVNumber();
}
function verticalHandleDrag(e:MouseEvent):void{
e.updateAfterEvent();
updateVNumber();
}
function updateVNumber():void{
sliderVertical.sliderValue = sliderVertical.stat.htmlText = Math.abs(sliderVertical.handle.y);
sliderVertical.stat.y = sliderVertical.handle.y - sliderVertical.handle.height/2;
}

Horizontal Slider Steps

Pretty much the same as the vertical slider, but adjust heights and y positions to widths and x positions. Note in this example I have a range of (-100 to 100) and to accomplish the bar I just reused the same on flipping it around, so here we have the handle, the barLeft and the barRight. I use both of these combined to calculate the limiting rectangle area.

Actionscript (as3)

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// Horizontal Slider
sliderHorizontal.handle.buttonMode = true;
sliderHorizontal.barLeft.buttonMode = true;
sliderHorizontal.barRight.buttonMode = true;
sliderHorizontal.handle.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalHandlePress);
sliderHorizontal.barLeft.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalBarPress);
sliderHorizontal.barRight.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalBarPress);

function horizontalBarPress(e:MouseEvent):void{
sliderHorizontal.handle.x = sliderHorizontal.mouseX;
horizontalHandlePress(e);
}
function horizontalHandlePress(e:MouseEvent):void {
sliderHorizontal.handle.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalHandlePress);
sliderHorizontal.barLeft.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalBarPress);
sliderHorizontal.barRight.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalBarPress);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, horizontalHandleRelease);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, horizontalHandleDrag);
//limit dragging area
var dragArea:Rectangle = new Rectangle(-sliderHorizontal.barLeft.width+1, 0, sliderHorizontal.barLeft.width+sliderHorizontal.barRight.width-2, 0);
sliderHorizontal.handle.startDrag(false, dragArea);
}
function horizontalHandleRelease(e:MouseEvent):void{
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, horizontalHandleRelease);
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, horizontalHandleDrag);
sliderHorizontal.handle.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalHandlePress);
sliderHorizontal.barLeft.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalBarPress);
sliderHorizontal.barRight.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, horizontalBarPress);

sliderHorizontal.handle.stopDrag();
updateHNumber();
}
function horizontalHandleDrag(e:MouseEvent):void{
e.updateAfterEvent();
updateHNumber();
}
function updateHNumber():void{
sliderHorizontal.sliderValue = sliderHorizontal.stat.htmlText = sliderHorizontal.handle.x;
sliderHorizontal.stat.x = sliderHorizontal.handle.x - sliderHorizontal.handle.width;
}

Source

source as3dragdrop-sliders.fla file

Stomping2 Design

Evan Mullins — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:24:42 +0000

subscribe page with video

salesletter page

Stomping2.com is the Stomping the Search Engines 2 relaunch by StomperNet. I was responsible for the design and html/css implementation. Site makes use of the custom stompernet video player I created as well.