ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0

ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0 DEVELOPER’S GUIDE
Copy and paste
Transfer mode Description
ClipboardTransferModes.ORIGINAL_ONLY Only a reference is returned. If no reference is available, a null value is returned.
ClipboardTransferModes.ORIGINAL_PREFFERED A reference is returned, if available. Otherwise a serialized copy is returned.
ClipboardTransferModes.CLONE_ONLY Only a serialized copy is returned. If no serialized copy is available, a null value is
returned.
ClipboardTransferModes.CLONE_PREFFERED A serialized copy is returned, if available. Otherwise a reference is returned.
Reading and writing custom data formats
Flash Player 10 and later, Adobe AIR 1.0 and later
When writing an object to the clipboard, you can use any string that does not begin with the reserved prefixes air: or
flash: for the format parameter. Use the same string as the format to read the object. The following examples
illustrate how to read and write objects to the clipboard:
public function createClipboardObject(object:Object):Clipboard{
var transfer:Clipboard = Clipboard.generalClipboard;
transfer.setData("object", object, true);
}
To extract a serialized object from the clipboard object (after a drop or paste operation), use the same format name
and the CLONE_ONLY or CLONE_PREFFERED transfer modes.
var transfer:Object = clipboard.getData("object", ClipboardTransferMode.CLONE_ONLY);
A reference is always added to the Clipboard object. To extract the reference from the clipboard object (after a drop or
paste operation), instead of the serialized copy, use the ORIGINAL_ONLY or ORIGINAL_PREFFERED transfer modes:
var transferredObject:Object =
clipboard.getData("object", ClipboardTransferMode.ORIGINAL_ONLY);
References are valid only if the Clipboard object originates from the current application. Use the
ORIGINAL_PREFFERED transfer mode to access the reference when it is available, and the serialized clone when the
reference is not available.
Deferred rendering
Flash Player 10 and later, Adobe AIR 1.0 and later
If creating a data format is computationally expensive, you can use deferred rendering by supplying a function that
supplies the data on demand. The function is called only if a receiver of the drop or paste operation requests data in
the deferred format.
The rendering function is added to a Clipboard object using the setDataHandler() method. The function must
return the data in the appropriate format. For example, if you called
setDataHandler(ClipboardFormat.TEXT_FORMAT, writeText), then the writeText() function must return a
string.
If a data format of the same type is added to a Clipboard object with the setData() method, that data takes precedence
over the deferred version (the rendering function is never called). The rendering function may or may not be called
again if the same clipboard data is accessed a second time.
Note: On Mac OS X, deferred rendering works only with custom data formats. With standard data formats, the rendering
function is called immediately.
Last updated 4/22/2013
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