ACTIONSCRIPT 3 Developer’s Guide en

ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0 DEVELOPER’S GUIDE
Using the external API
ActionScript
class/value
Array (elements can be
mixed types)
A collection that allows
mixed-type elements,
such as ArrayList or
object[]
Object A dictionary with string
keys and object values,
such as a HashTable with
string keys
Other built-in or custom
classes
C# class/value Format Comments
Note: By way of example, this table shows equivalent C# classes in addition to ActionScript classes; however, the external
API can be used to communicate with any programming language or run time that supports ActiveX controls, and is not
limited to C# applications.
When you are building your own applications using the external API with an ActiveX container application, you’ll
probably find it convenient to write a proxy that will perform the task of converting native function calls to the
serialized XML format. For an example of a proxy class written in C#, see Inside the ExternalInterfaceProxy class.
External API example: Communicating between
ActionScript and JavaScript in a web browser
Flash Player 9 and later, Adobe AIR 1.0 and later
This sample application demonstrates appropriate techniques for communicating between ActionScript and
JavaScript in a web browser, in the context of an Instant Messaging application that allows a person to chat with him
or herself (hence the name of the application: Introvert IM). Messages are sent between an HTML form in the web
page and a SWF interface using the external API. The techniques demonstrated by this example include the following:
Properly initiating communication by verifying that the browser is ready to communicate before setting up
communication
Checking whether the container supports the external API
27.5
Hello there!
...
John Doe
33
...
or
Calling JavaScript functions from ActionScript, passing parameters, and receiving values in response
Making ActionScript methods available to be called by JavaScript, and performing those calls
To get the application files for this sample, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_programmingAS3samples_flash. The
Introvert IM application files can be found in the Samples/IntrovertIM_HTML folder. The application consists of the
following files:
Last updated 6/6/2012
The property node
defines individual
elements, and the id
attribute is the
numeric, zero-based
index.
The property node
defines individual
properties, and the
id attribute is the
property name (a
string).
ActionScript encodes
other objects as null
or as an empty object.
In either case any
property values are
lost.
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