Flash CS3 Documentation

Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash > Data and Data Types > About data types > About primitive and complex data types > MovieClip data type

MovieClip data type

Movie clips are symbols that can play animation in a Flash application. They are the only data type that refers to a graphic element. The MovieClip data type lets you control movie clip symbols using the methods of the MovieClip class.

You do not use a constructor to call the methods of the MovieClip class. You can create a movie clip instance on the Stage or create an instance dynamically. Then you simply call the methods of the MovieClip class using the dot (.) operator.

Working with movie clips on the Stage The following example calls the startDrag() and getURL() methods for different movie clip instances that are on the Stage:

my_mc.startDrag(true);
parent_mc.getURL("http://www.adobe.com/support/" + product);

The second example returns the width of a movie clip called my_mc on the Stage. The targeted instance must be a movie clip, and the returned value must be a numeric value.

function getMCWidth(target_mc:MovieClip):Number {
    return target_mc._width;
}
trace(getMCWidth(my_mc));

Creating movie clips dynamically Using ActionScript to create movie clips dynamically is useful when you want to avoid manually creating movie clips on the Stage or attaching them from the library. For example, you might create an image gallery with a large number of thumbnail images that you want to organize on the Stage. Using MovieClip.createEmptyMovieClip() lets you create an application entirely using ActionScript.

To dynamically create a movie clip, use MovieClip.createEmptyMovieClip(), as shown in the following example:

// Creates a movie clip to hold the container.
this.createEmptyMovieClip("image_mc", 9);
// Loads an image into image_mc.
image_mc.loadMovie("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/image1.jpg");

The second example creates a movie clip called square_mc that uses the Drawing API to draw a rectangle. Event handlers and the startDrag() and stopDrag() methods of the MovieClip class are added to make the rectangle draggable.

this.createEmptyMovieClip("square_mc", 1);
square_mc.lineStyle(1, 0x000000, 100);
square_mc.beginFill(0xFF0000, 100);
square_mc.moveTo(100, 100);
square_mc.lineTo(200, 100);
square_mc.lineTo(200, 200);
square_mc.lineTo(100, 200);
square_mc.lineTo(100, 100);
square_mc.endFill();
square_mc.onPress = function() {
    this.startDrag();
};
square_mc.onRelease = function() {
    this.stopDrag();
};

For more information, see Working with Movie Clips and the MovieClip entry in the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference.

Flash CS3