# AS3 - Please help me rewrite this function

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-please-help-me-rewrite-this-function/208909>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [December 4, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-please-help-me-rewrite-this-function/208909 "2006-12-04T05:40:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Fingers](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Fingers)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-please-help-me-rewrite-this-function/208909/1 "2006-12-04T05:40:13Z")

</div>

I’ve written some code that creates four buttons and assigns their labels from an xml file. Unfortunately, the way it works there’s hardly any point of bothering with xml because I just have to write out each TweenButton instance name, its initial parameters, listeners, inclusion on the display list, etc, all within the createTheButtons function anyway. All in all it seems a very bloated and ineleagant way of doing it and I would like to make it more dynamic and scaleable.

For starters, how can I condense everything that’s presently in the createTheButtons function into a for loop, have it increment through \_\_buttonLabelsXML, and use its index to dynamicaly name each Tween button instance, set its initial parameters and listeners and add it to the display list?

I know it’s a lot to ask, but could someone please show me? 🙂

Here’s my code and source files:

```auto

package
{
    import flash.display.*;
    import flash.net.URLRequest;
    import flash.net.URLLoader;
    import flash.xml.XMLNode;
    import TweenButton;
    import flash.events.*;
    
    public class Base extends MovieClip {
        
        private var __myButton1:TweenButton;
        private var __myButton2:TweenButton;
        private var __myButton3:TweenButton;
        private var __myButton4:TweenButton;
        private var __buttonLabelsXML:XMLList;
        private var __buttonUrls:XMLList;
        
        public function Base() {
            
            loadTheXML("xmlFile.xml");
            addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, createTheButtons);
        }
        
        public function loadTheXML(theXML:String) {
            var externalXML:XML;
            var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
            var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(theXML);
            loader.load(request);
            loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
            }
            
        public function onComplete(event:Event):void {
            var loader:URLLoader = URLLoader(event.target);
            externalXML = new XML(loader.data);
            var buttonLabelsXML:XMLList = new XMLList(externalXML.children().attribute("label"));
            var buttonUrlsXML:XMLList = new XMLList(externalXML.children().attribute("url"));
            
            __buttonLabelsXML = buttonLabelsXML;
            __buttonUrlsXML = buttonUrlsXML;

            dispatchEvent(new Event(Event.CHANGE));
            }
            
        public function createTheButtons(e:Event):void {
            
            var myButton1:TweenButton = new TweenButton(150, 150, __buttonLabelsXML[0],__buttonUrlsXML[0]);
            __myButton1 = myButton1;
            
            var myButton2:TweenButton = new TweenButton(150, 185, __buttonLabelsXML[1],__buttonUrlsXML[1]);
            __myButton2 = myButton2;
    
            var myButton3:TweenButton = new TweenButton(150, 220, __buttonLabelsXML[2],__buttonUrlsXML[2]);
            __myButton3 = myButton3;
        
            var myButton4:TweenButton = new TweenButton(150, 255, __buttonLabelsXML[3],__buttonUrlsXML[3]);
            __myButton4 = myButton4;
    
            myButton1.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, bringToFront);
            myButton2.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, bringToFront);
            myButton3.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, bringToFront);
            myButton4.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, bringToFront);
            
            addChild(myButton1);
            addChild(myButton2);
            addChild(myButton3);
            addChild(myButton4);
            }
            
        public function bringToFront(e:Event):void {
            var num:Number = this.numChildren;
            var i:Number = getChildIndex(e.currentTarget);
            swapChildrenAt(i,num-1);
            }
    }
}

```

```auto

package
{
    import flash.display.*;
    import flash.events.*
    import flash.text.TextField;
    
    public class TweenButton extends MovieClip {
        
        private var __over:Boolean;
        public var msg:TextField;
        private var __url:String;

        public function TweenButton(posX:Number, posY:Number, label:String, url:String) {
            __url = new String();
            __url = url; //__ the url and clickHandlers aren't set up yet, not worried about that at the moment.
            __over = new Boolean();
            __over = undefined;
            this.msg.text = label;
            this.x = posX;
            this.y = posY;
            
            this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER,overHandler);
            this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT,outHandler);
            }
        
        public function overHandler(e:MouseEvent):void {
            
            __over = true;
            this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,playForwards);
            this.dispatchEvent(new Event(Event.CHANGE));
            }
        
        public function outHandler(e:MouseEvent):void {
            __over = false;
            this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,playBackwards);
            }
                    
        public function playForwards(e:Event):void {
            if(__over == true){
                this.nextFrame();
                }
            }
        
        public function playBackwards(e:Event):void {
            if(__over == false){
                this.prevFrame();
            
                }
        }
    }
}
    

```

Fingers