ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

fscommand( ) Global Function — send a message to the standalone Playeror to the Player’s host application

Availability

Flash 3 and later (enhanced in Flash 5 to include trapallkeys)

Synopsis

fscommand(command, arguments)

Arguments

command

A string passed to the host application, often the name of a JavaScript function.

arguments

A string passed to the host application, often an argument to the function named by command.

Description

With the fscommand( ) function, a Flash movie can communicate with the standalone Player or with the Player’s host application—the environment in which the Flash Player is running (e.g., a web browser or Macromedia Director). The fscommand( ) function is typically used in one of three ways:

• To send one of a limited set of built-in commands to the standalone Flash Player

• To send commands to a scripting language such as JavaScript or VBScript in a web browser

• To communicate with Lingo in a Macromedia Director movie

When used with the standalone Player, fscommand( ) takes one of the built-in sets of command/argument pairs, as shown in Table 20.5.

Table 20-5. command/argument Pairs in Standalone Player

Command	Argument	Description
"allowscale"	"true" or "false"	When "false", prevents the contents of a movie from growing or shrinking in relation to the window size of the Player. "allowscale" is often used in combination with "fullscreen" to create a Projector that occupies the entire screen while maintaining the movie’s original size.
"exec"	"application_name" ...