Macromedia flash 8-learning flash lite 1.x actionscript User Manual

Common Scripting Tasks

Typically, you use capability variables to determine if a device supports a specific feature
before attempting to use that feature. For example, suppose that you wanted to develop an
application that downloads data from a web server using the

loadVariables()

function.

Before attempting to load the data, you can first check the value of the

_capLoadData

variable to determine if the device supports that feature, as follows:

if(_capLoadData == 1) {

loadVariables("http://www.macromedia.com/data.txt");

} else {

status_message = "Sorry, unable to load external data."

}

Flash Lite defines capability variables on the root timeline of the main SWF file. So to access
these variables from another timeline—for example, from within a movie clip’s timeline—you
need to qualify the path to the variable. For instance, the following example uses a slash (

) to

provide the fully qualified path to the

_capSMS

variable.

canSendSMS = /:_capSMS

Opening a web page

You use the

getURL()

command to open a web page in the device’s web browser. This is the

same way you open a web page from a desktop Flash application. For example, the following
opens the Macromedia web page:

getURL("http:www.macromedia.com");

Flash Lite processes only one

getURL()

action per frame or per event handler. Certain

handsets restrict the

getURL()

action to keypress events only, in which case the

getURL()

call

is processed only if it is triggered within a keypress event handler. Even under such
circumstances, only one

getURL()

action is processed per keypress event handler. The

following code, attached to a button instance on the Stage, opens a web page when the user
presses the Select button on the device:

on (keyPress "<Enter>"){

getURL("http://www.macromedia.com");

}

Initiating a phone call

To initiate a phone call from a Flash Lite application, you use the

getURL()

function.

Typically, you use this function to open a web page, but in this case you specify

tel:

as the

protocol (in place of

http)

, and then provide the phone number you wish the phone to dial.

When you call this function, Flash Lite displays a confirmation dialog box asking the user for
permission to make the call to the specified number.