ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

MovieClip.swapDepths( ) Method — change the graphic layering of an instance in the instance stack

Availability

Flash 5

Synopsis

mc.swapDepths(target)
mc.swapDepths(depth)

Arguments

target

A string indicating the path to the movie clip to be swapped with mc. Because movie clip references are converted to paths when used in a string context, target may also be a movie clip object reference, as in mc .swapDepths(window2) versus mc .swapDepths("window2").

depth

An integer specifying a level in mc’s parent’s clip stack. A depth of -1 is below 0, 1 is in front of 0, 2 is in front of 1, and so on. See Section 13.4 in Chapter 13 for more details. Negative depths are functional, but not officially supported by ActionScript; to ensure future compatibility, use depths of or greater.

Description

All movie clip instances in a .swf document reside in a stack that governs the visual layering of instances in the Player. The stack is structured like a deck of cards; clips in higher positions in the stack appear in front of clips in lower positions. The position of an instance in the stack is initialized when the clip is created (either in the Flash authoring tool or via attachMovie( ) or duplicateMovieClip( ) ). Using swapDepths( ), we can change the position of an instance in the stack.

The swapDepths( ) method takes two forms. When used with a target argument, swapDepths( ) trades the stack position of mc and target, provided that mc and target share the same parent clip (reside on the same timeline). ...