Question

Hi I am quite new to actionscript 3 and I would like some clarification on the use of classes. I am trying to use a AS3Commons UI project from http://sibirjak.com. But I am unsure on how to use some of their classes. The way I have it formatted in one of my keyframes is:

import com.AlertBox; // The location of the alertbox class
import com.AlertTutorialStep1; // The location of the example AlertTutorialStep1 class

var alertbox:AlertTutorialStep1 = new com.AlertTutorialStep1; // Creating an instance of the example class in the AlertTutorialStep1 doc

alertbox.AlertTutorialStep1(); // Trying to access the AlertTutorialStep1() function which is in the AlertTutorialStep1 class

But I am unable to access the function AlertTutorialStep1() and unsure why I am getting the error, can someone provide me with some insight? http://sibirjak.com/osflash/blog/tutorial-creating-an-alert-box-with-the-as3commons-popupmanager/

Answer 1

Try and avoid using the timeline if possible. I think that OOP and the Flash timeline can work if you know what you’re doing, but stackoverflow is full of questions from beginners struggling with the timeline and classes, and these tend to be difficult to debug. Try to set your project up with a single Main document class which instantiates all the other classes you need for your project.

That said, assuming you have the AlertBox and AlertTutorialStep1 classes, and their dependencies, in the right directories relative to it, I think your code will work if you set the document class of your .fla to the AlertBoxTutorial1 class.

Again assuming the packages are all set up correctly, you could try replacing your existing code with the following:

//import com.AlertBox; // Don't need to import this, AlertTutorialStep1 imports and uses it
import com.AlertTutorialStep1; // The location of the example AlertTutorialStep1 class

var alertbox:AlertTutorialStep1 = new AlertTutorialStep1(); // Don't need to fully qualify the class as it is already imported in the line above

this.addChild(alertbox); // Need to add the instance to the stage

//alertbox.AlertTutorialStep1(); // AlertTutorialStep1() is the constructor of the class and can't be invoked via an instance of it