Flash MX 2004 New features: Behavior

The Behavior (behavior) and behavior panels are already in Dreamweaver, but they are introduced for the first time in Flash. In Flash MX Professional 2004, Behavior is a written action script.

Using behavior, you can add powerful action scripting code to your Flash documents, add interactivity to flash content (such as text, movie clips, images, sounds, and so on), and enforce control of movie clips and image instances in your document.

You can also use behaviors to arrange the stacking order of movie clips and image instances in a frame, load and unload instances, play, turn off, copy, or drag instances, or create links. In addition, you can use the behavior to load an external image or an animated mask into a movie clip.

Using the Behaviors (behavior) Panel makes it easy to apply behavior. Let's take a look at the new behavior features in Flash MX Professional 2004 and Flash MX 2004 from three aspects of behavior control examples, videos, and sounds.

This table lists the behavior of the Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 used to control the instance and controls the video playback for the reader's reference.

Table 1: The behavior used to control instances

Behavior	Use	Parameters
Load Graphic (load image)	Loads an external JPEG image into a movie clip or screen.	Path and JPEG file name. The instance name of the movie clip or the screen that receives the image.
Load External Movie Clip (load external movie clips)	Load the external SWF file into the target movie clip or screen.	The URL of the external SWF file. The instance name of the movie clip or the screen that receives the SWF file.
Unload Flash Movie (uninstall Flash animation)	Deletes a SWF file loaded with the load movie behavior or action.	The instance name of the movie clip or screen that you want to uninstall.
Duplicate Movieclip (copy movie clips)	Copy a movie clip or screen.	The name of the movie clip instance to copy. The X and y offsets, in pixels, relative to the original movie clip to be copied.
gotoAndPlay at frame or label (jumps a frame or frame label to play)	Plays a movie clip from a specific frame.	The target movie clip instance name to play. The frame number or frame label to play.
gotoAndStop at frame or label (jumps a frame or frame label to stop playing)	Jumps a specific frame and stops playing.	The target movie clip instance name to be cut off. The frame number or frame label to be cancelled.
Bring to Front (move to front)	Moves the target movie clip or screen to the top of the stacking order.	The instance name of the movie clip or screen.
Bring Forward (move forward)	Move the target movie clip or screen one position forward in the stacking order.	The instance name of the movie clip or screen.
Send to back (move to rear)	Moves the target movie clip or screen to the bottom of the stacking order.	The instance name of the movie clip or screen.
Send backward (move back)	Moves the target movie clip or screen one position in the stacking order.	The instance name of the movie clip or screen.
Start dragging MovieClip (allow drag movie clips)	Allows you to drag movie clips.	The instance name of the movie clip or screen.
Stop dragging MovieClip (stop dragging movie clips)	Stops the current drag.

Table 2: For controlling the behavior of video playback

Behavior	Use	Parameters
Play videos (playing video)	Plays the video in the current document.	The instance name of the target video.
Stop Video (off-air)	Stop playing the video.	The instance name of the target video.
Pause Video (pause playback)	Pauses the playback of the video.	The instance name of the target video.
Rewind Video (Rewind)	Falls by the specified number of frames.	The instance name of the target video, the frame number.
Fast Forward Video (fast-forward)	Fast forward by the specified number of frames.	The instance name of the target video, the frame number.
Hide videos (hidden video)	Hide the video.	The instance name of the target video.
Show videos (display video)	Displays the video.	The instance name of the target video.