Flash template for publishing with SWF Object

Flash, , ,

Publishing for the web inside Adobe Flash IDE is a bit outdated : nowadays we use SWF Object to embed our swf.
So this is a template that you can add into the Flash IDE to allow SWF Object publishing, thanks to Pierrick for the discovery !

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$TTSWFObject
$DXDefaultDetection.html
$DS
Display Adobe Flash Movies with SWFObject. NOTE: You Must add swfobject.js and expressInstall.swf in the same directory as your swf.
$DF
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
	<head>
		<title>$TI</title>
		$CS
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/swfobject.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript">
 
			var flashvars = {};
 
			var params = {};
			params.menu = "$ME";
			params.quality = "$QU";
			params.scale = "$SC";
			params.salign = "$SA";
			params.wmode = "$WM";
			params.bgcolor = "$BG";
			params.allowfullscreen = "false";
			params.allowscriptaccess = "sameDomain";
 
			var attributes = {};
			attributes.id = "$TI";
			attributes.name = "$TI";
			attributes.align = "$HA";
 
			swfobject.embedSWF("$TI.swf", "$TIDiv", "$WI", "$HE", "$FV,$JR,$NR", "expressInstall.swf", flashvars, params, attributes);
		</script>
	</head>
 
	<body bgcolor="$BG">
 
	 <style type='text/css'>
	* {height:100%; margin:0; padding:0;}
	 </style>
		<center>
		<div id="$TIDiv">
			<a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer">
				<img src="http://www.adobe.com/images/shared/download_buttons/get_flash_player.gif" alt="Get Adobe Flash player" />
			</a>
		</div>
		</center>
	</body>
</html>

Save your file as “swfobject.html” into the directory :
Mac Users : /Users/YourName/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash CS5/fr_FR/Configuration/HTML/
Windows : C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Adobe\Flash CS5\fr_FR\Configuration\Commands\HTML\

Open Flash, check parameters of publication for HTML and choose SWFObject for the model. Then publish, your swf should be embed with SWFObject into your html.

P.S. Don’t forget to change your charset into UTF-8

Dynamic variable in AS3

AS3, , ,

An other short practical script to access to dynamic variable into a loop :

var fiole1:Fiole1, fiole2:Fiole2, fiole3:Fiole3, fiole4:Fiole4, fiole5:Fiole5;
for (var i:uint = 1; i < 6; ++i) {
 
	this["fiole" + i].addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, _over);
	this["fiole" + i].addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, _out);
}

Box2D with the WorldConstructionKit

AS3, Box2D, Games, Physics, , , ,

Before the weekend, I suggest to dig into the Box2D API for Flash with the great WorldConstructionKit.
Box2D is a physical engine wrote in C++ and translated into many languages such as Java, Objective-C, AS3, JavaScript…

For ActionScript3, there are 2 ports : Boris the brave’s port, and the WCK. You can find a performance comparison here made by Allan Bishop.
The WCK is the best thanks to the Alchemy port : it translates the C++ into something which can be understable by Flash. More information here.

The WCK provides a “a toolset / framework for rapidly developing physics based games / websites within the Flash IDE. WCK allows you to layout your 2d worlds / game levels entirely within Flash and have them hook into the physics simulation without writing any code.”

Continue reading Box2D with the WorldConstructionKit →

htaccess redirect to www

Php, ,

Using AMFPhp, you may have domain’s SecurityErrorEvent with the Sandbox due to the presence of the www or not.

Here are two lines for your .htaccess :

RewriteEngine ON
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$   http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1  [L,R=301]

Php’s print_r for as3

AS3, ,

Here is really useful class tools for as3 based on php function found on http://dev.base86.com website.

Exemple use :

import com.base86.Tools;
 
var obj:Array = new Array();
obj['a'] = { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3 };
obj['b'] = [ 'one', 'two', [ 'three' ] ];
obj['c'] = new MovieClip();
 
Tools.pr(obj);

The console will display:

(array) {
	[a] => (object) {
		[two] => (number) 2
		[three] => (number) 3
		[one] => (number) 1
	}
	[b] => (array) {
		[0] => (string) one
		[1] => (string) two
		[2] => (array) {
			[0] => (string) three
		}
	}
	[c] => (object) [object MovieClip]
}

And the class now :

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package com.base86 {
	public class Tools {
		/**
		 * An equivalent of PHP's recursive print function print_r, which displays objects and arrays in a way that's readable by humans
		 * @param obj    Object to be printed
		 * @param level  (Optional) Current recursivity level, used for recursive calls
		 * @param output (Optional) The output, used for recursive calls
		 */
		public static function pr(obj:*, level:int = 0, output:String = ''):* {
			if(level == 0) output = '('+ Tools.typeOf(obj) +') {\n';
			else if(level == 10) return output;
 
			var tabs:String = '\t';
			for(var i:int = 0; i < level; i++, tabs += '\t') { }
			for(var child:* in obj) {
				output += tabs +'['+ child +'] => ('+  Tools.typeOf(obj[child]) +') ';
 
				if(Tools.count(obj[child]) == 0) output += obj[child];
 
				var childOutput:String = '';
				if(typeof obj[child] != 'xml') {
					childOutput = Tools.pr(obj[child], level + 1);
				}
				if(childOutput != '') {
					output += '{\n'+ childOutput + tabs +'}';
				}
				output += '\n';
			}
 
			if(level == 0) trace(output +'}\n');
			else return output;
		}
 
		/**
		 * An extended version of the 'typeof' function
		 * @param 	variable
		 * @return	Returns the type of the variable
		 */
		public static function typeOf(variable:*):String {
			if(variable is Array) return 'array';
			else if(variable is Date) return 'date';
			else return typeof variable;
		}
 
		/**
		 * Returns the size of an object
		 * @param obj Object to be counted
		 */
		public static function count(obj:Object):uint {
			if(Tools.typeOf(obj) == 'array') return obj.length;
			else {
				var len:uint = 0;
				for(var item:* in obj) {
					if(item != 'mx_internal_uid') len++;
				}
				return len;
			}
		}
	}
}

Dynamic variable to parse in a XML

AS3, , ,

A current problem in AS3 with XML : if you want to parse a XML with a dynamic variable as a root, you can’t with a for each statement. It doesn’t recognize the variable.

The XML Format :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
<boite>
 
	<Box name="Box1">
		<lien nom="BENCHMARK">http://www.google.fr</lien>
		<lien nom="FOCUS GROUP">http://www.google.fr</lien>
	</Box>
 
	<Box name="Box2">
		<lien nom="FORMATION">http://www.google.fr</lien>
		<lien nom="COACHING">http://www.google.fr</lien>
	</Box>
 
</boite>

The way which doesn’t work (N.B. in this case the XML is Box1…/Box1 Box2…/Box2:

var myBox:String = "Box1";
for each (var box:XML in myXML.myBox) {
	trace(box);
}

The good way :

private function _xmlLoaded(mEvt:Event):void {
 
	mEvt.target.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, _xmlLoaded);
	_xml = new XML(mEvt.target.data);
 
        _boiteNom = "Box1";
 
	_textes = [];
	_liens = [];
 
	var indexBoite:uint = _getIndexBox(_boiteNom);
	_nbrFiches = _xml.Box[indexBoite].lien.length();
 
	for (var i:uint; i < _nbrFiches; ++i) {
		_textes.push(_xml.Box[indexBoite].lien[i].@nom);
		_liens.push(_xml.Box[indexBoite].lien[i]);
	}
 
	_ajoutFiche();
}
 
private function _getIndexBox($name:String):uint {
 
  	for(var i:uint; i < _xml.Box.length(); ++i) {
   		if(String(_xml.Box[i].@name) == $name)
   			return i; 
   	}
   return 666; // The devil's number, too evil to be real
 }

Testing as3isolib

AS3, Games

Hi, folks !

I know my last post was taken a while, the sandwich course is really intensive. However I will try to post more article. I’ve made many experiments since two months that I would like to share : stuff on games engine and datastructure.

For this firts post of 2011 (already !), I will introduce the actionscript isometric library : as3isolib. There are two others actionscript isometric library : TheoWorlds and OpenSpace but they are not free !

We will create an isometric world and add random boxes, if you click on one it will be removed. The result.

The code :

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package {
 
	import as3isolib.display.IsoView;
	import as3isolib.display.primitive.IsoBox;
	import as3isolib.display.scene.IsoGrid;
	import as3isolib.display.scene.IsoScene;
	import as3isolib.enum.RenderStyleType;
	import as3isolib.geom.IsoMath;
	import as3isolib.geom.Pt;
	import as3isolib.graphics.SolidColorFill;
 
	import eDpLib.events.ProxyEvent;
 
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import flash.utils.Timer;
 
	public class Main extends Sprite {
 
		private const _CELL_SIZE:uint = 50;
 
		private var _grid:IsoGrid;
		private var _scene:IsoScene;
		private var _view:IsoView;
 
		private var _box:IsoBox;
		private var i:uint;
 
		private var _timerCreationBox:Timer;
 
		public function Main() {
 
			this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, _init);
		}
 
		private function _init(evt:Event):void {
 
			this.removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, _init);
 
			_grid = new IsoGrid();
			_grid.setGridSize(10, 10, 1);
			_grid.showOrigin = false;
			_grid.cellSize = _CELL_SIZE;
 
			_scene = new IsoScene();
			_scene.hostContainer = this;
			_scene.addChild(_grid);
 
			_view = new IsoView();
			_view.setSize(800, 600);
			_view.centerOnPt(new Pt(200, 200, 0));
			_view.addScene(_scene);
			this.addChild(_view);
 
			_timerCreationBox = new Timer(300, 0);
			_timerCreationBox.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, _createNewBox);
			_timerCreationBox.start();
 
			this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _ef);
		}
 
		private function _createNewBox(tEvt:TimerEvent):void {
 
			_box = new IsoBox();
			_box.styleType = RenderStyleType.SHADED;
			var couleur:uint = Math.random() * 0xFFFFFF;
			var alpha:Number = Math.random();
			_box.fills = [new SolidColorFill(couleur, alpha), new SolidColorFill(couleur, alpha), new SolidColorFill(couleur, alpha), new SolidColorFill(couleur, alpha), new SolidColorFill(couleur, alpha), new SolidColorFill(couleur, alpha)];
 
			_box.setSize(_CELL_SIZE, _CELL_SIZE, _CELL_SIZE);
			_box.moveTo(_CELL_SIZE * Math.floor(Math.random() * 10), _CELL_SIZE * Math.floor(Math.random() * 10), 0);
 
			_box.id = "box" + i;
			++i;
 
			_box.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, _deleteBox);
			_scene.addChild(_box);
		}
 
		private function _deleteBox(mEvt:ProxyEvent):void {
 
			mEvt.proxyTarget.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, _deleteBox);
			_scene.removeChildByID(mEvt.target.id);
		}
 
		private function _ef(evt:Event):void {
			_scene.render();
		}
	}
 
}

The _scene.render() function is really important : it updates the scene of all your graphical change !

Later it will be a post on Box2d, stay tuned !