Creating Simple ActionScript 2.0 Classes - Page 4

Creating A Class:

Well you have actually already done this, but now we will get just a bit more complex and into more detail. So lets get started. Do the following:

1. If you closed the class_basics.fla, reopen it and leave it open for testing purposes.
2. Create a new actionscript file like we did in the last section.
3. Add the following code (which we will go through in more detail shortly)
   class Person {
   var _myname:String
   function Person(myName:String){
   _myname = myName; trace("New Person");
   }
   function sayHello():Void{
   trace ("Hello, my name is " + _myname);
   }
   }
4. Save the file as Person.as in your class path.
5. In the class_basics.fla, add the following code to fame 1 (there should only be one layer by default).
   var bill = new Person("Bill");
6. Test the movie.

You should see "New Person" in the output window. If you do not, check all of the things we checked when we tested the class path in the last section.

Making the assumption that the trace worked, add the following code to the class_basics.fla (keep the existing code as well).

bill.sayHello();

Test the movie again. It should now trace
New Person
Hello, my name is Bill

Now before I go into explaining what is going on, add this code to the existing code in the class_basics.fla:
var jane = new Person("Jane")
jane.sayHello();
var pat = new Person("Pat");
pat.sayHello();

Test the movie again. It should now trace:
New Person
Hello, my name is Bill
New Person
Hello, my name is Jane
New Person
Hello, my name is Pat

Congrats. You just created, instantiated and called a method from your own class. In the next section, we will examine the class structure in more details and take a look at what you did.