New Action Research intro video

The song in the video is an original composition called "The Lotus"

PE6 Flash ActionScript 3

In the past, I have seen classes used in various projects and have tried to read through multiple classes to try and understand them.  I have tried reading books on making classes and have even bought some training videos, but I never really got the hang of it.  Well, Lynda.com just made my day.  I understand classes now and Im extremely excited! 

I followed along with the first couple of tutorials to make a basic class.  Everything was actually quite simple and I learned about using “private” and “public” in variables and functions.  

The next tutorial focused on attaching a class to a couple of buttons.  I was really amazed at how simple the process was and was also excited to see how multiple objects of the same movie clip object were affected by the class.

Below is the result of the tutorial.  The function inside the class makes the button roll over possible and is applied to all objects at once.  I used to use a strategy just like this, but it wasn't using a class. I used to use something called a “For Loop”, which is a type of function that runs a series of events based on a number or the length of an array (list of items).  This method did have a drawback though.  I had to make sure everything had an instance name and with this example using classes, the objects didn't have to have an instance name.  I think if I combine these methods I will be able to make some great dynamic applications.  

FV – AR Pitch

PE5 Flash ActionScript 3

My next tutorial from Lynda.com with ActionScript 3 dealt with Timers.  In the past, I would usually use something called “Set Interval”, or in its correct method – setInterval - for functions dealing with time.  I found Timers to be extremely useful and way more efficient than setInterval.

The tutorial used the Timer to make the snow boarder jump in the air every 5 seconds.  While this was fun, it felt too easy.  I decided to take the new information on Timers and proceeded to create a digital clock.    

I explored Flash help and other tutorials online and found the right syntax needed to start a clock.  First I had to set today’s date.  I have done this before in ActionScript 2, but of course it was different in ActionScript 3. 

 var dateToday:Date = new Date();

The Date class was created and new Date(); pulls in the information from the system date on the computer.

Now I had to create the hours, minutes and seconds.  Again, this was different that ActionScript 2.

var clockHour:Number = dateToday.hours;

var clockMin:Number = dateToday.minutes;

var clockSec:Number = dateToday.seconds;

Finally, I brought it all together by giving the dynamic text instance names, embedding the fonts and by throwing everything in a movie clip in order to finally give it a nice blue glow.

Here is the final digital clock. 

My next tutorial is on Classes.  I have never created my own class before so this will be uncharted territory. 

Click here for the digital clock source file.

PE4 Flash ActionScript 3

I used to hate writing event listeners and handlers in Flash and I would always put my code on movie clips.  Well now that you can’t put code on movie clips anymore with ActionScript3, I may have to start using event listeners and handlers.  I opened the Lynda.com video on event listeners and handlers and found that writing them in ActionScript 3 is a lot easier than it was in ActionScript 2. 

I proceeded with the tutorial by adding an event listener to the snow boarder instance name.  I was excited that listeners could be created with the instance name and not having to create a new variable and then going though extra steps to include the instance name.  The listener was composed of an event, which in this case was a mouse event – “CLICK”.  After the event, I typed the name of the function. 

The next video discussed about writing the function or handler for the event listener.  I have written functions before, but have never included events, so this was a fun learning experience.  The function listed the mouse event from above as its variable and I followed with the tutorial by creating a trace statement to see if the function worked properly.  Everything here was pretty simple until I found out that the instance name in the function could be replaced by an event as well.  This would make the function reusable for any object!  Usually, I would have had to create a variable to use for the instance name, but by using event.target, I was able to make this function dynamic.  So instead of controlling the x and y coordinates or any other property of only 1 object, in this case boarder_mc, I used event.target, which in turn will work for any object inside that function. 

Another fun thing I learned tonight is making the mouse cursor available in ActionScript 3.  In ActionScript 2 the code was – objectName.useHandCursor = true/false (true makes it visible and false makes it invisible).

In ActionScript 3, the mouse cursor seems to be off by default when using events, but the new code is now – objectName.buttonMode = true/false

Below is the result of the mouse event.  Every time you click on the snow boarder object, it will move up 15 pixels from its current location and will increment the rotation by 45 from its current rotation.  

W4 Reading

Gordon, A. (2008). Story management technologies for organizational learning. International Conference on Knowledge Management, Special Track on Intelligent Assistance for Self-Directed and Organizational Learning, September 3-5, Graz, Austria. Retrieved from http://people.ict.usc.edu/~gordon/

Jongpil, C., & Grant, M. (2009). Are pretty interfaces worth the time? The effects of user interface types on web-based instruction. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 20(1), 5-33. Retrieved October 11, 2010 from http://www.editlib.org/p/25210

Stapleton, C., & Hughes, C. (2003). Interactive imagination: Tapping the emotions through interactive story for compelling situations. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, 23(5), 11-15. doi:10.1109/MCG.2003.1231172.

Tharangie K. G. D., Irfan C. M. A., Marasinghe C. A., & K. Yamada. (2008). Kansei engineering assessing system to enhance the usability in e-learning web interfaces: Colour basis. 16th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2008), October 27-31, Taipe, Taiwan. Retrieved from http://www.apsce.net/icce2008/Workshop_Contents.html

BP12 OMM Dropbox

This commercial was extremely fun to do.  I have already started using this in my workplace and so have a couple of other colleagues.  Its making things a little easier actually.