Tracking Buttons and Advancing Playlists

programming flash
1

I’m stumped so I’ll try and explain my problem briefly.

I’ve created an XML based video player that incorporates a player window and a scrolling play list of video thumbnails.

Videos are selected and loaded in one of two ways…by selecting a thumbnail or by advancing the videos using a “next” or a “previous” button.

All of this works perfectly…however…

I’ve decided to track which video is playing by displaying a “currently playing” graphic on the video’s corresponding thumbnail in the playlist. (BTW, I created the scrolling playlist with AS3 rather than using the Flash playlist component)

I am able to achieve the desired effect when a playlist item is selected by tracking which thumb is clicked and storing it as an object…then executing this code:

/******************** SELECT VIDEO FUNCTION ************************/

var currentMovieId:Number = 0; // tracks position in video array //
var theBtn:DisplayObject
var theBtnEnabled:Object
var lastBtn:DisplayObject;
var lastBtnEnabled:Object;

function selectMovie(event:MouseEvent = null):void {
    currentMovieId = event.target.name;
    theBtn = event.target.HiLite.currently_playing as DisplayObject;
    theBtnEnabled = theBtn as Object;    
    theBtn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, selectMovie);
    theBtn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, changeColorOver_moreVids);
    theBtn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, changeColorOut_moreVids);
    theBtnEnabled.buttonMode = false;
    TweenMax.to(theBtn, 0.5, {alpha:1});
    if (lastBtn != null) {
        lastBtnEnabled.buttonMode = true;
        TweenMax.to(lastBtn, 0.5, {alpha:0});
        lastBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, selectMovie);
        lastBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, changeColorOver_moreVids);
        lastBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, changeColorOut_moreVids);
    }
    lastBtn = theBtn;
    lastBtnEnabled = theBtnEnabled;
    updateMovie(); // loads the selected movie //
}

What I am having difficulty figuring out is how to update the “currently playing” thumbnail when I advance the video using the “next” and “previous” buttons. The code for those buttons is the following:

******************* NEXT VIDEO FUNCTION ***********************

function nextMovie(event:MouseEvent = null):void {
    currentMovieId = currentMovieId + 1;
    if (currentMovieId == totalEntries) { // totalEntries is the xml.length //
        currentMovieId = 0;
    }
}

/******************** PREVIOUS VIDEO FUNCTION ************************/

function prevMovie(e:MouseEvent = null):void {
    if (currentMovieId == 0) {
        currentMovieId = totalEntries - 1;
    } else {
        currentMovieId = currentMovieId - 1;
    }
    updateMovie();
}

I’ve tried placing the button tracking code in it’s own function and adding a fake click event to the “next” and “previous” buttons without success. I know that I need to increase or decrease the value of theBtn by one but I’m just now sure how to track this from outside of the “selecMovie” function. I feel that this must be simpler than I am making it but, I’m brain dead and begging for some help.

I hope I was clear (if not overly wordy). If anyone needs more explanation, just ask and, if you can point me in the right direction, even better.

Thanks in advance.