ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Removing Clip Instances and Main Movies

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clip itself! The timeline and canvas of the clip are removed, but an empty shell

remains on stage. That shell can be referenced until the instance is removed perma-

nently via removeMovieClip() or until the span of frames on which the instance

resides ends. Furthermore, any onClipEvent() handlers on the shell remain active.

This “partial” deletion of the instance presents an interesting possibility; it lets us

maintain a generic container clip whose contents can be changed repeatedly via

loadMovie() and unloadMovie(). For example, we could use a single clip to load sec-

tions of a web site or images in a photo album. The following series of statements

demonstrates the technique with an instance called

clipA (though in a real applica-

tion, these statements would include the appropriate preloader code):

clipA.loadMovie("section1.swf"); // Load a document into clipA

clipA.unloadMovie( ); // Unload the document, leaving clipA intact

clipA.loadMovie("section2.swf"); // Load another document into clipA

One note of caution with this approach: when used on an instance, unloadMovie()

removes all custom properties of the clip contained by the instance. Physical

properties—such as

_x and _alpha—persist, but custom variables, functions, and

event handler ...