Flash Reference Guide

In addition to the ECMAScript set of core classes are a collection of classes specifically designed for Flash MX 2004. The following classes are separated into four groups. The groups are: Movie Classes, Media Classes, Client/Server Classes, and Authoring Classes.

You will find more information on each of these classes located in the Flash "Help Panel."

Movie classes

The movie classes provide control over most visual elements in a SWF file, including movie clips, text fields, and buttons. The movie classes are located in the Actions toolbox in the Built-in Classes > Movie subfolder.

The Accessibility class manages communication between SWF files and screen reader applications. You use the methods of this class together with the global _accProps property to control accessible properties for movie clips, buttons, and text fields at runtime.

Every button in a SWF file is an instance of the Button class. The Button class provides methods, properties, and event handlers for working with buttons.

The Color class lets you get and set RGB color values for movie clip objects.

The ContextMenu class lets you control the contents of the Flash Player context menu. You can associate separate ContextMenu objects with MovieClip, Button, or TextField objects by using the menu property available to those classes. You can also add custom menu items to a ContextMenu object by using the ContextMenuItem class.

The ContextMenuItem class lets you create new menu items that appear in the Flash Player context menu. You add new menu items that you create with this class to the Flash Player context menu by using the ContextMenu class.

The Key class provides methods and properties for getting information about the keyboard and keypresses.

The LocalConnection class lets two SWF files running on the same computer communicate.

The Mouse class provides control over the mouse in a SWF file; for example, this class lets you hide or show the mouse pointer.

Every movie clip in a Flash movie is an instance of the MovieClip class. You use the methods and properties of this class to control movie clip objects.

The MovieClipLoader class lets you track the download progress of SWF and JPEG files using an event listener mechanism.

The PrintJob class lets you print content that is rendered dynamically and multipage documents.

The Selection class lets you get and set text field focus, text field selection spans, and text field insertion points.

The SharedObject class provides local data storage on the client computer.

The Stage class provides information about a SWF file's dimensions, alignment, and scale mode, and reports Stage resize events.

The System class provides information about Flash Player and the system on which Flash Player is running (for example, screen resolution and current system language). It also lets you show or hide the Flash Player Settings panel and modify SWF file security settings.

The TextField class provides control over dynamic and input text fields.

The TextField.StyleSheet class (an "inner class" of the TextField class) lets you create and apply CSS text styles to HTML- or XML-formatted text.

The TextFormat class lets you apply formatting styles to characters or paragraphs in a TextField object.

Media classes

The media classes provide playback control of sound and video in a SWF file, as well as access to the user's microphone and camera, if they are installed. These classes are located in the Built-In Classes > Media subfolder in the Actions toolbox.

The Camera class provides access to the user's camera, if one is installed. When used with Flash Communication Server MX, your SWF file can capture, broadcast, and record images and video from a user's camera.

The Microphone class provides access to the user's microphone, if one is installed. When used with Flash Communication Server MX, your SWF file can broadcast and record audio from a user's microphone.

The NetConnection class is used to establish a local streaming connection for playing a Flash Video (FLV) file from an HTTP address or from the local file system. For more information, see NetConnection class. For more information on playing FLV files over the Internet.

The NetStream class is used to control playback of FLV files. For more information, see NetStream class. For more information on playing FLV files over the Internet.

The Sound class provides control over sounds in a SWF file. For more information, see Sound class. For an example of using the Sound class to create volume and balance controllers.

The Video class is used to display video objects in a SWF file.

Client-server classes

The following table lists classes that let you send and receive data from external sources or communicate with application servers over FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS.

These classes are located in the Built-In Classes > Client/Server subfolder in the Actions panel.

The LoadVars class is an alternative to the loadVariables() action for transferring variables between a SWF file and a server in name-value pairs.

The XML class extends the XMLNode class and provides methods, properties, and event handlers for working with XML-formatted data, including loading and parsing external XML, creating new XML documents, and navigating XML document trees.

The XMLNode class represents a single node in an XML document tree. It is the XML class's superclass.

The XMLSocket class lets you create a persistent socket connection with another computer for low-latency data transfer, like that required for real-time chat applications.

Authoring classes

The authoring classes are available only in the Flash authoring environment. These classes are found in the Built-In Classes > Authoring subfolder in the Actions toolbox.

The CustomActions class lets you manage any custom actions that are registered with the authoring tool.

The Live Preview feature (listed under Built-in Classes in the Actions toolbox, though not a class) provides a single function called onUpdate that is used by component developers.