Classes and functions

Classes and functions in ActionScript 3

File structure

As mentioned in packages, each file in ActionScript needs a package declaration. Similarly, there must be exactly one file for each externally visible Class (or function). Additionally, the class name must match the class name exactly. By convention, class names start with an uppercase character.

Inheritance and interfaces

ActionScript classes can only inherit from a single super class, but you can declare multiple interfaces. So if you need a class to be more than one unrelated types, you should use interfaces to declare your types rather than classes. Interfaces is very often a better design choice that classes for types either way. Sub-classing and declaring interfaces looks like this:

public class SubClass extends SuperClass implements IFoo, IBaz, IBar

Constructors

Constructors in ActionScript are optional. If you need to initialize something in your class you should always declare a constructor and you can define at which point the super class is instantiated by calling super() inside the constructor. Subclasses and super-classes do not need to have the same number of arguments so the following is perfectly valid:

package{
	public class SubClass(){
		foo = "foo";
		super("baz")
	}
	private var foo:String
}

Static accessors

By default any accessors of a class are instance accessors. For class-level methods, vars and const, you need to add the static modifier. The order of the modifiers do not matter, so public static var is the same as static public var.

Class accessors are not inherited by their subclasses.

Instance and class accessors must have unique names, so you cannot have both public var foo and public static var foo.

Using `this`

Using this is usually optional in ActionScript. If there is no local variable (or function) of the specified name, an instance accessor will be used. The only time you will need this is when you have a local variable or function and an instance variable or method of the same name.

Using static accessors

Similarly, static accessors and methods can be referenced without using the class name, so baz() will be resolved to Foo.baz() automatically. If you are using a public static method (or accessor) outside the class that you will need to explicitly call Foo.baz().

Using `this` inside functions

A common problem in Javascript is that this is lost within functions. ActionScript does not have this issue. You can freely use this inside instance methods. If the function is used as a callback, the compiler will automatically wrap the function to resolve this at runtime.

In Royale, it’s generally not recommended to use this inside non-instance methods and functions. In fact that compiler will warn you by default if you do. Generally, the only case where it’s necessary to use this inside a function in Royale is if you need Object.defineProperty for some reason, and even that should be very rare. The org.apache.royale.utils.object package has a number of utility functions for helping to define properties without using this. Namely: defineGetter, defineProperty, defineSimpleGetter and defineSimpleProperty. If you do find yourself looking to use these functions often, you should probably examine your architecture because there’s almost guaranteed to be a better way of designing the architecture in Royale.

Package level functions

You don’t need to declare a class to use code. You can have “utility” functions as first class citizens. To create a public function you create a file similar to a class (but name it camel-case). Assuming your file structure is like so: src/com/acme/doAwesome.as Inside the file you declare the function like this:

package com.acme{
	public function doAwesome(notSoAwesome:Object):Awesome{
		return new Awesome(
			doSomethingComplicatedInTheSamePackage(notSoAwesome)
		);
	}
}

Then doAwesome() is available anywhere in your project. Your IDE should import com.acme.doAwesome if you use it.

Static classes and singletons

One of the cool new features in ActionScript is private constructors. Use that if you have a class that you want to use as static-only class or as a Singleton

Instance, static and utility functions

The question is then when to use which.

For OOP programming, you generally want to use instantiated classes.
Static-only classes are useful for keeping state – especially when using simple data types.
Singletons are useful for keeping state when you need finer control over instantiation and/or the data types are more complex.
When you are not keeping state, utility functions are generally a better choice. They are easier to unit test. They lend themselves more to functional programming, and they generally carry less excess weight associated with classes.

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