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ActionScript Technology Center

ActionScript is the programming language of the Flash Player runtime. Originally developed as a way for Flash developers to program interactivity, ActionScript enables efficient programming of Flash applications for everything from simple animations to complex, data-rich, interactive application interfaces.

ActionScript 3.0, introduced in Flash Player 9, is based on ECMAScript—the same standard that is the basis for JavaScript—and provides incredible gains in runtime performance and developer productivity.

New to ActionScript 3.0? Fresh from the ActionScript team and community, these new articles and videos show you how to begin with ActionScript 3.0:

ActionScript 2.0, the version of ActionScript used in Flash Player 8 and earlier, added language constructs and features to enable developers to build large-scale, object-oriented Flash applications and content. ActionScript 2.0 continues to be supported in Flash Player 9. See ActionScript 2.0 resources below.

Get started with ActionScript 3.0

Programming ActionScript 3.0 in the Flash CS3 LiveDocs is a great place to start if you're completely new to ActionScript. Make sure to use the navigational tools in the upper lefthand corner to move through all of the contents and expand the table of contents:

LiveDocs nav buttons

The Getting Started with ActionScript section in the Flash CS3 LiveDocs provides a summary of programming fundamentals, explains how to work with objects, and provides two beginner examples to get you up and running.

Subsequent sections provide a "Basics of..." overview and walk you through plenty of examples, so you'll be creating Flash applications as you learn. If you're new to ActionScript 3.0, make sure to read the following sections: Introduction, Getting started, Display, Events, MovieClip, and Language and syntax.

Notes from the ActionScript 3.0 from the Ground Up Tour

Colin Moock

Download the notes handed out at Colin Moock's international ActionScript 3.0 tour covering the fundamental skills needed to program for Flash Player and Adobe AIR.


Flash

Flash Developer Center

Find new and updated articles, samples, and Flash CS3 Quick Starts, mini-examples that explain features and show how to use them—for example: Event handling, Display list programming, Creating a simple ActionScript 3.0 class, and Animating with ActionScript in Flash.

Flex

Flex Developer Center

If you're interested in how ActionScript 3.0 works with the Flex framework, the Flex Developer Center also provides articles, overviews, tutorials, and Flex Quick Starts.

Flash samples

New Flash ActionScript 3.0 samples

Adobe (Mar. 31, 2008)
Learn about Flash by doing: These updated samples demonstrate features common in Flash development.

Video Workshop

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Video Workshop

Learn from dozens of videos geared toward Flash CS3 designers, including tutorials on getting started with ActionScript 3.0 and writing ActionScript for components.

Trevor McCauley

Introduction to event handling in ActionScript 3.0

Interactivity, the core of any Flash application, is handled through events. Trevor McCauley shows you how to use the EventDispatcher class to track mouse interactions and more.

ActionScript blogs

ActionScript blogs

Read what people are saying about ActionScript in developer blogs.

Migrate to ActionScript 3.0

Drill down into ActionScript 3.0

ActionScript 3.0 expands the functionality of the language and makes programming significantly easier than in previous versions. By repackaging commonly used classes and objects as easily accessible APIs, ActionScript 3.0 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.

Explore the following ActionScript 3.0 additional resources:

Overviews

Adobe technology platform ActionScript reference for RIA development

Use this guide both as an API reference and a tool to learn about the ActionScript APIs available within Adobe AIR, Flash Player, and the Flex framework.

ActionScript 3.0 overview

Learn how advances in this powerful, object-oriented programming language signify an important step in the evolution of the capabilities of the Flash Player runtime.

Building an image-viewing widget with ActionScript 3.0

Migrate an image viewer app from ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0 to explore the new capabilities of ActionScript 3.0.

Tips for learning ActionScript 3.0

Get a head start on ActionScript 3.0 with these tips and common issues you might encounter during development.

Essential ActionScript 3.0 excerpt: Display and interactivity

Download two complete chapters from this updated reference by Colin Moock to learn about the core of the ActionScript 3.0 language, as well as the new Flash Player API.

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook excerpts: From custom classes to the rendering model

Download five complete chapters from this coding how-to book from O'Reilly Media to get the most out of this new programming language.

Understanding the changes in the display API in ActionScript 3.0

Take this guided tour through two code samples to learn how the display API differs from ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0.


Flex 2

Handling cue points for audio files in ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0

David Stiller (Dec. 3, 2007)
Create a custom Sound class that makes it easy to use cue points for internal sound assets or external MP3s in Flash or Flex apps. (Updated for CS3)

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns excerpt: Factory method and MVC

Download two complete chapters from this hands-on introduction by William B. Sanders and Chadima Cumaranatunge to learn how reusable design patterns solve common problems in Flash and Flex applications.

Profile: Programmers adopt Flex and migrate to ActionScript 3.0

Phil Brock (Jul 30)
Learn how introNetworks implemented its desired architecture and application features with Flex to build applications that look, feel, and perform like desktop applications.

Unit testing and Test Driven Development (TDD) for Flex and ActionScript 3.0

Learn about using FlexUnit to code your Flex apps more efficiently.

Tips for tuning ActionScript 3.0 performance for Flex and Flash developers

Learn about the Flash Player architecture and AVM2, and improve performance through typing and data binding in your Flex and Flash application development.

In LiveDocs: Programming ActionScript 3.0

Build a foundation for developing Flex applications in ActionScript 3.0 by learning about specific usage of the language and core Flash Player API.

ActionScript 3.0 examples

Adobe Labs provides (beta quality) utilities to help you build Flex applications:

Creating liquid GUIs with Flash and ActionScript 3.0

James O'Reilly (Updated Apr. 21, 2008)
Build dynamic RIA user interfaces that size themselves intelligently to the screen's dimensions.


Flash CS3 Professional

New Flash ActionScript 3.0 samples

Adobe (Mar. 31, 2008)
Learn about Flash by doing: These updated samples demonstrate features common in Flash development.

ActionScript 3.0 for developers and designers – Part 1: Creating a preloader

Build a simple, multipurpose preloader in Flash CS3 that both designers and developers can easily reuse and reskin.

Creating ActionScript 3.0 components in Flash

Jeff Kamerer (Sept. 28, 2007)
Get an overview of Flash components, including how they are structured and how they can be deployed to the Components panel.

Creating the kuler panel for Flash CS3 Professional

Ben Pritchard (Aug. 13, 2007)
Examine how this panel, based on the online color theme-sharing tool, is constructed; and learn how the panel uses kuler APIs to extend the Flash authoring environment.

Object-oriented programming with ActionScript 3.0

Learn about the concept of classes and how ActionScript 3.0 helps you write more portable, reusable code for your web applications.

Formatting text for localized Flash projects using CSS, HTML, and ActionScript

Dan Carr (June 18, 2007)
Learn how to create Flash applications that display multiple languages using ActionScript and text formatting techniques.

Creating liquid GUIs with Flash and ActionScript 3.0

James O'Reilly (Updated Apr. 21, 2008)
Build dynamic RIA user interfaces that size themselves intelligently to the screen's dimensions.

Handling cue points for audio files in ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0

David Stiller (Dec. 3, 2007)
Create a custom Sound class that makes it easy to use cue points for internal sound assets or external MP3s in Flash or Flex apps. (Updated for CS3)

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns excerpt: Factory method and MVC

Download two complete chapters from this hands-on introduction by William B. Sanders and Chadima Cumaranatunge to learn how reusable design patterns solve common problems in Flash and Flex applications.

Essential ActionScript 3.0 excerpt: Display and interactivity

Download two complete chapters from this updated reference by Colin Moock to learn about the core of the ActionScript 3.0 language, as well as the new Flash Player API.

Creating movie clips with reflections in ActionScript 3.0

Ben Pritchard (July 23, 2007)
Apply reflections to movie clips in your Flash projects and modify them using a custom ActionScript 3.0 class.

Filtering XML data in Flash applications using ECMAScript for XML

Andrew Muller (July 2, 2007)
Build an application that utilizes E4X to parse and display multilingual captions from an XML source for a video.

Adobe Developer Week Recordings

Learn about the latest Adobe technologies, including a discussion of ActionScript 3 for Flash developers by Emmy Huang, product manager, and Gary Grossman, principal scientist.


Flash Media Server 2

Creating a video player using the state design pattern and ActionScript 3.0

William B. Sanders (May 23, 2007)
Learn about design patterns from this simple state machine that starts and stops a video, and then adapt it to run on Flash Media Server 2 by adding more states and player controls. (Updated for CS3)

Engineering documents

Tamarin project (Mozilla Foundation)

Get involved in this new open source project, hosted by the Mozilla Foundation, that uses code powering the ActionScript Virtual Machine.

What Tamarin means to developers

By partnering on the Tamarin open source project, Adobe and Mozilla hope to accelerate the adoption of a standard language for creating rich and engaging web applications.

ECMAScript 4 Committee Wiki

To see where ActionScript 3.0 is heading, check out the public wiki for the ECMAScript 4 committee.

In LiveDocs: Flex 2.0.1 language reference

Check out the general language reference for MXML and ActionScript 3.0 for Flex 2.0.1.

In LiveDocs: ActionScript 3.0 language specification

This document defines the ActionScript 3.0 language, including the complete syntax and high-level semantics of the language.

In Labs: ActionScript 3.0 libraries

Use this set of free and open ActionScript 3.0 APIs to get started building Flex 2.0 applications.

Adobe ActionScript Virtual Machine 2 (AVM2) Overview (PDF, 400K)

The AVM2 Overview describes the instructions, associated data structures, and file format supported by the AVM2.


Community sites

Check out these websites—many of them maintained by the developer community—to learn how people learn and work with Flash, Flex, and ActionScript in the real world:

ActionScript 2.0 resources

ActionScript 2.0 is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language that includes full support for classes, inheritance, interfaces, and other common OOP concepts. It features variable data typing, function parameters and return types, and comprehensive debugging information.

Flash Professional 8 / Flash CS3 Professional

Flex

Flash Lite

Flash Media Server 2



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