FFDMag had excellent magazine for flash and flex programmers having articles ranging from Beginner Level to expert levels. Just check some of the topics below

• Flash Flex developer interview with Dave Schroeder about the Flashbelt Conference…
• BannerSnack – A quick alternative to Flash?…
• Working With Flash CS4 New Features: Inverse kinematics (IK) with Bone Tool…
• Tracking Time with Screenweaver HX…
• Using all the different components within CS4 to built a complete site…
• Model View Controller – What’s the Secret Sauce… ?…
• JSFL Quirks…
• SWX: The Native Data Format for Adobe Flash…
• An introduction to Flickr In Flash…
• Flash video and AS3…
• WebORB tricks…
• Multi-user Applications in haXe…
• Achieving a retro-style using only Flash…
• Secrets of a professional Flash game programmer…
• Interview with Lee Brimelow…

You can subscribe this magazine from the following link

http://ffdmag.com/prt/view/subscription.html

Do remember to create an asset folder having a “bg.jpg” image when trying this solution.

//———– Draw a graphics on the stage ———-
var t:Sprite = new Sprite();
t.name = “testSprite”;
t.graphics.lineStyle(1,0x0000ff);
t.graphics.beginFill(0xff0000);
t.graphics.drawCircle(0,0,50);
t.graphics.endFill();
addChild(t);
t.x =100;
t.y = 100;

//———– Remove Child Function ————–
function removeChildWithRef(spriteName:String, parentObj:*){
var t:DisplayObject = parentObj.getChildByName(spriteName);
parentObj.removeChild(t);
}

//————- Add  a Button to Stage ————
var tBtn:Button = new Button();
tBtn.label = “Remove Circle”;
tBtn.x = 50;
tBtn.y = 170;
tBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,onClick);
addChild(tBtn);

//———— Capture Click Event ————-
function onClick(evt:MouseEvent){
removeChildWithRef(“testSprite”,this);
}

———————–

By default, The bitmap instances that reference a given BitmapData object are notified every time setPixel32( ) or setPixel( ) is called on that object. When setPixel32( ) or setPixel( ) are used in rapid succession within the same frame cycle—such as when setting the color of every pixel in a bitmap—these notifications can reduce performance. To improve performance, we can use the BitmapData class’s instance method lock( ).

Calling lock( ) on a BitmapData object forces ActionScript to not notify dependent Bitmap objects when executing setPixel32( ) or setPixel( ). Hence, before using setPixel32( ) or setPixel( ) in rapid succession, always call lock( ). After calling lock( ), assign all desired pixel color values; then call the BitmapData( ) class’s instance method unlock( ). Calling unlock( ) instructs ActionScript to notify all dependent Bitmap objects as necessary.

Example below demonstrates the approach. The example uses a loop to assign a random color to every pixel in a 500 × 500 BitmapData object. Notice the call to lock( ) before the loop and unlock( ) after the loop.


// Create the bitmap
var imgData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(500, 500, true, 0x00000000);
var bmp:Bitmap = new Bitmap(imgData);
// Invoke lock( )
imgData.lock( );
// Set pixel color-values
var color:uint;
for (var i:int = 0; i < imgData.height ; i++) {
for (var j:int = 0; j < imgData.width; j++) {
color = Math.floor(Math.random( )*0xFFFFFFFF);
imgData.setPixel32(j, i, color);
}
}
// Invoke unlock( )

In tests, when running above Example in the release version of Flash Player on a computer with a Pentium 4 2.6-GHz processor, a single iteration of the loop takes approximately 100 ms. Without lock( ), a single iteration takes approximately 125 ms. That is, code runs approximately 20% faster when lock( ) is used.

The approach followed here is by using the getDefinitionByName utility which interprets the string and convert it into a Class. Then you can use a new syntax with that particular class. Following is a code for the same solution and you can download the source files from here. The “testMC” here is a movieClip in library with the className as testMC and BaseClass as flash.display.MovieClip

import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;


function addMovieFromLibrary(mcIName:String){
var tMC:Class = getDefinitionByName(mcIName) as Class;
var newMc:MovieClip = new tMC() as MovieClip;
addChild(newMc);
}


addMovieFromLibrary("testMC");


MovieClip.buttonMode = true;

However the solution does not work in-case you have a dynamic textField in that movieclip. To enable hand in this case you have to additionally write the following statement

MovieClip.mouseChildren = false;

The reason is that the mouseChildren property determines whether or not the children of the object are mouse enabled. If an object is mouse enabled, a user can interact with it by using a mouse. The default is true which makes the dynamic textfield interactable and due to the textfield behaviour the flash player does not show the hand-cursor.

• Object-based animation
• 3D transformation
• Procedural modeling with Deco and Spray Brush
• Metadata (XMP) support
• Authoring for Adobe AIR
• XFL support
• Inverse kinematics with the Bones tool
• Motion editor
• Motion presets
• H.264 support

Check here for more details

http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/features/?view=topnew&promoid=DRHWS


//------------ Import Classes
import com.flexcomps.utils.CustomEvent;
import com.flexcomps.utils.XMLLoaderUtil;

//-------- Create instance of loader class
var xmlLoader:XMLLoaderUtil = new XMLLoaderUtil();
xmlLoader.addEventListener(CustomEvent.ONLOADED, onXMLLoaded);
xmlLoader.load(xmlPath);

//----- Method to handle the returned data
private function onXMLLoaded(evt:CustomEvent) {
xmlData = evt.data as XML;
trace(xmlData);
}