Cannot access ActionScript 3 Sprite.graphics.x methods

Question

I have this code:

package graphics {
 import flash.display.Sprite;
 import flash.events.*;

 public class Ball extends Sprite {
  public function Ball(_stage){
   _stage.addChild(this);
   drawBall();
  }
  private function drawBall(){
   graphics.beginFill(0x0000CC);
   graphics.lineStyle(2,0x000000,1);
   graphics.drawCircle(0,0,10);
   graphics.endFill();
  }
 }
}

ADDED:
and the class that I pass to mxmlc:

package {
 import flash.display.Sprite;
 import graphics.*;

 [SWF(width='1024', height='768', backgroundColor='#FFFFFF', frameRate='30')]

 public class Application extends Sprite {
  public function Application(){
   var ball:Ball = new Ball(this);
  }
 }
}

Except that when I compile, I get the following error:

ball.as(11): col: 14 Error: Call to a possibly undefined method beginFill.

            graphics.beginFill(0x0000CC);
                     ^

Along with the other three graphics.x() calls.

I am probably doing something wrong here, but I do not know what. Do you?

Answer 1

I am afraid the problem must be elsewhere in your code. If I take your class and clean it up so it compiles like so:

package
{
import flash.display.Sprite;

public class Ball extends Sprite 
{
    public function Ball()
    {
        drawBall();
    }

    private function drawBall():void
    {
        graphics.beginFill(0x0000CC);
        graphics.lineStyle(2,0x000000,1);
        graphics.drawCircle(0,0,10);
        graphics.endFill();
    }
}
}

---

    $ mxmlc Ball.as 
    Loading configuration file [...]/flex-config.xml
    /private/tmp/actionscript/Ball.swf (666 bytes)

It draws a blue ball in the top left corner of the screen. So your problem with graphics must be related to code which you have not shown here.

---

Edit: Based on the new information:

Your namespace graphics for the class Ball conflicts with the property name graphics. You need to rename the package and the directory it lives in.

Answer 2

Your class can not add itself to the stage. It has no reference to the stage until it has been added to the display list. Your application class needs to both create the ball and add it to the stage. Also, it's just stage, not _stage.

Answer 3

Just use this.graphics.method to avoid confusions created by your package name.

Edit - after comment.

After some messing around, it seems that though this.graphics traces as a correct Graphics object as expected, the this.graphics.method is looked in the Ball class. Don't know what messes this up like this, but it can be solved with a simple casting.

package graphics {
    import flash.display.Graphics;
        import flash.display.Sprite;
        import flash.events.*;

        public class Ball extends Sprite {
                public function Ball(_stage) {
                        _stage.addChild(this);
                        drawBall();
                }
                private function drawBall() {
             var g:Graphics = this.graphics as Graphics;
                        g.beginFill(0x0000CC);
                        g.lineStyle(2,0x000000,1);
                        g.drawCircle(0,0,10);
                        g.endFill();
                }
        }
}

Good luck