getDefinitionByName() Fails in SWFs Loaded Into Another SWF (Solution)

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Sep 08

getDefinitionByName() Fails in SWFs Loaded Into Another SWF (Solution)

Just a quick note for future reference. When you are using getDefinitionByName("ClassName") inside a SWF that is being loaded into another SWF, it might not find the symbol from its own library (see ApplicationDomain and LoaderContext for why).

The solution is to get a reference from the ApplicationDomain of the SWF being loaded using the getDefinition() method. So the code:

var mySymbol:Class = getDefinitionByName("MySymbol");

becomes…

var mySymbol:Class = loaderInfo.applicationDomain.getDefinition("MySymbol");

Hopefully that resolves any issue you had with getDefinitionByName(). Of course you’d use a similar mechanism to work the other way around, and get at classes inside a loaded SWF. In this case it would be loader.contentLoaderInfo.applicationDomain.getClass()… however this depends on what ApplicationDomain you’ve loaded your child SWF into (see LoaderContext class).

In my case I wanted to attach a different “scroll thumb” symbol for each section SWF in the site I’m working on, so I couldn’t just use a single runtime shared asset.

3 comments

§ Phillip Kerman said on : 09/09/08 @ 02:21
I don't want to admit how much time I've spent on understanding ApplicationDomain. It's not THAT bad--but often (in my cases) I want it to do something that it really can't.

Anyway, these were some good links I found on the topic:
http://blogs.adobe.com/rgonzalez/2006/06/applicationdomain.html

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/secure_swf_apps_print.html
§ Richard Leggett® said on : 09/09/08 @ 08:57
Philip, thanks for those links. I wanted to post this entry because I couldn't find what I was looking for after a bit of Googling, so those will provide further information for anyone experiencing a related problem.
§ xie xie said on : 04/10/08 @ 14:11
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