Stroep » class

Quick way to create an auto-increment index AS3

Mark Knol — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:39:16 +0000

Quick post here. I’d like to share this very quick way to create an automatic ID or index to your class instances. Mostly I pass an index as parameter to the class instance, or I use a public var to set the index. Using this way it is very easy to create an automatically filled index, since you have to set this up once and never worry again

Take a look at this code:

 package
 {
   public class MyObject
   {
     private static var global_index:int = 0;
     public const INDEX:int = global_index ++;
   }
 }
  

As you see, I have created a static variable global_index, which is always the same to all MyObject classes. I also created a public constant ‘INDEX’, which would be unique in every instance. When the MyObject instance is created the index will be set to the global_index, and the global_index will increase by one. So that’s basically the trick to create the auto-increment index for your AS3 class.

update: Changed global_index to a private static + removed constructor

Chain: Delayed function calling [updated]

Mark Knol — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:00:36 +0000

I created a useful util-class to make delayed function calling easy. You can make a chain of functions, by adding them with a delay in milliseconds. This chain can be executed multiple times, even in reversed order.

Let’s take a look at a simple example of Chain.

var myChain:Chain = new Chain();    
 myChain.addEventListener( Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
 myChain.add(one, 2000).add(two, 500).add(three, 1000).play(2);
function one():void { trace("one") }
 function two():void { trace("two") }
 function three():void { trace("three") }
 function onComplete(e:Event):void { trace("done.") }
/* trace output:
 one two three one two three done.
 */
  

What is happening here? At the first line we are instantiating the class, and the second line represents what chain does. There is a public function called ‘add’, which is an important part of the class. add(one, 2000) means: execute a function called ‘one’ after 2000 milliseconds. add(two,500).add(three,1000) are functions that are called after one is finished, with other delays. You can create your own rhythm/sequence/pattern. At the end we see play(2), which means: Execute the sequence of functions defined before, and repeat them 2 times. After that, dispatch event COMPLETE.

So that’s basically it. A cool part is you can play it reversed, using playReversed(). I am inspired by jQuery (which has nothing to do with this) to enable the ability to stick functions, but thats optional.

 myChain.playReversed(2);
/* trace output:
 three two one three two one
 */
  

Of course you can pauze/continue when you are playing, by calling stop() / doContinue(), and you can determine if it is currently playing using the isPlaying-getter.

These are all the public functions.

/// Constructor
publicfunction Chain()
/// Adds a function at a specified interval (in milliseconds).
 public function add(func:Function, delay:Number = 0):Chain
/// Start playing the sequence and calling functions
 public function play(repeatCount:int = 0):void
/// Start playing the sequence reversed
 public function playReversed(repeatCount:int = 0):void
/// Clears sequence list. Data will be removed.
 public function clear():Chain
/// Stop playing, use doContinue to play futher from current point
 public function stop():void
/// Continue playing after a stop
 public function doContinue():Chain
/// Reset indexes
 public function reset():void
/// Returns the string representation of the Chain private vars.
 public function toString():String
/// Return chain is playing, stopped or completed
 public function get isPlaying():Boolean
  

Hope you like it, let me know if you like to see extra/other related features.

Download: Chain (googlecode)

Updates
- Private functions are protected
- add-functions is now add(function, delay), where function is required.
- Class now extends EventDispatcher and play/playReversed dispatches Event.COMPLETE after playing sequence, instead of calling onComplete function
- Cleaned up code

nl.stroep.utils.Image

Mark Knol — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:53:31 +0000

Easily create an image without taking care of loaders and URLRequest etc.
Most simple usage of the Image class:

import nl.stroep.utils.Image
var myImage:Image = new Image("myImage.jpg");
 this.addChild(myImage)
  

You can also add the most common eventListeners to the image:

import nl.stroep.utils.Image
var myImage:Image = new Image("myImage.jpg");
 this.addChild(myImage);
myImage.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onImageLoaded );
 myImage.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, onImageError );
 myImage.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, onImageLoading );
function onImageLoaded (e:Event):void {
    trace("image loaded!");
 }
function onImageError (e:IOErrorEvent):void {
    trace("image error", e.text);
 }
function onImageLoading (e  rogressEvent):void {
    trace("loading image.. bytesLoaded=" + e.bytesLoaded + " bytesTotal=" + e.bytesTotal );
 }
  

Download
Check out the Image class at googlecode

nl.stroep.utils.Color

Mark Knol — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:44:43 +0000

Class to work/calculate with colors. You can easily abstract the red, green or blue values from a color.

Usage:

import nl.stroep.utils.Color
// create orange color
 var myColor:Color = new Color(0xFFCC00);
trace("value", myColor.value);
 trace("red", myColor.red);
 trace("green ", myColor.green);
 trace("blue", myColor.blue);
  

Download
Check out the Color class at googlecode

AS3 ImageSaver Class v1.0

Mark Knol — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:06:50 +0000

My ImageSaver() Class is ready for download.

Download
» ImageSaver v1.0

Features

Save a MovieClip, Sprite, Shape, Bitmap, Textfield or other kinds of displayObjects.
It doesn’t matter where or how your object is positioned on the stage, it gets the right bounds.
Never worry about bytearray’s / encoding anymore.
Save your displayobject as JPG or PNG (using Adobe’s encoders)
Ready-to-install PHP file.

How to use
1. Copy the ‘save-my-image.php’ file to your server or testing environment (I use WAMP for testing)
2. Use ImageSaver like this example.

// Create saver instance + point to php file on server
var imageSaver:ImageSaver = new ImageSaver("http://localhost:8080/save-my-image.php");       
// additional: Add eventlisteners.
 imageSaver.addEventListener ( Event.COMPLETE, onSaveComplete );
 imageSaver.addEventListener ( IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, onSaveError );
// Save textfield as JPG with red background
 imageSaver.save ( myTextField, "myfilename1.jpg", 0xFFFF0000 );
// Save bitmap as JPG with red background in low JPG quality (15)
 imageSaver.save ( myBitmap, "myfilename2.jpg", 0xFFFF0000, 15 );
// Save a shape as transparent PNG
 imageSaver.save ( myShape, "myfilename3.png" );
// Save a movieclip as half-transparent (red) PNG
 imageSaver.save ( myMovieClip, "myfilename4.png", 0xCCFF0000 );
// handle events
         
 private function onSaveError( e:IOErrorEvent ):void {
     trace ( "Image save failed. Error while saving: " + e.text );
 }
private function onSaveComplete( e:Event ):void {
     trace ( "Image save completed"  );
 }

The save-function works like this:

public function save( displayobject:DisplayObject, filename:String, backgroundColor:Number = 0x00FFFFFF, JPGquality:int = 85 ):void
        

I love to hear your suggestions. Feel free to use it too.

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