ActionStep has rather strong support for images using Cocoa’s model. It is possible to load images from a URL, symbol, or a bitmap.

Basically, an image is made up of 2 classes:

1. NSImage
2. NSImageRep

By extending NSImageRep, you can add more functionality without having to change NSImage.

An instance of NSImage can contain many instances of NSImageRep.

ActionStep’s implementation is unable to determine the best representation currently, and simply returns the first image rep inserted. However, this may change in the future, since the best rep can be determined by player version, operating system, Stage dimensions, etc.

When an NSImage instance is constructed, you can cache it for later use, by invoking -setName. You can retrieve a cached image using +imageNamed.

var img:NSImage = (new NSImage()).initWithSize(new NSSize(10, 10));
if(img.setName("Some image")) {
  //whoops, an image already exists!
  //deal with it...
  NSImage.imageNamed("Some image").release();
  //insert again
  img.setName("Some image");
}
 
//at some point later...
var oldImg:NSImage = NSImage.imageNamed("Some image");

Note that -setName returns a boolean value indicating if an image by the same name has already been cached.

What the above code does is that the old cached image is removed, allowing the new one to be cached. This may not be recommended for other purposes unless you know what you are doing. Another solution would be, of course, to use a different name.

This can be said to be the more important of the two classes since it actually does the drawing.

Subclasses need only override 3 methods:

To load an image from a URL, initialize the image using this method:

var img:NSImage = (new NSImage()).initWithContentsOfURL();

You can also view loading progress by registering a delegate:

img.setDelegate({
  imageDidLoadRepresentationWithStatus:
function(img:NSImage, rep:NSImageRep, status:NSImageLoadStatus):Void {
  trace("loaded with status: "+(ASUtils.findMatch([NSImageLoadStatus], status)).objectForKey("prop"));
},
 
  imageHasLoadedImageRepBytesOfTotalBytes:
function(img:NSImage, rep:NSImageRep, bytesLoaded:Number, bytesTotal:Number):Void {
  trace("completed: "+(bytesLoaded/bytesTotal)*100);
}
});

The output would be something like this:

[DEBUG] completed: 97.2796248525105 -- org.actionstep.test.ASTestImages:48 (test)
[DEBUG] completed: 99.3494041046916 -- org.actionstep.test.ASTestImages:48 (test)
[DEBUG] completed: 100 -- org.actionstep.test.ASTestImages:48 (test)
[DEBUG] loaded with status: NSImageLoadStatusCompleted -- org.actionstep.test.ASTestImages:43 (test)

If you have used Flash or swfmill to import graphics into the swf, you can also use the class ASSymbolImageRep. The symbol to be attached can be anything you fancy, even an animated MovieClip!

When constructing add the symbol’s name and size:

var rep:ASSymbolImageRep = new ASSymbolImageRep("myClip", new NSSize(100, 100));

Animation on the clip is supported using the following methods: