What are the issues to be aware of when updating Flash 8 AS2 content for Flash 10

Question

I have a large number of Flash projects that have been written in Flash 8 (AS2). I recently acquired Flash CS4 to update this content to the new version. I have some new functionality to add and want to take advantage of some new features in Flash 10 (local file access etc). I have already encountered a number of issues when opening my files in CS4, can anyone add to this list?

1. CS4 did not recognise Flash 8 project file format and could not open them
2. Remoting classes I was using in Flash 8 (import mx.remoting) could not be loaded
3. All actions on buttons or movie clips are not supported
4. Text field variables are not supported

I am sure there will be more, what else do I need to look out for? Are there any other pitfalls that I need to be aware of?

Thanks guys

p.s. this is handy - http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/cookbook/

Answer 1

Flash CS4 retains backwards compatibility with AS2 and pretty much all functionality of Flash 8, though transitioning between the two isn't necessarily smooth. If you were to just open a Flash 8 FLA in Flash CS4 and publish it using the publish settings Flash CS4 automatically assigns (Flash Player 10 with ActionScript2), you should be OK.

However, if you are trying to publish your Flash 8 FLAs to FP10 with AS3, you're going to encounter all of the problems you mentioned above. This is because AS3 is not merely an upgrade of AS2, but an entirely different language (OK, not as drastic as that sounds, but you get the idea). A lot of the new features in Flash CS4 (IK, new Motion, etc) won't work with AS2 and requires you to publish to AS3. This is likely the source of your problems; you're trying to combine AS2-only features (in this case, AS2 code) with AS3-only features. To do both, you have to re-write your AS2 code as AS3. Unfortunately, there's no quick fix to do this.

My recommendation is that you go ahead and learn AS3. It may be a bit difficult to wrap your head around coming from AS2, but it is a much more complete language and will last you a long time.