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ActionScript Technology Center

ActionScript 3 guides, tutorials, and samples

ActionScript 3 expands the functionality of the ActionScript 2 language and makes programming significantly easier than in previous versions. By repackaging commonly used classes and objects as easily accessible APIs, ActionScript 3 provides faster, more direct access to the functionality you need for your applications. Regular expressions and E4X support make working with XML much quicker and more natural.

Reference guides for ActionScript 3

• Learning ActionScript 3
• ActionScript 3 Developer's Guide
• Using ActionScript 3 Components
• Flex 3 Developer's Guide
• Building Adobe AIR Applications

Programming resources

• ActionScript 3 overview
• Tips for learning ActionScript 3
• Adobe Flash Platform ActionScript reference for RIA development
• Learning ActionScript 3 excerpts: OOP overview, display list, and programmatic motion
• Essential ActionScript 3 excerpt: Display and interactivity
• ActionScript 3 Cookbook excerpts: From custom classes to the rendering model
• Introduction to event handling in ActionScript 3
• Understanding the changes in the display API in ActionScript 3
• Tips for tuning ActionScript 3 performance for Flex and Flash developers

Adobe Flash CS5 / CS4 / CS3 Professional

• Creating animation in ActionScript 3
• Code snippets for beginning ActionScript 3 programmers and designers
• Blitting and caching movie clips in Flash
• Video: ActionScript 3 performance testing
• Video: Preloading in ActionScript 3
• The flash.globalization package in Flash Player: Cultural diversity without complexity
• Loading and saving local files with the FileReference class
• Programming with the Vector class
• Video: Learning ActionScript one-on-one
• Video: Colin Moock's "Lost ActionScript Weekend" series
• Approaching ActionScript from a designer's perspective
• Understanding ActionScript 3 debugging in Flash
• Loading images and Library assets in Flash
• Animation Learning Guide for Flash: Using ActionScript 3
• Six reasons to use ActionScript 3
• Object-oriented programming with ActionScript 3
• Creating animation in ActionScript 3
• Using timeline labels to dispatch events with the ActionScript 3 TimelineWatcher class
• ActionScript 3 Quick Reference Guide excerpts: Copy motion, display list, events, and migration
• Creating liquid GUIs with Flash and ActionScript 3
• Using ActionScript to pause and loop the timeline in Flash
• Unit testing with mock objects in ActionScript 3
• Using ActionScript 3 to retrieve MySQL data using a server-side ASP script
• Handling cue points for audio files in ActionScript 2 and ActionScript 3
• ActionScript 3 Design Patterns excerpt: Factory method and MVC
• Essential ActionScript 3 excerpt: Display and interactivity
• Filtering XML data in Flash applications using ECMAScript for XML

Samples

• ActionScript 3 samples for Flash
• ActionScript 3 debugging in Flash
• Creating your first ActionScript 3 class
• Deconstructing the ActionScript 3 Flash video gallery application
• Creating a preloader
• Puzzle Game sample application migrated from ActionScript 2 to ActionScript 3
• Formatting text for localized Flash projects using CSS, HTML, and ActionScript
• Creating the Kuler panel for Flash
• Saving Flash graphics as image files at runtime
• Creating movie clips with reflections in ActionScript 3

Adobe Flex

• Rendering game assets in ActionScript using blitting techniques and Flash Builder 4
• The flash.globalization package in Flash Player: Cultural diversity without complexity
• Programmers adopt Flex and migrate to ActionScript 3 (Edge newsletter)
• ActionScript for Java developers – Part 1 (JavaWorld)
• ActionScript for Java developers – Part 2 (JavaWorld)
• Tips for tuning ActionScript 3 performance for Flex and Flash developers
• Unit testing with mock objects in ActionScript 3
• Unit testing and test-driven development for Flex and ActionScript 3
• Handling cue points for audio files in ActionScript 2 and ActionScript 3
• ActionScript 3 Design Patterns excerpt: Factory method and MVC
• ActionScript collections and functional programming
• Dependency injection with Flex

Samples

• ActionScript 3 examples for Flex
• Building an image-viewing widget with ActionScript 3

Adobe Flash Media Server

• Beginner's guide to using ActionScript 3 with Flash Media Server 3.5
• Creating a video player using the state design pattern and ActionScript 3

Engineering documents

Get involved in this open-source project, hosted by the Mozilla Foundation, that uses code powering the ActionScript Virtual Machine. To see where ActionScript 3 is heading, check out the public wiki for the ECMAScript 4 committee.