How do I do variable speed streaming text?

[Pixelmech]

Hi there,

I need to have a stream of binary 0's and 1's going across a text box (I suppose it could be images too, it doesn't really matter). Kind of like a news ticker I suppose. I need to be able to have like 9 instances of this, looking all the same but some going faster and some going slower.

It would need to be contained inside a certain area - so its not text going across the screen, but its text scrolling inside an area - again like a news ticker.

I have no idea how to approach this - I'm assuming AS of course, but if someone could get me started that would be great.

It would be best if I could do it somehow in a text field, as the streams really need to be at different angles (there are 9 of them shooting out from a large box on the left, to a smaller box on the right.)

Thanks!

Tom

[Krilnon]

Something like this, perhaps?
TextField.prototype.scrollText = function():Void {
this.charList = new Array("0", "1");
this.charLength = 50;
if (this.text == "") {
for (i=0; i<this.charLength; i++) {
this.text += this.charList[Math.floor(Math.random()*this.charList.length)];
}
} else {
this.text = this.text.substr(1, this.text.length-1);
this.text += this.charList[Math.floor(Math.random()*this.charList.length)];
}
};
for (i=0; i<9; i++) {
createTextField("my"+i+"_txt", i, 0, 5+(20*i), 200, 20);
this["my"+i+"_txtSpeed"] = setInterval(this["my"+i+"_txt"], "scrollText", Math.floor(Math.random()*190+10));
}


Be careful when rotating the text, you should make sure that the font is embedded first.

[Pixelmech]

Ah, that's about exactly it! Great - now one question though. You've dynamically fired them up at the creation of the movie. How can I apply the function scrollText() to the text field I already have in my document?

So, for example I have a text field named "scroller1" - I am guessing I make it a dynamic text field, and embed the font as you stated - but how to I apply the function to it?

Thanks!

[Krilnon]

Well, since 'scroller1' is the instance name of the TextField, place this somewhere after you define the scrollText method.
var scroller1Speed:Number = setInterval(scroller1, "scrollText", 30);

The last argument in the setInterval call is how often the text should scroll over once, so in this case it is doing so every 30 milliseconds.

[Pixelmech]

Great - that works. Could you explain or point me to a reference describing

:Number

? Not familiar with that.

Only thing now is it seems to scroll from right to left, but I need it to scroll from left to right. Can it be flipped around? Thanks for the help!

[grimdeath]

Great - that works. Could you explain or point me to a reference describing

:Number

? Not familiar with that.

Only thing now is it seems to scroll from right to left, but I need it to scroll from left to right. Can it be flipped around? Thanks for the help!

What :Number does is state that the variables value can only be a number.

Hope that answers your question

[Krilnon]

Only thing now is it seems to scroll from right to left, but I need it to scroll from left to right. Can it be flipped around? Thanks for the help!


TextField.prototype.scrollText = function():Void {
this.charList = new Array("0", "1");
this.charLength = 50;
if (this.text == "") {
for (i=0; i<this.charLength; i++) {
this.text += this.charList[Math.floor(Math.random()*this.charList.length)];
}
} else {
this.text = this.text.substr(0, this.text.length-1);
this.text = this.charList[Math.floor(Math.random()*this.charList.length)]+this.text;
}
};
for (i=0; i<9; i++) {
createTextField("my"+i+"_txt", i, 0, 5+(20*i), 200, 20);
this["my"+i+"_txtSpeed"] = setInterval(this["my"+i+"_txt"], "scrollText", Math.floor(Math.random()*190+10));
}

[Pixelmech]

Great, thank you both!