Introduction

Welcome to ActionScript. Over the next several chapters, you’ll be introduced to one of the most versatile programming languages to create web applications for the browser, desktop applications, and mobile apps for multiple platforms. For years the Flash Platform has provided people with the most powerful set of technologies to creatively express themselves across multiple screens and platforms with its combination of the Flash Player and AIR runtimes, tools like Flash Professional CS5.5 and Flash Builder 4.5, and languages and frameworks like ActionScript 3.0 and Flex 4.5.

Over the last several years, I have taught people how to make their projects interactive and how to captivate and engage users. During that time at San Francisco State University, my series on Adobe TV, and conference appearances, I have appreciated the difficulty of learning scripting and coding. Learning programming is a steep task, and there are many ways to teach it. What I have found is that combining programming basics, simple examples, problem solving, and real-world projects has been very effective, and it is what you have in your hands (or on your screen) now.

Who This Book Is For

This book is crafted for people who are familiar with Flash Professional, the animation and interactive design tool from Adobe Systems that is part of Creative Suite. The lessons and projects here assume that you have a basic understanding of the Flash Professional product. This book is designed for people who are new to coding or are struggling with the migration from ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0. Here are some examples of what you should know and be able to do before attempting to start with this book:

• Import graphical assets from Creative Suite design tools

• Create timeline animations using tweens using keyframes

• Create symbols using the Library panel

• Organize and rename timelines in the Timeline panel and symbols in the Library panel

• Publish and build animations for the web browser

With these basic skills, you can create very interesting web animations; however, without ActionScript, the animations lacked any interaction with the user, and there is no way to bring them to other platforms including mobile devices. That is exactly what this book will teach you—how to make these projects interactive and take them further.

The latest edition, Flash Professional CS5.5, has added a significant number of new features to support mobile app creation that are covered at the end of the book.

Who This Book Is Not For

If you are already an intermediate or advanced coder, this book may be too basic for your needs. There are a significant number of books that focus on advanced ActionScript 3.0 concepts, including the adoption of best practices and code design patterns that will make you a better and more proficient coder.

In addition, if you have never worked with Flash Professional, I recommend you learn how to use the basic product before tackling the contents here. There are excellent books available to help you learn how to get started with Flash Professional to create animations and how to master design workflows when working with Creative Suite design applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks.

How You Will Learn

This book has a specific methodology for how the concepts are introduced. First are the fundamentals of how to interact and work with objects that are on the Stage. The examples that are in the book are simple—and this is intentional, to help you understand how ActionScript works without getting into the weeds of your project’s design or assets. You can adapt and expand these simple examples for your own projects.

After you gather a sizable amount of new ActionScript know-how, it is time to put it to work. There are three major projects in the book that pose real-world situations for you to solve using the skills you have learned. The projects present you with a programming challenge and ask you to solve it. You can compare your finished projects with the examples in the book to discover how your approach matches or differs.

What You Will Learn

This book is divided into five major parts.

Part 1: Getting the Fundamentals

You’ll learn general ActionScript concepts that you can use to make ActionScript interact with objects on the Stage and in the Library of your project. You’ll build on this, understanding how to flow your code through reusable modules called functions, and then how to respond to user interaction with event handlers.

Part 2: Exploring the Basics of Classes

You’ll jump into the basics of what is called object-oriented programming (OOP), which is what separates the coders from the scripters. Through OOP you can unlock a lot of flexibility in how you create projects, learning how to make reusable objects and containers that can extend the sophistication of your projects.

Part 3: Responding to Conditionals and Working with Logic

Adapting your project based on certain conditions then is the focus of the next section, where through the use of conditionals, your project can adapt to different interactions from the user or even to random events to begin introducing gaming concepts to your project.

Part 4: Getting Creative with ActionScript

Although ActionScript is a programming language, it has its creative side. This is covered in the fourth section, where you will learn how to draw, animate, and work with external assets in your projects.

Part 5: Creating Multi-Screen Projects

After you have mastered all the previous topics, it is time to take your projects out of the browser and take advantage of the Flash Platform to create desktop applications for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems and mobile apps for the popular Android and iOS platforms.

You’ll cover a lot, but at the end, you’ll have a solid foundation on how ActionScript works and the power that you have at your fingertips to express yourself across screens and platforms.

So let’s get started!