Question

I have been busy building the UI for a class file I wrote a while ago.

The problem I have is in referencing the symbols on the TimeLine. All the symbols have an instance name, and only exist in the first frame (main timeline has only one frame anyway).

At the moment I am instantiating my AS3 class file from a timeline layer using

import circles.Spirograph;
var circles:Spirograph = new Spirograph(stage);

so I have a reference to the stage in my class file.

If I have library ScrollBar on the stage called sb1 then how do I access it in the class file, and how can I get its value?

Answer 1

There are a few ways. If Spirograph is a DisplayObject it will have a “root” property. You can cast this property to a MovieClip and then access sb1:

// somewhere inside your class
var mainTimeline:MovieClip = MovieClip(root);

trace(maintTimeline.sb1)

Another option is to pass “this” into the Spirograph constructor, since you’re instantiating on the timeline, “this” is referring to the timeline:

var circles:Spirograph = new Spirograph(this);

Then you’re stage variable could be obtained like so:

private var _stg:Stage;
public function Spirograph(main:MovieClip){

   _stg = main.stage;

   // get at sb1
   trace(main.sb1);

}

There are a few more ways but those are the most common.