Actionscript Cookbook

1.13. Reusing and Organizing Code in Multiple Movies

Problem

You want to reuse code that you’ve created for one project in another Flash movie. Or you want to write your ActionScript code in an external text editor.

Solution

Place your ActionScript code in external .as files and use the #include directive to add them to your Flash movies:

// Adds all the code within MyActionScriptFile.as to your Flash movie.
#include "MyActionScriptFile.as"

Discussion

Use the #include directive to incorporate code from external text files into your Flash movie during compilation from a .fla file to a .swf file. When you export a .swf file, Flash replaces the #include directive with the contents of the specified file. The external file must be a text file with valid ActionScript code in it. By convention the file should be named with the .as extension, though it is not absolutely necessary:

#include "ASutils.as"

Notice that the #include directive is not followed by a semicolon. Adding a semicolon causes an error.

Additionally, Flash must be able to locate the file when you export the movie. Therefore, you should place the file in a location relative to where the Flash document is saved. For example, the previous example looks for a file named ASutils.as in the same directory as the .fla document. You can also place the file in a subdirectory of the directory in which the Flash document is saved:

// Look for a file named ASutils.as in a subdirectory named myASFiles.
#include "myASFiles/ASutils.as"

You can also ...