Documentation, example applications and code are now available at http://www.adobe.com/go/facebook for developers to get started building rich applications with Adobe Flash and Flex software, and Facebook Platform.

The ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform is available immediately as a free download along with developer documentation and tutorials at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/facebook.

Original article: Adobe and Facebook have announced the availability of a new Actionscript 3 Client Library for Facebook Platform, the platform for building apps on the social network. This library will enable developers to use Flash to create more compelling apps.

Flash in Facebook apps is not a new concept, but this library that Adobe has partnered with Facebook on will provide an organized and official resource for developers to utilize. In a conference call with WebProNews, Facebook Platform Program Manager Josh Elman and Adrian Ludwig, Group Manager for Adobe Flash Product Marketing told me that this project was started back in November.

There was a lot of unofficial stuff out there, but none of it had great documentation, they said, so they decided to start an officially supported, re-written code library with all public APIs, authentication, sessioning, etc. This way, Flash developers can build better integration between Flash and Facebook or Facebook Connect.

They talked a little about how developers and businesses can use flash-based Facebook apps for monetization. Of course there are advertising opportunities such as we’ve talked about in the past, but apps open up all kinds of ways for businesses to get potential customers engaged in their content.

They mentioned the Ben and Jerry’s site for example, that utilizes Facebook Connect and Flash to let users rate ice cream flavors and invite their friends to engage with the site.

They also talked about how CNN used Facebook and Flash to organize viewing of President Obama’s inauguration and allow people to pull in their friends and turn a simple streaming video opportunity into a social one and the "most streams ever."

Obviously the potential for engagement is there. Businesses can get creative with how to do it. I’m thinking you’ll want to have content that people will actually want to engage with first though.

Developers will be able to build rich applications with Adobe Flex or Adobe Flash software using a native API for ActionScript for better developer productivity.

"As an industry leading provider of geospatial web services, MapQuest has created a foundation for developers to bring a rich multi-media experience to end-users. Future enhancements will open up the possibilities even further, ultimately allowing developers to customize location-based applications that offer significant end-user control," said Christian Dwyer, Vice President of Business Solutions and Operations for MapQuest.

"Created to offer more choice, the new ActionScript API offers the possibility of enhanced interactivity, lower development costs and faster time to market while providing all the same great mapping, routing, geocoding and search feature sets that customers rely on from MapQuest."

MapQuest says because Adobe’s Flash Player is available to 97 percent of the world’s Internet-enabled desktops that developers will spend less time on cross-browser support and more on building applications.

"The API developed by MapQuest for ActionScript opens up new avenues for the Web 2.0 developer ecosystem, especially those who use Flash, Flex and Apollo to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) in the browser or right on the desktop," said Jeff Whatcott, Vice President of Product Marketing, Enterprise and Developer Business Unit at Adobe.

"Now, RIA developers can quickly and easily integrate MapQuest’s mapping services into their Web 2.0 mash-up applications, enabling them to go beyond simple HTML to create more engaging, data-rich and interactive mapping applications."

Given this presence (and consequent validity) more folks and more folks are entering into Flash development. Thus, the trend in web video is a boon to development, but in what vein?

Inherently, video needs a method of playback; a VCR, if you will. Flash player is (technically) our VCR, though it needs a bit of molding, as it comes “buttonless.”

By this, I mean that one cannot simply embed a video and immediately have playback. Through Flash 8, Adobe provides a fairly simple method for importing clips. One adds pre-designed buttons and sliders by attaching a “skin” through an “import video” wizard.

Options then include: streaming said flv from a Flash Communications server or offering it as a progressive download. Either way, an swf file is created, referencing the “skin” and the flv, effectively creating a “dedicated player” of sorts. This swf contains a hard link to that flv file (or stream) and the skin file forever… so for each production you’ll have to manage three individual files! Sound a bit messy?

The real power of Flash video is in the hands of Actionscript developers. While most tinkerers can embed a video, it’s simply not a flexible or sophisticated method. What if you need to control playback via function calls? Nearly impossible.

What happens when something changes? A reprocessing of all previously published swfs!

What about a customized GUI? Anyone who’s seen Jen deHaan’s Flash skin-making tutorial knows how complicated this can be. Why suffer through draconian “skin” file standards and other nightmares when you can weave a bit of Actionscript?

Here at WebProNews’ Video Blog ( like Google, YouTube and Yahoo ) we’ve opted for a more organized, Actionscript alternative: feeding video into a Flash application via externalized variables. Any method of importing data into Flash will suffice (in our case, we’re utilizing a script creating dynamic XML ).

In this manner, a video symbol is created from which the flv plays. This is referenced in Actionscript which controls this symbol using attachVideo on a NetStream object. Here’s the proof of concept:

var nc = new NetConnection();
nc.connect( null );

var stream_ns:NetStream = new NetStream(nc);

video_mc.attachVideo(stream_ns);
//video_mc is the name of the video symbol placed on the stage

stream_ns.play(path_to_flv);

At this point, the flv will be embedded into video_mc and begin playing. Flash’s NetStream functions can be performed on stream_ns to pause, play, seek, and gather information about the newly embedded video.

It’s a magical moment when this all comes together. Suddenly, flv lives up to the hype… you have it under your thumb. The possibilities are endless and exist within a familiar environment.

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Charlie is a videographer, web developer and occasional correspondent for the WebProNews Video Blog.

The Tamarin project is aimed at developing new and exciting interactive applications as part of the industry’s climb toward the almost mythical destination of Web 2.0.

Of course, Mozilla isn’t the only developer that might be interested in getting a peek at the ActionScript source code. Conspicuously absent from the discussion, however, were Microsoft and Operasoft, both of which also tout browsers that would see great benefit from an open source partnership with Adobe.

Adobe maintains that the announcement is not indicative of an exclusive partnership with Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

In talking with Adobe’s Matt Rozen, he comments on Firefox and how the idea for the venture came about, “The project really started from the top of the two organizations – with the ActionScript Virtual Machine based on JavaScript and the creator of JavaScript at Mozilla, I think that played into it.”

“And although this relationship isn’t specifically about implementing the open sourced code into Firefox, Firefox is popular with users and developers. According to 3rd party firms such as One Stat and Net Applications, Firefox’s market share is between 12 and 16 percent in the US. And according to Mozilla, some European countries are as high as 30 percent.”

Rozen adds, “I’m not sure whether Adobe considered any other organizations to open source the code to — I do know that Adobe and Mozilla have been working together on the spec for a while now. This didn’t happen overnight.”

As part of my conversation with Adobe about the Tamarin project I also got the chance to hear from Pam Deziel, Director of Product Marketing for the Platform Business Unit at Adobe.

She elaborates on the nature of the Adobe/Mozilla partnership, “This is an open source project in conjunction with the Mozilla foundation; it isn’t specifically a relationship with the Firefox browser and other technologies created by the Mozilla Corporation technologies.”

“The Tamarin project will be hosted by the Mozilla Foundation. Adobe contributed source code from the ActionScript Virtual Machine in the hopes that Adobe, Mozilla and the greater developer community will create the ECMAScript, 4th edition — a high performance, standards-compliant scripting engine, to accelerate the ability of developers to create and deliver richer, more interactive and engaging experiences that work across multiple platforms.”

Deziel continues, “The Tamarin project is an opportunity to help advance the open Internet by broadening its reach, improving the secure engagement of rich content and empowering millions of developers to evolve the technology we are contributing. Microsoft and Operasoft are welcome to implement Tamarin as the scripting language engine in their browsers.”

Inquiries to both Microsoft and Operasoft have thus far gone unanswered, but I’m willing to wager that both companies are more than casually interested in what ActionScript Virual Machine can bring to the development table of their respective web applications.

And at least from appearances, Adobe has extended an open invitation to both companies to incorporate Tamarin into both the Internet Explorer and Opera browsers.

It will be interesting to see if Mozilla, Microsoft and Operasoft can all make nice and play well together in the Web 2.0 sandbox.

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Joe is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

Have you wanted to become more comfortable using Flash with Yahoo’s web services? Now you can.

Jeffery Bennett posted the news at Yahoo’s Developer Center blog:

Noted Yahoo staffer and blogger Jeremy Zawodny also noted the debut of the Flash center, along with one for Ruby developers. “What languages should we do next?” he asked in the post, to which several people replied, “Perl.”

Back to Flash. At Yahoo’s new center, a few resources have been made available already to developers. A quartet of how-to articles discuss the ins and outs of performing a Yahoo search, using ActionScript with Yahoo Maps, creating a Yahoo Music Jukebox plug-in, and mashing up Flash with Yahoo’s event service, Upcoming.org.

Several links to useful downloads and other external resources appear at the Flash Developer Center. The site also makes note of what a developer will need to get started with Yahoo:

•  Adobe Flash 8 Professional
•  A Yahoo API Key
•  YahooAPI class and examples
•  An Application ID

After registering that ID with the Yahoo API class, development can begin. Yahoo’s how-to examples take the developer through the process of setting up the event handler, and demonstrating how to invoke, for example, the static Yahoo search method.

Interested developers may wish to make their way to Yahoo’s first public Hack Day on September 29-30. See the site for more details.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Actionscript is evolving at a very fast rate into a top programming language. With the release of ActionScript 3.0 expected in the next few months it’s important to get use to good 2.0 practices.

So what are correct 2.0 practices?

Correct 2.0 practices would include strict data typing all variables, function return values and values excepted. Strict data typing can also be used in classes which is another great 2.0 practice.

OOP is Object Orientated Programming; OOP is like an advanced external function. Languages such as Java are purely OOP all programming done is Java uses classes.

The advantages to classes are they can be re-used time and time again. They can be extended with additional classes, They can be shared and they’re great for organization.

Once you start programming things over 1000 lines of code, things can get very complicated and sometimes impossible because you simply don’t know what goes next. This is where classes come in. Classes will organize your entire site into manageable sections.

An example of using classes would be a members system. You could create a members class, and that class could contain a signup function that registers the users checked for blank values and further validation.

You could then have a login function which checked the user’s name and password against the database and returned a value of true if the username and password supplied match that of the database.

OOP really is the future of programming without OOP you will struggle with medium to large sized projects. Another huge advantage to OOP is when working in a team you can simply work on a class each and modify or extend another persons class. Where as without OOP you would have to look through maybe 10,000 lines of code to find 5 lines of code that needed modifying.

Good 2.0 practices would also be using movieclips instead of buttons. Movieclips have far more functionality than buttons ever could. Actionscript 2.0 can do just about anything to movieclips: change the coulor, size, shape, movement, and the list goes on and on. Buttons really are the past. The future is movieclips.

How to define strict datatypeing

For example to define a variable as a number we would use

var – to signal what we are defining is a variable.

thename – anything you like to identify the specific variable.

:number – the datatype this could be a number, boolean or string.

= – to define what will be inside the variable.

4 – the value that sits inside the variable.

; – just to end the line of code

So in full

var thename:Number = 4;

String and boolean would look as follows:

var thestring:String = hello;

var theboolean:Boolean = true;

If you wanted to make something happen when a user clicked a movie clip, the correct 2.0 code to use would be:

nameofthemovieclip.onPress = function ():Void {

}

We define the function as void so that actionscript does not except a retuned value. If we were to put expected values inside the function we would use:

myfunc = function (mynumber:Number):Void{

}

So remember to always use correct 2.0 practices and your code will shine.

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Ashley Peach – Owns Dog toys, Dog books and Dog coats.

View their website at: http://www.dog-toy.co.uk/

Ely Greenfield gave an apt description of the new toy over at Macromedia’s (a division of Adobe) website. He broke things down, explaining what the FABridge is and what to do with it.

To humbly borrow a page from the Ruby on Rails community, FABridge is built with the “don’t repeat yourself” principle in mind. Rather than having to define new, simplified APIs to expose a graph of ActionScript objects to JavaScript, with FABridge you can make your ActionScript classes available to JavaScript without any additional coding. Once you’ve inserted the library, pretty much anything you can do using ActionScript, you can do using JavaScript.

He said Flash Player has the ability, natively, through the External API (ExternalInterface), to call JavaScript from ActionScript and vice versa. He ExternalInterface has some limitations:

The ExternalInterface class requires you, the developer, to write a library of extra code in both ActionScript and JavaScript, to expose the functionality of your Flex application to JavaScript, and vice versa.

The ExternalInterface class also limits what you can pass across the gap – primitive types, arrays, and simple objects are legal, but user-defined classes, with associated properties and methods, are off-limits. You’re limited in what you can do.

The ExternalInterface class enables you to define an interface so your JavaScript can call your ActionScript – FABridge essentially lets you write JavaScript instead of ActionScript.

Next he goes into where to use the FABridge. He says the library may be useful if you want to use a rich Flex component in an Ajax application but don’t want to write a lot of Flex code. If only a couple of people know how to use Flex, this FABridge will allow everyone to use the work of the Flex dudes. Finally, if you’re building an integrated RIA with both Flex and Ajax portions, he suggests on might find it faster to start with FABridge as a head start.

He said there are some limitations on the FABridge in its current state, which is pre-alpha. He said testing has been done on Firefox 1.5 and Internet Explorer 6.0 (SP2). Neither Linux nor Macintosh has been tested.

Because of the limited integration between the JavaScript and ActionScript garbage collection models, the bridge must guarantee that any ActionScript object stays in memory indefinitely once it has been accessed from JavaScript. If you find that memory consumption is becoming an issue in your use of the bridge, you can call the function FABridge..releaseASObjects(). This will clear the cache of bridged objects and functions and allow them to exit from memory as appropriate. After calling this function, all references to ActionScript objects and functions are invalid and must be reacquired.

He ended by saying one can use the FABridge to automatically expose your Flex application to Ajax-based HTML applications. The bridge allows users to “easily embed rich Flex components in applications, integrating them tightly with the rest of the page content and one the Flex app is enabled through the bridge, JavaScript developers have access to all the functionality it provides.”

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John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

ActionScript Editors
The following text editors offer features, such as code hinting, that are superior to Flash’s built-in text editor. Some features, such as class browsing, aren’t even available in Flash MX 2004.

PrimalScript
Of the many available third-party ActionScript editors, PrimalScript arguably offers the most features in a single package. It’ll set you back almost 200 bucks, but it’s worth it. The best feature of PrimalScript is its code hinting. Unlike Flash MX 2004, PrimalScript offers code hinting for custom ActionScript classes, as well as a class browser that provides a quick reference to classes’ properties and methods. It’s also possible to compile Flash movies directly from PrimalScript using a JSFL command or a third-party tool such as MTASC. The only real drawback is the lack of CVS integration – currently, PrimalScript only supports MSSCCAPI-compliant source control systems such as Perforce, Visual SourceSafe, PVCS and StarTeam – but hopefully this will be added in a future release.

For more information, see the free Community MX article and videos, “Coding for Flash with PrimalScript.”

SE|PY ActionScript Editor
SE|PY ActionScript Editor is free and offers many of the features available in PrimalScript, and even some that aren’t, such as word wrap, auto-complete, and collapsible code (“code folding”). If you want to move beyond Flash’s built-in text editor and don’t want to spend the money on PrimalScript, SE|PY is a good place to start.

SciTE|Flash
SciTE|Flash is a little geekier, and not as feature-rich as PrimalScript or SE|PY, but it does offer limited code hinting, auto-complete, code folding, and (like SE|PY) built-in support for the Flash compiler Flush. Visit the following link to download the SciTE|Flash installer.

Eclipse
If you’re not familiar with Eclipse, it’s a top-notch, Java-based IDE. Because it’s open source and extensible, Eclipse boasts a huge number of free plugins that enable it to edit almost anything, from ActionScript to PHP to XML. The most popular ActionScript plugin is AS Development Tool (ASDT), although it still has a way to go before it replaces the tools mentioned above. Eclipse also integrates with CVS and command-line compilers such as MTASC.

Utilities
In this section, we look at a number of utilities- some built specifically for Flash, some not – that help you get your work done faster.

Screen Ruler
Screen Ruler is a $25 shareware utility that enables you to measure anything on your screen, vertically and horizontally, in pixels, inches, picas, and other units. Screen Ruler is especially useful if you’re working from comps or wireframes and need to extract the dimensions of an image and its elements.

Eyedropper
Eyedropper, like Screen Ruler, is one of those simple utilities that should be bundled with Windows but isn’t. Once you use it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. With Eyedropper, you can point your cursor at any object on the screen and get its color information in Hex, RGB, or CMYK format.

FLV MetaData Injector (FLVMDI)
FLVDMDI is a free command-line tool that enables you to add metadata information to your Flash video (FLV) files. A visual interface, FLVMDI GUI, is also available:
With FLVMDI, you can select one or more FLVs on your computer and it inserts the correct metadata. This is a lifesaver if your client encodes FLVs with a tool that doesn’t insert metadata (metadata properties, such as duration, are required by many Flash video components). You can also use FLVMDI to correct metadata generated by Sorenson Squeeze (see blog).

FLV Player
Martijn de Visser’s FLV Player is a free Windows executable that registers itself as the default handler for Flash video (FLV) files. Once installed, it enables you to double-click any FLV on your computer and watch the video. You can also get additional information about the video, such as width, height, and duration, by right-clicking the player and choosing Media Properties. If you do any work with Flash video, this one is indispensable.

NetConnection Debugger
This panel is added to Flash MX 2004 when you install Flash Remoting for Flash MX 2004 ActionScript 2.0. What many Flash users don’t realize is that you can also run NCD outside of the Flash IDE (thanks to Tom Muck for this tip). Simply create a shortcut to the SWF file. On Windows XP Pro, you’ll find it here:

C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\[Language]\Configuration\WindowSWF\NetConnection Debugger.swf

You can use NetConnection Debugger to debug Flash Remoting applications in the test player, the standalone Flash Player, and the browser.

BLDoc Community Edition
BLDoc is a documentation generator for ActionScript 2.0. The free community edition is available if you join the beta program.
BLDoc generates docs in one of three formats: a Javadoc-style framed HTML interface, a Flash (SWF) interface with a table of contents and index, and intrinsic class files for third-party IDEs. For the best results, you must use Java-style comments in your ActionScript, which enforces good coding habits.

Applications
In this section, we look at some more advanced Flash development tools to assist you with compiling, debugging, and source code management.

ActionScript Viewer (ASV)
In addition to being a Flash decompiler, ActionScript Viewer (ASV) offers additional tools, such as SOL Viewer and Editor, a plugin that enables you to read and edit local shared objects generated by Flash. ASV is most useful when you need to recover Flash code but no longer have access to the original FLA source file. It can also be a useful learning tool when you want to see how another developer achieved a certain result.
I’ve used it mainly to convert components to external ActionScript classes – this is often easier than remembering to tell other developers on your team to install an extension – and to find undocumented methods and properties in Flash and Central.

AdminTool
AdminTool is a unique third-party Flash debugger that uses the LocalConnection class to display “trace” statements outside of the Flash IDE. But that just scratches the surface. The free AdminTool also enables you to take a snapshot of your application and inspect and manipulate movie clips and other objects in real time – even audio and video. You can think of AdminTool as a remote control for your Flash movies. Currently, AdminTool can be implemented via a Flash component, or an external ActionScript class, so it’s easy to add to an application.

For more information, see “Debugging Flash Applications with AdminTool” on Community MX.

Flash Resource Manager
Flash Resource Manager, created by Mike Chambers, aggregates information from Flash help into a single application. It’s particularly useful if you author and compile Flash applications without the Flash IDE. You can also search Flash community sites, and add additional help files in Macromedia LiveDocs format, such as ColdFusion 7 and Flex.

For more information, see “Using Flash Resource Manager” on Community MX.

Motion-Twin ActionScript 2 Compiler (MTASC)
What sets MTASC apart from other Flash compilers such as Flush and FlashCommand is that Flash MX 2004 doesn’t have to be running – or even installed – to compile SWF files. However, MTASC is a command-line compiler and not for the faint of heart. Similar to Java, the compiler expects a static entry point method called main() and is much stricter than Flash MX 2004, so you may have to do more debugging before your app compiles successfully. The upside is that MTASC compiles much, much faster than Flash. For more information, see the “Usage” and “Tutorial” sections.

TortoiseCVS
TortoiseCVS is a free CVS version control client for Windows. If you’re working on a team with multiple Flash developers, TortoiseCVS enables you to check out a remote repository, add files, commit them back to the repository, and update your local copy when other developers make changes. What’s nice about TortoiseCVS is that it integrates with the Windows Explorer shell, so you can right-click files to perform CVS operations, and you can tell at a glance if a file has been added or committed to CVS. TortoiseCVS also offers built-in support for WinMerge. This means you can right-click an ActionScript file, choose CVS Diff, and WinMerge launches to display your current file and the previous version side-by-side. This is useful when you’re committing a new version and need to make comments about the latest changes.

For more information, see Arman Danesh’s excellent five-part series, “Using Source Code Management,” on Community MX.

Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this article. If you would like to recommend additional Flash-related tools for inclusion in this article, please use the feedback form below.

Paul Newman is Expertise: Dreamweaver, Central, Flash, ActionScript, Flash Remoting, ColdFusion, ASP, SQL Server, Photoshop, ImageReady and InDesign Contributions: Author of The Joy of Dreamweaver MX. Contributor to DevNet. Team Macromedia for Central. Founder of Newman Zone.

I really love making effects and everyThing else that involves actionscript, and i also love to try2explain2others how they can do it 2. I hope all of you that read this find this a usefull tutorial, it’s about the first tut i have ever written in my entire life.

Allrighty enough of me, let us commence da ActionScriptBattle.;) ……aahYeahhhhhh……….

By the way, i used a:

- grey bgColor

- a framerate of 30

- a Stage Width and Height of 200×80

- i use FLASH MX, the file won’t work in Flash 5 or less!

// Step 1: The MovieClip.prototype.drawShape4Testing()
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp // (This makes the shapes we'll use.)

This first part of the script is a MovieClip.prototype i use it very very very often. It can make a normal circle, but it can make a whole lot of different shapes too, You only have to edit one variable to accomplish this. –> style is the variable to edit. This comes in very useful when you quickly want to drop a shape on stage, that exists completely of actionscript, and then quickly release your ASmagic on it. Set style to 22.5 and you have a perfect circle but set it to other values (stay under 90) and you get cool different shapes.

Don’t worry too much about the look of this proto, the first time i saw it i was in awe. It’s now stuck in my head, i edited it to my needs and i now i can do with it what i want.

Now what this prototype does is:

1 : It goes to a given point(moveTo), with a given radius.

2 : The lineStyle and fills are set, this ofcourse set the look of the lines, and colors used in the shape that will be created.

3 : An angle is calculated into radians, flash uses radians to calculate stuff.(flash doesn’t know degrees) but because we’re humans here, we need degrees to know what’s happening.

4 : Next a For loop is set, as you can see values are given in degrees, and are later used for the conversion to radians.

5 : Now the endPoints and current Points are calculated and put into a variables to use in the curveTo.

6 : finally you’ll see the drawingApi curveTo in action, it will curve to the calculated points and make the shape.(and ofCourse endFill to stop the fillColor)

In different parts of the prototype you’ll see the conversion formula for degrees2radians. The formula used for this conversion is:

angleInradians=angleInDegrees *Math.PI/180;

The angle in radians is then used to calculate Things.

FROM THIS POINT YOU CAN SELECT ALL TEXT AND COPY IT INTO THE ACTIONSCRIPT EDITOR IN FLASH.

//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
// PROTOTYPE 1:
// Now when we create a new empty movieClip we can call this prototype, define it's
// values and the shape is made in the empty movieClip.
// Then you can control that holder mc as alwayzz, and do what you wanna do with it
//
// Here i will give a short description of the variables used in the prototype.
// radius = Sets how big the shape will be.
// x = The startX position, good to keep it at 0,then set the _x of the MC yourSelf.
// y = The startY position, good to keep it at 0,then set the _y of the MC yourSelf.
// lW = This is the line width of the shape that will be created.
// lC = This is the line color of the shape that will be created.
// lA = This is the line alpha of the shape that will be created.
// fC = This is the fill color of the shape that will be created.
// fA = This is the fill alpha of the shape that will be created.
// style = Sets the look of the shape, 22.5 is a perfect circle.(keep the value below 90)

MovieClip.prototype.drawShape4Testing= function(radius,x,y,lW,lC,lA,fC,fA,style)
{
&nbsp&nbsp this.moveTo(x+radius,y);
&nbsp&nbsp this.lineStyle(lW,lC,lA);
&nbsp&nbsp this.beginFill(fC,fA);
&nbsp&nbsp a = Math.tan(style * Math.PI/180);
&nbsp&nbsp for (var angle=45;angle<=360;angle+=45)
&nbsp&nbsp &nbsp {
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp var endX = radius*Math.cos (angle*Math.PI/180);
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp var endY = radius*Math.sin (angle *Math.PI/180);
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp var cX = endX + radius*a*Math.cos ((angle-90)*Math.PI/180);
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp var cY = endY + radius*a*Math.sin ((angle-90)*Math.PI/180);
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp this.curveTo(cX+x,cY+y,endX+x,endY+y);
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp }
&nbsp&nbsp this.endFill()
}
//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

// Step 2: Making the MovieClip.prototype.moveInSetArea()
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp // (This sets the movement of the shapes.)

//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
// PROTOTYPE 2:
// Now when we have created the empty movieClip(in the end of the script) and
// we have put in a shape with prototype 1, we can now define the area and speed
// the shape may move.

MovieClip.prototype.moveInSetArea=function(areaW,areaH,xS,yS,rS)
{
&nbsp this.XX = Math.round(Math.random()*areaW);
&nbsp this.YY = Math.round(Math.random()*areaH);
&nbsp this._rotation=0
&nbsp this.onEnterFrame=function()
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp {
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp this._x+=(this.XX-this._x)/xS;
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp this._y+=(this.YY-this._y)/yS;
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp this._rotation+=rS;
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp if(Math.ceil(this._x)==this.XX||Math.ceil(this._y)==this.YY)
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp {
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp this.XX = Math.round(Math.random()*areaW);
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp this.YY = Math.round(Math.random()*areaH);
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp }
&nbsp&nbsp }
}
//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

// Step 3: making the MovieClip.prototype.makeBox()
// (This makes the boxes we'll use as masks.)

//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
// PROTOTYPE 3:
// Now as (again at the end of the script where all the protos are called) you now know
// we have an empty mc, we put in the shape with prototype 1, and we have set the
// movement area and speed for the mc that holds the shape.
// Now it's time to make a mask, the function of a mask as you probably know is to
// let the shape only appear in the area of the mask MC, thisWay you can hide certain
// things or use it as a way to make nice effects.
// I put in this proto to make a box in a quick way, and then i used it to make the masks
// for the shapes.

// Here again i will give a short description of the variables used in this prototype.
// starterValue = Set's the stat of the depthCount
// x = The startX position,keep it at 0,then set the _x of the MC yourSelf.
// y = The startY position, Also keep it at 0,then set the _y of the MC yourSelf.
// w = Sets the width of the box that serves as mask
// h = Sets the height of the box that serves as mask
// Lw1 = Sets the line width of the mask
// Lc1 = Sets the line color of the mask
// La1 = Sets the line alpha of the mask
// fc = Sets the fill color of the mask
// fa = Sets the fill alpha of the mask

MovieClip.prototype.makeBox=function (starterValue,x,y,w,h,Lw1,Lc1,La1,fc,fa)
{
&nbsp boxCount=starterValue
&nbsp box=createEmptyMovieClip("box"+boxCount,boxCount)
&nbsp box._x=x
&nbsp box._y=y
&nbsp box.lineStyle(Lw1,Lc1,La1)
&nbsp box.beginFill(fc,fa)
&nbsp box.lineTo(w,o)
&nbsp box.lineTo(w,h)
&nbsp box.lineTo(0,h)
&nbsp box.lineTo(0,0)
&nbsp box.endFill()
&nbsp return box
}
//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

// Step 4: Now we'll set the control point
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp // (all important variables)

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//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
// THE CONTROL POINT:
// The next part will be the control area, you can define all the values for a whole
// lot of variables.(so you make set the whole look here, speed, scales and so on.)
// I really like doing things this way, it let's me quickly edit the values without having
// to search through the whole code. I try 2 set nearly all the variables into a
// central contol point and those variables link to all the prototype callings, and fill them
// with the values that will make stuff happen.If you have a lot of linez of code and the're
// all hardcoded numbers, it's very difficult to quickly edit something. if you set a
// control point and you give variables names names that really define what they do, it's
// easy to edit the thing you want. but keep your variable names short, long names
// means more script results more kb in the end. i like to make short variable
// names but not alwayz, If i do make em short i always explain them and because
// we have a control point you have a complete view of what you made and what
// the variables do.

//////SHAPE 7 CONTROL variables //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
shape7RADIUS=1+Math.random()*10
shape7LineWidth=1
shape7LineColor=colorSet1[random(totalColors)]
shape7LineAlpha=1+Math.random()*19
shape7FillColor=colorSet1[random(totalColors)]
shape7FillAlpha=5+Math.random()*20
shape7STYLE=random(69)
shape7RADIUS=15
shape7MOVEAREAwidth=220
shape7MOVEAREAheight=100
shape7XmoveSPEED=8
shape7YmoveSPEED=8
shape7RotationSpeed=10+Math.random()*10
/////////SHAPE 7's MASK VARIABLES/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
shape7MASKxpos=0
shape7MASKypos=0
shape7MASKwidth=200
shape7MASKheight=80
shape7MASKlineWidth=7
shape7MASKlineColor=colorSet1[random(totalColors)]
shape7MASKlinealpha=20
shape7MASKfillColor=colorSet1[random(totalColors)]
shape7MASKfillalpha=10

// Step 5: The Final step, Calling our prototypes

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// This wil be the last part of this script and tutorial, we'll call our prototypes.
// There is no need 4 hardcoded values here because we have set the values
// already in our control area.
// It's important to notice that the variables that we put in here link through
// the whole script, they origin in the prototypes, are called here and filled
// with the settings from the control point.
// Beware of the lineBreaks , put them back on one line when u paste into flash
// i tried to show you with colors, lines of script that must be placed in one line
// of script (if pasted into flash) have the color darkGreen,purple,and orange.
// In this tut i couldn't place them in one line, but it'a must that the script is
// placed on one line in flash!!.

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// Well, this was my tutorial on this actionscript banner style shape move,
// 4 all of u loving actionscript.co.uk. I hope some of you out there found it useful.
// If u know a much better way of doing the same but much more efficint,
// i would really like to know.(so that i can learn from u )
// And ofcourse if ya liked the tut or have questions about it, you can
// alwayzzz mail me at i_love_actionscript@hotmail.com.
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//- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My name is Erwin Schiphouwer a.k.a deamothul, im 25 and live in Groningen in
the Netherlands.
Im totally hooked on actionscript and especially in combination with php and
mysql.
I taught what i know by myself and still learn new things every day.
I hope to spread some love for scripting and make it a bit more easy for
people just starting out.