Roland's blog

If you are already experienced with programming and are wondering how you get started with ActionScript, I'll show you a few steps to get you coding.

There are two ways to use action script. Embedded scripting or external classes.

Method 1: Embedded Scripts

First, create a flash file:

Now create a new layer.

Select on the first frame of the the new layer (Layer 2) and click on the Actions tab. If you don't see the Actions tab, go to Window->Actions or just press F9.

You can type something simple like trace("hello world");

To compile the source code press Ctrl+Enter.

Method 2: External Classes

With the arrival of AS3 the way flash handles scripting has gotten better. The language is better too. So, how do you tie your current stage to a class? Well, it's not too difficult.

Create an empty file and save it as test.fla as shown above

Now create an action script file. Name it with a camelized name such as MyTest and save it as MyTest.as in the same directory as the fla file you created above.

Enter the following code in the file.

import flash.display.MovieClip;
public class MyTest extends MovieClip {
	public function MyTest() {
		trace("hello world");
	}
}

Go to the Properties tab and in the Document class field enter MyTest

Compile the code with Ctrl+Enter.