Adobe ActionScript 3.0 Developer’s Guide Action Script As3 Dev

User Manual: adobe ActionScript - 3.0 - Developer’s Guide Free User Guide for Adobe Flash Software, Manual

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Contents
Chapter 1: Working with dates and times
- Managing calendar dates and times
- Controlling time intervals
- Date and time example: Simple analog clock
Chapter 2: Working with strings
- Basics of strings
- Creating strings
- The length property
- Working with characters in strings
- Comparing strings
- Obtaining string representations of other objects
- Concatenating strings
- Finding substrings and patterns in strings
- Converting strings between uppercase and lowercase
- Strings example: ASCII art
Chapter 3: Working with arrays
- Basics of arrays
- Indexed arrays
- Associative arrays
  - Associative arrays with string keys
  - Associative arrays with object keys (Dictionaries)
- Multidimensional arrays
  - Two indexed arrays
  - Associative array with an indexed array
- Cloning arrays
- Extending the Array class
- Arrays example: PlayList
Chapter 4: Handling errors
- Basics of error handling
- Types of errors
- Error handling in ActionScript 3.0
  - ActionScript 3.0 error-handling elements
  - Error-handling strategies
- Working with the debugger versions of Flash runtimes
- Handling synchronous errors in an application
- Creating custom error classes
- Responding to error events and status
  - Working with error events
  - Working with status change events
- Comparing the Error classes
  - Core Error classes
  - flash.error package Error classes
- Handling errors example: CustomErrors application
Chapter 5: Using regular expressions
- Basics of regular expressions
- Regular expression syntax
- Methods for using regular expressions with strings
- Regular expressions example: A Wiki parser
Chapter 6: Working with XML
- Basics of XML
- The E4X approach to XML processing
- XML objects
  - XML properties
  - XML methods
- XMLList objects
- Initializing XML variables
- Assembling and transforming XML objects
- Traversing XML structures
- Using XML namespaces
- XML type conversion
- Reading external XML documents
- XML in ActionScript example: Loading RSS data from the Internet
Chapter 7: Handling events
- Basics of handling events
- How ActionScript 3.0 event handling differs from earlier versions
  - Event handling in previous versions of ActionScript
  - Event handling in ActionScript 3.0
- The event flow
- Event objects
- Event listeners
- Event handling example: Alarm Clock
Chapter 8: Working with application domains
Chapter 9: Display programming
- Basics of display programming
- Core display classes
- Advantages of the display list approach
- Working with display objects
- Manipulating display objects
- Animating objects
- Stage orientation
- Loading display content dynamically
- Display object example: SpriteArranger
Chapter 10: Working with geometry
- Basics of geometry
- Using Point objects
- Using Rectangle objects
- Using Matrix objects
- Geometry example: Applying a matrix transformation to a display object
  - Defining the MatrixTransformer class
  - Calling the MatrixTransformer.transform() method from the application
Chapter 11: Using the drawing API
- Basics of the drawing API
- The Graphics class
- Drawing lines and curves
- Drawing shapes using built-in methods
- Creating gradient lines and fills
  - Defining a Matrix object for use with a gradient
- Using the Math class with drawing methods
- Animating with the drawing API
- Drawing API example: Algorithmic Visual Generator
- Advanced use of the drawing API
Chapter 12: Working with bitmaps
- Basics of working with bitmaps
- The Bitmap and BitmapData classes
- Manipulating pixels
  - Manipulating individual pixels
  - Pixel-level collision detection
- Copying bitmap data
- Making textures with noise functions
- Scrolling bitmaps
- Taking advantage of mipmapping
- Bitmap example: Animated spinning moon
- Asynchronous decoding of bitmap images
Chapter 13: Filtering display objects
- Basics of filtering display objects
- Creating and applying filters
- Available display filters
- Filtering display objects example: Filter Workbench
Chapter 14: Working with Pixel Bender shaders
- Basics of Pixel Bender shaders
- Loading or embedding a shader
- Accessing shader metadata
- Specifying shader input and parameter values
- Using a shader
Chapter 15: Working with movie clips
- Basics of movie clips
- Working with MovieClip objects
- Controlling movie clip playback
- Creating MovieClip objects with ActionScript
  - Exporting library symbols for ActionScript
- Loading an external SWF file
  - Considerations for loading an older SWF file
- Movie clip example: RuntimeAssetsExplorer
Chapter 16: Working with inverse kinematics
- Basics of Inverse Kinematics
- Animating IK Armatures Overview
- Getting information about an IK armature
- Instantiating an IK Mover and Limiting Its Movement
- Moving an IK Armature
- Using Springs
- Using IK Events
Chapter 17: Working in three dimensions (3D)
- Basics of 3D
- Understanding the 3D features of Flash Player and the AIR runtime
- Creating and moving 3D objects
  - Moving an object in 3D space
  - Rotating an object in 3D space
- Projecting 3D objects onto a 2D view
- Example: Perspective projection
- Performing complex 3D transformations
- Using triangles for 3D effects
Chapter 18: Basics of Working with text
Chapter 19: Using the TextField class
- Displaying text
- Selecting and manipulating text
  - Selecting text
  - Capturing user-selected text
- Capturing text input
- Restricting text input
- Formatting text
- Advanced text rendering
  - Using embedded fonts
  - Controlling sharpness, thickness, and anti-aliasing
- Working with static text
  - Accessing static text fields with the StaticText class
  - Using the TextSnapshot class
- TextField Example: Newspaper-style text formatting
Chapter 20: Using the Flash Text Engine
- Creating and displaying text
  - Adding GraphicElement and GroupElement objects
  - Replacing text
- Handling Events in FTE
  - Mirroring events
- Formatting text
- Working with fonts
- Controlling text
- Flash Text Engine example: News layout
Chapter 21: Using the Text Layout Framework
- Overview of the Text Layout Framework
  - Complex script support
  - Using the Text Layout Framework in Flash Professional and Flex
- Using the Text Layout Framework
- Structuring text with TLF
- Formatting text with TLF
- Importing and exporting text with TLF
- Managing text containers with TLF
  - Creating static text
  - Creating dynamic text and containers
- Enabling text selection, editing, and undo with TLF
- Event handling with TLF
- Positioning images within text
Chapter 22: Working with sound
- Basics of working with sound
- Understanding the sound architecture
- Loading external sound files
  - Monitoring the sound loading process
- Working with embedded sounds
  - Using an embedded sound file in Flash
  - Using an embedded sound file in Flex
- Working with streaming sound files
- Working with dynamically generated audio
  - Modifying sound from mp3 data
  - Limitations on generated sounds
- Playing sounds
- Security considerations when loading and playing sounds
- Controlling sound volume and panning
- Working with sound metadata
- Accessing raw sound data
  - Building a simple sound visualizer
- Capturing sound input
- Sound example: Podcast Player
Chapter 23: Working with video
- Basics of video
- Understanding video formats
- Understanding the Video class
- Loading video files
- Controlling video playback
  - Detecting the end of a video stream
- Playing video in full-screen mode
- Streaming video files
  - Sending video to a server
- Understanding cue points
- Writing callback methods for metadata and cue points
- Using cue points and metadata
- Advanced topics for video files
  - About configuring FLV files for hosting on a server
  - About targeting local FLV files on the Macintosh
- Video example: Video Jukebox
- Using the StageVideo class for hardware-accelerated rendering
  - About hardware acceleration using StageVideo
  - Using the StageVideo APIs
Chapter 24: Working with cameras
- Understanding the Camera class
- Displaying camera content on screen
- Designing your camera application
- Connecting to a user’s camera
- Verifying that cameras are installed
- Detecting permissions for camera access
- Maximizing camera video quality
- Monitoring camera status
Chapter 25: Using digital rights management
- Understanding the protected content workflow
- DRM-related members and events of the NetStream class
- Using the DRMStatusEvent class
  - DRMStatusEvent properties
  - Creating a DRMStatusEvent handler
- Using the DRMAuthenticateEvent class
- Using the DRMErrorEvent class
  - DRMErrorEvent properties
  - Creating a DRMErrorEvent handler
- Using the DRMManager class
- Using the DRMContentData class
- Updating Flash Player to support Flash Access
  - Listening for an update event
Chapter 26: Adding PDF content in AIR
- Detecting PDF Capability
- Loading PDF content
- Scripting PDF content
  - HTML-PDF communication basics
  - Scripting PDF content from ActionScript
- Known limitations for PDF content in AIR
Chapter 27: Basics of user interaction
- Capturing user input
- Managing focus
- Discovering input types
Chapter 28: Keyboard input
- Capturing keyboard input
  - Key codes and character codes
  - KeyboardEvent precedence
- Using the IME class
- Virtual keyboards
Chapter 29: Mouse input
- Capturing mouse input
  - Dragging Sprites around the stage
  - Customizing the mouse cursor
- Mouse input example: WordSearch
Chapter 30: Touch, multitouch and gesture input
- Basics of touch input
  - The touch input API structure
- Touch support discovery
  - Set the input type
  - Test for touch input support
- Touch event handling
  - Touch Event properties
  - Touch event phases
    - Touch Point ID
- Touch and drag
- Gesture event handling
  - Gesture Event properties
  - Gesture phases
    - Gesture phase is “all” for simple gesture events
- Troubleshooting
  - Known Issues
Chapter 31: Copy and paste
- Basics of copy-and-paste
- Reading from and writing to the system clipboard
- HTML copy and paste in AIR
  - Default behavior
  - Using the clipboardData property of the event object
- Clipboard data formats
Chapter 32: Accelerometer input
- Checking accelerometer support
- Detecting accelerometer changes
Chapter 33: Drag and drop in AIR
- Basics of drag and drop in AIR
- Supporting the drag-out gesture
- Supporting the drag-in gesture
- Drag and drop in HTML
- Dragging data out of an HTML element
  - Setting the dragged data
- Dragging data into an HTML element
  - Enabling drag-in
  - Getting the dropped data
- Example: Overriding the default HTML drag-in behavior
- Handling file drops in non-application HTML sandboxes
- Dropping file promises
  - Dropping remote files
  - Implementing the IFilePromise interface
    - Using a synchronous data provider in a file promise
    - Using an asynchronous data provider in a file promise
Chapter 34: Working with menus
- Menu basics
- Creating native menus (AIR)
- About context menus in HTML (AIR)
- Displaying pop-up native menus (AIR)
- Handling menu events
- Native menu example: Window and application menu (AIR)
Chapter 35: Taskbar icons in AIR
- About taskbar icons
- Dock icons
- System Tray icons
- Window taskbar icons and buttons
  - Highlighting the taskbar window button
  - Creating windows without taskbar buttons or icons
Chapter 36: Working with the file system
- Using the FileReference class
- Using the AIR file system API
Chapter 37: Storing local data
- Shared objects
- Encrypted local storage
Chapter 38: Working with local SQL databases in AIR
- About local SQL databases
- Creating and modifying a database
  - Creating a database
  - Creating database tables
- Manipulating SQL database data
- Using synchronous and asynchronous database operations
  - Using synchronous database operations
  - Understanding the asynchronous execution model
- Using encryption with SQL databases
- Strategies for working with SQL databases
  - Distributing a pre-populated database
  - Best practices for working with local SQL databases
Chapter 39: Working with byte arrays
- Reading and writing a ByteArray
- ByteArray example: Reading a .zip file
Chapter 40: Basics of networking and communication
- Network interfaces
- Network connectivity changes
- Domain Name System (DNS) records
Chapter 41: Sockets
- TCP sockets
- UDP sockets (AIR)
- IPv6 addresses
Chapter 42: HTTP communications
- Loading external data
- Web service requests
- Opening a URL in another application
Chapter 43: Communicating with other Flash Player and AIR instances
- About the LocalConnection class
- Sending messages between two applications
- Connecting to content in different domains and to AIR applications
Chapter 44: Communicating with native processes in AIR
- Overview of native process communications
- Launching and closing a native process
- Communicating with a native process
- Security considerations for native process communication
Chapter 45: Using the external API
- Basics of using the external API
- External API requirements and advantages
- Using the ExternalInterface class
- External API example: Communicating between ActionScript and JavaScript in a web browser
- External API example: Communicating between ActionScript and a desktop application that uses the ActiveX control
Chapter 46: XML signature validation in AIR
- Basics of XML signature validation
  - XML signature validation classes
  - Using the XML signature validation classes
    - The XML signature validation process
    - Interpreting validation results
- About XML signatures
  - Supported XML signature syntax
    - Certificates and trust
- Implementing the IURIDereferencer interface
Chapter 47: Client system environment
- Basics of the client system environment
- Using the System class
  - Getting data about the user’s system at run time
  - Saving text to the clipboard
- Using the Capabilities class
- Capabilities example: Detecting system capabilities
Chapter 48: AIR application invocation and termination
- Application invocation
- Capturing command line arguments
  - Example: Invocation event log
- Invoking an AIR application on user login
- Invoking an AIR application from the browser
- Application termination
Chapter 49: Working with AIR runtime and operating system information
- Managing file associations
- Getting the runtime version and patch level
- Detecting AIR capabilities
- Tracking user presence
Chapter 50: Working with AIR native windows
- Basics of native windows in AIR
- Creating windows
- Managing windows
- Listening for window events
- Displaying full-screen windows
Chapter 51: Display screens in AIR
- Basics of display screens in AIR
- Enumerating the screens
Chapter 52: Printing
- Basics of printing
- Printing a page
- Flash runtime tasks and system printing
- Setting size, scale, and orientation
- Advanced printing techniques
- Printing example: Multiple-page printing
- Printing example: Scaling, cropping, and responding
- Printing example: Page setup and print options
Chapter 53: Geolocation
- Detecting geolocation changes
  - Checking geolocation support
Chapter 54: Internationalizing applications
- Basics of internationalizing applications
- Overview of the flash.globalization package
- Determining the locale
  - Setting the locale ID
  - Limitations of other locale and language classes
- Formatting numbers
  - Using the NumberFormatter class
  - Parsing strings that contain numeric values
- Formatting currency values
  - Using the CurrencyFormatter class
  - Parsing strings that contain currency values
- Formatting dates and times
  - Using the DateTimeFormatter class
  - Localizing month names and day names
- Sorting and comparing strings
  - Using the Collator class
  - Customizing the behavior of the Collator class
- Case conversion
  - Using the StringTools class
- Example: Internationalizing a stock ticker application
Chapter 55: Localizing applications
- Choosing a locale
- Localizing Flex content
- Localizing Flash content
- Localizing AIR applications
- Localizing dates, times, and currencies
Chapter 56: About the HTML environment
- Overview of the HTML environment
- AIR and WebKit
Chapter 57: Programming HTML and JavaScript in AIR
- About the HTMLLoader class
- Avoiding security-related JavaScript errors
- Accessing AIR API classes from JavaScript
  - Using the AIRAliases.js file
- About URLs in AIR
- Making ActionScript objects available to JavaScript
- Accessing HTML DOM and JavaScript objects from ActionScript
- Embedding SWF content in HTML
- Using ActionScript libraries within an HTML page
  - Accessing the HTML DOM and JavaScript objects from an imported ActionScript file
- Converting Date and RegExp objects
- Manipulating an HTML stylesheet from ActionScript
- Cross-scripting content in different security sandboxes
Chapter 58: Scripting the AIR HTML Container
- Display properties of HTMLLoader objects
- Scrolling HTML content
- Accessing the HTML history list
- Setting the user agent used when loading HTML content
- Setting the character encoding to use for HTML content
- Defining browser-like user interfaces for HTML content
- Creating subclasses of the HTMLLoader class
Chapter 59: Handling HTML-related events in AIR
- HTMLLoader events
- Handling DOM events with ActionScript
- Responding to uncaught JavaScript exceptions
- Handling runtime events with JavaScript
  - Creating an event handler function
Chapter 60: Displaying HTML content in mobile apps
- StageWebView objects
- Content
  - JavaScript URI
- Navigation events
- History
- Focus
- Bitmap capture
- Displaying ads
Chapter 61: Security
- Flash Platform security overview
- Security sandboxes
- Permission controls
- Restricting networking APIs
  - Blocked ports
  - Using the allowNetworking parameter
- Full-screen mode security
- Loading content
- Cross-scripting
- Accessing loaded media as data
- Loading data
- Loading embedded content from SWF files imported into a security domain
- Working with legacy content
- Setting LocalConnection permissions
- Controlling outbound URL access
  - Using the navigateToURL() function
  - For more information
- Shared objects
- Camera, microphone, clipboard, mouse, and keyboard access
- AIR security
Chapter 62: How to Use ActionScript Examples
- Types of Examples
- Running ActionScript 3.0 examples in Flash Professional
- Running ActionScript 3.0 examples in Flash Builder
- Running ActionScript 3.0 examples on mobile devices
Chapter 63: SQL support in local databases
- Supported SQL syntax
- Data type support
Chapter 64: SQL error detail messages, ids, and arguments

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