These are the classes Adobe’s ActionScript 2.0 reference lists. Most are built into
Flash Player and declared to the compiler by intrinsic class files; a class is there only
if the player running the movie has it, so the player column matters as much as the
class. The mx classes at the end are different: they are ActionScript 2.0
source that ships with Flash and is compiled into each movie that uses it.
Core classes
| Class | Is | Player |
|---|---|---|
Object | The root of all classes; addProperty, watch, hasOwnProperty, registerClass and the rest. | 5 |
Function | Every function and class; call and apply. | 6 |
arguments | The arguments of the running function. | 5 |
Array | Ordered lists, with sort, sortOn and their options. | 5 |
String, Number, Boolean | The primitive types and their wrapper objects. | 5 |
Math | Mathematical functions and constants. | 5 |
Date | Dates and times, local and UTC. | 5 |
Error | The base class for thrown errors, with name and message. | 7 |
AsBroadcaster | Adds listener lists to any object. | 6 |
Display and interaction
| Class | Is | Player |
|---|---|---|
MovieClip | Movie clips and timelines; see Movie clips. | 5 |
MovieClipLoader | Loads SWF and image files into clips with progress events. | 7 |
Button | Button symbol instances. | 6 |
Stage | The display area: size, scale mode, alignment, resize events. | 6 |
Color | Colour changes for a movie clip; deprecated in Flash Player 8 for flash.geom.ColorTransform. | 5 |
Key | The keyboard: key states, codes and listeners. | 5 |
Mouse | The pointer: hiding, showing and listeners. | 5 |
Selection | Keyboard focus and text selection. | 5 |
ContextMenu, ContextMenuItem | The right-click menu of the movie or of a clip, button or text field, and its custom items. | 7 |
PrintJob | Prints clips as pages, with the system print dialogue. | 7 |
Accessibility | Talks to screen readers. | 6 |
Text
| Class | Is | Player |
|---|---|---|
TextField | Dynamic and input text fields. | 6 |
TextFormat | Character and paragraph formatting. | 6 |
TextField.StyleSheet | CSS style sheets for HTML text fields. | 7 |
TextSnapshot | Searches and selects the static text in a movie clip. | 7 |
System.IME | The operating system’s input method editor, for Asian text input. | 8 |
Sound and video
| Class | Is | Player |
|---|---|---|
Sound | Plays library sounds and MP3 files, with volume, pan and ID3 tags. | 5 |
Video | A video object on the stage. | 6 |
NetConnection | A connection to Flash Communication Server, or from player 7 a null connection for playing FLV files over HTTP. | 6 |
NetStream | A stream of audio and video, for playing and publishing. | 6 |
Camera, Microphone | Capture from the user’s camera and microphone. | 6 |
Data and networking
| Class | Is | Player |
|---|---|---|
XML, XMLNode | XML documents and their nodes: load, parse, build, send. | 5 |
XMLSocket | A lasting TCP connection to a server. | 5 |
LoadVars | Loads and sends URL-encoded variables. | 6 |
LocalConnection | Calls between movies on one computer. | 6 |
SharedObject | Data kept between visits, or shared through a server. | 6 |
System and player
| Class | Is | Player |
|---|---|---|
System | Code page use, the settings panel, the clipboard and the objects below. | 6 |
System.capabilities | What the player and computer can do. | 6 |
System.security | Cross-domain permissions and policy files. | 6 |
The flash packages (Flash Player 8)
Flash 8 put the player’s new classes in packages, imported like any other:
import flash.filters.DropShadowFilter;.
| Class | Is |
|---|---|
flash.display.BitmapData | A bitmap made and changed by code: pixels, drawing a clip into it, copying, noise, thresholds and filters. |
flash.filters.BitmapFilter | The base class of the filters. |
flash.filters.BevelFilter, BlurFilter, DropShadowFilter, GlowFilter, GradientBevelFilter, GradientGlowFilter | Visual effects for clips, buttons and text fields. |
flash.filters.ColorMatrixFilter | A 4 by 5 matrix applied to every pixel’s colour and alpha. |
flash.filters.ConvolutionFilter | A matrix convolution, for sharpening, embossing and edges. |
flash.filters.DisplacementMapFilter | Moves pixels by the values of a BitmapData. |
flash.geom.Point, Rectangle | Points and rectangles. |
flash.geom.Matrix | A 2D transformation matrix. |
flash.geom.ColorTransform | Colour multipliers and offsets, replacing Color. |
flash.geom.Transform | A clip’s matrix, colour transform and bounds together. |
flash.external.ExternalInterface | Calls between ActionScript and JavaScript in the page, or the program hosting the player. |
flash.net.FileReference, FileReferenceList | Uploading and downloading files chosen by the user. |
flash.text.TextRenderer | Settings for the advanced anti-aliasing of embedded fonts. |
Classes shipped as source
These are ordinary ActionScript 2.0 class files in Flash’s Classes folder, compiled into the SWF of any movie that uses them:
| Class | Is |
|---|---|
mx.utils.Delegate | Binds a method to an object for use as a handler. |
mx.events.EventDispatcher | Event listeners and dispatching for components and other classes. |
mx.transitions.Tween and mx.transitions.easing.* | Animates a property over time with easing functions. |
mx.lang.Locale | Shows text in several languages from XML files made with Flash’s Strings panel. |
mx.controls.*, mx.containers.* and others | The version 2 user interface components: Button, CheckBox, ComboBox, List, DataGrid, Window and the rest. |