Another cool AS 3.0 library which solves your common needs. It gives a core set of classes, interfaces and utilities to get your common tasks done in a fast and reliable way. Doesn’t have any framework dependency (read Flex) so can be used with Flex and Flash projects.
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Below are some of the cool stuff in the library.
org.casalib.time package has some very useful classes.
EnterFrame – creates a centralized EnterFrame event, even if your class is not a Display Object.
FrameDelay – registers a callback method after specified number of frame executions (Read as advanced callLater() method of Flex)
Inactivity – Determine user inactivity based on Mouse movement and key press. Detects inactivity and ‘back to active’ events.
Interval – Simplified Timer() class.
Sequence – Registers functions and executes them in sequence.
org.casalib.load – has a list of load classes for various file types.
org.casalib.collection has two List data structure implementations. List is similar to any Java List class. There is another UniqueList class which will only allow unique values to be stored in it; which will be quite handy.
org.casalib.utils package has a collection of very good utility classes which will difintely help you.
Here is a nice library from Arul, which is made to remove the verboseness of Action Script 3.0.
Short
When Action Script 3.0 was introduced with Adobe Flash CS3, it was a game changer and it definitely changed the way applications are coded in Flash. We moved to true Object Oriented Programming and the complexities and beauties of Software Engineering.
That’s the developer part of the story. Designers? This change left the designers in a complex web of codes which was too verbose and I have seen people getting lost, or they didn’t want to add those simple scripts (or actions) they used to add to the movies.
For adding an action to a button you could do below prior to CS3 release.
On the button itself:
onClick{
}
or on the frame
buttonInstance.onClick(){
}
But see what is required to do the same in CS3 or later releases of Flash:
on the frame (and only on the frame. No script is allowed on the button or movie clip):
buttonInstance.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,buttonClickHandler);
function buttonClickHandler(e:Event)
{
//Code here...
}
Here is what you should do to add an enterFrame event and animate an object.
this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, eventHandler);
function eventHandler(e:Event):void
{
//Code here...
}
Here is where Short comes in as a great help. Short tries to simplify things again and put that smile back on Designer’s face, to some extend.
The above tasks simplifies to:
on the frame:
_.to = this;
_.button.onClick=function(){
//
}
or even simpler, as you used to do before:
$(instance).onClick=function() { }
//For enterFrame checks
$(stage).onEnterFrame=function(){ }
//Roll over
$(instance).onRollOver=function(){}
Only additional thing you are adding is just the $(..), which way easier than the ‘Flash’’s native coding.
Now, on to how to configure the Flash IDE for using Short. Head to the Google Code page of Short and grab the latest SWC (Short.swc) from the download page.
If you are a designer and needs to use this in all the work you are doing, it make sense to add the library permanently. Follow below steps.
1. Download the SWC
2. Go to the folder <installation Directory>\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\libs\ and copy the SWC here. The path looked like below on my Windows XP machine with Flash CS5
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS5\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\libs
Now open up Flash IDE and start writing ‘Short’ codes.
If you want to add the SWC on a project basis, follow below steps.
- Select ‘File’ from menu.
- Choose Publish Settings
- Click the Flash tab
- Select Flash Player 10 and ActionScript 3.0
- Click Settings
- Select the Library path tab
- Add Short.swc
Good to go.
If you are using Short with Flex/Flash Builder(I dont know one will use this with Flex/Flash Builder), you can copy the SWC to the ‘libs’ folder or add using property panel of the project.
More details in the Google Code home page for Short. Short was demoed at the Adobe Flash Platform Summit 2010.
Here is the Actionscript 3.0 API for the Drop box service. The library works only with AIR, as there is no crossdomain.xml file in the Drop box servers and Flash Player will not allow the communication due to cross domain security policy (That would have been cool).
Haven’t seen any implementation of the library (what the official app cannot do) so far.
Google Code Home Page
AudioPhile is a collection of projects for audio generation and visualization. There are two projects under it.
Audiophile – An AS3 library for generating dynamic audio in Flash Player 10
Audiovision – An AS3 library for visualizing audio in Flash Player 10
Here is a link to an example
Google Code Home Page
Worth noting that its a FP 10 only library.
AsWing is an Open Source ActionScript 2.0/ActionScript 3.0 GUI framework and library. Its a UI centric library, and is similar to Java Swing in implementation. You can either use this library to build your application, or get only what you need.
Here is the link: AsWing
Here are some applications built using AsWing of which the Flash Mini Builder is an interesting project.
Here is a collection few open source libraries targeted at Game Development.
AS3.0 Gears
Here is a collection of utilities provided as package level functions by John Lindquist. Here is a list of utility packages:
- array
- color
- conversions
- date
- event
- garbage collection
- html
- number
- string
- validation
- and more…
There are many more like bringToFront(), sendBackward() for display objects, Array shuffle (using the Fisher Yates algorithm etc)
Visit the GitHub Page here.
Here is an ActionScript 3 class I use all the time to draw pixel perfect dotted lines in Flash. Free for any use other than reselling. It uses the good old bitmap filling.
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A very easy to use Mouse Gesture class for AS 3.0 projects. The gesture is based on the mouse movements as shown below:
Then you go on defining your gestures as a progression of these numbers. On to code:
Instantiate it. Pass the stage reference, or wherever you want it to work.
mg = new MouseGesture(this.stage);
Add a gesture. Param 1: A string constant as an identifier. Param 2: The gesture number itself (above numbers) Here it is just a single action which will be ‘click and drag to right’ (see image)
mg.addGesture(PLAY,"0");
Add a complex gesture as a progression of above numbers. (Guess what it is)
mg.addGesture(STEP_BACKWARD,"65432");
Now add the listener.
mg.addEventListener(GestureEvent.GESTURE_MATCH,matchHandler);
Now your listener.
private function matchHandler(event:GestureEvent):void
{
switch(event.datas)
{
case PLAY:
// DO whatever you want
break;
case GESTURE_MATCH:
// DO whatever you want. Yes again...
break;
}
}
Bingo! Easy, isn’t it?
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Samples:
At ByteArray.org
Robotlegs is an AS 3.0 micro-architecture (or call it framework) to use with your AS 3.0 or Flex Projects. Its just an extension of PureMVC and adds Dependency Injection to it. Didnt try it personally but says it reduces the amount of boilerplate code to be written to setup a PureMVC application. It also avoids Singletons and static constants from your projects. It supports Modules (It has to, as PureMVC does it).
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