Flash 8 Cookbook

10.7. Creating Seek Buttons

Problem

You want the timeline to fast-forward or rewind visually as long as the user holds down a button.

Solution

Use the gotoAndStop( ) method in conjunction with the _currentframe property to skip back or forward in the timeline. Add the gotoAndStop( ) method within an onEnterFrame( ) event handler method, so that it gets called repeatedly at the frame rate of the movie. Use button event handler methods to define and remove the onEnterFrame( ) method based on the state of the button.

Discussion

In Recipe 10.6, you learned how to play a movie clip’s timeline in reverse. Using very similar principals, you can add functionality to your Flash movie that causes a timeline to visually rewind or fast forward. There are several elements involved. First, you need to create buttons to trigger the rewind and fast-forward functionality. Then, you need to apply onPress( ) and onRelease( ) event handler methods to the buttons. Within the onPress( ) event handler methods, define an onEnterFrame( ) event handler method for the movie clip you want to affect. The onRelease( ) event handler method should remove the onEnterFrame( ) definition. That may sound like a lot of information, so here’s an example.

Imagine that you have a button on the main timeline with an instance name btRewind. Also on the main timeline is a movie clip with an instance name of mAnimation. When the user clicks on the btRewind button, you want the timeline of mAnimation to play in reverse rapidly. ...