Is it possible to pause a playing SWF file in Adobe Flex? How?

Question

Hello guys, I just wanna know if it is possible to pause a playing SWF file in adobe flex? I have an SWF Loader and it plays my SWF file however, it does not have any capability (or built in function) that pauses the file.

Can anyone help me with this please? I'll appreciate some code to start with. :) Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use the stop();

The following is an example of a swf playing and control is given to the play and pause and gotoandstop buttons.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
               xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
               xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx"
               minWidth="955" minHeight="600">
    <fx:Declarations>
        <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
    </fx:Declarations>

    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            private function playHandler():void {

                var file_mc:MovieClip = fileswf.content as MovieClip;
                file_mc.play();

            }

            private function pauseHandler():void {

                var file_mc:MovieClip = fileswf.content as MovieClip;
                file_mc.stop();
            }

            private function pauseat(frame:Number):void {

                var file_mc:MovieClip = fileswf.content as MovieClip;
                file_mc.gotoAndStop(frame);
            }

        ]]>
    </fx:Script>


    <mx:SWFLoader x="0" y="0" source="abc.swf" id="fileswf"/>
    <s:Button x="0" y="200" label="Play" id="playbtn" click="playHandler()"/>
    <s:Button x="100" y="200" label="Pause" id="pausebtn" click="pauseHandler()"/>
    <s:Button x="100" y="250" label="Pause at A" id="pauseAbtn" click="pauseat(1)"/>
    <s:Button x="200" y="250" label="Pause at B" id="pauseBbtn" click="pauseat(2)"/>
    <s:Button x="300" y="250" label="Pause at C" id="pauseCbtn" click="pauseat(3)"/>
    <s:Button x="400" y="250" label="Pause at D" id="pauseDbtn" click="pauseat(4)"/>
    <s:Button x="500" y="250" label="Pause at E" id="pauseEbtn" click="pauseat(5)"/>

</s:Application>

For completeness I have placed in the method for @Embed (it is not possible to get the original swf directly via SWFLoader [runtime vs compile time] but you can you can load the Bytes from a Class)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
               xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
               xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx"
               minWidth="955" minHeight="600" addedToStage="init()">
    <fx:Declarations>
        <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
    </fx:Declarations>

    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[

            [Embed(source="abc.swf", mimeType="application/octet-stream") ]
            public var abc_cls:Class;

            public var ldr:Loader = new Loader();

            private var file_mc:MovieClip;

            protected function init():void
            {
                ldr.loadBytes( new abc_cls() as ByteArray );
                ldr.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.INIT, onSwfLoaded);
                swfcontainer.addChild(ldr);  
            }

            private function onSwfLoaded(e:Event):void {
                file_mc = ldr.content as MovieClip;
            }

            private function playHandler():void {

                file_mc.play();

            }

            private function pauseHandler():void {

                file_mc.stop();
            }

            private function pauseat(frame:Number):void {


                file_mc.gotoAndStop(frame);
            }       

        ]]>
    </fx:Script>


    <mx:Image id="swfcontainer" />
    <s:Button x="0" y="200" label="Play" id="playbtn" click="playHandler()"/>
    <s:Button x="100" y="200" label="Pause" id="pausebtn" click="pauseHandler()"/>
    <s:Button x="100" y="250" label="Pause at A" id="pauseAbtn" click="pauseat(1)"/>
    <s:Button x="200" y="250" label="Pause at B" id="pauseBbtn" click="pauseat(2)"/>
    <s:Button x="300" y="250" label="Pause at C" id="pauseCbtn" click="pauseat(3)"/>
    <s:Button x="400" y="250" label="Pause at D" id="pauseDbtn" click="pauseat(4)"/>
    <s:Button x="500" y="250" label="Pause at E" id="pauseEbtn" click="pauseat(5)"/>

</s:Application>

I am sure now that it is the embed that was giving the problem sorry for any confusions. So if you need your swf as part of your file below should the trick.

The last way you can achieve getting assets into your flex workspace is to use SWC Assets Method.

Good Luck ! :D

Answer 2

by the way, if you have concrete examples on how to use gotoAndStop can you please give me some tips? I am using the code below but it doesn't give me anything.

protected function btnGoToAndStop_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
{
    var file_mc:MovieClip = fileswf.content as MovieClip;
    file_mc.gotoAndStop(txtFrame.text);
}
<mx:SWFLoader x="0" y="0" source="@Embed(source='assets/sample.swf')" id="fileswf" />
<s:Button x="10" y="191" label="gotoAndPlay" id="btnGoToAndStop"    
click="btnGoToAndStop_clickHandler(event)"/>
<s:TextInput x="107" y="191" width="42" id="txtFrame"/>

though I use file_mc.stop(), it still won't stop. By the way the swf file i am using now is an swf file which spells out my name by frame (it actually has 10 frames which is the character length of my full name).

Thanks :)

Answer 3

Thank you very much for the code you gave me. It is working perfectly the way I wanted it to work. Now this gave me an idea on how to do my project. Thanks a lot for the help. :)