Remotely called function looses local scope?

1

I*'m using flash cs3 and as3, just to make this very clear.*

Hey all. I figure I’m missing something tragically simple, but I’ve got a problem when calling a function of a run time created movieclip.

I create the object, add it to the container at root, which I call home.

I then call a function of the created object, and then i get this problem where the function I’m calling doesn’t have a clue about the declared vars in the created movie clip.

I event have to declare vars and events in order for them to work, which is why I know I’m missing something as I’ve done this exact thing before and it worked fine.

the stage code :

var home:MovieClip = this;
var mGraph:MovieClip = new movGraph();
var mGraphMask:MovieClip = new maskGraph();

home.addChild(mGraphMask);
home.addChild(mGraph);


home.mGraphMask.x = 10;
home.mGraphMask.y = 10;
home.mGraphMask.width = stage.stageWidth-20;
home.mGraphMask.height = stage.stageHeight-20;
home.mGraph.mask = home.mGraphMask;
home.mGraph.loadIndex("dow");

the ( cutdown, its a lot of drawing code ) movGraph code:

var theGraph:MovieClip = this;
var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var mouseXOffset:Number;
var mouseYOffset:Number;

loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,onLoaded);
loader.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS,onChange);
loader.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, ioErrorListener);
theGraph.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,moveOn);
theGraph.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,moveOff);


function moveOn(e:MouseEvent):void {
    mouseXOffset = e.target.localX;
    mouseYOffset = e.target.localY;
    trace("moving");
    theGraph.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE,moveGraph);
    
}

function moveOff(e:MouseEvent):void {
    theGraph.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE,moveGraph);
}

function moveGraph(e:MouseEvent):void {
    theGraph.x = e.localX  -  mouseXOffset;
    theGraph.y = e.localY  -  mouseYOffset;
    trace("X : " + theGraph.x + " Y : " + theGraph.y);
    
}

//loader.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,onChange);
var aDataSlot:Array = new Array();
var xml:XML;
//store **** in the array now.
var items:Array = new Array();
var baseLineX:Number = 1;
var cursor:Number = 0;
var xScale:Number = 1;
var yScale:Number = 1;
var outputX:Number;
var outputY:Number;
var yMin:Number;

function onChange(e:ProgressEvent):void {
    //info.text = e.bytesLoaded;
    trace(loader.bytesLoaded);
}

function onLoaded(e:Event):void {
var yMin:Number;
    trace("loading");
    var xml = new XML(e.target.data);
    outputX = theGraph.width * theGraph.scaleX;
    outputY = theGraph.height * theGraph.scaleY;
    var numOfItems:Number = xml.day.length();
    yMin = xml.day[0].low;
    for (var i=0; i < xml.day.length();i++) {
        var t:MovieClip = new movDataSlot();
        t.dataOpen = xml.day*.open;
        t.dataHigh = xml.day*.high;
        t.dataClose = xml.day*.last;
        t.dataLow = xml.day*.low;
        t.dataDate = xml.day*.date;
        t.init();
        t.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER,traceMe);
        cursor=(t.width)*i;
        t.x = cursor;
        t.y = -t.dataHigh;
        theGraph.addChild(t);
        aDataSlot.push(t);
        if (yMin > xml.day*.low) {
            yMin = xml.day*.low;
        }
        
    }
    //position graph
    trace (yMin);
    theGraph.scaleY = theGraph.mask.height / (Math.abs(theGraph.height) ) ;
    theGraph.scaleX = theGraph.mask.width / theGraph.width;
    trace(theGraph.scaleY);
    theGraph.y = 400 +theGraph.height;
    trace(" this is : " +this);
    /*var gridY:Number = (yMax-yMin) / 10;
    g.lineStyle(0,0x0000FF,.2);
    for (var i=1;i<=10;i++) {
        g.moveTo(0,i*gridY*yScale);
        g.lineTo(numOfItems*3+55,i*gridY*yScale);
        var txtVal:TextField= new TextField();
        txtVal.textColor = 0x9999FF;
        txtVal.text = styler.format(Math.round(yMin+(gridY*(10-i))));
        txtVal.y = i*gridY*yScale-15;
        txtVal.x = 0;
        aGraph.push(txtVal);
        sp.addChild(txtVal);
        trace(Number(yMin+(gridY*i)));
    }*/
    
}

function traceMe(e:MouseEvent):void {
    trace(e.target.dataHigh);
}

function loadIndex(file:String):void {
    trace("told to load " +file);
    //loader = new URLLoader();
    //loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,onLoaded);
    theGraph.loader.load(new URLRequest(file + ".php"));
    trace(this.mask);
    //this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,moveOn);
    //this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,moveOff);
    
}

function ioErrorListener(event:IOErrorEvent):void {
    trace("Failure! Unable to load the configuration file."  + event.toString);
}

and the output :
“told to load dow
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at movGraph/loadIndex()
at passoverlord_fla::MainTimeline/frame1()”

Now I was putting up with the fact i had to call the loader definition from inside the load function in the movGraph, but then when mouse events refused to do anything ( ie; trace “moving” ) i figured something was wrong. If i un-comment the lines in the function that create a new loader it does infact load a series of movieclips which stack together horizontally and have different heights, as they should. So the code works, I just seem to be having a problem with scope or something.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anyone able to tell me whats up ?

2

is this possibly something to do with loading extra movieclips or something ? I dont understand why it would loose scope. Surely a function inside a movieclip would have access to variables set in that movieclip’s “root”. Maybe I need to call it differently.

3

um. anyone able to help me out ? I’ve been helping out others while waiting for someone to enlighten me as to the loss of scope or whatever the proiblem is, but this is sortof important as I need to get moving on the rest of the project.