Using Print2Flash Document API for ActionScript2 documents from Flash with ActionScript3

Note: Embedding of ActionScript2 documents in other Flash movies compiled with ActionScript3 support and using Print2Flash Document API from it is possible but not recommended. The method described below is deprecated due to poor interoperability support by the Flash Player between ActionScript2 and ActionScript3 movies. It is preferable to use ActionScript2 documents with movies compiled with ActionScript2 support. See Using Print2Flash Document API from Flash with ActionScript 2 help topic for more information. If you still need to be able to load Print2Flash documents in other Flash movies compiled with ActionScript3 support or in Flex applications, consider using ActionScript3 documents instead. You can control the ActionScript version using Document Template field in the Flash Output Tab of Document Options window. See Using Print2Flash Document API for ActionScript3 documents from Flash and Using Print2Flash Document API from Flex for ActionScript3 documents help topics for more information.

To facilitate the task of loading of ActionScript2 documents into other Flash movies created in Adobe Flash CS Professional with ActionScript3 support, you may make use of Print2FlashDoc class which is included in Print2Flash SDK.

First, copy the folder named Print2Flash to a directory located at class path of your project It can be the root directory of your project.

Then, you may use the code such as the following to load a Print2Flash document:

import Print2Flash.*;

var P2FDoc:Print2FlashDoc=new Print2FlashDoc("sample.swf",10,50,500,350,this);

The meanings of Print2FlashDoc constructor parameters (from left to right) are:

url - path of Print2Flash document to load;
x - x coordinate of the Print2Flash document movie;
y - y coordinate of the Print2Flash document movie;
width - width of Print2Flash document movie;
height - height of Print2Flash document movie;
parent- parent object of Print2Flash document movie.

Note that to load a document in Flash and access it via Print2Flash Document API you should clear "Disable Print2Flash Document API support" option when converting the document.

Then you may call any Document API functions using the created Print2FlashDoc class instance reference. For example:

P2FDoc.setCurrentPage(5);

Invoking functions that return values is a bit tricky in ActionScript 3 as interaction between ActionScript 3 and Print2Flash documents is asynchronous. It means that you should break your function calling code into two parts: the first part for calling the function and another part for obtaining the result. When calling such functions you should pass an additional argument at first position which must denote the function that will receive the return value. For example, to call getCurrentPage function you should use the code such as this:

public function ongetCurrentPage(page:Number):void {
    trace(page);
} 

P2FDoc.getCurrentPage(ongetCurrentPage);

Here ongetCurrentPage is the function that receives the result of the getCurrentPage function which is passed to it as a parameter. When calling getCurrentPage function, the first argument denotes ongetCurrentPage function as the function to call for receiving the return value.

To handle events fired by Print2Flash documents, you should register an event handler using standard addEventListener method. For example, to handle onPageChanged event you need to declare the event handler like this:

function onPageChanged(e:PageChangedEvent) {
     trace(e.page.toString())
}

P2FDoc.addEventListener("onPageChanged", onPageChanged);

The event processing code may reference an object passed to the event handler method as a parameter which holds event detailed information. Each event has a special type of event object. These types are detailed in the table below.

Event	Event object type	Event object properties
onPageChanged	Print2Flash.PageChangedEvent	page:Number - page number
onZoomChanged	Print2Flash.ZoomChangedEvent	zoom:Number - zoom level
onSelection	Print2Flash.Selection	selection:Object - text selection described by object of SelectionRange type
onToolChanged	Print2Flash.ToolChangedEvent	tool:String - tool represented by text as in getCurrentTool function
onVisibleAreaChanged	Print2Flash.VisibleAreaEvent	area:Object - visible area described by object of VisibleArea type
onLinkClicked	Print2Flash.LinkClickedEvent	page:Number - the number of the page on which the clicked link is located url:String - the link address
onPageLoaded	Print2Flash.PageLoadedEvent	page:Number - page number
onPrinted	Print2Flash.PrintedEvent	No properties
onLoaded	flash.events.Event	No properties
onUnloadCompletedEvent	Print2Flash.UnloadCompletedEvent	No properties

If you want an event handler to stop receiving event notifications, you need to remove the handler using removeEventListener method:

P2FDoc.removeEventListener("onPageChanged", onPageChanged);

Print2FlashDoc component exposes an event additional to Print2Flash Document API events named onLoaded. It is called when the document is ready to be accessed by API methods. You should not call any methods of Print2FlashDoc component before onLoaded event is fired.

To remove (unload) a loaded document properly, you should call unload method of the Print2FlashDoc class. This is to ensure that all resources used by the document are freed. If you want to load another document reusing the same Print2FlashDoc class instance, you may not do this until onUnloadCompletedEvent event is fired. If you try to load a document before this event is fired, you'll get an exception.

Print2Flash SDK contains a sample of embedding a Print2Flash document into a Flash movie which uses ActionScript 3.