How to get name of MovieClip on Flash stage that was created dynamically

actionscript-3instancemovieclip

There are multiple MovieClips that will be dynamically placed on stage. These MovieClips are coded to be buttons. I'm trying to figure out–when a user clicks on the MovieClip…figure out which object on the flash stage the user clicked on.

Inside function toggleClick I put the trace statement:

trace("movieClip Instance Name = " + e.target.name);

In the OUTPUT window:

movieClip Instance Name = instance5 
movieClip Instance Name = instance12 
movieClip Instance Name = instance5 
movieClip Instance Name = instance32 
movieClip Instance Name = instance5 
movieClip Instance Name = instance59

That doesn't seem the way to get a name for the MovieClip that was clicked.

Is getChildByName() the way to do it? If so, any ideas how to use getChildByName() to get the name of the MovieClip that was clicked?

Best Answer

Before adding a button to the stage you can actually name it

  var myButton:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
  myButton.name = 'button1';

  var myButton:MovieClip = new MyButton(); //if you assigned a class name to your MovieClip
  myButton.name = 'button1';

With your example you could do something like this:

  var comp:Comp = new Comp();
  var monitor:Monitor = new Monitor();

  addItemButton( comp, "comp" , {x:100, y:200});
  addItemButton( monitor, "monitor" , {x:30 , y:50} );


  private function addItemButton(item:MovieClip , itemName:String , params:Object):void
  {
     item.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK , clickHandler );
     item.name = itemName;

     // of course params is not necessary, just making a point of  
     // how to centralize your concerns
     item.x = params.x;
     items.y = params.y;

     addChild( item);
  } 

  private function clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
  {
     trace( "button clicked:" + event.currentTarget.name );
  }

Related Solutions

Dynamically adding movieclip to stage as3

possibly more elegant (depends on your point of view), it ensures that in any context the hand will restart its timeline animation when it's added to the stage:

hand.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onHandAddedToStage, false, 0, true);
function onHandAddedToStage(event:Event):void
{
    var mc:Movieclip = MovieClip(event.currentTarget);
    mc.gotoAndPlay(1);
}

If you're not familiar with the event model, the "false, 0, true" bit just ensures that if you ever need to unload the hand it won't get snagged by the event listener and stay in memory, probably you don't need it but it does no harm.

AS3 checking if click was on stage or an a movieclip

Normally, when you want to detect a click on a specific MovieClip, that is the one you add the listener to:

mcSlideHolder.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, onSlideHolderMouseDown);

rather than

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, onMouse_Down);

It sounds like you're doing the latter; adding a listener to the stage, and trying to figure out in the listener function what was clicked on. There is nothing wrong with this, and it can even be efficient if there are many possible things to click on. But in this case, the currentTarget is always going to be the stage, and the target is always going to be the thing you clicked on that generated the event. If that is indeed how you have things set up, you will get a different result--possibly the one you expected--if you do this:

mcSlideHolder.mouseChildren = false;

I'm assuming mcSlideHolder is the instance name. Setting mouseChildren to false will mean that mcSlideHolder will generate the MOUSE_DOWN event rather than instance235 that is its child.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Dynamically adding movieclip to stage as3

AS3 checking if click was on stage or an a movieclip

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