Identify an instance by the name

[marliton]

Hi.

In an HTML5 canvas document, I'm trying to identify an element using the name when I click it. In AS3 the name property (evt.target.name) is the same instance name. With EaselJS seems to be different. I can use the name property for assign a name but I can't recover the name with evt.target.name. How can I do it?

this.circle.name = "orange";
this.circle.addEventListener("click", test.bind(this));
function test(evt) {
     console.log(evt.target.name); //This doesn't works. Return null.
}

Thanks.

[Colin Holgate · Accepted solution]

You are clicking on a Shape, and that's the target. The movieCLip is the shape's parent. This works:

this.circle.name = "orange";

this.circle.addEventListener("click", test.bind(this));

function test(evt) {

     alert(evt.target.parent.name); //This doesn't works. Return null.

}

[marliton]

Works perfectly! Thanks a lot.

Are you going to AdobeMax? I need to meet to my JS hero! 🙂

[Colin Holgate]

I am. I should have a sign on me that shows my name. Otherwise I wouldn't have a name property.

There is a good chance that I'll be in Joseph's sessions, if you don't see me elsewhere. Also will be there the day before the conference, doing ACP stuff.

[ClayUUID]

If you want to get the names of movieclips without having to manually assign a name, there's some code here you can use to extend Animate to support it:

Re: HTML Canvas instance names - Good tricks to getting them?

[marliton]

Great snippet! Tks a lot for sharing.

[mordaga2015]

@ClayUUIDI'd like to be able to target movieclip w/o needing an instance name, but your link to "Re: HTML Canvas instance names - Good tricks to getting them?" does not work any more. Seems like Adobe rebuilt the forums at some point. I did try searching on that post title, but nothing came up.

[kglad]

how do you want to reference it?

[mordaga2015]

I have a series of "named" movieclips that each contain the same "unnamed" movieclip (on the second frame of the parent MC). I want to play the inner movieclip when a button (targeting the parent MC) is clicked.
I should probably post as a new question since this is a really old thread?

[kglad]

that's not sufficient to reference without substantial coding.  

[JoãoCésar]

Hi.

You could do something like this:

function playInnerMC(e)
{
	e.currentTarget.gotoAndStop(1);
	e.currentTarget.children[0].gotoAndPlay(1);
}

this.parentMC.on("click", playInnerMC);

Regards,

JC

[mordaga2015]

I started a new post for my issue here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/animate-discussions/how-do-i-target-an-quot-unnamed-quot-child-moviec...