ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

MovieClip.getBytesLoaded( ) Method — check the number of bytes that have downloaded to the Player

Availability

Flash 5

Synopsis

mc.getBytesLoaded( )

Returns

An integer representing the number of bytes of mc that have finished downloading to the Player. (Divide by 1024 to convert to kilobytes.)

Description

The getBytesLoaded( ) method tells us the number of bytes of a movie that have downloaded into the Flash Player. However, getBytesLoaded( ) measures bytes in whole-frame chunks only. So if a movie’s first frame is 200 bytes in size and its second frame is 3000 bytes in size, getBytesLoaded( ) will return 200 and 3200 but never any increment in between. Until all of a given frame has downloaded, the return value of getBytesLoaded( ) does not change. The getBytesLoaded( ) method may, therefore, be thought of as a “bytes version” of the _framesloaded property.

Note that internal movie clips are always entirely loaded before they are displayed, so the return value of getBytesLoaded( ) on an internal movie clip will always be the same as getBytesTotal( ) (unless the movie clip is currently loading an external .swf file in response to loadMovie( )). Therefore, getBytesLoaded( ) is effective only when used with a main movie or an external .swf file being loaded into an instance or level.

Like _framesloaded , getBytesLoaded( ) is normally used to build preloaders. It can be used in concert with getBytesTotal( ) to create a more accurate progress bar than is possible with _framesloaded and ...