This flag controls whether the effect, when run in a transition, automatically applies the property values according to the end state, as opposed to leaving values as set by the effect itself.

The default value is true.

The name of the effect class, such as "Fade".

This is a short, or unqualified, class name that does not include the package name. If you need the qualified name, use the getQualifiedClassName() method in the flash.utils package.

Specifies a custom filter object, of type EffectTargetFilter, used by the effect to determine the targets on which to play the effect.

Target filtering is only performed if you call the captureStartValues() method before playing the effect. Flex automatically calls the captureStartValues() method when the effect is part of a transition.

Use the filter property for simple filtering. If the customFilter property is non-null, the filter property is ignored.

Duration of the effect in milliseconds.

In a Parallel or Sequence effect, the duration property sets the duration of each effect. For example, if a Sequence effect has its duration property set to 3000, each effect in the Sequence takes 3000 ms to play.

For a repeated effect, the duration property specifies the duration of a single instance of the effect. Therefore, if an effect has a duration property set to 2000, and a repeatCount property set to 3, the effect takes a total of 6000 ms (6 seconds) to play.

A property that lets you access the target list-based control of a data effect. This property enables an instance of an effect class to communicate with the list-based control on which the effect is playing.

A flag containing true if the end values of an effect have already been determined, or false if they should be acquired from the current properties of the effect targets when the effect runs. This property is required by data effects because the sequence of setting up the data effects, such as DefaultListEffect and DefaultTileListEffect, is more complicated than for normal effects.

The default value is false.

Specifies an algorithm for filtering targets for an effect. A value of null specifies no filtering.

Target filtering is only performed if you call the captureStartValues() method before playing the effect. Flex automatically calls the captureStartValues() method when the effect is part of a transition, or part of a data effect for a list-based control.

Use this property for simple filtering. Use the customFilter property for more complex filtering. If the customFilter property has a non-null value, this property is ignored.

You can use the following values for the filter property:

• A value of "add" plays the effect on any targets that are added as a child to a container.
• A value of "addItem" plays the effect on the item renderer for any list items added to a List or TileList control.
• A value of "hide" plays the effect on any targets whose visible property changed from true to false.
• A value of "move" plays the effect on any targets that changed their x or y properties.
• A value of "remove" plays the effect on any targets that are removed as a child of a container.
• A value of "removeItem" plays the effect on the item renderer for any list items removed from a List or TileList control.
• A value of "replacedItem" plays the effect on the item renderer for any list items replaced in a List or TileList control by a new item.
• A value of "replacementItem" plays the effect on the item renderer for any list items added to a List or TileList control that replaces an existing item.
• A value of "resize" plays the effect on any targets that changed their width or height properties.
• A value of "show" plays the effect on any targets whose visible property changed from false to true.
• A value of "" specifies no filtering.

Determines whether the effect should hide the focus ring when starting the effect. The effect target is responsible for the hiding the focus ring. Subclasses of the UIComponent class hide the focus ring automatically. If the effect target is not a subclass of the UIComponent class, add functionality to it to hide the focus ring.

Set this property to true to hide the focus ring during the effect.

For subclasses of Effect, the default value is false. For subclasses of MaskEffect, the default value is true.

An object of type Class that specifies the effect instance class class for this effect class.

All subclasses of the Effect class must set this property in their constructor.

A read-only flag which is true if any instances of the effect are currently playing, and false if none are.

Additional delay, in milliseconds, for effect targets after the first target of the effect. This value is added to the value of the startDelay property.

Current time position of the effect. This property has a value between 0 and the total duration, which includes the Effect's startDelay, repeatCount, and repeatDelay.

An Array of property names to use when performing filtering. This property is used internally and should not be set by effect users.

The default value is equal to the Array returned by the getAffectedProperties() method.

An Array of style names to use when performing filtering. This property is used internally and should not be set by effect users.

The default value is equal to the Array returned by the getAffectedProperties() method.

Number of times to repeat the effect. Possible values are any integer greater than or equal to 0. A value of 1 means to play the effect once. A value of 0 means to play the effect indefinitely until stopped by a call to the end() method.

The default value is 1.

Amount of time, in milliseconds, to wait before repeating the effect. Possible values are any integer greater than or equal to 0.

The default value is 0.

Amount of time, in milliseconds, to wait before starting the effect. Possible values are any int greater than or equal to 0. If the effect is repeated by using the repeatCount property, the startDelay is only applied to the first time the effect is played.

The default value is 0.

If true, blocks all background processing while the effect is playing. Background processing includes measurement, layout, and processing responses that have arrived from the server. The default value is false.

You are encouraged to set this property to true in most cases, because it improves the performance of the application. However, the property should be set to false if either of the following is true:

• User input can arrive while the effect is playing, and the application must respond to the user input before the effect finishes playing.
• A response can arrive from the server while the effect is playing, and the application must process the response while the effect is still playing.

The default value is false.

The object to which this effect is applied. When an effect is triggered by an effect trigger, the target property is automatically set to be the object that triggers the effect.

An Array of objects that are targets for the effect. When the effect is playing, it performs the effect on each target in parallel. Setting the target property replaces all objects in this Array. When the targets property is set, the target property returns the first item in this Array.

The Event object passed to this Effect by the EffectManager when an effect is triggered, or null if the effect is not being played by the EffectManager.

Constructor.

Starting an effect is usually a three-step process:

• Create an instance of the effect object with the new operator.
• Set properties on the effect object, such as duration.
• Call the play() method or assign the effect to a trigger.

Used internally by the Effect infrastructure. If captureStartValues() has been called, then when Flex calls the play() method, it uses this function to set the targets back to the starting state. The default behavior is to take the value captured using the getValueFromTarget() method and set it directly on the target's property. For example:

      
      target[property] = value;

Only override this method if you need to apply the captured values in a different way. Note that style properties of a target are set using a different mechanism. Use the relevantStyles property to specify which style properties to capture and apply.

Parameters

Captures the current values of the relevant properties on the effect's targets and saves them as end values.

Flex automatically calls the captureEndValues() method when the effect is part of a data change effect.

Captures the current values of the relevant properties of an additional set of targets

Flex uses this function when a data change effect is run.

Parameters

Captures the current values of the relevant properties on the effect's targets. Flex automatically calls the captureStartValues() method when the effect is part of a transition.

Use this function when you want the effect to figure out the start and end values of the effect. The proper usage of this function is to use it in the following steps:

1. Call the captureStartValues() method. The effect captures the starting effect values.
2. Make changes to your effect targets, such as adding/removing children, altering properties, changing location, or changing dimensions.
3. Call the play() method. The effect captures the end values. This function populates the EffectInstance.propertyChanges property for each effect instance created by this effect. Effect developers can use the propertyChanges property to retrieve the start and end values for their effect.

Creates a single effect instance and initializes it. Use this method instead of the play() method to manipulate the effect instance properties before the effect instance plays.

The effect instance is created with the type specified in the instanceClass property. It is then initialized using the initInstance() method. If the instance was created by the EffectManager (when the effect is triggered by an effect trigger), the effect is further initialized by a call to the EffectInstance.initEffect() method.

Calling the createInstance() method does not play the effect. Call the startEffect() method on the returned effect instance.

This function is automatically called by the Effect.play() method.

Parameters

Takes an Array of target objects and invokes the createInstance() method on each target.

Parameters

Removes event listeners from an instance and removes it from the list of instances.

Parameters

Called when an effect instance has finished playing. If you override this method, ensure that you call the super method.

Parameters

This method is called when the effect instance starts playing. If you override this method, ensure that you call the super method.

Parameters

Called when an effect instance has stopped by a call to the stop() method. If you override this method, ensure that you call the super method.

Parameters

Interrupts an effect that is currently playing, and jumps immediately to the end of the effect. Calling this method invokes the EffectInstance.end() method.

The effect instance dispatches an effectEnd event when you call this method as part of ending the effect.

If you pass an effect instance as an argument, just that instance is interrupted. If no argument is passed in, all effect instances currently spawned from the effect are interrupted.

Parameters

Determines the logic for filtering out an effect instance. The CompositeEffect class overrides this method.

Parameters

Returns an Array of Strings, where each String is the name of a property changed by this effect. For example, the Move effect returns an Array that contains "x" and "y".

Every subclass of Effect must implement this method. The EffectManager uses this method to ensure that no two effects are trying to animate the same property of the same object at the same time.

More examples

Called by the captureStartValues() method to get the value of a property from the target. This function should only be called internally by the effects framework. The default behavior is to simply return target[property]. Effect developers can override this function if you need a different behavior.

Parameters

Copies properties of the effect to the effect instance.

Flex calls this method from the Effect.createInstance() method; you do not have to call it yourself.

When you create a custom effect, override this method to copy properties from the Effect class to the effect instance class. In your override, call super.initInstance().

Parameters

More examples

Pauses the effect until you call the resume() method.

Begins playing the effect. You typically call the end() method before you call the play() method to ensure that any previous instance of the effect has ended before you start a new one.

All subclasses must implement this method.

Parameters

Resumes the effect after it has been paused by a call to the pause() method.

Plays the effect in reverse, if the effect is currently playing, starting from the current position of the effect.

Stops the effect, leaving the effect targets in their current state. Unlike a call to the pause() method, you cannot call the resume() method after calling the stop() method. However, you can call the play() method to restart the effect.

The effect instance dispatches an effectEnd event when you call this method as part of ending the effect.

For mask effects, the mask is not removed automatically when the effect is stopped. Running further mask effects on the same target(s) without first removing the mask can produce unexpected results.

Dispatched when one of the effect's instances finishes playing, either when the instance finishes playing or when the effect is interrupted by a call to the end() method.

The properties of the event object have the following values:

Dispatched when the effect starts playing.

The properties of the event object have the following values:

Dispatched when the effect has been stopped, which only occurs when the effect is interrupted by a call to the stop() method. The EFFECT_END event is also dispatched to indicate that the effect has ended. This extra event is sent first, as an indicator to listeners that the effect did not reach its end state.

The properties of the event object have the following values: