ActionScript Technology Center

ActionScript is the programming language of the Adobe Flash Player runtime. Originally developed as a way for Flash developers to program interactivity, ActionScript enables efficient programming of Adobe Flash applications for everything from simple animations to complex, data-rich, interactive application interfaces.

ActionScript 3.0, introduced in Flash Player 9, is based on ECMAScript—the same standard that is the basis for JavaScript—and provides incredible gains in runtime performance and developer productivity. ActionScript 2.0, the version of ActionScript used in Flash Player 8 and earlier, added language constructs and features to enable developers to build large-scale, object-oriented Flash applications and content. ActionScript 2.0 continues to be supported in Flash Player 9.

New to ActionScript 3.0? Read Six reasons to use ActionScript 3.0. Then check out the Getting Started tab on this site. If you already know ActionScript 2.0, explore the following resources to migrate your apps to ActionScript 3.0.

Migrate to ActionScript 3.0

• ActionScript and code editor changes in Flash CS3 Professional: Support for ActionScript 3.0 is one of the most significant changes in Flash CS3 Professional. Take advantage of new coding tools in the Actions panel or Script window, and a new debugging tool—designed to reduce the time it takes to write ActionScript code.
• Getting started with ActionScript: Learn some of the core principles of ActionScript and interactivity in Flash CS3 Professional. This video tutorial shows you how to write simple ActionScript 3.0 code for a button. Each line of code is thoroughly explained so you understand the ActionScript code that you write.
• Tips for learning ActionScript 3.0: Get a head start on ActionScript 3.0 with these tips and common issues you might encounter during development.
• Tips for migrating your Flash applications to ActionScript 3.0: Apply these 15 helpful tips to avoid common pitfalls when building your first Flash application using the latest version of ActionScript.
• Introducing the ActionScript 3.0 debugger: Take a tour of the new debugger in Flash CS3 Professional and learn how it greatly simplifies troubleshooting issues with ActionScript 3.0 classes and frame scripts in FLA files.
• Introduction to event handling in ActionScript 3.0: Use the new EventDispatcher class to track mouse interactions and create your own custom events when building applications in Adobe Flex 2 or Flash CS3 Professional.
• Building an image-viewing widget with ActionScript 3.0: Migrate an image viewer application from ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0 to explore the new capabilities of ActionScript 3.0.
• ActionScript 2.0 migration table (LiveDocs): Check out this exhaustive table in the ActionScript 3.0 Language and Components Reference to see the differences between ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0.

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ActionScript components significantly reduce the time and effort needed to develop Flash applications by providing complex pieces that behave in a consistent way and are ready to use and customize. Read the Flash and ActionScript components learning guide to learn how to use the data and media ActionScript 2.0 components included with Flash CS3 as well as the new user interface and video ActionScript 3.0 components.

Resources

ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide excerpts: Copy motion, display list, events, and migration

David Stiller, Rich Shupe, Jen deHaan, Darren Richardson (Dec. 22, 2008)
Read these four book excerpts from O'Reilly Media so you can make the leap from ActionScript 2.0 to ActionScript 3.0 quickly and painlessly.

ActionScript 3.0 expands the functionality of the ActionScript language and makes programming significantly easier than in previous versions. By repackaging commonly used classes and objects as easily accessible APIs, ActionScript 3.0 provides faster, more direct access to the functionality you need for your applications. Regular expressions and E4X support make working with XML much quicker and more natural.

Overviews

Adobe AIR

Sudoku on AIR: Taking a Flash app to the desktop

Giorgio Natili (Feb. 25, 2008)
Discover how you can turn your browser-based Flash application into a desktop application built on Adobe AIR.

Flex

Flash

Flash Media Server

Engineering documents

ActionScript 2.0 is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language that includes full support for classes, inheritance, interfaces, and other common OOP concepts. It features variable data typing, function parameters and return types, and comprehensive debugging information.

Flash Professional 8 / Flash CS3 Professional

• Code reuse with movie clip naming conventions and ActionScript 2.0 classes (Karl Sigiscar)
• Train Simple videos: Introduction to Flash game development (Train Simple and Jiro Ietaka)
• Creating web photo galleries in ActionScript for use with Adobe digital imaging software (Michael Slater and Trent Brown)
• Total Training video: Scripting basics in Flash Professional 8 (Total Training)
• Handling cue points for audio files in ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0 (David Stiller)
• Using the External API for Flash–JavaScript Communication (Jeong-Heon Kim)
• Debugging ActionScript 2.0 Code: Lifting the Blindfold (David Stiller)
• Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Flash (LiveDocs)
• Flash ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference (LiveDocs)
• Flash ActionScript 2.0 Learning Guide
• ActionScript 2.0 Best Practices (Jen deHaan)
• Object-Oriented ActionScript (Colin Moock)

Flex

• Flex ActionScript Language Reference Version 1.5 (LiveDocs)
• Flex ActionScript and MXML API Reference Version 1.5 (LiveDocs)
• Debugging Flex Applications with Flex Builder (James Polanco)
• Flex Profiler (Clement Wong)

Flash Lite

• Flash Lite 1.x ActionScript Language Reference (LiveDocs)
• Flash Lite 2.x ActionScript Language Reference (LiveDocs)

Flash Media Server 2

• Flash Media Server LiveDocs

Check out these websites—many of them maintained by the developer community—to learn how people learn and work with Flash, Flex, and ActionScript in the real world:

• ActionScriptExamples.com: Blog of ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0 examples for Flash and Flex.
• ActionScript 3.0 speed tests: Speed optimization techniques for use with ActionScript 3.0
• ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns blog: Companion website to ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns by Bill Sanders and Chandima Cumaranatunge (O'Reilly Media, 2007), which steps readers through the process of integrating design patterns into ActionScript applications.
• ActionScript RSS feed: Up-to-the-minute blog postings about ActionScript programming in the real world
• ActionScript code search via Google: Public source code search
• ActionScript on Flash Kit Community Forums: Resource site for the Flash and multimedia community
• del.icio.us/tag/actionscript and del.icio.us/tag/as3: Blog posts and web pages tagged with "ActionScript" and "AS3"
• Google Code: Projects on Google Code tagged with "ActionScript"
• Flex Coders Yahoo! group: Mailing list for enterprise software developers developing RIAs using Flex and ActionScript
• Flashcoders: Mailing list for programmers using Flash
• Flex cookbook: Share knowledge and expertise with the Adobe designer and developer community
• Flash and ActionScript tutorials on Kirupa.com: Community site run by Kirupa Chinnathambi
• Foundation Flash: ActionScript tutorials presented by Leon Aves and Harry Burt, who run this small web design firm
• RIAForge: Open-source projects built on Adobe technology, including Flash and ActionScript
• Yahoo! Developer Network – Flash: Collection of Flash tools, resources, and information about Yahoo! data APIs, Flash components, and more
• ActionScript.it: Italian community site
• ActionScript.es: Spanish community site

ActionScript libraries

Search sample code libraries via Google to start your project: