DOM

In JavaScript you would transverse the DOM using a method called “getElementsByTagName().” You can chain these to dig into the objects.

//This grabs the first input field inside the first div on the page
var textField = document.getElementsByTagName("div")[0].getElementsByTagName("input")[0];

Now in ActionScript you can’t double up on the “getChildAt()” method, because that method doesn’t have a method of “getChildAt().” Confused yet?

In ActionScript 3 you have to cast the method into an object so you can use the method again to drill down.

ActionScript 3

var sprite:Sprite = new Sprite();
var txtField:TextField = new TextField();
txtField.text = "something";
sprite.addChild(txtField);
stage.addChild(sprite);
 
//Cast the object returned to a DisplayObjectContainer 
var path:Sprite = Sprite(stage.getChildAt(1));
 
trace(path.getChildAt(0));//[object TextField]
//trace(stage.getChildAt(1).getChildAt(0));//Error - 1061: Call to possibly undefined method getChildAt through reference with static type flash.displa:DisplayObject.

“It’s an all-out typeface-off in our sequel to Font Conference.” -College Humor

Select the path with the Direct Selection Tool.

Translation: Take the white arrow in your toolbar and click on the path. The anchor points will appear letting you know it’s selected.

Create new fill or adjustment layer.

Translation: Click on the half white/half black circular icon at the bottom of the layers panel. From the pop up select the type of layer you wish to create. (Solid, Gradient, Pattern, etc.)

A Vector Mask generated from your Path will now be included in the layer you just created.

Alternatives to the Suite

These suites, or collection of tools provide alternatives to multiple Adobe applications under one umbrella.

Aviary

Aviary is on a mission to make creation accessible to artists of all genres, from graphic design to audio editing.

Photoshop Alternatives

Splashup

GIMP

Paint.NET

Pixelmator

Dreamweaver Alternatives

Tacosw

Kompozer

Bluefish

Illustrator Alternatives

Inkscape

After painstakingly crawling over the final generated markup I found the only difference from the local version that worked perfectly was a comment implanted before the doc type declaration. Apparently placed there by Coldfusion. Running a global search for the commented string yielded no results which suggested to me that it had to be dynamically written or the result of some type of function where the string was not hard coded.

Problem

During some research I found that when having Coldfusions CFCACHE tag in play the application inserts a comment before any other markup. This throws Internet Explorer into “Quirks Mode” in IE 6 and 7 and “Standards Mode” in IE8 if using an XHTML Strict Doctype. Needless to say this ruins any CSS layout you may have created.

This has been a known issue for versions 6, 7 and 8 of Coldfusion(Supposedly fixed in release 8.0.1 even though some users are still getting the comment).

Solution

Obviously disabling CFCACHE would be ideal but if you did not have permission or access to do so the next fix should work.

Adding the below tag at the beginning of the document will force the content to be rendered as text/html abiding by the rules and eliminating the comment.

<cfcontent type="text/html">

Demo

Typedoc Demo

Currently Typedoc is set up to be used as a jQuery plugin. After a couple of bugs are worked out I will make it available for everyone.

Any feedback would be appreciated.