Chapter 19: Actionscript; Working With Actionscript - Adobe 38039336 - Flash CS3 Professional User Manual

Chapter 19: ActionScript

ActionScript™ is the scripting language in Flash. Use ActionScript to make your applications play in a nonlinear way,
and to add interesting or complex functionality that cannot be represented in the timeline.

Working with ActionScript

About ActionScript
The ActionScript scripting language lets you add complex interactivity, playback control, and data display to your
application. You can add ActionScript in the authoring environment by using the Actions panel, Script window, or
an external editor.
ActionScript follows its own rules of syntax, reserved keywords, and lets you use variables to store and retrieve infor-
mation. ActionScript includes a large library of built-in classes that let you create objects to perform many useful
tasks. For more information on ActionScript, see Programming ActionScript 3.0, Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe
Flash, or the ActionScript Language References.
You don't need to understand every ActionScript element to begin scripting; if you have a clear goal, you can start
building scripts with simple actions.
ActionScript and JavaScript are both rooted in the ECMA-262 standard, the international standard for the ECMAS-
cript scripting language. For this reason, developers who are familiar with JavaScript should find ActionScript
immediately familiar. For more information about ECMAScript, go to ecma-international.org.
Using the ActionScript documentation
Because there are multiple versions of ActionScript (2.0 and 3.0), and multiple ways of incorporating it into your FLA
files, there are several different ways to learn ActionScript.
This help system describes the graphical user interface for working with ActionScript. This interface includes the
Actions panel, Script window, Script Assist mode, Behaviors panel, Output panel, and Compiler Errors panel. These
topics apply to all versions of ActionScript.
Other ActionScript documentation from Adobe will help you learn about the individual versions of ActionScript;
see Programming ActionScript 3.0, Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash, Developing Flash Lite 1.x Applications or
Developing Flash Lite 2.x Applications. For information about the ActionScript vocabulary, see the ActionScript
Language Reference for the version you are working with.
For video tutorials about ActionScript 3.0, the Flash workflow, and components, see the following:
• Getting started with ActionScript 3.0:
• Creating interactivity with ActionScript 3.0:
• Flash workflow:
www.adobe.com/go/vid0132
• Using components: www.adobe.com/go/vid0133
For text tutorials about ActionScript, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_tutorials. The following tutorials are
available:
• Create an Application
www.adobe.com/go/vid0129
www.adobe.com/go/vid0130
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