AS3 Button stops working after random amount of click

Question

I have a movieclip being used as a button. After a random amount of clicks the button stops working. In other words, the mouse will become a hand when hovering over the button but no clicks are registering to fire the function. I've even clicked it 40 times and it will work but then suddenly, bang!, it stops working. Heres the function that adds the btn, listener, animates it into the screen and also adds text.

function makeButton():void{
addChild(myBtn);
myBtn.mouseChildren=false;
myBtn.buttonMode=true;
myBtn.x=(stage.stageWidth/2)-(myBtn.width/2);
myBtn.y=-300;
myBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, btnClicked, false, 0, true);
myBtn.btn_text.text="The string goes here";
TweenLite.to(myBtn, 0.5,{x:(stage.stageWidth/2)-(myBtn.width/2),y:(stage.stageHeight/2)-(myBtn.height/2)});
}

And then here's the function that animates the button outside the screen:

function btnClicked(e:MouseEvent):void{
myBtn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, btnClicked);
TweenLite.to(myBtn, 0.5,{x:(stage.stageWidth/2)-(myBtn.width/2),y:-300});

}

Strange thing is, I added a trace("listener added") into the 'makeButton()' AT THE VERY END, AFTER THE ADD EVENT. And it traces everytime, even on the times the button stops working. SO i can only assume there are no errors with listener being added. But then why is it not working?

I'm stumped. I thought it could be an event propagation problem. In other words the listener was being added to the target (myBtn) but somehow it was capturing or bubbling wrong but..... then why does it work at all? And for so many clicks?

The truth is out there. Or maybe in here, your insights will be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Where does myBtn get created? I can see right at the beginning of makeButton() that you are adding it the display list but can't see where it actually gets created? Is it already on the stage?

Answer 2

Adding a trace statement in the makeButton function will only tell you that a button is created, it won't say much about the functionality of your button. If you want to check if your button reacts to a click , you need to add your trace statement in the click listener.

According to your description , it sounds like you keep adding the same button to the stage rather than actually clicking the same button.

How often do you call the makeButton function before it stops working? This function looks like it should only be called once. As for the btnClicked function , why do you remove the listener, if you wish to click the button again?

Practically it looks like you should only have your Tweening functionality in your functions, I mean , once the button is created , you need one function to tween the button, then instead of adding the button again, simply call a function to tween the button back in place.

All the rest shouldn't be repeated.

Answer 3

I've fixed the code and the problem hasn't occurred again. The problem must have been that I was running the addChild every time the function called and that was doing something odd to the MC in the display list. I haven't pursued the error by clicking the buttons many times in a row for a minute or two, as I did to make the error happen originally. I think i'll let sleeping dogs lie.

With that said, my code is a lot cleaner with the addChild and other crap running in the initialization function and just sitting above the stage - and then being tweened into position in the 'makeButton' and 'btnClicked' functions (which are now fittingly named 'tweenBtnIn' and 'tweenBtnOut').

Thanks again