flash event listener for movieclip end?

Question

Could anyone advise the best way to trigger a functiont when a movieclip animation finishes? I figure an eventlistener could handle this, but not sure the best way to go about it. Thanks Paul

Answer 1

There are a few ways to go about this:

1. Simply call the function from the last frame of your animation.
2. Dispatch an event on the last frame of your function and listen for it elsewhere.
3. The long but effective / neat / recommended way.

In reference to point 3, I would create a base class for your object. This way you can apply the same logic to multiple elements being animated.

Something like this:

package
{
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.events.Event;

    public class AnimatingObject extends MovieClip
    {
        // constants
        public const ANIMATION_COMPLETE:String = "animation_complete";

        /**
         * Constructor
         */
        public function AnimatingObject()
        {
            addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _handle);
        }

        /**
         * Called on dispatch of Event.ENTER_FRAME
         */
        private function _handle(e:Event):void
        {
            if(currentFrame == totalFrames)
            {
                var evt:Event = new Event(ANIMATION_COMPLETE);
                dispatchEvent(evt);
            }
        }
    }
}

Now we can listen for "animation_complete" and do stuff accordingly.

package
{
    import flash.events.Event;

    public class MyAnimatingObject extends AnimatingObject
    {
        /**
         * Constructor
         */
        public function MyAnimatingObject()
        {
            addEventListener(ANIMATION_COMPLETE, _lastFrame);
        }

        /**
         * Called on dispatch of AnimatingObject.ANIMATION_COMPLETE
         */
        private function _lastFrame(e:Event):void
        {
            trace("i'm done");
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

It's been awhile since I played with flash. I mostly do flex now, but this should work.
Using the enterFrame Event would be a huge waste of resources, and creating a custom event class is not nessesary. On the last frame put this

dispatchEvent(new Event("INSERTSTUPIDEVENTNAMEHERE"));

And in your code on your "root"

movieInstanceName.addEventListener( "INSERTSTUPIDEVENTNAMEHERE", someCallBackFunction );

function someCallBackFunction ( e:Event ):void{
  trace( "Last frame hit");
}

Answer 3

By making use of an ENTER_FRAME listener, you can tell if a MovieClip has readed the end of playback; you can then take this one step further by wrapping it up in a Wrapper class that will perform the monitoring for you:

public class EndOfMovieClipEventDispatcher extends EventDispatcher
{
    private var target : MovieClip;
    private var endReachedEvent : String;

    public function EndOfMovieClipEventDispatcher(target : MovieClip, endReachedEvent : String = "complete") {
        this.target = target;
        this.endReachedEvent = endReachedEvent;
        target.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrameEvent, false, 0, true);
    }

    public function destroy() : void {
        target.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrameEvent);
    }

    private function onEnterFrameEvent(event : Event) : void
    {
        if (target.currentFrame == target.totalFrames) {
            dispatchEvent(new Event(endReachedEvent));
        }
    }
}

Usage is pretty straight forward; the call to destroy() is optional thanks to the weak event listener; but recommended if you are finished :)

new EndOfMovieClipEventDispatcher(myMovieClip).addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onMovieClipCompleteEvent);
myMovieClip.play();