RE: FLASH: Flash 4

[Eric Smollin]

Erik wrote:

>It's in beta right now and no one can talk about it.


Original message:

>Anybody have any info on flash 4 or know where to find info.  I looked on

>macromedias site and saw nothing but I have heard people talking about it.



You are correct that it is in beta right now, but folks are definitely

talking about it. The following was posted on the Flashpad yesterday. I

don't know how valid the info is, the author said that it was taken from

"one of Macromedia's chat forums." It sure makes for interesting reading:

:-) 



"Interactivity


Many of the set/get propery features (i.e. rotate, scale, visible, pos,

alpha, last frame loaded, current frame, total frames).

Compiler for some of the actions (test by creating movies with

interactivity)

If, else, loop (Actions compiler)

Duplicate Sprite, Remove Sprite

Load Sprite (i.e. load movie by providing a target name)



Forms/ActionScripting


Editable Text


Text field support in Text Tool.

Text field modifier added to Text Tool.

Text fields are displayed surrounded by a dotted rectangle if borderless;

surrounded by a black rectangle if border is activated.

Properties dialog box accessible by "Properties" off right-mouse button menu

or "Modify/Text Field" from pull-down menu.

Text fields are exported as regular text for Flash 1, 2, or 3. A warning

will be displayed if attempted.


Actions Property Page


Frame Properties and Instance Properties dialogs enlarged to make

viewing actions property page easier.

New actions added to + popup: If, Loop, Call, Set Variable, Set Property,

Drag Movie Clip, Duplicate Movie Clip, Trace, Comment, QuickTime.

Expression icon buttons added to parameters for many actions; invokes

expression editor when clicked. Flips between expression/literal when

shift-clicked. Some actions, like If, Loop and GoTo, don't let you change

the setting of the icon button; they are always "stuck" in expression mode

but the button is provided to invoke the editor.

Go To action has "Use Expression" check box which gets rid of usual Go To

settings and displays an edit field for an Expression. This UI (user

interface) might be changed in the near future to look more like the other

new actions.


Cut/Copy/Paste and Drag and Drop

This stuff currently available only on Windows. Will be available on Mac in

future build.

Actions may now be multiple-selected.

Cut/Copy/Paste available in actions list box off right-mouse button menu, or

by hitting accelerator keys Ctrl-X Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V.

Actions that are cut/copied can be pasted as plain text into other apps.

Drag and drop of actions. Single/multiple actions may be dragged to another

point in the action list and dropped. Dropped actions are inserted

immediately after the drop target.

Drag and Drop and Cut/Copy/Paste is disabled when it doesn't "make sense",

for example trying to cut an If action but not its matching End If.

On Mouse Event action now has new checkbox for "Key Press" and edit box you

can type a key into. Keys allowed are all ASCII characters except Control

charactes, in addition to: <Left>, <Right>, <Home>, <End>, <Insert>,

<Delete>, <Backspace>, <Enter>, <Up>, <Down>, <PgUp>, <PgDn>, <Tab>,

<Escape>

List Variables added to Control menu in Test Movie mode. This lists all

variables in every movie clip in the currenty playing movie. Omit Trace

Actions check box added to Export Movie dialog box. Trace actions send

output to the Output Window in the authoring tool. They have no effect in

the Player. New Flash 4 actions will produce a warning if a movie containing

them is exported to Flash 1, 2, 3.



Interactivity in the Flash Player


Editable text fields.

Standalone Mac and Windows players can download URLs "Open..." dialog on

Windows brings up URL entry box, with "Browse" button to invoke file browse

dialog. Modeled after IE4. "Open Location..." and "Open File..." menu items

on Mac; "Open File..." browses for local file, "Open Location..." brings up

URL entry box.

Modeled after IE4.5/Mac.

New JRI and COM methods for variables, properties and calls Tab/Shift-Tab,

arrow keys navigate between buttons, Enter/Space triggers buttons. When

keyboard is used to navigate between buttons, a yellow rectangle is

displayed around the currently focused button. Support for

keyboard-activated buttons.


Fixed double-click bug on Windows. We didn't handle WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK

messages, so repeated clicks on buttons would be lost. Now every click on a

button will be properly handled.


Flash Player now supports variables passed in on the movie's URL.

For example: movie.swf&name=Gary will put a variable "name" containing value

"Gary" in the movie.


HTTP GET/POST methods supported by LoadMovie and GetURL actions for

HTML-style form support. Variables in the movie clip issuing the LoadMovie

or GetURL can be passed to the HTTP server.


New Flash 4 actions are handled."





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