Lately, I’ve begun dedicating my time towards learning Actionscript 3.0. I’ve been told that Actionscript 3.0 is a bit tricky, but very powerful once you get the hang of it. However, when I came across a simple button press, I realized this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

The simple button press is probably one of the most used features for Flash users. With Actionscript 3.0, this has changed quite a bit. This is why this tutorial will directly focus on just that.

Getting Started with AS3: Button Press

The AS3 code below will show you how to add interactivity to a button using ActionScript 3.0.  It will also give you a glimpse of how the structure of ActionScript 3.0 has changed the face of ActionScript…for the better.

AS3 Code

//imports the necessary AS events
import flash.events.Event
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
//attaching mouse events to the button on stage
rssButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, rssClick);
rssButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, rssMouseOut);
rssButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, rssMouseOver);
rssButton.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrames);
//Properly declaring variable
var box_color_play:Number;
//On mouse clicked function
function rssClick(event:MouseEvent):void {
eventNotice.text = “MOUSE CLICKED”;
}
//On mouse out function
function rssMouseOut(event:MouseEvent):void {
eventNotice.text = “MOUSE OUT”;
box_color_play = 0;
}
//On mouse over function
function rssMouseOver(event:MouseEvent):void {
eventNotice.text = “MOUSE OVER”;
box_color_play = 1;
}
//Function in place used for on ENTER_FRAME event animation
function onEnterFrames(event:Event)
{
if ((rssButton.box_color.currentFrame != rssButton.box_color.totalFrames) || (rssButton.box_color.currentFrame != 0)) {
if (box_color_play == 1) {
rssButton.box_color.nextFrame();
}
if (box_color_play == 0) {
rssButton.box_color.prevFrame();
}
}
};

Additional Resources:

Video Tutorial brought to you by Justin Everett-Church

The tutorial will go into depth on how to go about creating an interactive button inside of Adobe Flash using Actionscript 3.0.

Download Tutorial Files

File: btnPress_as3.zip