Flash CS4 Resources

fl.findObjectInDocByType()

Availability

Flash CS3 Professional.

Usage

fl.findObjectInDocByType(elementType, document)

Parameters

elementType: A string that represents the type of element to search for. For acceptable values, see element.elementType.
document: The Document object in which to search for the specified item.

Returns

An array of generic objects. Use the .obj property of each item in the array to get the element object. Each object has the following properties: keyframe, layer, timeline, and parent. You can use these properties to access the hierarchy of the object.

You can also access methods and properties for the layer and timeline values; they are equivalent to the Layer object and the Timeline object, respectively.

The second and third examples in the Examples section show how to access these properties.

Description

Method; exposes elements of a specified element type in a document.

Note: In some cases, this method works only when run as a command from within a FLA file, not when you are currently viewing or editing the JSFL file.

Example

The following example searches the current document for text fields and then changes their contents:

var doc = fl.getDocumentDOM(); 
var typeToSearchFor = "text"; 
var results = fl.findObjectInDocByType(typeToSearchFor, doc); 
if (results.length > 0) { 
    for (var i = 0; i < results.length; i++) { 
        results[i].obj.setTextString("new text"); 
    } 
    alert("success, found " + results.length + " objects"); 
} 
else {  
    alert("failed, no objects of type " + typeToSearchFor + " found"); 
}

The following example shows how to access the special properties of the object returned by this method:

var doc = fl.getDocumentDOM(); 
var resultsArray = findObjectInDocByType("text", doc); 
if (resultsArray.length > 0) 
{ 
    var firstItem = resultsArray[0]; 
     
    // firstItem.obj    - This is the element object that was found.  
 
    // You can access the following properties of this object: 
    // firstItem.keyframe    - The keyframe that the element is on. 
    // firstItem.layer    - The layer that the keyframe is on. 
    // firstItem.timeline    - The timeline that the layer is on. 
    // firstItem.parent    - The parent of the timeline. For example,  
    //        the timeline might be in a symbol instance.  
}

The following example shows how to back up the DOM to find the name of a layer on which a text field was found, using the resultArray.obj object:

var doc = fl.getDocumentDOM(); 
var typeToSearchFor = "text"; 
var resultsArray = fl.findObjectInDocByType(typeToSearchFor, doc); 
if (resultsArray.length > 0) { 
    for (var i = 0; i < resultsArray.length; i++) { 
        resultsArray[i].obj.setTextString("new text"); 
        var firstItem = resultsArray[0]; 
        firstItemObj = firstItem.obj; 
        fl.trace(firstItemObj.layer.name+"layerName"); 
    } 
} else { 
    alert("failed, no objects of type " + typeToSearchFor + " found"); 
}