i posted this on actionscript.org with a reply, but the code provided by one of the admin only did half the trick. maybe further assistance can be provided here.
so i have a set of buttons arranged in a sort of gallery menu, such that each button is a link to a different set of pictures. the menu stays visible the whole time, while the corresponding pictures are loaded into an empty movie clip. what i want to do is have these buttons, when pressed, show their down state (to indicate which item the user is currently viewing), until a different button is chosen. in which case the new button will then show its “down” state and the former button will return to its “up” state.
so just to clarify. say i have buttons “1” , “2” , “3” , “4”. the user clicks number “3”. the button turns from red to blue, loads the appropriate content and remains blue until, say button “4” is pressed. button “3” now goes back to red, and button “4” becomes blue and loads the appropriate content.
the tips i got on actionscript.org are as follows:
[size=1]First of all convert all buttons to movieclips, then create labels inside this movieclips to refelct states. That is create a label for the “up”, “down”, “over” and “selected” state.
Then for each button write the following code:
on(release){
if(!this.selected){
_global.selectedButton.gotoAndStop(“up”);
this.gotoAndStop(“selected”);
this.selected = true;
// Place your loading code here
}
}
on(rollOver){
if(!this.selected){
this.gotoAndStop(“over”);
}
}
on(rollOut){
if(!this.selected){
this.gotoAndStop(“up”);
}
}
on(press){
if(!this.selected){
this.gotoAndStop(“down”);
}
}[/size]
the code was adequate for mimicing the “look” of a button. but didn’t provide the functionality i was looking for. the shortcomings:
(1) the buttons would revert to their up states upon roll-out (as opposed to staying down when clicked). (2) the jpg wouldn’t load into the target movie clip even with the proper code inserted. and (3) the movie clip’s hit area was very slim, since i couldn’t specify a broad hit-zone like in a traditional button.
any ideas would be appreciated greatly!