Text box questions

1

I have 2 dynamic text boxes that need to recall input from earlier in the movie. But the input boxes are buried like this:

MM
MC com_scrn
MC com_blt
INPUT problem
INPUT action

I used two dynamic text boxes named “comment1” and “comment2” to recall the input. Currently I have the following action in the frame:

comment1 = problem;
comment2 = action;

For some reason it isn’t working. Can anyone tell me how to reference those two text boxes?

2

your trying to reference “problem” and “action” that are inside the MC “input”, right?

if that’s the case, you have to let flash know precisely where those variables are, ie:

comment1 = input.problem;
comment2 = input.action;

for the paranoid programmer, preface input with _root. ; )

cheers.

3

just wondering, since im a beginner in some parts of AS, what does _root.; do?

4

_root. means, um … well, root. it’s the base level where everything starts from. like the equivalent to c:\ in dos or / in linux (or in flash4 for that matter).

5

so if _root. means the base directory, what would _parent. mean?

6

_parent is the location that the current timeline is in, take this for example:

A flash timeline with a movie clip called ‘A’ inside it and inside that clip there is another movie and its called ‘B’, and say I put this code in frame one of clip ‘B’ to control clip ‘A’:

gotoAndPlay(_parent.A, 1);

That makes the gotoAndPlay built-in function refer to the timeline that contains the clip that you placed the code in! Its like a ladder, lets say you start at the top and you are down 12 steps, and want to get to the step above it, would you use _root to start at the top and work your way down through 11 steps or use _parent and automaticlly make the code effect the step above you. If you don’t get why this is important then you have never have a clip embeded in a clip embeded in a clip…(and so on for 20 timelines) and your on the 20th timeline and want to refer to timeline number 19 then you ate literally screwed if you want to control all those embeded clips from the code in the 20th timeline cause you would have to use _root and work your way down but with _parent you can use it as many times in a row to work your way to the timeline you want:

If your on Timeline 20 and want to get to timeline 18 then you would use _parent twice. My fingers are tired so I will stop typing hoping you get the idea and if not then maybe some should write a tutorial on different built in commands and functions!

Hope I helped, but I don’t very often so hope you got lucky and understood!

7

Hey Dan get AIM on your friends computer!