Creating an instance of the Button component using ActionScript 3.0 in Flash

The following example creates a new instance of the Button component dynamically and adds it to the display list. You must first drag a copy of the component from the Component’s panel into the library.

Full code after the jump.

// ActionScript 3.0
import fl.controls.Button;
 
var myButton:Button = new Button();
addChild(myButton);

To dynamically create a new instance of the Button class using ActionScript, you first need to drag a copy of the component from the Components panel into your current Flash document’s library. Next, you need to import the fl.controls.Button class using the import statement. This step is required since the component files are not implicitly imported, like the flash.* packages. Once the Button class has been imported into your current document, you can create a new Button instance using the new operator. Finally, the new instance can be added to the display list using the addChild() method.

To see exactly which classes get imported automatically, check out the following locations for Flash CS3 and Flash CS4:

• Flash CS3: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS3\en\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\implicitImports.xml
• Flash CS4: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\implicitImports.xml

For more information on the implicitImports.xml file, see “Determining which classes are automatically imported in Flash CS3 and Flash CS4.

For more information on the Flash/ActionScript 3.0 Button component, see the “Using the Button component” Flash Quick Start on Adobe.com.