MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-FLASH, Tutorials Manual

Page: 233 / 292

Check syntax and test your application 233
Check syntax and test your
application
As you learned earlier in this lesson, ActionScript depends on correct
syntax to execute properly. Flash offers a variety of ways for you to test
your syntax.
1. To check the syntax, do one of the following:
■
Click the pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of the Actions
panel title bar and select Check Syntax.
■
Click Check Syntax along the top of the Actions panel.
If the syntax is correct, a message appears stating that the script
contains no errors.
If the syntax is incorrect, a message appears stating the script contains
errors; the Output panel opens and displays information about
the error.
2.
Click OK to close the syntax message.
3.
After you’ve verified that your ActionScript does not contain syntax
errors, save the document and select Control > Test Movie.
When the SWF file appears, the animation should not appear in the
Global Positioning System screen, because its initial
visible
property
is set to
false
. When you click and release the top green button, you
call the function that sets the movie clip’s
visible
property to
true
.
Does the animation play then? Finally, click the red Off button to see if
the
visible
property for the animation is again
false
.
You can test your SWF content throughout authoring to confirm that
it plays as expected.