Adobe 65036570 User Guide - Page 217

ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 206 User Guide Using the Flash local connection object Flash includes an object type called local connection. The Flash local connection object can be very useful for allowing separate movies on the same computer to connect and to communicate with each other. Because the local connection object is a Flash object supported in Director, it can allow communication between separate Flash content, Director movies, or combinations of the two. Use the messaging capability of the local connection object for simple tasks such as exchanging sprite property data, or for more complex ones such as exchanging chat messages when used in conjunction with the Flash Media Server. For more information, see Using Flash Media Server. To use the local connection object, you can either create a global local connection object or associate the object with a Flash sprite in the Score. Once you have created the object, you can control it entirely through script. The following are examples of a script that is attached to a Flash sprite in channel 1 of the Score. The script contains a beginSprite handler and other handlers that manage the local connection object. Initialize properties The first thing to do is declare some properties that you will use throughout the local connection script to store references to the local connection object and two connections (one outgoing and one incoming). • The property pCon_name stores the name of an outgoing connection • The property pOtherCon_name stores the name of an incoming connection • The property pLocalCon stores a reference to the local connection object The beginning of the script might look like this, including the start of the beginSprite handler: property pCon_name property pOtherCon_name property pLocalCon on beginSprite (me) pCon_name = "userA" pOtherCon_name = "userB" Creating the local connection object The next step is to create a new local connection object. Once the object is created, use the setCallback() method to set up handlers to respond to the events that the local connection object generates. You can use the methods of the local connection object to connect to other movies and send messages. • To create the new local connection object, use the newObject() method: pLocalConn = sprite(1).newObject("LocalConnection") This script assigns the property pLocalConn to be a reference to the newly created object. Setting up callbacks The next step is to set up callback handlers with the setCallback() method. Set up a callback for each event you expect the object to generate. Local connection objects generate onStatus and allowDomain events, as well as an event for each incoming message received. These incoming message events are named by the string that is passed as the subject (first parameter) of the message. To set up each callback, use the setCallback() method and include the name of the local connection object, the name of the event to respond to, the script handler name, and the script object that contains the handler as arguments with the method.