Flash Action Scripting

While using Adobe Flash, a movie when started cannot be stopped or interrupted in between until it is instructed or reaches the last frame in the Timeline. Action Script is the only way through which one can interrupt a movie and hence communicate with it at much ease. We can also create sophisticated pull-down menus with animation by using simple Action Script.

Scripting languages provide communication with programs that helps in the creation of interactive movies. ActionScript, developed by Macromedia Flash, is a scripting language used for developing websites and software using the Adobe Flash Player. It is also used by some database applications as well as in basic robotics. ActionScript has increased its functionality from creating basic 2D animations (Action Script 1.0) to Web-based games, rich Internet applications involving streaming media (i.e. video and audio) and many more in its latest versions (Action Script 2.0,ActionScript 3.0 and above).

History

Action script was started for Flash authoring tool by Macromedia but now is being developed under Adobe as Adobe Flash as in 2005 it had acquired Macromedia. There were limited interactive features in the earlier three versions of Adobe Flash. They had commands for ex: "get URL","stop","play" and "go to And Play" with basic navigation controls. New features were introduced in Flash4 and they included operators, variables, expressions loops and if statements.

Syntax

Any author can create an ActionScript with the desired style or amount of whitespace as it is a free form scripting code. It is based on the syntax of the ECMA Script.

Data Structures

Action Script includes "simple" or "fundamental" data types that help in the creation of other different data types. There is a lot of similarity between the data types of Adobe Flash and Java.
The data types have evolved from simpler ones like String, Number, Boolean, Object, to complex ones like Movie Clip, Text Field, Button, Date, Array, Bitmap, XML, Sound, Net Connection, Event Listener and many more..

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