The DisplayObject class inherits
from the EventDispatcher class. This means that every display object
can participate fully in the event model (described in
Handling events
). Every display object can use its
addEventListener()
method—inherited
from the EventDispatcher class—to listen for a particular event,
but only if the listening object is part of the event flow for that
event.
When Flash Player or AIR dispatches an event object, that event
object makes a round-trip journey from the Stage to the display
object where the event occurred. For example, if a user clicks on
a display object named
child1
, Flash Player dispatches
an event object from the Stage through the display list hierarchy
down to the
child1
display object.
The event flow is conceptually divided into three phases, as
illustrated in this diagram:
For more information, see
Handling events
.
One important issue to keep in mind when working with display
object events is the effect that event listeners can have on whether
display objects are automatically removed from memory (garbage collected)
when they’re removed from the display list. If a display object
has objects subscribed as listeners to its events, that display
object will not be removed from memory even when it’s removed from
the display list, because it will still have references to those
listener objects. For more information, see
Managing event listeners
.
