Flash Tutorials

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In this tutorial I show how to create a flash menu using nothing but Actionscript. Creating menus and other flash elements with only Actionscript makes updating, modifying, and experimenting extremely quick and easy.

//Set an Array to store the button names 
var namesArray:Array = new Array();  

//Push the button names into namesArray 
namesArray.push("HOME", "ABOUT", "LICENSE", "SUBMIT", "CONTACT"); 

//Set an Array to store the button urls 
var urlArray:Array = new Array();

//Push the button urls into urlArray
urlArray.push("http://www.flashframer.com", 
  "http://flashframer.com/about/",
  "http://flashframer.com/license/",
  "http://flashframer.com/submit/",
  "http://flashframer.com/contact/");

//Set a for loop to loop 5 times. 5 referse to the number of buttons
for(i=0;i<5;i++){
  //Create a movie clip named i on the next highest level.
  this.createEmptyMovieClip("button"+i, this.getNextHighestDepth());

  //Create a movie clip named buttonBkg inside the button movie clip on the next highest level.
  this["button"+i].createEmptyMovieClip("buttonBkg", this["button"+i].getNextHighestDepth());

  //Set the lineStyle for buttonBkg
  this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineStyle(0, 0Ã?000000, 100, true, "none", "square", "round");

  //Begin the buttonBkg fill
  this["button"+i].buttonBkg.beginFill(0Ã?999999);

  //The lineTo parameters define the shape of the buttonBkg
  this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(99, 0);
  this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(99, 24);
  this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(0, 24);
  this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(0, 0);

  //End the fill
  this["button"+i].buttonBkg.endFill();

  //Set the text formate 
  var myFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();

  //Set myFormat parameters
  myFormat.align = "center";
  myFormat.font = "Tahoma";
  myFormat.size = 13;
  myFormat.color = 0xFFFFFF;
  this["button"+i].textBox.embedFonts = false;
  this["button"+i].textBox.selectable = false;
  this["button"+i].textBox.antiAliasType = "advanced";

  //Create a new text field inside the button movie clip on the next highest level and define the x, y, width, and length.
  this["button"+i].createTextField("textBox", this["button"+i].getNextHighestDepth(), 0, 2, 
    this["button"+i]._width, this["button"+i]._height);

  //Place the name of the button into the textBox from the namesArray defined on line 7
  this["button"+i].textBox.text = namesArray;

  //Set the text formate to the textBox
  this["button"+i].textBox.setTextFormat(myFormat);

  //Set the X position of the button equal to the last button plus the width of this button plus 5 (5 is the space between each button).
  //This move the button over so all the buttons don't lay on top of each other.
  this["button"+i]._x = this["button"+(i-1)]._x + this["button"+i]._width + 5;

  //Set the onRelease function to the buttonRelease function
  this["button"+i].onRelease = buttonRelease;
}

//Set the buttonRelease function
function buttonRelease()
{
  //Set a varible named buttonName equal to the instance name of the current button being clicked on
  var buttonName:String = this._name;

  //Set a varible named buttonIndex equal to the 6th character of the buttons instance name.
  //This will return a number between 0 and 5. We will use this to pull the correct url from the urlArray
  var buttonIndex = buttonName.substr(6,1);

  //get the url from the urlArray of the current button being clicked on. and target a blank window
  getURL(urlArray[buttonIndex],"_blank");

}