ActionScript 3.0 current function called, plus all the previous ones somehow

Question

Alrighty, I don't know how I did this, probably the AS3 gods became angry with me when my scrollbar worked right after I coded it, with no bugs. But I have a very weird problem. I have three different buttons, they aren't nested within each other, and they have event listeners for mouse clicks that call a function. Whenever one of these 3 buttons is clicked, it calls the function it is supposed to plus all the previous ones from the life of the swf. I have no idea how this is happening, to be honest I'm shocked, I, I feel shocked. How is this happening? Is something with eventListeners? Perhaps something with URLLoader? I don't know, I've traced every step of the way and I have nothing, so I throw myself before the court of smarter coders in hopes that one of you esteemed gentlemen and gentleladies knows just what I'm doing wrong, please take pity on a poor coder's soul.

Document class file Pastie

package {

    import gs.TweenMax;
    import gs.easing.*;
    import flash.display.*;
    import flash.events.*;
    import flash.ui.Keyboard;
    import flash.net.*;
    import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
    import FullScreenScrollBar;

    public class Gessner extends MovieClip {

        //====================================Declare Variables================================//
     var objectsArray:Array = ["whatwedo_bkg", "whoweare_bkg", "howmuch_bkg", "needsome_bkg"];
     var images:Array = [];
     var instances:Array = [];
     var imageInstances:Array = [];
     var paginationButtons:Array =[];
     //=====================================================================================//

 private var xmlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
 private var xmlData:XML = new XML();

 //======================================================================================
 public function initXML(e:Event) {
 //======================================================================================
  var target:String = e.currentTarget.name;
  if (e.currentTarget.name == "recent_projects" || e.currentTarget.name == "whoweare") {
   xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onCompleteXML);
   xmlLoader.load(new URLRequest("http://www.gessnerengineering.com/projects"));
  } else if (e.currentTarget.name == "our_staff") {
   xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onCompleteXML);
   xmlLoader.load(new URLRequest("http://www.gessnerengineering.com/profiles"));
  }

  //========================================================================
   function onCompleteXML(e:Event):void {
  //========================================================================
   xmlData = new XML(e.currentTarget.data);
   makePagination();
   trace("onCompleteXML() target: " + target);
   if (target == "recent_projects" || target == "whoweare") {
    trace("loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();");
    loadProjectsXML(0, xmlData);
   } else if (target == "our_staff") {
    loadStaffXML(0, xmlData);
   }
  }

  //========================================================================
   function makePagination():void {
  //========================================================================
   var pages:Number;
   trace("makePagination() target: " + target);
   if (target == "recent_projects" || target == "whoweare") {
    pages = Math.ceil(xmlData.project.length() / 13);
   } else if (target == "our_staff") {
    pages = Math.ceil(xmlData.profile.length() / 13);
   }
   for (var i:Number = 0; i < pages; i++) {
    var tmp:pageNum = new pageNum();
    var startX:Number = -(((pages * 50) - 10) / 2);
    tmp.Id = i * 13;
    tmp.x = startX;
    startX += 50;
    tmp.y = 0;
    tmp.label.text = String(i+1);
    tmp.buttonMode = true;
    tmp.mouseChildren = false;
    tmp.useHandCursor = true;
    tmp.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onChangePage);
    Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg.pagination.addChild(tmp);
    paginationButtons.push(Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg.pagination.getChildByName(tmp.name));
   }
  }

  //========================================================================
  function onChangePage (e:MouseEvent):void {
  //========================================================================
   if (target == "recent_projects" || target == "whoweare") {
    trace("loadProjectXML() got called from onChangePage();");
    loadProjectsXML(e.currentTarget.Id as Number, xmlData);
   } else {
    loadStaffXML(e.currentTarget.Id as Number, xmlData);
   }
  }
 }


 //======================================================================================
 public function loadProjectsXML(startNum:Number, xmlData:XML):void {
 //======================================================================================
  removeAll();
  var index:int = 1;
  var endNum:Number = startNum + 13;
  if (endNum > xmlData.project.length()) {
   endNum = xmlData.project.length();
   //trace("projectENDNUM" + endNum);
  }
  for(startNum; startNum < endNum; startNum++) {
   var instance:String = "cont" + index;
   var imageURL:String = "http://www.gessnerengineering.com/system/files/" + xmlData.project[startNum].assets.asset[0]["id"] + "/thumb/" + xmlData.project[startNum].assets.asset[0]["file-file-name"];

   loadImage(imageURL, instance);
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instance].title.text = xmlData.project[startNum].name;
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instance].description.text = xmlData.project[startNum].description;
   instances.push(instance);

   index++;
  }
 }

 //=======================================================================================
 public function loadStaffXML(startNum:Number, xmlData:XML):void {
 //=======================================================================================
  removeAll();
  var index:int = 1;
  var endNum:Number = startNum + 13;
  if (endNum > xmlData.profile.length()) {
   endNum = xmlData.profile.length();
   ////trace("endNUM" + endNum);
  }
  for(startNum; startNum < endNum; startNum++) {
   var instance:String = "cont" + index;
   var imageURL:String = "http://www.gessnerengineering.com/system/avatars/" + xmlData.profile[startNum]["id"] + "/thumb/" + xmlData.profile[startNum]["avatar-file-name"];

   loadImage(imageURL, instance);
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instance].title.text = xmlData.profile[startNum]["user-id"];
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instance].description.text = xmlData.profile[startNum]["bio"];
   instances.push(instance);
   index++;
  }
 }

 //=======================================================================================
 private function loadImage(imageURL:String, instance:String):void {
 //=======================================================================================
   var imageLoader:Loader = new Loader();
   var imageRequest = new URLRequest(imageURL);

   imageLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
   imageLoader.load(imageRequest);

   function onComplete(e:Event) {
    var image:Bitmap = (Bitmap)(e.currentTarget.content);
    Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instance].thumb.addChild(image);
    images.push(Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instance].thumb.getChildByName(image.name));
    imageInstances.push(instance);
    //imageLoader.unload();
   }
 }

 //=======================================================================================
 private function removeAll():void {
 //=======================================================================================
  var lengthOfIndex:uint = instances.length;
  /*for each(var button:DisplayObject in paginationButtons) {
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg.pagination.removeChild(button);
  }*/
  for (var i:uint = 0; i < lengthOfIndex; i++) {    
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instances[i]]["title"].text = "";
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[instances[i]]["description"].text = "";
   try {
   Gessner(root).pages.whoweare_bkg[imageInstances[i]].thumb.removeChild(images[i]);
   } catch (ArgumentError) {
    //trace("error: " + images[i].name + "::" + instances[i]);
   }
  }
  paginationButtons.splice(0, paginationButtons.length);
  images.splice(0, lengthOfIndex);
  imageInstances.splice(0, lengthOfIndex);
  instances.splice(0, lengthOfIndex);   
 }
}

Document's timeline actions

this.pages.whoweare_bkg.recent_projects.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, initXML);
this.pages.whoweare_bkg.our_staff.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, initXML);
this.whoweare.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, initXML);

Output Pastie

##first click
makePagination() target: whoweare
onCompleteXML() target: whoweare
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3

##second click
makePagination() target: whoweare
onCompleteXML() target: whoweare
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3
makePagination() target: recent_projects
onCompleteXML() target: recent_projects
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3

##third click
makePagination() target: whoweare
onCompleteXML() target: whoweare
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3
makePagination() target: recent_projects
onCompleteXML() target: recent_projects
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3
makePagination() target: recent_projects
onCompleteXML() target: recent_projects
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3

##fourth click
makePagination() target: whoweare
onCompleteXML() target: whoweare
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3
makePagination() target: recent_projects
onCompleteXML() target: recent_projects
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3
makePagination() target: recent_projects
onCompleteXML() target: recent_projects
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3
makePagination() target: recent_projects
onCompleteXML() target: recent_projects
loadProjectXML() got called from onCompleteXML();
projectENDNUM3

and so on and so on

Answer 1

Oh I see. It's here in this part:

xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onCompleteXML);
xmlLoader.load(new URLRequest("http://www.gessnerengineering.com/projects"));

Every time this code is called, you add a NEW event listener to xmlLoader. So every subsequent time you call it, it will call onCompleteXML +1 times.

Answer 2

It doesn't look like you're ever removing the event listeners - if you want to be doing that. Also, what is your target variable? I'm not seeing where it's declared, do you mean to be using e.currentTarget or something?

Answer 3

Check what you are doing on your timeline, and make sure you have a stop() command somewhere, and avoid adding the event listeners again.

Everytime you enter a keyframe on the timeline, your event listeners are added. So I'm guessing you are going to a different frame and then coming back to the same frame that adds the event listeners.