Adobe 65018518 User Guide - Page 426

USING FLASH CS4 PROFESSIONAL 421 Best practices • The contrast between two styles of coding can be confusing to people learning ActionScript; it forces students and readers to learn different coding styles, additional syntax, and a poor and limited coding style. Avoid attaching ActionScript 2.0 to a button called myButton_btn, which looks like the following: on (release) { //do something } However, placing ActionScript 2.0 with the same purpose on the timeline (which is encouraged), looks like the following code: myButton_btn.onRelease = function() { //do something }; Note: Different practices apply when using behaviors, which sometimes involves attaching code to objects. See also "Comparing timeline code with object code" on page 421 Behaviors conventions About behaviors conventions Behaviors are prewritten ActionScript 2.0 code snippets that you can add to parts of a FLA file. Many developers enter ActionScript code either into one or several frames on the main Timeline or in external ActionScript files. However, when you use behaviors, sometimes code is placed directly on symbol instances (such as buttons, movie clips, or components) instead of being placed on the timeline. Behaviors are not supported by ActionScript 3.0. Comparing timeline code with object code To avoid problems that decentralized ActionScript 2.0 code creates, carefully plan a document that uses behaviors. Many developers do not place ActionScript on symbol instances, and instead place their code on the Timeline (timeline code) or in classes. Because behaviors add code to many locations in a FLA file, your ActionScript is not centralized and can be difficult to locate. When code is not centralized, it is difficult to understand interactions between the snippets of code, and it is impossible to write elegant code. Decentralized code can potentially lead to problems debugging code or editing files. If you use behaviors, try the following features to facilitate working with behaviors and decentralized ActionScript: Script Navigator Makes your timeline code or code on individual objects easy to find and edit in the Actions panel. Find And Replace Lets you search for strings and replace them in a FLA file. Script Pinning Lets you pin multiple scripts from various objects and work with them simultaneously in the Actions panel. This method works best with the Script navigator. Movie Explorer Lets you view and organize the contents of a FLA file, and select elements (including scripts) for further modification. Updated 5 March 2009