Featured Flash FLA 11337 Flash Movies | 1 New Flash Movies Added What's New | Top 100 Featured FLA » Author: Bugra Ozden » Title: Skatalog v9 - product catalog » Description: Create your product catalog easly and publish on your website or Create your image gallery, documents list, portfolio. Fully XML Driven » More by Bugra Ozden Random FLAs | Add Flash Movie Featured Flash Site 5828 Flash Sites | 0 New Flash Links What's New | Top 100 Flash Site Featured Site » Posted in the Flash Kit Links section » Title: Creative DW Image Show PRO » Description: Creative DW Image Show PRO is a Dreamweaver extension which enables the user to create multimedia presentations. It combines the features of the popular Creative DW Image Show with the ability to add professional text effects to slides (similar to After Effects). The product is very customizable: the user can choose the duration of the transition effects, the slide motion start and end position, zoom and panning type for both images and texts. Random Links | Add your own Flash Related Links

1280 Tutorials 7 New Tutorials Added! What's New | Top100 » Make a Flash Slide Show Screen Saver » Simple flash making tutorial for thanksgiving » Create flash banner for website » Create xml slideshow with free template » How to Insert a Multilingual Subtitle Into Your Flash Video Studio » How to Create Cool Halloween Slideshow » Debugging flash using the Firebug console » Create Flash Slideshow on Blogger » FLASH TRICKS IN WEB ADVERTISING: FLASH BANNERS » Unknown Tag: Title10 Random Tutorial | Add Site

Trading Customer Accounting (IL) Next Step Systems US-IL-Chicago Post A Job | Post A Resume

Tutorials Home What's New Top Rated Submit myTutes Random!

Tutorials » Actionscripting

New methods: SetInterval, ClearInterval, clear (part2)
Author: Bart Portier | Website: www.azlan.be |

New MX functions: part 2

setInterval, clearInterval, clear method

Hi everyone,

I hope you liked the first part of this tutorial. Remember? The one where we used the Drawing Object to create a triangle with script.

It's fun being able to draw something, but now we want to know what we can do with our drawing:

- how can I talk to the instances that we just create them? (what 's the path I can use)
- how can I change the appearance of what I was drawing? (can I use setProperty?)
- how can I time my drawing the way I would in a Movie Tween? (i.e. pausing the drawing for a while)

PS... I would make a small tribute to all designers and develloppers who made timer functions, they already wrote ways to use dynamic drawing and timer-functions, which were very inventive. We are the guys who are spoilt now, because Macromedia made specific functions for us. Thanks Macromedia, and thanks to the other guys who made things Macromedia wouldn't even have considered :-)

part A: setInterval and clearInterval.

Movie Setup:

I'm not drawing triangles in these examples. I'm just drawing a line, to keep things as straightforward as possible for everyone.

This is the effect I want to achieve:

and this is the script I used

The script

In frame 1 of the first timeline I put this function:

function drawMe() {

 _root.createEmptyMovieClip( "triangle"+i , i);

 with ( _root["triangle"+i]);

 {

 lineStyle( 5, 0xff00ff, 100 );

 moveTo(i, 10 );

 lineTo( i,300 ); 

 //lineTo( 100, 300 );

 //lineTo( 200, 200 );

 i = i + 10;

 trace ("has been called" + i);

 j = i/10;

 }

 }

this function creates a MovieClip, defines the line, and draws it (very much the same as in our first tutorial). I commented out what we used in the first tutorial. I also added some trace information to show you what is happening.

This is the code behind the start button:

on (release) {

 i=10;

 var quitID;

 quitID=setInterval(drawMe, 1000);

 trace (quitID);

 }

the most important line here is the setInterval. It starts the drawMe function and executes it every 1000 miliseconds. You could leave out the variable quitID if you wanted and just write it like this:

on (release) {

 i=10;

 setInterval(drawMe, 1000);

 trace (quitID);

 }

it would work just as well, only I want to stop it too. That's why I need some feedback from the function (ie. quitID, so I can stop it using the clearInterval method. Indicating the quitID he knows what functions should be stopped.

This is the code behind the start button:

on (release) {

 clearInterval( quitID );

 }

Now I can stop and start things and simulated motion, I want to erase what I have been drawing.

» Forums
	More help? Search our boards for quick answers!

Please rate this tutorial, 10 is the top rating, you can also click the comments link to read/write a review.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1