Arrays of movie clips?

[Dynamite Crash]

I have 12 Movie Clips setup and I have an XML file that I'm reading information from. In the XML file there will be 12 separate URL's for images that are suppose to be loaded into the movie clips. To do this I'm trying to use a for loop to populate the movie clips, but the problem is I want to have just a single statement in the for loop instead of like 12.

So I'm wondering how arrays of movie clips work (if they do) and how you create them or reference different ones. Currently they're all given the name clip and i'm trying something like this:

for (var i:Number = 1; i <= TotalMovieClips; i++){
    clip[i].loadMovie(myXML.firstChild.childNodes[1].childNodes[i].firstChild);
}

But that code fails so I assume this isn't how you reference an array of movieclips. I'm also having trouble resizing the movie clips after I tell it to load in an image. I know it has to wait until the image is fully loaded so it can be resized but getting it to function like that is giving me problems.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[tris]

first off the way you are accessing the clip array is fine. But are you sure you're accessing your XML correctly? you could test by doing: trace(myXML.firstChild.childNodes[1].childNodes[i].firstChild)

I recommend using a MovieClipLoader to load the clips if you want resize them after loading. You can assign a onLoad event listener to the load so once its loaded you can resize / position etc that way you can also create a loading bar etc.

[pcarini]

An array shouldn't function any differently for a MovieClip than for anything else. You might wanna try tracing clip[i] to see if it doesn't show up as undefined. If so, you haven't created those MovieClips in the first place, or haven't fed them into the array correctly.

I usually have a much easier time when I push mc's to an array right when I create them.

for(var i=0; i<TotalMovieClips; ++i)
{
   clip.push( createEmptyMovieClip(etc, etc) );
    // or clip.push( (any other function that returns a movieClip) ) 
}

As far as resizing them after the fact, Tris is right.. MovieClipLoader and the onLoadComplete event handler is the easiest way.

[Dynamite Crash]

Hmm...I'm hearing what you're saying but I just can't get it to implement. When I try tracing clip[i]._name in the for loop it says undefined. It did this both before and after I tried using your system. Although I will say that I changed it some and could have messed it up.

This is the code I have setup in frame 1:

PHP Code:

var myXML:XML = new XML();            
myXML.load("results.xml");            
myXML.onLoad = LoadThumbnails;

/**************************************/
/* Loads initial images into the MC's */
/**************************************/

function LoadThumbnails():Void {
    
    for(var i=0; i<TotalMovieClips; i++){
      this.push(createEmptyMovieClip("clip", this.getNextHighestDepth() ) );
        clip[i].loadMovie(myXML.firstChild.childNodes[1].childNodes[i].firstChild);
        trace(clip[i]._name);
    }
} 


I removed a trace statement that checked to make sure it was accessing the XML file correctly and the trace statement did provide the URL of the image. Where you see the createEmptyMovieClip, I also tried this.createEmptyMovieClip to the same result.

As far as the MovieClipLoader, how would that work if I'm creating regular movie clips? Or is it possible to still use a MovieClipLoader with an already created MovieClip?

Sorry I'm a relative noob at this.

[pcarini]

To avoid any extra messiness I did this all on frame 1, in an empty flash movie. It works. If all your images were the same size, you'd only see one, because they start in the same place. That'd be easy to change that in code, though.

stop();
// Arrays must be created using new before you push stuff into them
var urlArray:Array = new Array("./test1.jpg", "./test2.jpg", "./test3.jpg", "./test4.jpg", "./test5.jpg");
var clipArray:Array = new Array();

// Also, the clip name (e.g. "clip"+i here) needs to be unique.  
// If I left off the +i, I'm pretty sure that each loop would overwrite the previous clip w/ the new one.
for(var i=0; i<urlArray.length; ++i)
    clipArray.push( _root.createEmptyMovieClip( "clip"+i, _root.getNextHighestDepth()) );
    
//trace(clipArray);

for(var j=0; j<urlArray.length; ++j)
{
    clipArray[j].loadMovie(urlArray[j]);
}

trace(clipArray);
// Both traces: _level0.clip0,_level0.clip1,_level0.clip2,_level0.clip3,_level0.clip4
// but the pics are now loaded in and visible on the root level. 

Hope it helps some.
-C