in AS3 how to use this.parent != null to detect stand alone run of a swf or if in a parent swf

Question

I have a 'shell' swf that i use to navigate a series of swfs. When i want to test or run a swf standalone i want to detect that no parent is present and locate XMLS or images in a local path. If i run in the parent SWF i understand that paths are realative.

The code below doesent work because this.parent evaluates to [object Stage]

if (this.parent != null) {

 xmlURL = "TheProtocol/" + sevencharid + "/xml/clientconversation.xml";
 trace("in top");
} else {

 xmlURL = "xml/clientconversation.xml";
 trace("in bot");
}

Answer 1

You can check if the parent is the stage then:

if(this.parent is Stage) {
    trace("standalone swf");
} else {
    trace("not standalone swf");
}

This should work if that code is executed from the root.

An alternative that would work not only from the root would be:

if(this.root.parent is Stage) {
    trace("standalone swf");
} else {
    trace("not standalone swf");
}

This will work as long as the object is added to the display list (otherwise this.root will be null).

If you want to account for that, then you could do:

if(this.root) {
    if(this.root.parent is Stage) {
        trace("standalone swd");
    } else {
        trace("not standalone swf");
    }
}