Issue With Accessing Static Class Var in Main Timeline

programming flash
1

I have a small class that I have created to return values from an xml file.

The var named menuLink1 is set in the LoadXML func and can be traced from the main timeline. However when I try to set the var in the SetMenuVals func and trace it from the main timeline, it returns null. Can’t see why this happens…

Main Timeline:
import com.ffi.MenuItems;
var mainLinks:MenuItems = new MenuItems(“menuData.xml”);
trace(mainLinks.getMenuLink1());

Class
package com.ffi
{
import fl.data.DataProvider;
import flash.net.;
import flash.events.
import flash.xml.*

public class MenuItems
{
public static var fileName:String;
public static var menuLink1:String;
private static var xmlLoader:URLLoader;

public static function setMenuLink1(value:String):void{
menuLink1 = value;
}
public static function getMenuLink1():String{
return menuLink1;
}
//constructor
public function MenuItems(fName:String){

     fileName = fName;
     LoadXML();

}

public static function LoadXML():void{
xmlLoader = new URLLoader();
var req:URLRequest = new URLRequest(fileName);
xmlLoader.load(req);
xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, SetMenuVals);
setMenuLink1(“Home”);
}

public static function SetMenuVals(eventObj:Event):void {
//var countriesXML = new XML(eventObj.currentTarget.data);
//countries = countriesXML.children()[0].children();
//var menuXML:XML = new XML(xmlLoader.data);

//set links
setMenuLink1(“Home”);
//trace(menuXML.children()[0].attributes()[0].toXMLString());

}