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Posted by framer

In this tutorial I show how to create a flash menu using nothing but Actionscript. Creating menus and other flash elements with only Actionscript makes updating, modifying, and experimenting extremely quick and easy.


//Set an Array to store the button names

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var namesArray:Array = new Array();


//Push the button names into namesArray

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namesArray.push("HOME", "ABOUT", "LICENSE", "SUBMIT", "CONTACT");


//Set an Array to store the button urls

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var urlArray:Array = new Array();


//Push the button urls into urlArray

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urlArray.push("http://www.flashframer.com",
"http://flashframer.com/about/",
"http://flashframer.com/license/",
"http://flashframer.com/submit/",
"http://flashframer.com/contact/");


//Set a for loop to loop 5 times. 5 referse to the number of buttons

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for(i=0;i<5;i++){


//Create a movie clip named i on the next highest level.

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this.createEmptyMovieClip("button"+i, this.getNextHighestDepth());


//Create a movie clip named buttonBkg inside the button movie clip on the next highest level.

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this["button"+i].createEmptyMovieClip("buttonBkg", this["button"+i].getNextHighestDepth());


//Set the lineStyle for buttonBkg

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this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineStyle(0, 0�000000, 100, true, "none", "square", "round");


//Begin the buttonBkg fill

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this["button"+i].buttonBkg.beginFill(0�999999);


//The lineTo parameters define the shape of the buttonBkg

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this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(99, 0);
this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(99, 24);
this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(0, 24);
this["button"+i].buttonBkg.lineTo(0, 0);


//End the fill

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this["button"+i].buttonBkg.endFill();


//Set the text format

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<b>var myFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();</b>


//Set myFormat parameters

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<b>myFormat.align = "center";
myFormat.font = "Tahoma";
myFormat.size = 13;
myFormat.color = 0xFFFFFF;
this["button"+i].textBox.embedFonts = false;
this["button"+i].textBox.selectable = false;
this["button"+i].textBox.antiAliasType = "advanced";</b>


//Create a new text field inside the button movie clip on the next highest level and define the x, y, width, and length.

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this["button"+i].createTextField("textBox", this["button"+i].getNextHighestDepth(), 0, 2, this["button"+i]._width, this["button"+i]._height);


//Place the name of the button into the textBox from the namesArray defined on line 7

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this["button"+i].textBox.text = namesArray[ i ];


//Set the text formate to the textBox

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this["button"+i].textBox.setTextFormat(myFormat);


//Set the X position of the button equal to the last button plus the width of this button plus 5 (5 is the space between each button).
//This move the button over so all the buttons don�t lay on top of each other.

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this["button"+i]._x = this["button"+(i-1)]._x + this["button"+i]._width + 5;


//Set the onRelease function to the buttonRelease function

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this["button"+i].onRelease = buttonRelease;
}


//Set the buttonRelease function

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function buttonRelease(){


//Set a varible named buttonName equal to the instance name of the current button being clicked on

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var buttonName:String = this._name;


//Set a varible named buttonIndex equal to the 6th character of the buttons instance name.
//This will return a number between 0 and 5. We will use this to pull the correct url from the urlArray

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var buttonIndex = buttonName.substr(6,1);


//get the url from the urlArray of the current button being clicked on. and target a blank window

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getURL(urlArray[buttonIndex],"_blank");
}