Stage Scale Strangness Concerns

[Rocketboy]

Hello,
I am trying to set up a simple stage scale listener to center objects on the stage. Though I seem to be doing what all the examples say to do, I am having this error come up when I run this class:

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at classes.Interface::Resizer()
at classes.Interface::InterfaceManager()
at classes::CourseManager/init()
at classes::CourseManager()

Seems like the "stage" object is not being recognized correctly. What I don't get is why are all the code samples I look at use "stage" to refer to the Stage class rather than the capitalized "Stage" as the class is actually called? And why is "stage" not being recognized? THANKS!!!

package classes.Interface { 
	/**
	 * @author jkalish
	 */
	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.display.Stage;
	import flash.display.StageAlign;
	import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
	import flash.events.EventDispatcher;
	import flash.events.Event;
	public class Resizer extends Sprite {
		//vars
		private var interface_mc:MovieClip;
		//constructor
		public function Resizer(interfaceRef:MovieClip){
			trace("***Resizer CONSTRUCT");
			//setup stage scale properties
			stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
			stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
			//create stage size listening object	
			stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, stageScaled);
			stageScaled();
		}
                privatefunction stageScaled(e:Event){
                   //do things
}
}}

[dr_zeus]

Unless you're working with a document class, the stage is never accessible in the constructor. Listen for the Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE event.

[panel]

Access stage

Originally Posted by Senocular;

1. natively, only display objects have inherent access to stage
2. display objects only have a valid reference to stage if they're within the stage's display list (on the screen, after added to it with addChild)
3. The only display objects which immediately have access to the stage before the use of addChild (in their constructor) are the document/application class instance (root) and any instance from the library placed on the timeline (not created with AS).
4. Non-display object classes have to be passed or assigned a reference to the stage from another object which already has access to it - they cannot access it otherwise.

[Rocketboy]

dr_zeus,

Sorry, I don't quite understand. I tried moving the code out of the constructor into a new init() function, but I'm still having the same problem. When you say "Listen for the Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE event" what should I be listening for to be added to the stage? Thanks.

Here is my code:

import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
	import flash.events.EventDispatcher;
	import flash.events.Event;
	public class Resizer extends Sprite {
		//vars
		private var interface_mc:MovieClip;
		//constructor
		public function Resizer(interfaceRef:MovieClip) {
			init();
		}
		private function init() {
			stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
			stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
			stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, stageScaled);
			stageScaled();
			
		}
		protected function stageScaled(e:Event){
			//do things
		}
	}
}

[panel]

Like This

import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
    import flash.events.EventDispatcher;
    import flash.events.Event;
    public class Resizer extends Sprite {
        //vars
        private var interface_mc:MovieClip;
        //constructor
        public function Resizer(interfaceRef:MovieClip) {
            addEventListener(Event.Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddedToStage)
            
        }
        private function init():void {
            stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
            stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
            stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, stageScaled);
            stageScaled();
        }

        protected function onAddedToStage(e:Event):void {
            //here stage property isn't null
            init();
        }

        protected function stageScaled(e:Event){
            //do things
        }
    }
}

[Rocketboy]

I ended up using the stage property of a reference to an object on the stage that I was passing into the constructor of the class, as panel suggested, and that seems to have worked. Thanks!

public function Resizer(interfaceRef:MovieClip){
			trace("***Resizer CONSTRUCT");
			//setup stage scale properties
			interfaceRef.stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
			interfaceRef.stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
			//create stage size listening object	
			interfaceRef.stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, stageScaled);
			stageScaled();
		}