AS3 - How to assign names or tags to loader?

Question

Hi,

I have a list of images that i’ve loaded with the Loader class, but I’m having a tough time assigning them unique names. I need unique names because I want to remove certain images after a while. Is there a way to assign loaders a name or some unique tag so i can remove them later? thanks.

Here's part of my code

for (var i = startnum; i < endnum; i++){
    var thumb = panels[i].@THUMB;
    var thumb_loader = new Loader();
    thumb_loader.load(new URLRequest(thumb));
    thumb_loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, thumbLoaded);

    thumb_loader.name = i;
    thumb_loader.x = (thumb_width + 20)*i;
}

I tried to use getChildByName in another function..

var myLoader:Loader = getChildByName( "1" ) as Loader;
myLoader.unload();

But it's giving me Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.

I tried to put thumb_loader as global variable, and do this

var myLoader:Loader = thumb_loader.getChildByName( "1" ) as Loader;

But it's still not working. Thanks.

Answer 1

Not sure I 100% understand your problem, but why not put them in an object map rather than a list and generate unique names for them if you don't have them...

var img:Image;
var img_map:Object = new Object();
var last_added:int = 0;
for each (img in yourListOfImages)
{
    img_map["img_"+last_added] = img;
    last_added++;
}

Depending on your environment (Flex or Flash) you can use a UID generator instead of my simplistic unique names above.

Answer 2

package 
{
    import flash.display.Loader;

    public dynamic class DynamicLoader extends Loader 
    {
     public function DynamicLoader()
     {
      super();
     }
    }
}

I believe the Loader class is a sealed class so you would want to create this class and use it instead of the normal Loader class to give it any attribute you want. I also believe that without using this DynamicLoader instead of the normal Loader, the Loader class does have the name property available to it.

Answer 3

All display objects in ActionScript 3 have a name property. Whenever you create a Loader object you can assign a name to it like so:

var myLoader:Loader = new Loader();
myLoader.name = "myUniqueName";
myLoader.load( .... );
addChild( myLoader );

If you'd like to refer to the loader by the name you gave it, use the getChildByName() method.

var myLoader:Loader = getChildByName( "myUniqueName" ) as Loader;
myLoader.unload();

Please be mindful that getChildByName() will only work after you've added the Loader(s) to the display list using addChild(). Otherwise, you'll have to create something to store the references to the Loader objects in, such as an Array and refer to the loaders via that Array. For example, outside your loop you could create an Array named loadersArr. In your loop you would do:

loadersArr["uniqueName"] = thumb_loader;

Then you can refer to your loaders with your unique name through the loadersArr Array.

var loaderToUnload:Loader = loadersArr["uniqueName"];
loaderToUnload.unload();

Without seeing more of your code, its difficult to understand the scope in which this code resides and where any other code that may try to reference these Loaders resides.