How to print jobs in as2

In AS2, the PrintJob class allows you to pick parts of the screen, or particular movieclips, or frames of a movie clip to send to the printer.

You can make changes to the appearance of a movie clip, send it to the printer, and then change it back.

var pj:PrintJob = new PrintJob();
pj.start(); //now you can find out the orientation of the page setup, or the width of the printable area etc.
pj.addPage(_root);
pj.send();


The addPage function has four parameters:

The first lets you say which movie clip you want to print.
The second lets you pick a particular area of the movie clip.
The third lets you render bitmap pictures more accurately.
The fourth lets you pick a frame of the movie clip to print, so you could print frame 2 of the root timeline while still on frame 1.

For more info, see http://docs.brajeshwar.com/as2/PrintJob.html

How to alter text files on your hard drive with as3

This uses the FileReference class, and shows how to access a text file, and save a text file.
To access the text file:

var fr:FileReference = new FileReference(); //if this is created within a function, it won't work
//because it really only exists within that function

function lFile(evnt:MouseEvent):void {//this function has to be initiated by the user

fr.addEventListener(Event.SELECT, seld); //the method that will be called when the user selects a file.
fr.browse(); //this opens up the dialog box


}


function seld(evnt:Event):void {


fr.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, compd);
fr.load(); //makes the file available to the swf

}


function compd(evnt:Event):void {


outpt.text = String(fr.data);


}


The uploading of a file has to be initiated by the user, e.g. by clicking a button.



To save some text to a file:

var fr2:FileReference = new FileReference();


function sFile(evnt:MouseEvent):void {//again, this has to be called by the user

fr2.save(outpt.text, 'textfile.txt');//second parameter is optional

}

One odd thing I noticed with this, by specifying what I wanted the text file to be called, if I accepted that name in the saveas dialog box, then it was fine, even though the '.txt' was not shown in the dialog box. If, however I changed the name to something else, then I had to add the '.txt' myself, or it wouldn't know what kind of file it was supposed to be. (So if I go to Windows Explorer, it doesn't have the right icon, and when I try to open it from there, I get asked what program should be used.)

How to get the REAL date into Flash

Flash has a Date object, that can give you the date and time, but it gives you the date and time that is on the users computer.

e.g.
var dt:Date = new Date();
trace(dt);

This will trace out whatever time the user's computer is set to, whether it is 5mins slow, or 10 years fast.

If this date/time is being used for some kind of authentication i.e. to see if the deadline is past, then you should load the time from the server.

var ld:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
ld.onLoad = function(succ:Boolean) {
        dt_txt.text = this.servertime;
}
ld.sendAndLoad('servertime.php',ld,'POST');

On the servertime.php file:


$today = date('YmdHis');
echo "&servertime=$today";
?>

(Sometimes I have issues with the data being echoed out, try removing the ampersand from the front, or not.)

The reason why I use the date('YmdHis') is because it gives you a number that is perfect for sorting, and a recognised datetime stamp for mysql, if you ever need it.

4.30pm (and 22 seconds), 5/11/2012   =    20121105163022

If you need to sort the dates, you can do a numeric sort. If you want to check if something happened before Jun 2012, you look to see if the number is smaller than 20120600000000, and so on.

How to make a div scrollable

<style type="text/css">
div.scroller
{
       overflow: scroll;
       width:300px;
       height:500px;
}
</style>
...
<div id="scroller"></div>

The scroller property is controlled via css. You won't see the scroll bars unless their is a width and height to your div.

How to use javascript to change an element's attributes

document.getElementById('id').setAttribute("style","position:absolute;left:10px");

This method is useful if you have a lot of properties to add, but it can overwrite the other style attributes that you may have already set.

An alternative method is:

document.getElementById('id').style.width = "500px";

Javascript: Rewrite element content

How to change the content of an element...?

In the head tag:

<script type="text/javascript">
function giveWidth(e) {
 document.getElementById('wid').innerHTML = window.innerWidth;
}
</script>

In the body tag:

<p>Window width <a href="" onclick="giveWidth(event);return false">is</a> <span id="wid">500</span> pixels.<p>

The return false makes sure that the browser doesn't try to open a new window when you click on the link.