Question

I have a function that recognizes the ESC key being pressed. At which point, I want to stop dragging all items.

I”ve tried this.stopDrag() but it wont override the MOUSE_DOWN event.

It there a way to force it to “drop” the item being dragged?

Thanks

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, escapeKeyDown);

function escapeKeyDown(event : KeyboardEvent):void {
if (event.keyCode == 27) {
    trace("ESC");
    this.stopDrag();
}
}

Answer 1

Make a global array of all your dragging DisplayObjects:

static var CURRENT_DRAGGING_ITEMS:Array = [];

Then whenever you call startDrag on anything, add it to the array.

function onMouseDown(event:MouseEvent):void 
{
    event.target.startDrag();
    CURRENT_DRAGGING_ITEMS.push(event.target);
}

Then when you hit ESC, just loop through the array, calling stopDrag on all items, and removing them from the array.

function escapeKeyDown(event:KeyboardEvent):void 
{
    event.target.stopDrag();
    var targetIndex:uint = CURRENT_DRAGGING_ITEMS.indexOf(event.target);
    CURRENT_DRAGGING_ITEMS.splice(targetIndex, 1);
}

Make sure you also remove the dragging item from the array when you call stopDrag on it from anywhere else.