How to pass a reference of a movieClip made in one class to another?

Question

Hello friendly Flashers...

I have a movieClip with a button that I created inside of my display class Thumbnail.as and I have a button function that interacts with it inside of my ui class ThumbnailController.as.

The current problem I'm having is that; in my ui class I can't target the movieClip playGlow which was created inside of my display class.

Code that creates the playGlow button inside my display class (Thumbnail.as)

public function playBtns():void  {
playThumb = new PlayThumb;
playThumb.x = 642;
playThumb.y = 22;
playThumb.alpha = 1;

playGlow = new PlayGlow;
playGlow.x = 628;
playGlow.y = 8;
playGlow.alpha = 1;
}

public function buildRow ():void{
     thumbNailRow.addChild(thumbLoader);
     thumbNailRow.addChild(thumbTitle);
     thumbNailRow.addChild(thumbText);
     thumbNailRow.addChild(playGlow);
     thumbNailRow.addChild(playThumb);

playThumb.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, rowRollOver);

addChild(thumbNailRow);
}

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Now the code inside of my ui class (ThumbnailController.as)

public function rowRollOver(e:MouseEvent):void
{
     dispatchEvent(new Event(Event.CHANGE, true ));

     TweenPlugin.activate([TintPlugin]);
     TweenLite.to(playGlow, .4, {alpha:.5, tint:0x99cc00});

 }

This is the problem line: TweenLite.to(playGlow, .4, {alpha:.5, tint:0x99cc00});

It will only work when like this: TweenLite.to(this, .4, {alpha:.5, tint:0x99cc00});

But if I use this, the entire thumbNailRow movieClip will tint, I just want to tint the playGlow movieClip which is inside of thumbNailRow, but I don't know how to target that specifically. I get the 1120: Access of undefined property playGlow otherwise.

---

How can I pass the instance of playGlow into my ui class so I can target that movieClip with my tint tween?

Answer 1

I'm pretty new to all this AS3 stuff, but have you tried:

TweenLite.to(MovieClip(this).playGlow, .4, {alpha:.5, tint:0x99cc00});

That always works for me when trying to target things.

Answer 2

Try using the event target for the rollover?

TweenLite.to(e.target, .4, {alpha:.5, tint:0x99cc00});

You may have to cast e.target:

TweenLite.to(Sprite(e.target), .4, {alpha:.5, tint:0x99cc00});

at the very least, you should try tracing e.target and let us know what it is.

Answer 3

The issue appears to be that e.target is a reference to the playThumb of the thumbNailRow, not the playGlow that you want to affect.

If, in the original code above, thumbnailRow is an instance of the Thumbnail class (and I think it is, can't be sure) then the following should be OK:

public function rowRollOver(e:MouseEvent):void {
    dispatchEvent(new Event(Event.CHANGE, true ));
    TweenPlugin.activate([TintPlugin]);
    var parentThumb: Thumbnail = e.target.parent as Thumbnail; 
    TweenLite.to(parentThumb.playGlow, .4, {alpha:.5, tint:0x99cc00});
 }