AS3: Custom Events

Nice!

I actually prefer writing it out like the below just because its shorter code.

dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent(CustomEvent.ON_TEST_CASE, {param1: "first param", param2: "second param"}));

I have also read that its good practice to have a clone method in your CustomEvent class:

public override function clone():Event
{
return new CustomEvent(type, params);
}

That way you create a copy of that particular Event object... maybe so you could modify the variables without altering the original Event you received.

There is a clone method in the class I posted.

I have implemented a similar solution in my recent project and really found it cool with those hashes like in ruby.
But the drawback is the lack of typechecking, and some times it can be a pain not be able to do the checks at compile time, don't you think?
I seems to tip back and fourth between the dynamic and the more static typed approach, not really knowing what to like

This is true, and I thought of this when making it Jacob. But as a personal solution and because I use eclipse/fdt, i wanted to be able to just add a template to it and not have much changes to make when i pull up an Event that has been created by my template. Personally, I always look back at the parameters I pass and know what their datatypes are, or you can always cast them when you take them out of the params object in your event handler.

I'd be interested in seeing what you came up with. Can you post your code? I think if you use the tags in the comments they should work. the tags are [ as ] and [ / as ] to close it up (without the spaces).

[...] its button actions. The MenuButtonEvent is just following my Event template that I outlined here and it allows me to dispatch an event when the menu button is clicked which is what the Main class [...]

I'll take it without mystery meat parameters stuffed into an anonymous generic object, and stick with typing and hinting. Anonymous objects seem to defeat much of the purpose of having the stronger typing to reduced mysterious code errors due to typos, imo.

For most custom events you can set the additional base event properties inside the constructor. For cases where you want to change that for each event dispatched, then you can match the base method signature and bite the bullet and just set the properties manually afterwards.

package test {
import flash.events.Event;
public class CustChangeEvent extends Event {

public static const CHANGE:String = "EVENT_CUST_CHANGE";

public var custId:int;
public var custName:String;

public function CustChangeEvent( type:String, custId:int, custName:String ) {
super( type );
this.custId = custId;
this.custName = custName;
}
// don't forget to override clone
}
}

// usage
var myEvent:CustChangeEvent = new CustChangeEvent( CustChangeEvent.CHANGE, 11, "exorcyze" );
myobject.dispatchEvent( myEvent );

Mike,
Yes, that is how I originally planned on doing it. 2 reasons why I (personally) didn't:

1) I use FDT templates ALL the time and it's easier for me to just throw in a template and put in the event constant and be done with it.
2) I'm typically not very careless when keeping track of my parameters in my events and I don't mind going back to look at them.

I realize that they aren't strongly typed and that may not be the best solution (and who knows, maybe one day ill convince myself to go back and change it to how you present it), but for now i have had no issues with it whatsoever and plan to keep using it until i do

[...] ContactFormEvent class which allows me to dispatch events in AS3 with custom parameters based on my AS3 Custom Events model. PLAIN TEXT [...]

hi, i was just thinking, what happens to the 'params' object every time you dispatch a new custom event - it never clears from memory? an instance of the class is created, with the object hard referenced, will it ever be garbage collected?

trent, thats a very good question and to be honest i don't know the answer, but i imagine it would be treated just as any other custom param you pass into a custom event in the same fashion. i've actually started to go the more strongly typed route and defined every param in my custom events recently so that i could get code hinting and all that. youll notice i do that in my SliderUI class if you grabbed that.

Please help me!!! I need to dispatch the event from inside a private function into the timeline.

I'd really tried to find a solution for this and I think your explanation is not so far from my needs. Please, please, I have to deliver a job on tuesday and I'm stuck on this!

the dispatching of the event is as follows (if we're using the CustomEvent as in this example):

Then, on your timeline on the frame you want to receive the event, you'd do this:

That should give you what you're looking for Joao.