Appendix D: Writing Scripts For Earlier Versions Of Flash Player; About Targeting Older Versions Of Flash Player - MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING ACTIONSCRIPT IN FLASH Use Manual

APPENDIX D
Writing Scripts for Earlier Versions of Flash Player
ActionScript has changed considerably with the release of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and
Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004. When you create content for Macromedia Flash Player
7, you can use the full power of ActionScript. You can still use Flash MX 2004 to create content
for earlier versions of Flash Player, but you can't use every ActionScript element.
This chapter provides guidelines to help you write scripts that are syntactically correct for the
player version you are targeting.
Note: You can review surveys for Flash Player version penetration on the Macromedia website; see
www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer/.

About targeting older versions of Flash Player

When you write scripts, use the Availability information for each element in Flash ActionScript
Language Reference to determine if an element you want to use is supported by the Flash Player
version you are targeting. You can also determine which elements you can use by showing the
Actions toolbox; elements that are not supported for your target version appear in yellow.
If you create content for Flash Player 6 or 7, you should use ActionScript 2.0, which provides
several important features that aren't available in ActionScript 1, such as improved compiler errors
and more robust object-oriented programming capabilities.
For a review of differences in how certain features are implemented when publishing files for
Flash Player 7 versus how the features are implemented in files published for earlier player
versions, see "Porting existing scripts to Flash Player 7" on page 13.
To specify the player and ActionScript version you want to use when publishing a document,
select File > Publish Settings, and then make your selections on the Flash tab. If you need to
target Flash Player 4, see the next section.
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