The Flash Asset Xtra provides a rich set of Lingo extensions that give you precise control over the way Director displays a Flash movie on the stage and the interaction between Director and the Flash movie.
When you add a Flash movie to the cast (either linked to an external file or stored directly in the cast), you can set some of the most common Flash movie properties in the Flash Asset Properties dialog box. The properties you select in the dialog box are used as defaults for all sprites you create from that cast member. For example, if you set up the Flash movie cast member so it is rotated 90 degrees, all sprites created with that cast member are rotated 90 degrees.
Once you create a sprite, that sprite can have its own set of properties. For example, using Lingo, you can scale a Flash movie sprite 200 percent. The scaling affects only that sprite. The Flash movie cast member is not affected, and other sprites created from that Flash movie (either previously or in the future) are not affected. It is even possible for two or more sprites created from the same cast member to be playing simultaneously on stage — and playing different frames.
Once a movie is playing, you can also use Lingo to change the cast member properties as well. Changes made to the cast member are immediately broadcast to any sprites that are on the stage at that moment. For example, if a frame script sets the scale of a Flash movie cast member to 50 percent, any sprites in that frame are also scaled to 50 percent. To prevent a change to a Flash movie cast member from being broadcast to its sprites, set the cast member's broadcastProps property to FALSE. (For more information, see broadcastProps.)
Some properties, such as those controlling the way a Flash movie streams from an external file, apply only to a Flash movie cast member. Many other properties apply to both cast members and their sprites. The Alphabetical Lingo reference section indicates whether a property applies to cast members or sprites.
In addition, some cast member properties, such as the flashRect of member and the frameRate of member, are valid only when the Flash movie's header has streamed into memory.