Writing and debugging scripts overview

Adding scripts to your Flash applications enables rich functionality. In Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004, you have two choices:

• You can write scripts that are embedded in your Flash document (FLA file). To write embedded scripts, you use the Actions panel and attach your scripts to a button, movie clip, or frame in the Timeline (see Controlling when ActionScript runs).
• You can write scripts that are stored externally on your computer. External scripts are run when the scripts are called in your FLA file. To write external script files, you can use any text editor or code editor.

  In Flash Professional, you can also use the Script window. For more information, see Using the Actions panel and Script window.

When you use the Actions panel or the Script window to write scripts, the ActionScript editor lets you check syntax for errors, automatically format code, and use code hints to help you complete syntax. In addition, the punctuation balance feature helps you pair parentheses [()], braces ({}), or brackets ([]). For more information, see Using the ActionScript editor.

As you work on a document, test it often to ensure that it plays as smoothly as possible and as expected. You can use the Bandwidth Profiler to simulate how your document will appear at different connection speeds (see Testing document download performance). To test your scripts, you use a special debugging version of Flash Player that helps troubleshooting. If you use good authoring techniques in your ActionScript, your scripts will be easier to troubleshoot when something behaves unexpectedly. For more information, see Debugging your scripts.

If you are writing ActionScript 2.0 class files, see Creating Custom Classes with ActionScript 2.0.

Send me an e-mail when comments are added to this page | Comment Report

Current page: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/mx2004/main_7_2/00000914.html

Add Comment