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Program: SWiSHmax

Introduction

When we first learn in swishmax we understand Events and Actions Events be they Timeline or Object based l lead to actions

This works great when everything we need to do is internal.  If we load a movie into a sprite or mc we can expand our flow of control. However there are times when we need our actions separated from our events so we only have either multiple events calling the same action or one event extending multiple actions. A truly reusable system is where by not only are your events and actions separated but you can change arguments and there by change results. Arguments or parameters (depending on what camp you come from) are the this or that in the above code concept. Just as you now understand Events hold actions and Variables hold expressions. 

What is a Function?

Functions are "Objects" like sprites but only contain Events. The uniqueness of this is that you can call a function
(which performs the action) and send the argument to the function. How do we call to a function well we can use either call function( I know sounds silly) or asfunction.  The difference between the two is... when you simply call the function. the function must already contain the parameters. when you use asfunction. you send the parameters to the function.  ie: sake of argument your dogs name is

What is asfunction

Asfunction is a means of calling a function and sending parameters to complete the function (or change the outcome).  Imagine you have a dog who knows one trick.  "Ralf get" Ralf knows get something get something but what?. asfunction is like telling Ralf get something specific as opposed to hard wiring him only to get the same thing Ralf (function) Get ("Milk") (parameter) bring Milk (parameter) to (location)

A movie by default has no background color.  In web (swf) format a given  movie  displays the background color established by the html document information, 
We need a basic layout outline that defines the boundaries of our app.  This can be a shape, or image If the image has transparency.

The Goal

If asfunction is still not making sense.  Lets try a real swishmax example.  You want to build a blog. You want to build it in swishmax you don't have want or need server-side scripting (asp php perl)

The Text Files

If your unfamiliar with load variables you may wish to brush up before proceeding. Here is a good place to start.

Your Post.txt can have as many variables as you like you can use these different variables for Title Content and Date. For the sake of simplicity ours will operate on Title and Content only.

Post1.text

Each time you write a new post.txt remember to name it something unique you can reference later on. Post1.txt, Post2.txt etc

Menu.txt

&list_txt = <a href='asfunction:MyPost,Post1.txt'>My First Blog</a><br>&

Take a long slow look at Menu.txt as even though it only lists one item, there is much to need to know about it's formatting.
later on the text will be created via a script rather then by applying a text object to the stage vy conventional means.
The text needs to be rendered as html in order to pass the asfunction (or function instructions if you will) and the parameter to the movie.

• &list_txt: Our Variable name

• <a href=':  Our reference to

• asfuntion: :  Tells movie call a function

• MyPost,:  Name of the function

• Post1.txt:  Name of the parameter

• >My First Blog< : Text that is displayed

• /a><br>& : Close reference, Break close variable.

Each time you add a new post you need to add a new  instruction to your expression

&list_txt = <a href='asfunction:MyPost,Post2.txt'>My Second Post</a><br>
<a href='asfunction:MyPost,Post1.txt'>My First Post Blog</a><br>&

Because it is a blog we want our last entry created to be placed at the top.  Now that we understand what is required in our .txt documents we can move on to
building our Swishmax Movie

Swishmax

On Load()

As mentioned earlier one can not fully escape Event Action. On load means as soon as the movie begins to load store this. If the function isn't loaded it wont work.

_global is a prefix like _root. This information can be accessed from any target universally.  While not required in most circumstances _global means it's shared by all/

• _global: This is a prefix like _root. This information can be accessed from any target universally.  While not required in most circumstances
  _global means it's shared by all

• MyPost:  Is the name of our function

• (arg): :  The parameter 

• MyFile=arg;:  assigns a variable name to the arg

• loadVariablesNum(MyFile,0) : Loads the variables from the variable name.

Lets recap here.  The menu.txt  calls the function and supplies the argument. The Onload action stores the function. Our functionhas a name an arguemnt and actions. When the function is call it sends the argument to the function The function converts the arguement into an expression assinged by assigning it to a variable. LoadvariablesNum instructs our movie to load the exression by it's variable name.

Stop, think breathe the knowledge needs to be digested

Creating your Text Objects

We need three dynamic text objects to pull this all together. Title, Content and Menu

Text Panel Text.

Our Title text has a name and is a target. When ever a dynamic text object is a target you have to assign a variable to it. The variable name can not be the same as the text name.
The variable name in our external post.txt file tells us the name we want to associate with the text. The same holds true for our Content text.

The Menu text is much the same as the Content render as html assign a list_txt as your variable.

Loading menu.txt

Other considerations

You may feel the need for scrollers with your dynamic text you can use dynamic scrollers for both your Content text and your Menu Text
Brian Ayers Tutorial is perfect for this. You also may wish to accompany your posts with images.  Don't forget you can always add mor variables
to your Post.txt then reference those variables in actions such as spritename.loadmovie(MyImage) using the variable to call the expression which is your url

Via CSS and createtextfield method it is possible to include images and swf within the body of your content as well as format text properties beyond the scope of "render as html"
To avoid any confusion with the previous methods for dynamic text fied you should save your previous version as version1.swi.
Once done delete the "Content" text object so you only have to concentrate on createtextfield from here out.

External css as it applies to dynamic text does have limitations Some of those limitations include:

• javascript actions such as On rollover events in js.
• Borders
• divs and tables
• text is always set to wrap which can cause formatting issues when dealing with images linked to in the content.

An easy way to overcome text wrap surrounding images is by usage of multiple <br.> tags <p> while it can be deployed via CreateTextfield + css does not handle in the same manner as it would standard css/html markup. All these things taken into account the gains of applying css to a Created textfield still offers more then can be achieved via conventional dynamic text methods.

Your .css file should be limited to the css which is pertainent to your text.  Here is a typical example of a css file.

 A .css file can be created in any flat file editor such as notepad and needs to be saved with the .css extenion it provides external information on how
the text is to be formated. Tags in your html content refer back to the css element which defines the properties od the text to be presented.

Createtextfield

CreateTextfield is a method first used in swf6 that has been enhanced in 7 and 8 originally one could only use internal css with createtextfield. the internal css was not as practical as external
it had several limitiations. swf 7 was the first time loadcss() became fully implimented. It simplfied css for those whom had familairity with conventional css as well as before we delve to far into loadcss
llets explore createtextfield a little more fully.

createtextfield